All About: Cloth Nappies

A few years ago, when I was knee deep in nappies and sleepless nights, I remember a conversation I had with my own mother about how things had changed since I was a baby.

- Ann­marie O’Doherty

Back then, cloth nappies were common-place and my mum admitted that there was no greater satisfaction than to see a line of washed and clean nappies drying on the line. However, she felt that parents of my generation had it a lot easier now we had the choice of using the disposable variety. The mere mention of reusable nappies was enough to make my mother wrinkle her nose as she recalled the bucket out the back of the house where she soaked mine and my sister’s nappies, the scent of Napisan (a stain remover) lingering in the air. By the time my brother arrived on the scene the disposable nappy had well and truly taken over as the nappy of choice in our house.

Fast forward thirty odd years or so and we are becoming increasingly aware that we all need to do more to reduce our waste. Disposable coffee cups are popular and more people than ever are looking at ways to reduce re-use and recycle. But disposable nappies are still a popular option for parents. After all, cloth nappies aren’t readily available in the nappy aisle of your local supermarket and they are not a regular sight in most nappy bags.

But I was curious. Disposable nappies can take up to 500 years to decompose and when you think of the amount of nappies even one baby goes through in just a week...that is a lot of nappies! So what other options are there? I spoke with Amy Kirwan about her experiences as a parent using cloth nappies. I asked Amy how she first became aware of reusable nappies.