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Care of Cloth Nappies and Accessories
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| The use and care of cloth nappies these days is so easy and hassle free with many products and improved techniques to make it a worthy option to disposables and their terrible impact on the environment, not to mention the benefits for our babies and also in terms of affordability.
Before you first use your hemp nappies and accessories, please wash three times in hot water, drying them between each wash. They'll continue to increase in absorbency with use, but that should be enough to remove most of the natural oils and commence using with increased absorbency. Maximum absorbency may take up to approx 10 washes. You may use any detergent that does not contain enzymes (as enzymes may affect your baby's skin once he or she wets, which can cause a painful rash) and always use half the amount of normal soap powder to avoid a build-up in the nappy fibres which affects absorbency. - So that's good! Your washing powder will last longer. If you ever notice a slight residual smell in the nappies, which is not common, 1/4 cup vinegar in the rinse cycle should help. Better still.....
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| Gone are the days where nappies needed to be soaked in awful bleaches and deodorising chemicals, where the bacteria would multiply in the wet environment. It is now as simple as storing wet nappies and removing faeces and storing soiled nappies all together in a DRY bucket. Products such as "Pail Pals" (essential oil soaked paper wafers) or a piece of fabric with a few drops of an essential oil can be put in the DRY bucket and then into the nappy wash water to beautifully scent your laundry, your nappy bucket and nappies. Pail pals will be available shortly on the website. Quick drying occurs in the sun but hemp nappies and accessories can be dryed in the clothes dryer, but it isn't the optimum method as the sun also kills bacteria and freshens the nappies. However it does rain sometimes and time is also limited at other times. In making a decision regarding disposable and cloth nappies, we sometimes use the quickest convenient way because of the "faster" pace of life we often lead. However we already have to wash our clothes, so one more wash is not that great a problem and no more sloshing around in yukky nappy water!
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| In allowing our thoughts to centre on the garbage bags and landfills, do we really think that we should leave this legacy to our children and the earth that they will inhabit after we are gone? We don't encourage our children to throw rubbish out of car windows. Just because we can't see where our rubbish is thrown doesn't make it more appropriate.
If you do not know which decision to make in the choice of nappies for your baby, let your conscience be your guide and take a leap of faith. You'll have extra money to spend on more important things for your children than disposables. You can even begin by blending the two, and making disposables last longer by using hemp and bamboo boosters inside the disposable. At least you will be cutting down on numbers in landfills and diminishing costs with this compromise. It is all up to you.
We can all make a difference via these small individual choices. Natural fibres have all the right qualites for all the right reasons when it comes to nappies for our babies.
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