Why Use Cloth Nappies?

Simply put, using cloth nappies will save you lots of money and will massively reduce your little one's carbon footprint. Continue reading to learn more.

 

Save the Environment.
LittleLamb nappies will help to preserve the environment for your baby’s future by not clogging up landfill. Those 6300 nappies we talked about before? That is approximately 1 tonne of dirty nappies and they all end up in landfill and can take up to 250 years to decompose... 

With the onset of fortnightly refuse collections do you really want over 100 dirty nappies hanging around outside your house during summer? You've got a hectic life and maybe you don't always remember to put out the bin bags on collection day. Pheweee!

It is not just your immediate surroundings that are affected. Take a look at the bigger picture.

Over 7 million trees are chopped down each year to produce disposable nappies for the UK alone. OK - the trees are grown as a crop but wouldn't it be nice to grow food there instead? Or regenerate a native forest instead?

Reusable nappies use 3.5 times less energy, 8 times less non-renewable materials and 90 times less renewable resources than “disposables.”

Save Money.
If you trundle down to your local supermarket and pick up single-use disposable nappies with your shopping you probably will not realise the cost over two and a half years.

NHS Paediatricians suggest that newborns' nappies should be changed 10-12 times a day and older babies about six times, ending with just one nappy being used at night-time. So, just assuming an average of seven changes a day over the nappy wearing career of your baby, you will use about 6300 nappies. In the UK the average branded nappy costs over 18p. That’s over £1100 just for nappies per child.

Compare this to cloth; say you choose our mid range 20 Standard Nappy Kit at £230 and then add laundering costs (detergent, electricity, water, wear and tear of washing)... We know you will not reach anywhere near £1100!

Also, if you’re planning to have more children in the future using these same nappies on subsequent children makes them essentially free. And then, you can sell the whole lot of ebay or Facebook and recoup part of your initial outlay. When we spell it out like this it is hard to justify not using cloth nappies. 

Ethically made.
All LittleLamb nappies are made in a family run factory in Turkey and are brought into the UK by road freight to ensure that we keep our carbon footprint to a minimum, giving you peace of mind. Also, we computer-cut our nappy patterns to minimise wastage but we are still left with about 10% waste material but as we manufacture in an area with periphery trades all the wastage is recycled, usually into stuffed toys.

We have to compromise on certain aspects of the production though. We don't use local Turkish elastic any more. We import all our elastic from a technical manufacturer in America and now get twice the lifespan.

Support a family run business.
LittleLamb is a family run business. Nick and I deal with the manufacturing and the website while Vicky and Shell run the warehouse in Ammanford, Wales. Nick and I have six kids and have used cloth nappies on all of them (saving over 39000 disposables from landfill).

We have struggled with wrigglers, wondered at the different shapes of our babies and have sometimes been truly amazed at what we have found in a nappy! (Lots of sand and a pebble the day after a beach trip if you're interested)

We started with terry squares and watched the cost of modern cloth nappies rise as they became 'cool'. For a while cloth nappies were aspirational so we think we have brought them back down to Earth and put the common sense back. We make nappies with the most robust components for the job and we have a discount structure where you can save up to 40% by buying the larger kits. 

Let's face it - washable nappies are not rocket science. You buy a nappy to contain the poo and absorb the wee. If it doesn't do either effectively it has failed as a nappy. We try and test all kinds of nappies to see what's good and what's not. There is a multitude of 'fashion' nappies that look so cute but to be honest - many are ineffective on absorption. What's the point of using it if it doesn't work?

We produce a necessity product with exceptional quality and sell them at a sensible price. We deliver kits straight to your door containing all the bits and pieces that you need. No need to hunt down a lidded bucket or find wraps that fit. And remember - the bigger the kit the bigger the saving.

All our components are tested and certified. We only use Oeko-tex100 certified bamboo yarn and GOTS organic cotton yarn. We don't dye our fabric nappies into pretty colours as it restricts absorption. We do dye the wraps but you can be assured we exceed current EU 'ReACH' regulations on dyestuffs.

All the component parts of our nappies, wraps and boosters are Oeko-tex certified for use in full contact with baby's skin for prolonged periods of time.