Gayle's Story
Hello!
I’m Gayle and I’m a self confessed nappy – a – holic!
I have one son, Edward, who is 17 months old.
I knew months before Edward was born that I wanted to use real nappies for lots of reasons, my main one being that I didn’t want to add to the millions of disposable nappies being sent to landfill. I did lots of internet research and used the newly formed Pembrokeshire Real Nappy Network for advice and suddenly also realised that I would be able to save a huge amount of money as well as space in my dustbin.
Like many people new to real nappies I thought that my choice would be limited to flat terry squares and horrible rustly plastic pants. How wrong I was! I was actually quite overwhelmed at first by the huge amount of nappies available and didn’t really know where to start. After doing lots of lurking on nappy websites and asking parents who were already using real nappies I plumped for Motherease One Size nappies which are a birth to potty nappy meaning I only needed one set of nappies (with different sized wraps) for Edward’s nappy wearing life. I decided that these were the best option for me as I didn’t want to have to keep buying different sizes as Edward got bigger.
In September 2006 Edward was born and I began my years of nappy changing. I must confess that for the first month I used Eco-disposables as I felt I had enough to think about as a new Mum. After 4 weeks I felt we had enough of a routine that we were ready to try the sparkly new nappies that I had washed 3 or 4 times in preparation. After a few days of using them I actually felt disappointed that I hadn’t used them from the word go as they were so easy and I loved the way Edward looked in them. He seemed to like them too. I had 20 nappies which meant washing them every other day in the early weeks which was no hassle at all. You do so much washing with a newborn that an extra wash every couple of days was hardly noticeable.
I carried on using the Motherease nappies quite happily for several months and then at a PRNN Nappuccino I discovered a part time job was available. I was lucky enough to get the job, but then began my real obsession! As the trial pack coordinator I got to try out lots of different nappies on Edward and discovered that Fuzzi Bunz were great for days out (one piece instead of two so less to carry), Bumbles are a great summer nappy, Minki Huggles are the bees knees for night time, especially for a heavy wetter like Edward and fleece wraps really shouldn’t work but really do! I also discovered that some pocket nappies don’t work for us (we had some leaks) and that Motherease Wraps really suit us well.
Edward has only leaked a handful of times in real nappies and that has usually been because we haven’t been vigilant enough in checking the absorbent part of the nappy is tucked inside the waterproof wrap, or we haven’t changed him often enough (Bad mother, although in my defence Edward drinks water like he’s just crawled through the desert!)
He has only had nappy rash twice and both times that has been teething related and I am sure he would have had a rash in a disposable too.
When I first thought about real nappies I was worried how I would feel about dealing with the poo as I am not overly keen on bodily fluids! However, being able to pick up the liner and flush it down the toilet (paper liners) and rinse it off (fleece liner) is far, far less of an ordeal for me than opening a dustbin and being greeted by the smell of a weeks worth of dirty disposables. I dry pail my real nappies with a muslin cloth soaked in lavender oil, so the only smell I get when I open my nappy bin is of lavender.
My real nappy collection is now getting so big it’s in danger of needing its own room. It’s probably just as well that my second baby is due in July 2008. Mind you, perhaps this is just the excuse I need to try out some of those cute looking newborn nappies!