The Biggest Concern for Most Parents - Essay Example

Disposable or real? – The choice is yours! Do you worry about whether you should breast feed or bottle feed? You are not alone! Most new mums worry about which is best. When it comes to nappies, some people prefer real cloth variety while others Some parents swear by the prefer the convenience of disposables, arguing that they are cleaner, fresher and much easier to use than cloth nappies. The debate rumbles on and so we need to examine the pros and cons of each choice. A cause to celebrate. You might have noticed that Real Nappy Week runs between 16th and 22nd April 2012 (Go Real website, 2012). Fans of the cloth nappy will attend special events to celebrate its continuing use in the hi-tech world of today. Everyone appreciates the nostalgia for the genuine, old-fashioned article, but is it really true that real nappies are better for you and your baby> Which is cheaper? There are four major criteria that spring to mind when considering your nappy buying options: price, effectiveness, and the delicate problem of napkin dermatitis, or nappy rash as it is more commonly called. Starting with price, there is an immediate issue of short and long term planning. You will have to make an initial investment in real nappies, since retail price comparisons show that you need to spend about £250 on reusable nappies. You will also have to think about a plastic bucket with a lid (about £7) and a supply of special nappy cleansing fluid . This seems like a lot of money initially, but over time, nappies work out as the cheaper option. Washing the nappies over a period of two and a half years will cost about £80 bringing that the real nappy option for one baby to a total cost of around £330 -£400 depending on how often you use a tumble dryer. In comparison, disposable nappies cost approximately £600 over the same period. If you are planning to have another child, then your savings will be even greater, especially if you dry the nappies in the fresh air rather than in a tumble dryer. It seems, then, that real nappies are cheaper than disposables and for bigger families, clearly the economical option. But which is best for baby? You might be wondering which type of nappy works best. There are so many size and style options available that comparisons in this area are much harder to make. Leakage is a problem with all nappy types, and the more active your baby is, the bigger a problem this is likely to be. The advantage of real nappies is that they can be easier to adjust to your baby’s individual shape. Different technologies in disposable nappies can give you a range of absorbency levels, and so there is no real problem finding the right one for your baby. Cellulose core disposable nappies are sometimes enhanced with absorbent gel technology and there are new developments in this area all the time, this means that disposable nappies are able to absorb more than natural fibre cloth nappies in most cases. Science shows that the best disposables may have the edge in effectiveness. Examining the pros and cons. Real nappies take up a lot of your time, and they take space for soaking and drying also. With the price of gas and electricity soaring in recent years, the cost of washing and drying the nappies has to be factored in to the equation. One way of looking at this is to consider whether your lifestyle and home surroundings are suitable for the extra labour needed to ensure nappies are washed to the correct temperature (at least 60 degrees is recommended) and thoroughly dried. If your home is a small flat, you may find real nappies difficult to deal with. If you have more time and space, however, this could be the best option for you. And what about the planet? When it comes to ecological arguments, and let’s face it everyone these days needs to think about this angle, there are pros and cons for each nappy type. Real nappies use more space to grow per nappy, and the cotton comes from distant countries like Egypt. They use up a lot of water and energy in the wash and this detracts from their environmentally friendly impact. In contrast, disposable nappies are more expensive in the long run, and around 7 million trees per year are used up in the production of disposable nappies for the UK (Norfolk Council, 2012). After use they contribute chemicals and considerable bulk to the country’s waste disposal system. Some eight billion disposable nappies have to be disposed of each year in the UK (Which?, 2012) and most of them end up in landfill sites where it is estimated that they will take about two centuries to disintegrate completely. It is hard to imagine that one small baby can use a staggering 4000 – 6000 disposable nappies. If you live in an area of water shortage, then, there is an argument for using disposables, but for everyone else, real nappies appear to be marginally the better choice for the planet. The delicate problem of nappy rash. The biggest concern for most parents is the health of their little one, and so we looked into medical opinion on the best way to avoid nappy rash. A recent study (Baer, 2006) reviewed the scientific literature on nappy rash in babies who use disposable nappies, as compared with those who use real nappies, and found that results were inconclusive. One mother we spoke to confessed that in fact the best solution is a combination of the two systems – real nappies for overnight and for times when the infant is at home. Disposable nappies are ideal for outings, trips away from home, or for spells when the weather is too wet for drying. The best of both worlds may be the solution. It seems then, that there is no clear indication of one system being better or worse than the other. Our advice is to choose the method that suits your lifestyle and your baby, and resist any suggestion that you are doing things the wrong way, whatever anyone says to you. Real or disposable – the choice is yours since both types of nappy have a role to play in your baby’s life. References Babycentre Website ( 2010) http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/buyingforbaby/nappies/ Baer, E.L., Davies, M.W. and Easterbrook, K.J. (2006) Disposable nappies for preventing nappy dermatitis in infants. The Cochrane Library 3, pp. 1-20. Go Real (2010) The Real Nappy Information Page. Available at: http://www.goreal.org.uk/ North Norfolk District Council Website. (2012) Further Recycling. Available online at: http://www.northnorfolk.org/environment/236.asp Which? Website. “Choosing nappies: washable vs. disposable.” http://www.which.co.uk/baby-and-child/nursery-and-feeding/guides/choosing-nappies-washable-vs-disposable Read More