There's a lot of misconceptions about using cloth nappies. A lot of these are perpetuated by well meaning friends that for whatever reason feel they need to tell you that cloth is too hard, washing is too hard. The most common we hear is 'we'll see how long that lasts'. My boss said that to me when I was pregnant with my first, called me a f*cking idiot for considering cloth at all. Well that was just a red flag to a bull and not only was my cloth nappy journey a successful one (cloth nappied 3 children full time) but I created a business that allowed me to stay home and raise my kids. So don't let your friends or family put you off, use their negativity to fuel your desire to prove them wrong.
Modern Cloth Nappy Myth #1 – Washing cloth nappies is hard.
This is a really common comment. Right now you probably wash once a week like I used to before kids so the thought of washing a load of nappies every other day seems like a lot of work. Reality is once you have a baby you are going to be doing a load of washing every day. It's insane how much washing 1 little person can create! Adding cloth nappies into that routine won't seem like such a huge a thing and it's actually quite cathartic to get out in the sun and hang nappies on the line.
Modern Cloth Nappy Myth #2 – One child won't make much of a difference
When you're hearing things like the 900 million nappies are thrown away every year in Australia, enough to fill the MCG 7 times, then of course it feels like the 6000 odd nappies your baby will go through is just a drop in the ocean but it all adds up. Did you know that just using 1 cloth nappy per day will save 900 single use nappies going into landfill? If everyone did that the impact would be HUGE.
Modern Cloth Nappy Myth #3 – They're not as environmentally friendly as they seem
There's always that 1 friend that brings this up when you tell them you're wanting to use cloth nappies. They'll often quote the old outdated UK study that found disposables had the same environmental impact as cloth. This study included things like ironing terry flats, insane right? I don't even iron things that probably should be ironed let alone nappies. It was also based on traditional cotton nappies and didn't consider more eco friendly fabrics that are used now like bamboo and hemp. It has since been updated to note that the way the user launders the nappies plays a significant part in how much environmental impact they have which is also a conclusion reached by the more recent UQ study. That's the beauty of cloth nappies, you are able to decide what your (or in this case your child's) footprint is, unlike single use nappies. As an example using your cloth nappies again for your second child reduces your footprint by 43%!
Modern Cloth Nappy Myth #4 – Modern cloth nappies leak
This is complete misinformation! In fact modern cloth nappies contain far better than single use nappies. If you do happen to get leaks it's often easily fixed by adding a booster or making sure that your leg and waist fit is right, as long as they're on firm enough and you've got good boosting you won't get leaks.
Modern Cloth Nappy Myth #5 - Cloth nappies cause nappy rash
This is simply untrue and there is no evidence to support it. What causes rashes is not changing a nappy often enough. If anything there's going to be less rashes in cloth as you're changing once bub is wet. Remember just because a single use nappy can hold a day's worth of urine, doesn't mean it should.