Staring at the scene in front of me in horror, I retched. My angelic looking baby had produced a poo of such hideously runny and vast properties, he looked as if he’d been bathed in curry sauce, and smelled like toxic waste.
Up the back, and down the legs, it was a poonami of epic proportions. Parents, you know the type, the stuff of nightmares.
He hadn’t even had the decency to unleash this hell on me in the comfort and privacy of our own home. Instead, I was knelt on the floor of a coffee shop loo, my latte cooling rapidly at my abandoned table.
Sleep deprived, hormonal and now nauseous from the stink, I stripped him, wiped him down and gingerly dumped his overflowing disposable nappy into the nearest sanitary bin. Clean and clad in a new outfit, we returned to the table where I sighed with relief and returned to my coffee and book, while he refuelled with a breastfeed.
What made all the difference to that smelly situation a few years ago, forever burned into my memory, was my choice of nappy. Convenient and disposable, I could deal with the problem and then literally walk away from it.
I have so much admiration for parents who opt for re-useable nappies but two children later, I’ve never been one of them. Call me lazy, or environmentally uncaring, but I’ve never been able to face the prospect of shovelling the contents of my children’s bowels into a bin, and then carrying a not so fragrant nappy home to wash it.
Aged forty, I’m old enough to just about remember the nappy buckets that were still a feature in many homes in the early Eighties, when disposables were still in their infancy. My own mother, as well as aunts and friend’s mums, laboriously soaking dirty nappies every evening, hanging them on the line to dry.
Despite my young age, even then I could see how this was yet another onerous chore for busy, tired women to perform. And another tie to the home, one made from cloth, preventing women getting out and getting on with their lives.
I’m not proud of having used disposable nappies on my sons, now both thankfully toilet trained. I know they are an eco-nightmare, but like so many other parents, when you’re tired, busy and stressed, you cling to the things that make life that little bit easier.
This week I learned parents like me face being financially punished for our preference for convenience and speed when it comes to keeping our children’s bottoms clean.
It’s been reported the government is considering a ‘nappy tax’, adding to the already frankly extortionate cost of nappies, in a bid to encourage (or rather, financially coerce) parents to switch to greener alternatives.
Part of a wider drive to reduce and ban single use plastic, I’m sure to some people it sounds like a very admirable proposition.
However, nappies are not the same as plastic forks and cups.
Asking parents to swap from them to a more eco-friendly option is simply not on a par with asking people to invest in a thermos cup for their morning takeaway coffee or a hessian shopping bag.
As Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet, said this week, re-useable nappies, although cheaper, are more resource intensive, require a lot of commitment from parents - usually mothers - and other ‘viable’ options are needed if we are to be expected to ditch the disposables.
She’s completely right. Most parents I know try very hard in other aspects of their lives to do their bit for the planet and would, I believe, switch from disposable nappies if there was an easier and more convenient option available to them.
Painfully aware of our contribution to landfill after years of chucking away disposable nappies, as a family we recycle, have cut down on our meat intake, walk to school rather than drive and haven’t flown abroad for over four years. I’m not naïve enough to think we have offset our contribution by any stretch, but we try.
It’s worth bearing in mind that even the more eco friendly nappy alternatives are not free from sin. A report by Which published earlier this year revealed single use biodegradable nappies still contain non-biodegradable materials and will struggle to degrade in a landfill. And the extra water and energy required to wash and dry re-useables, plus their synthetic fibres, also contributes to pollution.
It goes without saying both are still more environmentally friendly than disposables but are not without their drawbacks, despite what that smug mum at baby yoga might tell you.
It’s also unrealistic to assume every parent lives in a setting where it’s feasible to deal with the admin that accompanies re-uesable nappies. People in hostels, in small flats with one sink where they understandably don’t want to wash both their face and a nappy, those with little space to dry washed nappies – for them disposables can be more than just convenient. They might, despite the expense, be their only option. They shouldn’t be financially penalised.
Are disposable nappies environmentally problematic? Absolutely.
Are manufacturers doing enough to come up with more convenient, while also eco-friendly, alternatives? No.
Is it right, to put pressure – both financial and moral – on parents who are simply trying to keep babies clean and comfortable, when we still have massive issues with food waste and fast fashion ending up in landfills? Definitely not.
Putting the onus on tired, harassed parents who are just trying to get from one nappy change to the next, is looking in the wrong direction.
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