Thursday 25 April 2013

Should we expect new borns to sleep through the night?

For many years now parents have been telling us they put their baby in a disposable so they can get a good night's sleep. Usually the idea came from their NCT teacher. Was this useful advice?

This articles in the BMJ says parents shouldn't expect their babies to sleep through the night.

This advice also has implications for continuing breastfeeding. If you want to see the full article it's accessible via this NZ web site you can read it here. Download the pdf.


If you want more information this web site looks useful: Infant sleep information


This has reminded me of the way P&G (Pampers) got mums in China to use disposable nappies. They ran ads to say a disposable nappy would give the baby a good night's sleep and make the child more intelligent.

Here's a study that says this may be true - after one year! So that's when babies in cotton nappies would be sleeping through the night anyway.


For more on Pampers in China see this post by Futerra.

It's just annoying to see the misinformation given to new parents by businesses that put profit before caring for the interests of their customers - and the planet. But eventually the truth does come out.


Another related post that may be of interest: on bed wetting

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Best Real Nappy Week Ever!

This Real Nappy Week, in the lead up to Defra’s call for evidence: Waste Prevention Programme for England (deadline for submissions 29 April) has demonstrated a massive success by businesses, local authorities and real nappy activists to engage a particular group of consumers – expectant and new parents – in reducing disposable nappy waste. I also want to pay tribute to the Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) for campaigning to reduce disposable nappy waste since 1989.

What we can see at Real Nappies for London is that
despite the Environment Agency’s Nappy Life Cycle Analysis, published in 2005 that said washables were no better for the environment than disposables (the update published in 2008 said reusable nappies can have up to 40% lower carbon impacts than disposables;
despite the availability of ‘bio-degradable’ disposables that simply go to landfill and incineration;
despite the increasing number of Bounty Packs (junk mail, right?) given to expectant and new mums by the midwife containing samples of disposable nappies;
despite Pampers’ sponsorship of the leading parenting charity the National Childbirth Trust (NCT;
despite the vouchers and offers on disposable nappies with high visibility on the shelves of supermarkets;
despite the ‘free’ disposal of nappies as part of household waste,
interest in real nappies is growing all the time.

But nappy waste disposal is not free of course. Our councils pay for it ie we do. It was WEN that identified this hidden subsidy and championed the Waste Minimisation Act. Before this act local authorities could pay for waste disposal but it was illegal for them to spend tax payers money on reducing or preventing waste. It was this act that allowed councils to give incentives and rewards to residents for reducing disposable nappy waste and to promote real nappies during Real Nappy Week.

And disposable nappies are not just a waste issue. They also have negative physical and mental health impacts. This modern convenience product possibly does more harm than good. And it’s not just our children. Our elderly in hospitals and care homes are being left in disposable continence products and changed as part of a routine, rather than helped to the toilet according to need. It's not the staff who are at fault, it's bad routines and procedures. In the wake of the Francis Report it’s time to say we want to learn from the mistakes that report reveals, which many of us have witnessed and reported.

When convenience products mean the needs of the most vulnerable in our society are neglected; the young, the disabled and the elderly, we need to work together to change things for the better. Small actions undertaken by individuals will mean together we can make real change happen for all our futures but also to improve the lives of those we love, ASAP and forever.

WEN has more great work to do, more big issues to tackle. It has been the pioneer of many campaigns that are now part of the mainstream. Learn more, visit www.wen.org.uk

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Why don't parents use real nappies?

That's the question that was fired at me (Hilary Vick) on Radio 4's You and Yours last Thursday. My response was that it's because disposable nappies are promoted in the hospitals via free samples and vouchers in the Bounty pack, via the National Childbirth Trust (the sponsorship money from P&G helps the NCT's work but surely association with the respected NCT charity brings P&G more sales of Pampers) and they are so visible and easily available in the supermarkets. This makes disposable nappies 'normal nappies' and most of us like to follow the norm, especially when we're feeling insecure because we've just had a life-transforming experience; like having a baby!

Under these circumstances the surprising thing is that so many parents use real nappies, right? And I've asked lots of you why you do it. And usually it's because it makes you feel good. You love the fact that you're not sending all that nappy waste to landfill. And you also tell me you do so much washing when you have a baby that washing nappies doesn't feel like a big deal.

And that's an important point. As two of the Swansea mums on You and Yours said, even the offer of a £100 incentive doesn't get them over the thing that really puts them off; washing dirty nappies. Indeed, research by Go Real (the national real nappy campaign), funded by the Waste and Resources Action Programe (WRAP) said fear of the 'mess' of washing nappies is the main barrier to people opting for real nappies.

But is washing nappies messy? It's true babies poo a lot in the first few weeks (if you can call that mustard coloured curdled milk poo. It doesn't even smell unpleasant, it just has a sort of sweet yeasty smell.) But within a few weeks many babies only poo once a day or less. That means most nappies are only damp. But how can we could get that message across?

As many of you know, 10 years ago I set up a nappy laundry service in London. Most people sign up because they are afraid of the washing or don't have the space to dry nappies. What happens is that about 50% of the people who sign up to use the laundry service find out - from their own experience - that after baby is weaned (about 6 months) there are only about 5 nappies a day and most of them are only damp. So they stop using the laundry service and wash them at home.

So let's get these messages out this Real Nappy Week:
1 most nappies are merely damp
2 using real nappies makes you feel good
3 you're not a disposable nappy parent; you just wanted everything to settle down before you got started on real nappies, right?

And by the way, wet nappies do not cause nappy rash, as said by one mum who contacted You and Yours. If your baby gets nappy rash when using cotton nappies you need to find out the real cause.

Thursday 4 April 2013

Thank You for Using Real Nappies

The last quarter of the financial year 2012/13 has just finished and we want to thank the growing number of parents, childminders and nurseries in London using washable nappies.

Based on our database we issued 1,387 vouchers last year (1 April '12 to 31 March '13). You have spent 942 of them already. Our database calulates that 3,110 babies were wearing washable nappies (bought with RNfL vouchers) during that period resulting in at least 620 tonnes of disposable nappy waste NOT going to landfill or incineration.

So you prevented over 3.3 million single-use nappies going to landfill and incineration during the period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013. This is great and we want to thank you.

If everyone who used RNfL vouchers used real nappies 100% of the time you changed around 931,000 real nappies in the last quarter of the year. That’s 71,610 real nappy changes every week, over 10,000 every day. And this doesn't account for all of you who haven't claimed vouchers but use real nappies you were given by friends and family, bought or acquired second-hand or just bought them without a voucher.

To give you a sense of what you have achieved by using real nappies you can look at the figures put out by the nappy recycling business Go Green . But it's better than that because not only did you prevent disposable nappies going to landfill, incineration or recycling. You prevented those single-use nappies being manufactured, packaged, sent to the supermarket, transported to your home and then transported to the recycling plant.


Viva la revolution!