Diary of a ‘Green’ Mum

Michelle Ginieres - 7 Feb 16

My little family is embarking on a journey to reduce our household waste. I feel very strongly about the environment and even more so since having a baby. I feel it is my duty to protect it as best as I can for her benefit and future. I’m by no means preaching to people as it takes a lot of time and effort to reduce household waste in the beginning. However, I thought I would share some of the things that I do and people can enquire or change even just one thing in their lives that might help protect our world.
Firstly I began cloth diapering. This is a relatively easy process. It’s expensive in the outset but in the long run its not very expensive. I bought a starter kit of nappies from Amazon from the company ‘real nappies’. It came with nappies, covers and flushable liners. I also bought a wet bag, for out and about, and snappys which are essentially nappy pins. In the beginning, to get used to using them, I just used them around the house on the little lady, trying out different folds to see which worked best and was the least bulky. Now that my little bubby is 3 months old I have transitioned into using them all the time, apart from at night, one of the cons of them is changing them every two hours, at the least. They do leak if left on longer than this. Another downside I would say is that they are bulky and modern clothes don’t fit baby so well but it’s not a major issue. She fits most of her clothes she just has a big bum in them, which is fine by me.
I have a diaper pail in her room, which sometimes does smell but I wash the nappies every other day so I have enough to rotate so it actually works quite well. Each time I give the pail a good clean out and few drops of tea tree oil works wonders.
Now comes the issue of baby wipes and household cleaning. I’m am currently in the process of buying reusable cloth wipes for a multitude of uses such as reusable baby wipes, wiping down the surfaces and other household cleaning, all available from Amazon or Etsy. Again all items can just be popped into the washing machine post use. The reusable baby wipes can be used with water and put in the diaper pail and washed with the nappies. It takes some time to get used to it all and it is time consuming at first. However I have now got used to cloth diapers and am much more efficient at changing them.
Some tips I have come across for cloth nappy maintenance:
-In hard water areas, use a limescale reduction tablet or liquid – this helps build of minerals which may make the nappies smell in the long run.
-always use a rinse cycle and then wash nappies with detergent only on a cotton wash
-mine are pre folds and do not require liners, however I use the flushable ones and they help keep poop in one place for a more efficient clean up.
-with nappy rash, use of organic paraben free bottom butters are advised as it helps maintain absorption in nappies.
-can use a stain remover in with the wash. If/when the weather gets better, nothing is as good as sunlight and natural drying for maintenance of cloth diapers.
It doesn’t take a lot in the long run to make some small changes to prevent waste and become a greener more efficient family.

Michelle Ginieres

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