Frequently Asked Questions
We answer the most frequent questions parents have about reusable diapers. From how to start, how many I need, how to wash, and all the questions in between – we’re here to help you on reusable diaper journey!
Savings vs disposables
Product use & Hygiene
Washing & Drying
Travelling & Daycare
Sustainability
SAVINGS VS DISPOSABLES
1. How many nappy changes a baby needs per day? And until potty training?
Babies need 5,400 nappy changes from birth to potty training (2.5 years) on average.
Their delicate skin requires a nappy change as soon as they wee or poo themselves, to prevent nappy rash.
For newborns it will depend mostly on how often they poop, usually after every feed, with an average of 8 to 12 nappies per day.
As they grow, the frequency of nappy changes reduces. You can expect a child with 2 years old needing 5 to 6 nappies per day.
2. How many reusable nappies do I need?
The number of nappies needed depends on the baby’s changing needs, and how often you wash them. For an average of 6 changes per day, washing every 2-3 days, we recommend a stock of 24 nappies. Each nappy includes and extra booster as your baby will produce more urine as he grows. So there is no need to buy extra boosters, unless you have a really heavy wetter!
3. How much can I save with Pico Tango reusable nappies?
You save a lot
A full set of Pico Tango reusable nappies, plus accounting for washing costs for 2.5 years is still 3 times less when compared with average disposables.
Disposable nappies cost parents an average of €2,000 per child. With Pico Tango nappies you can save about €1,400 per child on average.
Here are our costs deconstructed:
- Full set of 24 Pico Tango reusable nappies + 24 boosters = 569 €
- Machine washing with your normal clothing at 40⁰C every 2-3 days = 0 €
- Machine washing separately at 60⁰C once a month* = 0.80€ per wash = 24 € over 2.5 years
- Electricity = 0.41 € per wash
- Water = 0.17 € per wash
- Detergent = €0.22 per wash
* Wash at 60⁰C, 0.14662 €/KWh (average domestic price of the 5 cheapest energy suppliers in Portugal on 27 April 2024), pre-washing plus main wash on a A++ washing machine with consumption of 1 KWh.
4. How long will my reusable nappies last?
They are expected to last at least 2.5 years on full-time use, following the recommended washing and drying routine. In that case, you may use them on a second child, donate them or sell them second hand.
The lifetime of your nappies and boosters will depend on these important factors:
– Washing / drying frequency: Nappies will be the most washed items in your home, going through hundreds of washes per year, especially if you have a smaller stock. Washing more regularly is more hygienic; however the nappies will wear out sooner. Spacing out the washing longer than 3 days will result in urine and faeces wearing down nappies.
– Washing temperature: We recommend machine washing your nappies at 40°C as your normal routine, and only once a month washing them at 60°C, to prolong their lifetime.
– Detergent used: Using enzyme based detergents with frequency will wear them out sooner.
PRODUCT USE & HYGIENE
1. How often should I change the nappy?
During the day, we recommend changing the nappy every 2 – 4 hours on average, for a good hygiene routine.
2. Can I use Pico Tango reusable nappies straight after birth?
Our nappy is designed to comfortably fit babies from 3 kg. You may want to wait a few days until the umbilical cord falls off.
3. I have a baby with atopic skin. Is it safe to use reusable nappies?
Our nappy is suitable for babies with very sensitive and atopic skin. The transfer layer is made of 100% TENCEL™ lyocell. This fabric has the ability to absorb and release urine very quickly, helping the baby to feel dry and comfortable and creating a difficult environment for bacteria to grow. This is very important to prevent rashes as the most common reason being skin in direct contact with wet material for prolonged periods.
4. Can I use this nappy at night?
Yes. Even if your baby is wearing the nappy folded down, make sure you add the booster (included with your nappy pack) for maximum protection.
5. Do I need to have separate extra pads?
No. Our nappies come with an extra booster, which absorbs enough urine to be used overnight on a toddler. In some cases the baby may be a heavy wetter, and might need an additional Booster.
6. Can I use barrier creams on my baby when using cloth nappies?
Barrier creams containing zinc or petroleum tend to settle on the top layer of the insert, which creates a barrier to liquids, not letting them penetrating the fabric. For this reason, we recommend not using any barrier cream to avoid leaks.
You will most likely not need barrier creams at all, since these are made to protect the baby skin against disposable nappy hazardous ingredients.
7. Do I need to place 'liners' between the nappy and the baby skin?
No. We use TENCEL™ in contact with the most delicate area of the baby, which is globally recognized for being hypoallergenic, extremely breathable and the most comfortable for your baby. In avoiding using extra liners you’ll save money, time and the environment.
SWIM NAPPIES
1. What is the difference between a Reusable Swim Nappy and a 'regular' one?
Regular nappies are designed to absorb water, and will therefore suck water from the pool / sea into the nappy, causing it to swell and become heavy.
Our Reusable Swim Nappies have no added absorbency. They are designed to be lightweight, with a double leg gusset that contains poop under water, at the same time as they allow urine to flow through.
2. Why is it important to have side openings in a Swim Nappy?
Using a pull up swim nappy that cannot open at the sides will get really messy to pull it down the child’s legs when it is filled with poo. Therefore, it’s very important to open the nappy on the sides.
3. Why are our Reusable Swim Nappies better than disposables?
First, they are better for the environment. Our Reusable Swim Nappies adapt to babies from 8 to 17 kg, so they can be used over and over again from 6 months until your baby is about 3 years old. Moreover, they are composed of 100% certified post-consumer recycled plastic, and lining of 100% TENCEL ™ lyocell, which is one of the most sustainable fabrics in the world. Disposable ones are made from virgin polyester, produce a lot more waste given that you have to buy many units, and take hundreds of years to decompose.
Next, they are more comfortable and effective. Disposable ones get heavy and saggy after a while under water, while our product is lightweight no matter what and retain its shape.
Finally, they are cheaper. Because instead of buying hundreads of expensive disposables that are thrown away after every use, your investment lasts years.
4. How to wash my Reusable Swim Nappy?
1. Discard or rinsed out solid waste into the toilet.
2. Wash your nappy in the washing machine, at maximum 40°C. Air dry.
WASHING & DRYING
1. Why is pre-washing needed before the first use?
Our organic cotton fabric is unbleached, which means it contains the natural oils from the cotton plant. Oils are naturally water repellent, so they they need to be released from the fabric in order for it to become absorbent.
2. How to pre-wash before the first use?
Before its very first use only, we recommend pre-washing our reusable nappy 4 times on long cycles (minimum 2 hours) at 30-40 ⁰C, without softener. You can wash it together with your whites and light-coloured clothes. Only a small amount of detergent is needed in the first wash. When the colour of the absorbent fabric turns white, you can be sure it is absorbent.
3. Baby made a poo. What do I do before washing?
– Exclusively breastfed/formula fed babies: Do nothing. Poo is soluble in water, so just place the soiled nappy in the dry pail until machine washing. Add a cold pre-wash before the main cycle.
– Babies eating solid food: Dispose the poo into the toilet (stretch the dirty nappy over the toilet and the solid poo drops off). Place the soiled nappy in the dry pail until they are washed.
– If you encounter a sticky poo: Don’t bother to remove it 100%. Grab some toilet paper to remove the excess into the toilet. Naturally, there will be marks left. The machine cold pre-wash will wash away any remaining dirt.
4. How to store the nappies before washing?
Keep it simple. A dry pail is the safest, easiest, best-smelling option that lets your washing machine do the work.
It is “dry” because there’s no rinsing or soaking them in water.
It consists of:
1. Storing them in a plastic bucket or laundry basket with holes (size around 20 L) until they are washed.
2. When you have enough for a wash load, empty the content of the dry pail into the washing machine.
The holes will allow for airflow, minimising ammonia buildup. This set-up will be less smelly than a lidded bucket with no holes. A plastic bucket is best because it’s easy to wipe, won’t rust, and when you’ve completed your cloth nappy journey, you can repurpose the basket for general laundry use.
If you decide to use a bucket with a lid, it will be more prone to smell like urine when you open the lid. In that case, we recommend adding 2-3 drops of tea tree oil to neutralise the odour.
5. Why is 'dry pail' the best solution to store used nappies before the machine washing?
It’s easy
It’s better for your nappies
It’s not smelly
There’s no drowning hazard
6. How often shall I wash them?
We recommend washing within 2 days during Summer, to prevent odours and stains from settling. In Winter you may leave them unwashed for 3 days maximum.
7. How to wash my reusable nappies?
Keep it simple. You can wash your nappies together with your light coloured laundry.
1) Cold pre-wash (optional) – only needed for soiled nappies. This usually lasts 30 minutes for most machines. It removes excess soiling from the fabric, so that the main wash done in clean water produces the best results.
2) Main machine wash:
– Cycle lenght: Minimum 2 hours. Do not select quick wash modes, as these tend to use less water and may not clean the nappies as effectively.
– Temperature: 40 ⁰C
– Centrifugation: 1000 to 1200 rpm
– Detergent: Good quality detergent. Don’t use too much quantity. No softeners, bleach, vinegar or stain removers.
Wash at 60 ⁰C when:
- Your baby is sick, to ensure that bacteria and viruses are effectively killed.
- The nappies are very soiled.
- Your baby is using a 2nd hand nappy from another household.
8. Do you recommend a specific detergent?
We recommend a non-enzymatic detergent. Many detergents available contain enzymes. Enzymes help removing protein stains by eating them, but in doing this they also eat some natural fabric fibers around the stain. Our organic cotton absorbents are natural fabrics, so to prolong the lifetime of your nappies, we recommend using a non-enzymatic detergent.
Among detergent tested in our nappies, Greendet, Skip Active Clean and Skip Eco Active have the best results. These are liquid, non-enzymatic detergents.
9. How to check if I am using too much detergent?
Detergent in excess for a prolonged period of time slowly builds up in the absorbents until the point it compromises their absorption capacity, and can cause skin allergies.
At the end of the rinsing program you shouldn’t see detergent bubbles in the water. If you see them, it’s because too much detergent was used.
10. Why I shouldn't use softeners in the washing?
Softeners align the surface fabric fibers towards a horizontal angle, becoming soft to touch. This seals the fibers which may block the penetration of urine into the fabric, leading to nappy leaks.
11. How to dry the nappies and boosters?
Line drying: Wash at 1000 – 1200 rpm. Turn the absorbents inside out before hanging, to promote airflow and shorten drying time.
Tumble dry: on a low cycle only.
Ensure your nappies are completely dry before storing away.
TRAVELLING & DAYCARE
1. Can I use the reusable nappies at daycare?
Our ‘All-in-One’ nappy is the easiest type when it comes to practicality and fast changing. The daily routine at nurseries consists of:
– When arriving, besides handing them your baby, hand them the reusable nappies and a Wet Bag.
– After a nappy change, they place the used nappy in the Wet bag instead of a disposable plastic bag, until your baby is collected at the end of the day.
2. And when going out or travelling?
Our Wet Bag makes it practical and hygienic. Place the used items in the wet bag until washing time. It is lightweight and water resistant, keeping the external environment dry and free from odours. It also comes with an external pocket to carry clean nappies or a changing mat.
We have two sizes available
- The small size holds 4-5 nappies and 4-5 boosters inside, and is ideal for short journeys.
- The large size holds 8-10 nappies and 8-10 boosters inside, and is ideal to leave at a full-time daycare.
SUSTAINABILITY
1. What are the benefits of PICO TANGO reusable nappies?
ECONOMICAL
You save a lot
A full set of Pico Tango reusable nappies, plus accounting for washing costs for 2.5 years is still 3 times less when compared with average disposables. You can save €1,400 per child.
Contribute to a circular economy
You are directly contributing to upcycling marine plastic collected from the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic coast.
BABY’S HEALTH
Independent studies from France’s ANSES Agency in 2022 show that in the EU 90% of European babies have been exposed to “very severe” chemicals in disposable nappies sold throughout Europe in recent years, putting them at risk of “potentially very severe diseases” later in life, from hazardous ingredients, such as dioxins, furans and synthetic fragrances.
Our cloth nappies, on the contrary, don’t contain any chemicals.
ENVIRONMENTAL
Save 1 tonne of waste
Due to its complex synthetic composition together with biological material, recycling disposable nappies is not financially viable. They take hundreds of years to decompose. In 2017 alone, it was estimated that 6.7 million tonnes of disposable nappies waste was generated in the EU-28, which typically end up in landfills (87%) or are incinerated (13%).
Considering 6 nappy changes per day as a minimum (a newborn can use 12 a day!), that’s 180 nappies per month, 5400 nappies in 2.5 years, equalling over 1 tonne of waste.
Depend less on crude
It takes over 1,500 litres of crude oil to produce enough disposable nappies for a baby until they become potty trained (at 2.5 years).
Cleaning our oceans
Ocean pollution is one of the biggest threats to the health of our planet.
Our nappy shell fibers are 100% SEAQUAL certified. For every 1 kilo of SEAQUAL® YARN, 1 kilo of marine litter has been cleaned from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Learn more about this brilliant initiative at seaqual.org
Reduce CO2 emissions
Disposable nappies result in a carbon footprint approximately 550 kg of CO2 equivalents used over 2.5 years a child is typically in nappies. Swapping to reusables results in a reduction of 40%, equivalent to some 220 kg of CO2, over the 2.5 years. This reduction is possible by washing nappies in a fuller load, outdoor line drying all of the time, not washing above 60°C and if you can, reusing nappies with a second child.
Less resource use
Cloth nappies requires 20 times less land for production of raw materials and 3 times less energy to make than disposables.
2. Why we don’t use 'bamboo' viscose
Our policy is to use only sustainable fabrics.
Despite being advertised as an ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘natural’ fabric, the reality is the manufacturing process that transforms bamboo tree to a soft fabric is subject to harsh chemical processing which can be very harming to the environment and the communities near production sites. Even if the bamboo plant was responsibly grown and harvested. The transformation process is called viscose/rayon and it involves an open loop, using high quantities of toxic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) and carbon disulphide. Unfortunately, many times these chemicals are released untreated into the environment in Asian countries, severely polluting the soils, rivers or lakes nearby, and harming the health of manufacturing workers and local communities.
The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), which is the world’s leading standard for processing textiles, won’t certify the chemically processed bamboo (viscose/rayon), stating:
“Almost all bamboo fibre used in industrial textile production is not natural bamboo, but is a product for which the cellulose has been regenerated through a viscose/rayon process and can, therefore, not be considered as natural or even organic fibre, even if the bamboo plant was originally certified as organic, in the field.’
3. Why we don’t sell disposable nappy liners
Some people find nappy liners may a practical way of disposing the poo from soiled nappies. However, the touch of TENCEL™ lyocell is much softer and comfortable for the baby’ skin. Not only most disposable liners available in the market are manufactured using the viscose/rayon process (see que question above!), but also turn out not to be easily biodegradable in water, contributing to sewage pipe blockage.