Based on full-time use, following the recommended washing and drying routine, they are expected to last 2.5 years, or even longer. In that case you may use them on a second child or sell them second hand.

The lifetime of your nappies and boosters will depend on these important factors:

– Washing/drying frequency: This will depend on whether you are using them full-time or part-time, and how many nappies you have for rotation between washes.

The more nappies and boosters you have for rotation, the less washing they will be subject to. 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. Nappies will be the most washed items in your home, going through hundreds of washes per year, especially if you have a smaller stock.

– Detergent used: Using enzyme based detergents with frequency will wear them out sooner.

– Drying routine: Line drying will extend the lifetime of the nappy, while tumble drying will wear them out sooner.

Keep it simple. Wash with your normal laundry of light colors at 40 ⁰C, 1200 rpm, to extend its lifetime.

Use a good detergent and no softener. Softeners align the surface fabric fibers towards a horizontal angle, becoming soft to touch. This seals the fibers and blocks the penetration of urine into the fabric, leading to nappy leaks.

Make sure you select a setting that includes a cold pre-wash, especially if it is going to be followed by 60⁰C and the baby is eating solid food. Protein based stains can be very difficult to remove if high temperature is applied directly on them.

Wash at 60 ⁰C when:

1. Your baby is sick, to ensure that bacteria and viruses are effectively killed.
2. The nappies are very soiled.
3. Your baby is sharing nappies with a child from another household (eg: childcare nappy schemes)

There are laundry detergents that have been formulated specifically for use with cloth nappies. Although these can be great to use, they can be a little expensive, and are not really necessary. Choosing between powdered or liquid detergent is really just a matter of preference.

Please note that many detergents available in supermarkets 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 absorbents are natural, so to prolong the lifetime of your nappies, we recommend using a non-enzymatic detergent.

We have tested Skip Eco Active (liquid), which is non-enzymatic, and can recommend it.

Make sure that you don’t add too much detergent. Detergent in excess compromises the absorption of inserts, can cause skin allergies and if it continues to build up in the insert after every wash it can react with ammonia present in the baby urine, and cause strong smells. If at the end of the rinsing program there are still bubbles in the water, it’s because too much detergent was used.

We don’t recommend using any stain removers, bleach, vinegar or additives. These are too harsh on fabrics. Instead, wash nappies every 2-3 days to prevent stains from settling. Line drying your nappies in the sunlight is a great way of removing eventual stains naturally.

Our Wet Bag makes it practical and hygienic. Place the dirty 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.

For practical changes when going out, we also have a portable Changing Mat lined with TENCEL™ for superior comfort.

More and more nurseries are using reusable nappies. Our nappy is ‘All-in-One’ which is the easiest type when it comes to practicality and fast changing. Make sure you hand them a wet bag to store dirty nappies temporarily until it’s collected at the end of the day.

ECONOMICAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

Waste reduction

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, 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, and 5400 nappies in 2.5 years, equalling over 1 tonne of waste.

Less crude dependency

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 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 550kg of CO₂ equivalents used over 2.5 years a child is typically in nappies. Swaping 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 reusing nappies with a second child.

Resource use

Single-use baby nappies use 20 times more land for production of raw materials and require 3 times more energy to make than cloth nappies.

Our policy is to use only sustainable fabrics.

Despite many stores advertising bamboo nappy inserts and liners as an ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘natural’ fabrics, the reality is the manufacturing process that transforms bamboo tree to a soft fabric is subject to harsh chemical processing which is harming to the environment and the communities near production sites. Even if the bamboo was responsibly grown and harvested. The 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, severely polluting the soils, rivers or lakes nearby, and harming the health of manufacturing workers and local communities.

In fact, 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.’

Some people find nappy liners may a practical way of disposing the poo from soiled nappies. However, the touch of TENCEL™ is much softer and comfortable for the baby’ skin than disposable liners. Plus they are manufactured using the viscose/rayon process, which can be very pollutant to the environment as mentioned above.