Non toxic babies disposable nappies

I’ve been meaning to look into nappies for as long as my blog has existed. There have however been a few things that stopped me from getting to it so quickly- Firstly, nappies don’t have an ingredients list on them and so it is much more time consuming and difficult to investigate and assess their toxicity status.

Secondly, I was petrified of what I was going to find – and rightly so… I had an idea that some were bleached with chlorine which is definitely not good, but I had no clue that it’s common for a nappy to be fragranced or have a lotion impregnated top sheet (think endocrine disrupting phthalates) and that some are even held together with glues containing formaldehyde!

I wish I could say that Isabella has been in cloth nappies from the get go, but to be honest, we struggle keeping on top of our washing in our house as is! I wish I could say that Isabella has been in eco nappies for all her life… again, it’s not the truth. I was so scared of her nappies leaking, being wet and causing nappy rash that she was in Huggies for much, much longer than I care to admit!

Early on, before I started investigating chemicals in baby products and before this blog was even thought of, I did an absorbency test with a glass of water, a Huggies and an Aldi nappy. I was purely just interested in which absorbed the water best and stayed drier. The Huggies nappy won hands down (the Aldi one when squeezed, released a little puddle of water into the nappy again!) After that, I wrongly just assumed Huggies must be the best out there!

I then started this blog and investigated the chemicals in all sorts of baby products, never venturing into nappies because of the fear of finding out what truths might lie there. I’m all for easy substitutes when there is a safe, non-toxic alternative which performs as well. I just wrongly believed nappies were different and the eco nappies weren’t up to scratch – and some aren’t! But there are some awesome choices too!

I feel like at the moment, I’m in the best position I’ve ever been to test nappies. (READ: Over Christmas, Isabella got gastro for 10 days and so I started breastfeeding her day and night. Now, she breastfeeds almost continually each night and I haven’t got around to night weaning her again. – we previously used the Jay Gordon method successfully if anyone’s interested, though it’s never easy and you have to be really ready to do it.) Anyway, at the moment, I have a super hydrated baby who feeds all night and is in the same nappy from 7pm- 7am. Those morning nappies are HEAVY and we’ve had our fair share of leaks I navigate the brands!!s a!

Absorbency in a nappy is important to all of us and so I have carried out an at home absorbency test on a whole range of nappies (the results and photos are below!). I would never go back to a mainstream supermarket nappy now and am kicking myself a bit for not having investigated nappies earlier. We’re all on a journey and sometimes we just have to go at our own pace.

I wish I’d been able to get to this point earlier, but it’s important to not beat yourself up and to use that energy to promote action instead. I’ve since found some truly awesome nappies and would NEVER go back to the others now I know more.

The ingredients of what makes up a nappy varies dramatically between brands, however the essential structure is the same.

A nappy consists of:

• An absorbent core sandwiched between two layers. The inner layer sits right against the baby’s skin and is designed to be soft and to stay relatively dry and the outer layer is waterproof to prevent leaking.
• The absorbent core is designed to pull moisture in and keep it away from the baby. It is made up of a fluff material (wood pulp, bamboo etc.) and also chemical crystals called SAP (Super Absorbent Polymer).
• The fluff material distributes the liquid and the SAP absorbs it and locks it away from being squeezed back onto baby.
• SAP is in the absorbent core of every single nappy I have come across. The reason why SAP is used is because it has an amazing ability to absorb liquid- it can suck up 300 x its weight in water.
• Ecoriginals nappy is the first based SAP, Their unique plantcell technology optimizes and premium combination of natural materials with a dual seal for up to 4o% superior absorbency to traditional disposable nappies

Non-toxic ingredients: Chlorine is often used to bleach the paper liners and wood pulp in nappies. This process can leave traces of a toxic chemical called Dioxin in the nappy as well as releasing it into the environment during the bleaching process in manufacturing. Dioxins are carcinogens and are linked to many health problems. Always choose chlorine free nappies – for your baby’s health or the environment.

Fragrance free: Fragrances are frequently used in nappies to block odour. They often have endocrine disrupting phthalates in them which are linked to a whole host of negative health effects. These are unnecessary nappy ingredients as you should change a nappy frequently anyway. Nappies with fragrance should definitely be avoided.

Phthalate & lotion free: Phthalates can also hide in lotions which can be used on the inner layer of the nappy. Either look for a nappy without lotion or make sure that they are phthalate free

Performance: It’s great to have something non-toxic, but if it’s hard, scratchy, leaks or doesn’t absorb well, it’s still not a product you want.

Absorbency: Needs to actually work! The nappy needs to take moisture away from the surface, distribute the liquid and keep it within it’s absorbent core.

Fit: A good fit is important for comfort and leak prevention. The elastic and pleating of material around the leg of the nappy also plays an important role in leak prevention.

Environmental impact: We want to ensure we don’t negatively impact our children’s future world too much! More and more companies are producing eco nappies nowadays and whilst I would love to think this completely offsets the problem about sending so much to landfill, there’s a lot of different components to whether something is actually eco-friendly or not.

At Ecoriginals we offset the impact of our products. Being Plastic neutral, Carbon neutral and Planting trees globally.

Biodegradability: No nappy is 100% biodegradable. A nappy can have many biodegradable ingredients, however the tabs and elastic cuffs at least a are not. Biodegradability is important – a nappy with a higher percentage of biodegradable materials will break down faster than one which doesn’t. Unfortunately though, land fill is an environment with no light and air; without this, even a highly biodegradable nappy’s decomposition is extremely slow.

Cradle to Grave impact: Disposable nappies can have a large negative environmental impact during aspects of its whole life cycle; from the raw materials if they are not sustainable, to the manufacture if they use chlorine bleaching, to their disposal in land fill.

Looking at the non-toxic status of nappies is difficult. Nappies don’t have ingredients lists on their boxes and I had to email companies and search their websites. A lot of supermarket brand nappy companies didn’t reply to my emailed questions. I can understand why… If you knew you were going to give answers like “yes, our nappies are bleached with chlorine and contain phthalates” you wouldn’t reply either!

Unless a company is forthcoming with how non-toxic and eco-friendly they are, I make the assumption that they are not, otherwise I’m sure they’d be telling us how wonderful they were! (Which I’m guessing is why the eco-nappy companies did write back and the others didn’t!)

Even if a nappy is non-toxic, it still needs to perform its function well as otherwise it’ll leave your baby with nappy rash which isn’t healthy either.

I have tried samples of all of the below brands. Some brands I only got a sample pack of 2, so I could feel them and try them for fit and use one on Isabella overnight and then I used the other for the absorption test.

I think it is also important that a disposable nappy is eco-friendly. We shouldn’t just be concerned about what chemicals make contact with our baby when the use of a product has the potential to come back and bite in their future world too. (And let’s face it, we go through a HUGE amount of nappies per child before they are toilet trained!)

I’ve also included the cheapest prices I could find the nappies for, which are the prices they are per nappy (size 4) when bought in bulk – newborn nappies are always cheaper than this in each brand. A lot of us mums aren’t back to working full time yet or are paying child care fees and so cost has to be thought about at least!