Baby Boy in his Smartipants (Review)

If you have read the first part of my review of Smartipants, you will know that I am hopeful that this new evolution of reusable nappies is the solution to the enormous bulk of landfill waste that my household generates.

The Aqua Breeze shade was bright and cheerful and although it was a bit of a fiddle getting the size adjustment right first time I used it, it was a comfortable fit. Once dressed, my baby boy did have a noticibly more padded bottom than in his usual disposables but it was nothing I couldn't live with.

He seemed happy enough. He ate his lunch, he had his afternoon nap. When he woke up he was still comfortable with no sign of leakage. It was as he was sat on my lap for a cuddle that I heard the sound that indicated that the Smartipants were about to be thoroughly tested! It was explosive!!

I was dreading removing the nappy but the task was less onerous than I was expecting. The Smartipants felt heavy but not soggy and there was very little dampness on the suede cloth integral lining. Plenty of poo but it was all very manageable.

I was surprised at how easy the clean up operation was and the dirty nappy folded as discreetly as a disposable.

The instructions suggest that dirty nappies are put on a cool rinse cycle and then washed at 40 degrees. As I only had the one nappy, I gave it a quick rinse under the tap and then just popped it in with my whites wash. This did mean a bit of extra, unpleasant work for myself but would not be part of a normal established routine. There is no need to remove the absorbent insert as it should come out during the wash cycle, so popping the dirty nappy in the washing machine really is as simple as throwing a disposable nappy in the dustbin!

As I unloaded my whites wash, I coud see that the absorbent insert had indeed come free from the sleeve. Very clever! Both parts of the Smartipants had washed up beautifully. The spin cycle had removed a lot of the water so I hung them both over a radiator airer to dry. They can be tumble dried on low.

By morning, my Smartipants were ready for another day.

If I am honest, I probably won't be rushing out to buy enough Smartipants so that I can do away with disposables forever. The start up cost is quite high and I'm not sure how my already over burdened washing machine could cope with the increased loads.

However, I have been so impressed by the performance that I fully intend to continue using the Smartipants  on a regular basis in conjunction with my regular disposables. If I were only to replace one nappy change a day with Smartipants, over the course of a week that amounts to a carrier bag of landfill waste saved. In a year this would add up to a significant amount and if every mum with nappy wearing babies did the same, how amazing would that be?

Substituting just one nappy a day will be easy and I'm sure I can do better than that.

http://www.fill-your-pants.com/one-size-nappies/smartipants.html

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Smartipants (Review)

As an environmentally aware person, it horrifies me how much landfill waste I generate through nappies alone.

When my first child was a baby (over two decades ago) I used terry towelling nappies. I always loved my pile of fluffy white, freshly laundered, neatly folded nappies on their special shelf above my baby changing table. That was probably the only thing about it I loved.

I hated all the other bits that went with the nappies - the liners, the plastic pants that left sore red patches around my precious girl's thighs, the nappy pins that terrified me thinking that I was going to stab my baby, the sanitising solution in lidded buckets to keep the soiled nappies in until they were washed. They were difficult to put on too. The amount of times I thought I'd done a  good job only to find that the whole thing had gone ridiculously saggy within minutes of wearing. And they leaked. They leaked something terrible. But disposable nappies were expensive and money was tight. I persevered.

As the years went by, the price of disposable nappies dropped and our disposable income increased. Subsequent babies were not subjected to the trial of the terry. However, environmental awareness was growing and the use of the disposable nappies carried a certain amount of guilt amongst parents who cared what sort of world their offspring would inherit. I joked that I had done my time with environmentally friendly nappies and had earned the right to take the disposable option.

When in my forties, I had my fifth and sixth babies after an eleven year gap, I was faced with the prospect of more years of nappy use.

It seemed that reusable nappies had progressed since my experience twenty years previously. Now they were shaped and fastened without the need for pins and special laundry services were available  to take away the inconvenience of having to do your own washing. However, disposable nappies had also evolved. They were much more cost effective than they had ever been and there always seemed to be a supermarket special offer available. They also promised a dryness to baby's skin and leak proof measures even with the most active tots.

Despite my environmental misgivings, disposable nappies won the day. They do deliver on their promise of dryness but it is hard to ignore the full to overflowing wheelie bins I put out for my refuse collector fortnight after fortnight.

I was excited to be given the chance to try the reuseable nappy system known as Smartipants.

These seemed to offer many of the advantages of disposables but with the added bonus of being environmentally friendly.

They come in One Size Fits All with secure poppers to fit to your child's size. They are soft to the touch, neat and compact. An absorbent insert fits into an internal sleeve to absorb wetness whilst a suede cloth lining interfaces with baby's skin for optimum dryness.

The Smartipants come in a range of colours. I was given gender neutral Aqua Breeze to try with my 7 month baby boy and my Potty Training Resistant daughter.

I have already begun to use Smartipants with the baby. I am keeping a totally open mind and will post my verdict once I have used them for a few days.

http://www.fill-your-pants.com/one-size-nappies/smartipants.html