Cloth diapering/nappying in Italy

Cloth diapering has recently been enjoying a renaissance in the richer parts of the world: Europe, North America and Australasia, after a period of about 20 years during which almost all parents switched to disposables. According to an Indian friend, cloth nappies never went out of style in the developing world - pretty much everyone in India uses them and I suspect that the situation may be similar in other parts of the globe where Proctor and Gamble et al have yet to make inroads and most people wouldn't be able to afford disposable nappies anyway.

Like breastfeeding, cloth nappying is inexpensive, easy, simple and old fashioned. Needless to say, it's also environmentally friendly - especially in a country like Italy awash in overflowing landfills and piles of festering/burning waste. As with breastfeeding, however, the big multinationals have a strong vested interest in persuading parents to abandon age-old parenting practices in favour of their more expensive "modern" products -disposable diapers and baby formula, although, of course, these products do have their place. Baby formula, for one, is a wonderful food for babies who, for whatever reason, cannot be breastfed and disposable diapers are a great convenience for travelling.

In Italy, unfortunately, it seems that a huge proportion of parents use disposable nappies. I think that the main hurdle is that the ubiquity of disposable diapers and the endless advertising have persuaded many parents and potential parents that cloth diapering is a huge amount of work, akin to washing your clothes at the village water pump with only cold water, a washboard and some marsiglia soap, and a bit 'schifoso' (gross). I've had many, many people assume that I'm some kind of supermum (and/or completely crazy) because I use cloth on Astrid. While I was pregnant and collecting cloth nappies a lot of experienced parents assured me that I'd give up and start using disposables within 3 weeks as cloth diapers are "just soooo hard." In fact, I'm extremely lazy and about as far from supermum as is possible. It actually really isn't that much more work using cloth than using disposables and it's a hell of a lot better for the environment, your pocketbook and your baby's bum.

Disposable diapers are extremely expensive in Italy - probably twice as much as in the US on average although I haven't studied this in detail. If you'd like to do a quick calculation of the amount of money you'll save using cloth use this calculator Remember when crunching the numbers that disposable diapers are more expensive here as is electricity but that we tend not to use dryers making washing the diapers slightly more economical after everything is totalled up.

I started out while pregnant reading a US based website for cloth diaper users called the Diaper Pin. The site can be quite overwhelming as there are so many different kinds of cloth diapers available these days and so many different opinions. There were certain cloth diaper addicted mothers on that site who kind of scared me (no it's not necessary to spend $50 on a handknitted wool cover for your cloth diapers!) Another useful site for things like diaper folds and washing techniques is Diaper Hyena. To make life easier for anyone considering cloth nappies here's a summary of the different categories of cloth diaper available these days:

1) All in Ones or AIOs - these diapers are, as the name suggests, one piece nappies which include an absorbent part and a waterproof part similar to a disposable. I read on the Diaper Pin site that these diapers take a very long time to dry and since we don't have a dryer I decided to skip these.

2) Pocket Diapers - these are a great innovation especially for the parent looking for a disposable-like nappy. It consists of a two layer piece which either snaps or velcros around the baby's rear - waterproof on the outside and soft and water wicking on the inside (usually fleece). Inside there's a pocket where you can insert an absorbent layer - either microfiber (quick drying - I recommend it), cotton or bamboo (bamboo takes a long time to dry but it absorbs a lot so good for outings). I have several bumgenius, fuzzibunz and peapods (an Australian brand which I wouldn't recommend as they came apart in the wash) pocket nappies. The bumgeniuses are my favourites as they 'one size' so there's no need to buy more as the baby grows. The downsides are the cost (compared to option 3) and the fact that you've got to be careful with how you wash them and keep them away from diaper creams. I've found that they wash fine on hot with normal detergent, though, and I just use a fleece liner if I'm using diaper cream.

3) Absorbent cotton flat diaper plus waterproof cover - this is the workhorse of our diaper stash along with little pieces of thin fleece (called pile in Italian - buy it at any fabric store and cut into pieces) as liners. We use Indian Prefolds which I got on ebay. In the UK terry cloth squares seem to be the norm (I've never tried these). The big advantages are: they're cheap so you can buy lots - this is especially great during the newborn stage, they indestructible in the wash and they also make great burp cloths. We use PUL covers - mostly bummis (which are Canadian) and imse vimses (a Swedish brand). Disadvantages are -need to use snappis or pins (I like snappis better - they're flexible rubber grips), need for a cover, need for a fleece liner, slightly steeper learning curve for those who've never cloth nappied before.

4) Fitted diapers - such as the British Tots Bots, the Canadian Motherease nappies and the American kissiluvs. I haven't tried these but I've heard they're great for containing newborn poop (sorry, but this is a post about diapers!) The big disadvantage is that they cost more than the flat diapers and babies constantly grow out of them so you need to buy more. These diapers also require a waterproof cover.

We aren't cloth diaper zealots and we do use disposables sometimes: when travelling out of town, at night and sometimes when we're out. Especially during the newborn stage I noticed that we got a lot more huge leaks when using disposables (usually while I was nursing the baby so all over my skirt or trousers - yuk!) Maybe it was just our baby, but disposables just didn't seem to be able to cut it in the poo containment arena.

Cloth diapers are slowly making their way onto the Italian scene. Here are list of Italian and European stockists (if you're in Italy it's best to order from within Europe rather than the US as you won't need to pay customs.)

Italian sources
Babynatura
Ecobaby
NewBabyBerry
Bimbomarket
La Casa dei Bimbi

European sources
Imse vimse UK
Twinkle Twinkle nappies UK

I've also seen Poppolino cloth pocket diapers for sale at Natura Si if you'd like to check them out in person. They also sell handy flushable diaper liners.

Washing methods
A lot of the American cloth diaper sites recommend special detergents. These aren't available in Italy, unfortunately, but I've never had problems using regular detergents from the supermarket. Just keep away from anything containing enzymes or brighteners. The cheap stuff is best. For these instructions I'm assuming the use of a front-loader.

My tried and tested washing method for prefolds, PUL covers, pocket diapers (bumgenius and fuzzibunz) and fleece liners is as follows:

-flush poo down toilet after changing baby (you should be doing this with disposable diapers as well as it's not a good idea to put human waste into the garbage)
-store dirty diapers in a big plastic bin on the balcony. It really doesn't smell at all if you wash frequently - if smell is a problem there's plenty of advice on the sites I linked to above.
-when it's time to wash, remove inserts from pocket nappies and attach velcro to tabs on pocket nappy 'covers' and PUL covers. Dump everything in the washing machine. Rinse diapers - on my machine this function is called "riscaquo & centrifuga". After rinsing the diapers add about a third of the amount of detergent recommended on the bottle, the recommended amount of calgon and a few teaspoons of Napisan to the detergent dispenser. Wash on 60 degrees.
-Hang diapers to dry on clotheshorse. If there are any stains hang them in the sun which will bleach out stains in no time.

cross posted with my other blog