Welcome back BabyNamers.
The beginning of the second trimester held few surprises in comparison to the first. In fact, I barely made an entry in my journal during those weeks, so there could not have been too much to whine about.
We did attend a ‘sustainable planet’ seminar in our forth month, entitled ‘The Nappy Lady – Disposable Nappies vs. Reusable Nappie’. (Ana wants to save the earth and I want to save money. It seemed like a win-win.)
All in all, the conference was quite informative.
Fact attack!
The average child in the UK will use 4.14 nappies per day, which equates to a staggering 3,796 nappies in the first two and a half years of its life – the standard length of time before a child becomes potty trained.
For more perspective, the nappies from a single child can account for as many as 40 black sacks per year. (You have to buy black sacks too!)
To gauge the potential amount of nappies thrown away annually by the audience, the Nappy Lady asked us to use our digits to indicate the number of Children we hoped to have. Most of the women’s hand shot up like a rocket. Three. Four. Five.
As I looked around, I was the only person holding a single finger in the air. On my second scan I realised I was one of only two men who had raised their arm, and as I turned back around, Ana was looking at me with her ‘please explain’ eyebrows.
“Jesus was an only child”, I said. “And he was perfect”.
As the pitch for the reusable nappy continued, I think most of the room was on board. I was already flicking through the leaflet and pointing out different designs to Ana. Then the Nappy Lady held up a kitchen spatula.
The kitchen spatula is used to scrape the crap off the reusable nappy before you rinse it, soak it, wash it, then dry it, she explained.
I get annoyed when Ana forces me to wash the tins and jars before they are thrown in the recycling bin. I’m making the effort to recycle, so don’t push your luck.
The seminar was informative nonetheless and it helped Ana find a solution that works for both of us to this day.
Eco-friendly disposables. The answer was out there.
All I have to do is dig a hole in our back garden twice a week, tip in our baby’s dirties and cover with the soil from said hole.
After six months, recover nappies from the hole (as they are only 60% biodegradable), pack into black bags and dispose of in the wheelie bin.
It is that simple.
