Thursday 27 January 2011

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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2 comments:

  1. Nice idea to make a small change which in turn will have a positive impact on the environment!

    ReplyDelete
  2. As you may know I am a huge fan of washable nappies and have used them on Tala - glad to see you gave them a whirl and as you say even 1 substitution a day is 1 less disposable in a landfill xx

    ReplyDelete

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