Should I use disposable or cloth nappies?

Totes up to you.

In the long run, reusable nappies are cheaper and better for the environment. Disposable nappies are way more convenient but will probably mean your baby stays in nappies a bit longer. What you do with those facts is probably more about the philosophy or lifestyle you already have – the percentage of parents who choose disposables in Australia is in the 90s.

If your philosophy suggests you prefer reusable nappies but you find yourself overwhelmed and struggling with new parenthood in general, you have the universe’s permission to switch to disposables, either sometimes, or all the time. The blame for environmental pollution, and lagging biodegradable technology, is not on new parents. It’s on big companies, governments and regulators.

Almost all info about nappies online is on commercial sites, and therefore probably biased. Ignore any extremist unsupported faffing nonsense on some cloth nappy websites stating that disposables ‘cause asthma or infertility’. And ignore suggestions from disposable-nappy websites that their brand has more absorbent secret magic than other brands. Sometimes you’re just paying for the brand name because it has already achieved some market dominance or paid for more supermarket shelf space, creating an assumption that it ‘must be good’ if it’s so popular.

There’s more on nappies and toilet training in the book Babies & Toddlers: The Sequel to Up the Duff.