Good reasons to use cloth nappy

Use of cloth nappies has tripled in the last five years, as "green" parents are more aware of the cost of disposables to the environment - and their wallets.
Real Nappy Week  is being celebrated this week to promote use of cloth nappies.
Kate Meads, spokeswoman for The New Zealand Nappy Alliance, said she'd seen a huge growth in the use of cloth nappies since she started her business Nappy Days five years ago.
"I would go into an antenatal group and there would be one parent considering [cloth nappies]. Now we have at least 50 per cent of parents considering using them. It was still a very 'green' movement back then. Now, it's very much mainstream - you can go into [the supermarket] and buy cloth nappies on the shelf."
The Katikati woman estimates 15 per cent of parents are now using cloth nappies, up from 5 per cent five years ago.
The Nappy Alliance is encouraging parents to consider using disposables only when out and about, and using cloth nappies at home.
Mrs Meads compared it to using a disposable coffee cup from a cafe. "While I'm out I don't mind using a disposable cup but you wouldn't use one when you're at home - imagine if you had a stack of disposable cups in the kitchen and threw one out every time you had a coffee.
"Disposables are a convenience item."
Mrs Meads said some new parents had not initially considered cloth nappies but were converted after being shocked by the waste of disposables.
"Once you start using disposable nappies on the baby, you realise you have to buy one box of 30 nappies that will last three days.
"You think 'wow, that's a lot of nappies for three days'.
"As society is getting better educated, they think 'that's a lot of waste for a tiny 5kg baby'."
A family with one child increased their weekly household rubbish by 50 per cent when using disposables, Mrs Meads said.
The family budget is also benefiting from the change.
The Nappy Alliance says a parent using a cheap disposable nappy would save $2000-2500 per child by switching to a cheap cloth nappy.
And a parent using expensive disposables would save $4000-4500 per child by switching to expensive cloth nappies.
Today's cloth nappies are unrecognisable compared with the nappies of 20 years ago.
"Most people still think of cloth nappies as flat nasty things with pins," said Mes Meads, who is known as "The Nappy Lady".
"They virtually look like a disposable nappy now. You just fire them in the washing machine. It's a lot easier than people think."
Modern cloth nappies are fitted with a liner which can be removed and flushed down the toilet.
The outer nappy can then be washed in the washing machine and used again.
Cloth nappies, Mrs Meads said, were about 40 per cent better for the environment than disposables.