This is what I think of Kit & Kin
The normal order of the day here is cloth. Happy fluffy enormous cloth bum. At least at the daytime, at night we use the horrid landfill bound Pampers. But I can cope with that because it is one a day. Or I can sort of. I also sort of a lot hate it.
Recently Pip has been doing super acidic poo which eats through his tiny butt in about two minutes flat and leaves him with open bleeding sores. It is not a thing that makes his parents feel particularly ace about their parenting skills. There have been discussions about whether the disposable nappies are better or not for this - Ed thinks they are, I think it is poo and thus the nappies need to be changed straight off whatever the nappy. The point which I do have to concede on is that disposable nappies smell more so you notice the poo faster.
In order to prevent marital falling out - and because I did want to try and save the bright red mess that was Pip's bottom, I agreed to put him in disposables for a couple of days and see if it helped. (Really annoyingly, it did, but I'm not unconvinced that it wasn't just because he ceased shitting corrosive substances - I think it might have something to do with teething, but really I haven't a clue) But, whilst I can cope with dumping one disposable in the bin a day, more than that I just don't like. So, I have decided to trial the half way house for middle class people with money and a conscience - Kit & Kin.
The packaging had some delightfully frightening facts - HOW much of the landfill is taken up by just nappies that never ever biodegrade?? However, these happy, expensive nappies I am assured by the packaging, decompose and thus I don't have to feel too awful about using them. Price wise? On a normal day in my regular retailer of Tesco a packet of 36 Pampers size 5 costs £8 (19p each), 30 Kit & Kin cost £7.95 (21p each) - not a vast difference, except Pampers come up in the half price offers every so often which is when I actually buy them, and I haven't seen Kit &Kin yet. We shall see...
There is also another issue at play. Quite aside from the issue of what happens to the nappy when it leaves my house, I hate the way Pampers nappies smell when they get wet. They reek, and then they sit in the bathroom bin and fill the room with the special nasty smell every time it is opened until someone (me) empties it. I am quite fine with the smell of baby wee and poo on the cloth, but the chemical nastiness in the Pampers makes me want to retch. Kit & Kin smell of nothing. Hell Yeah. Oh and they don't seem to leak, this is probably quite an important observation. They also use some of their profits to help buy the rainforest through the World Land Trust - but you have to subscribe to get that and I like to be haphazard in my purchasing of nappies.
So, I think I have found a way to be ok with using disposable nappies at night and when Pip's digestive tract wants to dissolve his bum and when husband can't be bothered with the wrap and poppers that come with cloth (Totsbots bamboozle, Motherease wrap + fleece liner in case you want to know what works in this house) and I can cope with the extra bit of cost. But why can't the brand leader with shit loads of money do it too? Is the science too complex for the laboratories at P&G or are they not well funded enough to work it out? No, they just make so much money and have zero incentive to do anything to change the way they make and operate - after all, they only have to make, they don't have to dispose. I bet if they had to pay to deal with the end product, biodegradable nappies would be the only thing on the shelf.
- and as a final comment, I followed my interest to the World Land Trust and decided I like them. I sign petitions asking governments to stop palm oil deforestation and other crimes against the rainforest, but I don't really know how much good they do. So this morning I gave them a donation, hopefully it'll mean they can save another chunk of the rainforest from being hacked to pieces. David Attenborough says this of them 'The money that is given to the World Land Trust, in my estimation, has more effect on the wild world than almost anything I can think of.' So, two good things done, not nasty nappies and protecting the trees. Anyone else want to do something positive today?