Unless you’re a Kardashian, there’s there’s probably no time in your life you’ll be more focused on butts than during the early years of parenthood.
The fact is, no matter what kind of parent you plan on being, your new family member’s little tooshie is about to take up a lot of your time.
Is it working often enough? Is that where the smell is coming from? How do I clean it? What do I cover this thing with?
A new breed of influencers are determined to make sure that new parents are getting it right. They’re the nappy influencers and the carefully curated images they share of their reusable nappy collections is seeing a resurgence in cloth nappy use that nobody could have predicted!
In a recent report shared by the ABC, Tasmanian baby shop owner, Tom Griffith credits the “nappy influencers” or “cloth bummers” as part of the reason he has such success with the eco-friendly nappies he stocks which saw a 20 percent sales increase in the last year.
“People love posting photos of their stash,” he said.
“They’re all pretty prints and colours and some of our brands do limited edition prints and we get people rushing in to buy the latest print.
“That might sound a bit like consumerism but it’s creating a positive energy.”
In the past, the hassle of dealing with cloth nappies is part of the reason that disposable nappies became so popular. But the environmental issues of using disposable nappies can not be ignored.
“With the focus on ditching single-use plastics in Australia right now, the fact that more parents and retailers are ditching disposables and moving more towards reusable and sustainable options makes sense,” Danielle Woods from reusable nappy supplier, Bambino Mio tells Bounty.
And now that reusable cloth nappies have come such a long in terms of designs and practicality, the shift back to the more eco-sustainable option is one that is not so difficult to make, and the nappy influencers are helping to make that change known.
“They’re just not the same sort of nappy we were put in as kids,” says Griffith.
“They’re much more user-friendly, much easier to fit, much easier to wash. You don’t have to do any sort of soaking or boiling to sterilise.”
In addition to the cost to the environment – Australian environmental group Boomerang Alliance has calculated that 3.75 million disposable nappies get used each day Australia wide – the cost to the hip pocket can’t be ignored when it comes to disposable nappies either.
“Disposables run about $3,000, depending on the brand, per child,” says Griffith. While the alternative cloth option only requires approximately 24 nappies which can cost anywhere between $19 and $50 each.
Calculating that savings is one which has seen many parents make the shift. Even the retail giants are noticing the trend.
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While cloth nappies are not replacing disposables at supermarkets just yet, that change could be coming very soon.
“We’ve seen customer interest in reusable nappy alternatives increase,” a spokesperson for Woolworths told the ABC. Currently the Woolworths brand stocks cloth nappies at its Big W stores.
“We’re always open to hearing from new suppliers and will consider adding new options to our supermarket range in future.”
And with over 117k shares on Instagram alone, the demand for #clothnappies doesn’t look like it’s about to go away anytime soon.
READ MORE: How to change and clean a reusable cloth nappy
