The happy nappy lady

WHEN we think of cloth nappies, most of us picture the terry towelling squares with which the description was once synonymous. We think of hassle and endless washing – not to mention having to deal with unpleasant mess – and assume that disposable nappies were invented precisely for the purpose of avoiding all this.

Aggie Maxwell knows better. As the owner of Grow Up Green, which sells and hires cloth nappies, as well as being director of the social enterprise Parenting North East, Aggie is a strong exponent of natural, environmentally-friendly practices.

Wife to Alan Maxwell, vicar of St Cuthbert’s and St Oswald’s churches in Hebburn, in the early years of having her three children, now aged three, six and nine, she moved a lot. It was during the family’s time in Cambridge, when her eldest child Seth was just a baby, that Aggie first encountered cloth nappies.

“The local council funded a trials service and they also had a network of volunteers, which I joined,” she says. “We moved up to the North-East and there wasn’t anything similar. In about 2010, all of a sudden, there was chatter on a local forum about cloth nappies. Growing Up Green was founded by a local midwife in 2005, but was no longer running, so I rang her up and asked if I could take it on.”

Aggie, 39, hastily set about sourcing stock and, within a matter of weeks, Grow Up Green was back in business. Now the company has been selling and hiring out trial kits of cloth nappies for five years, and Aggie reflects that her first babies will start school in September.

It supplies a broad range of products from basic terry towelling versions to cloth nappies that look like disposables, with Aggie travelling to customers to offer guidance on how to use them. Far from being onerous, she feels they are relatively straightforward.

“All cloth nappies are something absorbent and something waterproof,” she explains. “There are probably four or five broad-brush differences and then you get down to unique brands. There are a lot of different choices out there. When we were kids, it was terry squares or nothing, but my trial kits have 14 different kinds. You can use a liner and pop that down the loo. There’s a little bit of mess but not much, really. You just bung them in the washing machine. It’s half a load of washing every other day.”

Aggie used cloth nappies for all her own children, prompted by the desires both to protect the environment and to save money. They are undoubtedly cheaper than disposables, and she calculates that using the same ones three times must have saved her thousands.

“You can save anything up to about £3,500 over two-and-a-half years – and that would be for a first child,” says Aggie. “A disposable nappy takes about 500 years to biodegrade, so if Henry VIII had worn them archaeologists would be finding his nappies intact.”

Another benefit of cloth versus disposable is that, with the right absorbency and fit, cloth can be more effective. “I think it’s because they’ve got elastic in so they fit better around the legs and waist,” says Aggie.

Alongside cloth nappies, she promotes the use of slings through a dedicated library run by Parenting North East. From holding one meeting a month, Aggie has progressed to 11 and now has specialist “baby wearing” consultants offering advice. “The sling community refers to itself as ‘baby wearing’,” Aggie laughs. “Our consultants are qualified to give advice on things like posture, and all our slings put the baby in the optimum position to protect joints.”

As with cloth nappies, Aggie used slings herself – to the extent that by her third child, she hardly needed a pushchair. She feels that maintaining physical contact benefits both parents and babies, particularly fathers not naturally in tune with their child.

“We will hopefully get a couple of weekend meets that are run by dad volunteers,” says Aggie. “One of the advantages is bonding and lots of dads say they’re struggling to bond.”

The convenience of slings has led to an increase in popularity, and the library caters for everyone from parents using them for the first time to seasoned baby wearers. A key advantage of borrowing is that you can try before you buy. “There’s a whole raft of different carriers,” says Aggie. “It depends on what you want it for, but they’re designed to be ergonomic for both parent and baby.”

One of the library’s aims is to educate people on the safe use of slings. A recent campaign by Newcastle City Council sought to dissuade parents from using them and, after objecting to this, Parenting North East is now working with the council to provide accurate information.

“There was a case a couple of years ago where a baby died in a sling,” Aggie explains. “We’re working with the council to develop a new campaign which highlights the benefits as well as warning that if you use them incorrectly, they can be harmful.”

With Grow Up Green part of a national network of nappy libraries, Aggie hopes to extend links with other branches. Through Parenting North East, she would also like to offer other services like antenatal yoga and baby First Aid, and she has embarked on peer support training with the National Childbirth Trust to strengthen her advisory role.

Ultimately, Aggie feels lucky in being able to promote a lifestyle she believes in. “It’s all the natural end of the market,” she says. “I don’t think I could sell anything I didn’t agree with.”

Related websites
www.growupgreen.co.uk
www.facebook.com/Parentingnortheast
www.facebook.com/DurhamRealNappyLibrary