For green living parents who use cloth diapers, it pays to select options that are high-quality and “green optimized”– why settle for bleached cotton when you can use natural, organic hemp? As a cloth diaper junkie, I was excited about trying out Hemparoo diapers, a type of hemp fleece prefold made by Babykicks. While they are among the most sustainable diapers I’ve ever bought, they do have their drawbacks.
When I hear the word “fleece”, I think “fuzzy little lamb”, so I expected my Hemparoo cloth diapers to be plush and extremely soft. While Hemparoo diapers, which are a roughly fifty-fifty blend of hemp and cotton, aren’t so coarse that they are abrasive or uncomfortable, they are not nearly as gentle as some other prefold diaper varieties that I have used. Hemp is highly sustainable because it fixes nitrates, grows in rugged soil, and requires very little land or water. However, as a clothing fiber, it doesn’t quite match the baby-soft texture of cotton or natural wool.
Due to their texture, Babykicks Hemparoo diapers are not compatible with Snappis or most other modern diaper-snaps. Most parents will need to use an alternative, such as traditional metal diaper pins, to hold Hemparoo prefolds in place. Alternatively, these ultra-sustainable prefolds can be used as inserts in pocket diapers. I found that I could make an unbeatable night diaper for my heavy-wetting baby by using Hemparoo prefolds as inserts for Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers. Because they are so absorbent, hemp cloth diapers work much more efficiently as pocket-inserts than traditional cotton.
The rugged texture of a Hemparoo pays off with its surprising absorbency. I was very pleased to find that my daughter’s hemp-blend cloth diapers absorbed wetness as efficiently as a disposable diaper. They also soak up moisture from feces very effectively, so there is very little odor. However, unlike many super-absorbent cloth diapers, the odor and waste come out of a Hemparoo prefold with just one run through the washing machine. They don’t require stripping, boiling, or sunning to keep them ammonia-free.
Over the last thirteen months, my hemp prefolds have held up, through frequent use and washing, better than my cotton cloth diapers. Because they require traditional pinning, Hemparoo diapers seem to be more prone to getting small holes in them after extended use, but they do not fray at the edges or lose their absorption to the degree that cotton cloth diapers might. With very good care, a Hemparoo prefold may survive frequent use for as long as a year and a half.
Although hemp cloth diapers have some drawbacks because of their somewhat harsh texture, they are worth the investment for families that value the merits of sustainable agriculture. Additionally, they pay for themselves with increased absorption, durability, and resistance to ammonia buildup when compared to cotton prefold diapers. Babykicks Hemparoo and other hemp diapers can be purchased from most online cloth diaper retailers.
