Hemp is a common absorbent material used in fitted nappies and inserts. It is usually hemp French terry, which is a knitted (stretchy) fabric with small loops on one side, or sometimes a fleece. This is made from the terry with the loops brushed out to make the fleece so there is no difference in absorbency.  It is far more expensive than cotton, but also far more absorbent and it wicks well, so it moves the moisture around and you use the whole of the nappy.

This is important if you want your nappies to last or have a big wee-er, if you are changing every wee it may not be as important.  It has some anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties but does tend to absorb the wee smell.  There are several ways to deal with this, such as rinsing as soon as you take the nappy off or adding  tea-tree or eucalyptus oil to the wash.  Vinegar can help too.

Hemp needs to have at least 3 hot washes before it becomes absorbent and it increases in absorbency for about 8-10 washes.  It should have been washed at least once during manufacture to stop it from shrinking, but when you receive your nappies you usually need to wash them a few times.  As clean nappies you can run them through with any other loads you are doing.

Unfortunately hemp becomes hard and crunchy when it is working the best. This is why it is great inside pockets or as a hidden layer, but not as good against the baby’s skin.  An advantage, though, is that it is extremely durable – I have some that has been used for 4 years and is still going strong.  So it is a good choice for a one-size nappy that will be used for a long time.  It is environmentally friendly.

Related posts:

1. Anatomy of a Nappy
2. Cotton
3. Flats and Prefolds

Categories: Fabrics

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Fabrics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.