gDiapers: A Review

I've talked about them here before, but now that we've been using gDiapers consistently for a few months I figured I'd write up a more formal review for those who might be interested.

gDiapers are a cloth-disposable hybrid. There's 3 parts to them-- a cloth outer "little g" pant, a snap-in nylon liner, and then a flushable/compostable/disposable insert. It sounds complicated, really it's not. The neat thing about them is that even if you throw the dirty inserts in the trash, they'll still biodegrade much, much faster than a disposable diaper will (estimated at about 150 days, vs 500 years). There's lots of other info about what they're made of, why they're biodegradable, etc but I'll let you check out the website for that.

The cloth outer pant and liner, separate (note the little orange snaps)

Stack of the flushable inserts, and the whole thing assembled and ready to wear.

D wears gDiapers primarily during the day, Pampers at night. We started this routine right after moving back to the US, and in our temporary housing I was able to flush the inserts down the toilet. Here in our current house we only have 1 toilet and it doesn't seem to handle the inserts well so I don't flush anymore (for the record of the 4-5 homes in which I've tried flushing the inserts-- our house in Switzerland, temp housing, current house, mom's and mom-in-law's homes in Texas--, this is the only one that seemed to have any problem at all, I think we just have weak toilets). We did start a compost pile a few months ago, so we've been able to compost the wet diapers which feels pretty great. It REALLY cuts down on the trash we produce.

Here's a list of the pros and cons I've found with gDiapers:

The Pros:

• Look way cuter than disposables diapers.
• Better for the environment.
• If you're able to flush, then poopy diapers go down the toilet immediately-- meaning NO STINKY DIAPER PAILS. That's one huge bonus right there.
  
• Less prone to blowouts. You know how when a baby's wearing disposables and they're sitting down you can kinda see right down to their butt crack? That's always unnerved me somewhat. I mean, if I can see straight down, what's to stop poop from coming right up that loose space? I actually WATCHED that happen once with D, poop spilled right over the back waistband and onto the carpet. The waistband of the gDiapers seem a lot more secure. The ultimate test-- when D was having diarrhea, we had to change his clothes a LOT more often when he was in disposables than in gDiapers.
• Did I mention that they're cuter?
• Since they velcro on the back, once your kid starts wriggling, it almost gets easier to get the diaper on as they're trying to crawl away from you.

The Cons:

• Newborn poop is messy. Until your kid starts solid food, and thus the poop firms up, the liner WILL get poop on it every time baby poops (they even warn you about this in the FAQs). It's not a big deal, but does require some extra steps-- having to be careful getting the diaper off so you don't get poop on the outer pant, snapping off the liner, washing it by hand (or rinsing before tossing in the wash). I do think this gets outweighed by being able to flush the poop right down the toilet, though... And once baby's poop firms up (basically whenever you start solids) this issue goes away. Now D hardly ever gets the liner dirty, so diaper changes simply involve replacing the insert.
  
• They are more expensive. I have yet to buy any individual pants for full price ($16.99, although when linking this I just noticed that solid color pants are on sale, 20% through tomorrow--Feb 13), have instead bought the Starter Kit (2 pants, 4 snap-in liners, 10 inserts, swish stick for flushing, all for $27) three times. Diapers.com has both the starter kits and insert refills, I buy them in bulk and get free next-day shipping (love that website). EDIT: I just did a price comparison using Diapers.com and the gDiaper refills cost about the same per-diaper as Pampers diapers.
  
• Not as absorbent as disposables. I've had almost no poop leaks, but occasionally the insert has gotten just plain oversaturated and so his clothes get wet. This usually happens if I've left the diaper on too long-- I try to make sure to change them at least every 2 hours. This is why we use Pampers at night, and sometimes if we're going out somewhere and know it'll be difficult to find a place to change D as often as needed, I'll put him in disposables since they hold more and stay dryer.

Since I'm still using them, you can see that for me at least the pros outweigh the cons. I currently have 6 pants (and 12 liners). The website recommends having between 4 and 8 on hand. Most days I just alternate 2 pants, unless one gets dirty (which happens hardly ever). I also keep one or 2 extras in a diaper bag for when we go out. So technically you don't need many, but it's nice having the extras in case you do ha[[en to have a messy day. I'm just not up to using cloth diapers (already have enough trouble keeping up with the laundry), so I really like having this option that not only seems like a superior diaper, but is also better for the environment.

I'm happy to answer any questions not addressed in this post, just leave a comment or email me. Also, there's a Yahoo group of parents who use gDiapers (a good place to look for used pants, if you don't want to buy them new).