G Diapers? - Chicago,IL

I JUST read an article in Parents magazine about them. I guess they are pretty good but really expensive. I think it was the April issue.

Hey L.!

We DO use gDiapers, and have a LOT of experience with them!

We started my now two year-old with cloth, but, like you, wanted a traveling option. So when I found gDiapers, I thought, "why not?"

A gDiaper consists of three main parts:

1. The cloth cover. This is really comfy, and they've redesigned them to fit more accurately based on weight. It is similar to a cloth diaper cover except that you need to use it with...

2. The plastic liner. This little bugger snaps in to the cloth cover and therefore makes the diaper wet-proof. It also allows you to reuse the cloth cover and simply wash the liner.

3. The disposable liner. This basically just like the important part of a disposable diaper. It's got the SAPs (super absorbent polymers) just like disposables, which are contained in a soft paper cover.

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Here are some advantages:

1. No plastic in the landfills - the latest statistic is 50 million diapers a DAY in the landfills - each of which takes 500 years to decompose!

2. You don't have to haul the dirties around with you. You can either swish & flush OR drop the liners in the wastebin - they are 100% biodegradable, so if you don't have the time to deal with a messy poop in a tiny public bathroom stall, you can simply toss it in the trash (which is what you'd be doing with a disposable one anyway) and rest assured that it will NOT take 500 years to return to the earth.

3. The cloth covers, once you get the hang of putting them on, are really comfortable for your baby (moreso than plastic disposables), AND you can use the covers for cloth, too! I liked these even better than the Bummis covers we got originally for the cloth.

4. Your baby may potty train earlier. I don't know if this is a direct result of the cloth/gDiapers combo that we used or just a quirk of our daughter, but she has been pooping in the potty since she was about 18 months. If you're more aware of your baby, she will echo that.

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Overall, they are a great choice for us. However, we've found that they aren't exactly in line with everyone's idea of perfect parenting. Here are the drawbacks:

1. You have to own up to the fact that your baby poops. I think that in our culture, which has become increasingly disposable and therefore less responsible for our waste, we have forgotten that one of the reasons that we potty train our children is that we don't want to have to deal with the poops. gDiapers is bringing back responsibility, in that when your baby poops, you get to get hands on. The way the insert works (as mentioned in an earlier post) is that you tear off the side papery portion and dump the soggy middle (full of SAPs doing their job) into the toilet. You then swish (or not, actually, depending on the strength of your flush), and dump the paper cover in and flush. If you have a poopy diaper, you'll need to make certain that gets in there first, of course. And since you are already dealing with cloth, you are no stranger to the poop.

2. There is a "trick" to getting the diapers to fit correctly. If you don't know this trick, you'll get some messes and some funny chafing. But once you get it, you're fine. Fortunately, the gDiapers website offers a little video tutorial on how to get the proper fit. Essentially (and I recommend the video, since you get to actually see how to do it), you need to make certain that the plastic liner rests snugly in the crease of your baby's leg.

3. They are more expensive than disposable diapers. They cost more than Pampers, but, once you've got the starter kit with the covers, they are comparable to Huggies. The bottom line for us was that we would rather spend a little more now and leave a smaller impact.

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So that is a longer post than I had anticipated, but I hope that you find it helpful. ALSO, I am a part of the gDiapers gMum program, and if you would like more info/have questions/or need coupons, please let me know!

Whatever your decision, good luck! And yay for using cloth!!

Warmly,

~L.

We tried them, and they wreaked havoc on our main drain. We had to have a plumber come out and rout it out. The plumber told me that he found "baby wipes" in the drain, but I knew from looking that they were G diapers. They also clogged both our toilets on a couple of occasions. I wish we could have kept using them, but they were just a huge problem for us.

They are definitely a current rave. If you take the time though you can find better cloth alternative designs than the g-diaper. The BumGenius 3.0 is more like a disposable diaper in use and fit than the G's.

One thing I have heard complaints about from mom's using G's is that the breastfed poos get all over and you have to change the whole g-diaper completely anyways.

I run a cloth diaper shop here in Bloomington, so I get to talk diapers and poo all the time.

As far as cloth diapers taking up space and being nasty--they do not have to be. The BumGenius wraps up just like a disposable can and then you put them in a reusable zippered wet bag. Smell isn't an issue and diapers are completely contained.

We vacationed in DC when our daughter was 1 and we took diapers in and out of DC daily in our backpack. It was nice to be a self-contained system and our extra cloth diaper could still visit the White House after 9/11 when a disposable wouldn't have been allowed.

Hi L..

I just bought the starter pack from g-diapers. My daughter is 2 so our diaper experience will be a little different.

I found the g-diaper experience to be a little gross. The wet diapers were fine but the poops were horrible. What a mess. You've got to tear apart the absorbent insert and dump the inner portion of the pad in the toilet and swish it around in the toilet bowl with a stick to dissolve before flushing.

Maybe your six month old's poops aren't as messy as my girl's are/were.... but I seem to remember from a lot of people that that is the age where they seem to poop up the back alot.

AND to top it all off, my smarty pants husband tossed out one of the covers when he changed the diaper.

Hi,
We use G-diapers (we've used cloth too) and I had the fortune to use the g-diapers while traveling a couple of weeks ago. We like them as opposed to cloth because we don't have the smelly pail around and don't have to put any more poop in our washing machine. I don't like them because even if I do get the fit right I will usually end up with poop on the liner anyway. That being said, the covers only rarely get leaked on, that I do like. But for travel, especially if you don't have a washing machine to clean the liners (and I didn't on my recent trip), you are out of luck. I ended up buying disposables on the trip after she ran through all her liners. I think g-diapers will be really awesome once her poop is more solid, that's really the issue, the runny poop getting on the liners. Ok, I keep going back and forth, I know, but what's not so bad about all the dirty liners is that it's much less laundry than cloth, much easier and less time consuming to get them all cleaned. I hope this helps!

S., mom to a 10 month old cutie pie.

I was given some G-Diapers at my baby shower and I thought they were great for peepee diapers. The swoosh and flush seemed to work great. I thought they were messy for poopy diapers, the reusable snap in liner and the cloth always were getting messy from my son's poopy diapers. They are a great idea for a product, but I did find them a bit pricey when I looked to buy more. There are other alternatives that would work as well at less cost.

I wanted to love them, but found them to be more of a pain than they were worth. I was having to clean lots of outfits from poop and pee explosions out the diaper. It was a bummer.

I loved the gdiapers- for a while. I would flush or compost the liners when I was home and just toss them when I was out. However after about 6 months the liners clogged up our main sewer line and caused a $700 plumbing bill, so be careful. Our plumber pulled about 8 lbs of what were obviously gdiaper liners out of our pipes after our sewage backed up. I still use them because they are so good when my daughter has diaper rash, but I only compost the wet ones and throw away the poopy ones. I no longer flush them.

I have a friend who uses them, I plan to use them while out (use Cloth Diapers normally). She loves them, they work wonderfully but they are more expensive. So if you have the money they are a great out and about diaper. I babysat for her I love the cloth diaper but the g-diaper is so neat also!

Cloth diapers shouldn't be hard to carry with. Clean them out in the toilet and flush as much as needed while dipping them up and down. Wring them out good and place in plastic bag. I used cloth for both of my kids. They never had diaper rash or problems like that at all.

I just started using gdiapers on my 6 month old son and I love them. I have not had a problem yet. When he sleeps all through the night, they might be a little damp but he also wets through Huggies so I don't blame the gdiapers. I did watch all the videos online and they really helped. I do not flush them though only because our toliets are touchie enough without them. I would definiately recommend buy a starter kit and trying them. Also if you order through diapers.com you can get free shipping. Hope this helps.

I am cloth diapering too. I've used G diapers when traveling. I like them; I guess I don't use them more just because of the cost. I haven't had any problems to speak of. I have only two covers and four of the plastic liners. Those get dirty every time. The covers can be reused a few times. I think to use them full time, you'd need several more of both parts. The video on their website of the decomposing diaper is really convincing. They are so much better than regular disposables. Disposables have become a guilty pleasure of mine. I am trying to use the G diapers more and more. I agree, as time goes on and the diet increases, cloth diapers become more and more challenging to keep up with, especially when going out. Good luck!

Wow, I didn't know a product like this existed. I've been using cloth for almost a year, and it kills me to buy disposables when we travel to see my in- laws. I'm glad I came accross your inquiry, and was really impressed with the g-diaper web site. I think I'll pick up a pack.

Thank you.

Hi! I have not used g diapers, but had an aquitance that did and she liked them a lot. But, you may not have to change. What kind of cloth diapers are you using now? I am using bum genius, in the house, out of the house, and even my daycare likes them! I have a small vinyl totes bag that the dirty diapers go into when we are out and it has a drawstring to close everything shut and keep it there. Are you having trouble with the poop issue when you are out? If so, try kushies liners. It is a biogradable and/or flushable l iner that goes into the diaper. Most of the poop stays on the liner and get disgarded, either flushed or in the garbage. This is what I did until she was "solid," now it shakes right out into a pail or toliet and we don't use them, but, either way, we never had to transport poop around with us! The cheapest place to buy the kushies liners is walmart.com. Good luck!

I'm sorry, I don't know about G Diapers. We are also planning to use cloth, and as a backup the completely biodegradable diapers by Nature Baby Care that are sold at Target.

Good luck

Hi L.~

I loved using the G diapers. Lots of times I would put cloth in them (esp. just after a poop, so I only had to wash pee), and then overnight or out and about I used the inserts. The flush-factor is really cool, and I never had a problem as long as I stirred them up enough. Cloth is a really good way to get your baby potty trained (potty aware) earlier, because the disposables give the illusion of dryness and the baby is off the hook, rather than uncomfortable about the wetness and therefore encouraged to use the potty.

Anyway, I had great success with the Gs until my girl was old enough to just take them off. Once she figured out how easy it was, they were always coming off, often full of surprises... I ended up keeping her with shorts on a lot more(we lived in Hawaii at the time so clothing was not very necessary at home), but eventually switched to something a little less bulky for her toddling legs, which seemed to solve the problem of her taking off her diaper all the time.

I would definately recommend them, and you'll save a good bit of money if you order refills by the case from the company.

Best of luck,
L.