Apr 21 2009
In honor of Earth Day, a cloth diaper experiment
I wrote a nice little tribute to White Cloud diapers in one of my first blog posts, and then they suddenly stopped carrying them at all the Wal-Marts in my area. So my latest diapering experiment turns out to be an appropriate column for Earth Day. I’ve gone old school, and mighty green, too, with cloth diapers.
A well-intentioned friend bought some G diapers for her son and barely used them. So she shared them with us. G Diapers are designed to have flushable inserts - yes, I said flushable.
Personally, I’m too freaked out about clogging my toilet (or someone else’s) to use the inserts - and by chucking them into the diaper pail, I might as well be using disposables. So instead I use the G Diapers as covers and simply put a folded cloth diaper inside. We already had a bunch of those sitting around the house, and my friends passed along a bunch more.
And I’ve been really impressed with how it’s really no big deal to velcro on a G Diaper, and then when it’s used, just rinse off the cloth-diaper insert and throw it in the laundry. I’m constantly doing laundry anyway, so what’s another load a week? My only added expense was some OxiClean, which isn’t such a bad thing to have around the house anyway.
As for the “ick” factor? I’m over that. Way over that. After two kids, I’ve scrubbed countless onsies and jamies and cribsheets caked with poo. Blowout diapers come with the territory. Any parent could tell you about the explosions that somehow make it up to Baby’s shoulders and even hair. After awhile, you just get used to it. So rinsing out some diapers, piece of cake.
I will admit that I prefer disposables at night, since they wick away wetness which helps prevent diaper rash. I also use disposables when we’re traveling, so I don’t have to lug around dirty diapers.
But otherwise I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how this green diapering alternative is really no big deal - plus it saves a lot of money, means fewer trips to the store and a much lighter garbage pail.
I was never brave enough to try cloth diapers. With four, it seemed like way too much laundry! Thank goodness we’re almost completely potty trained.
Quadmama, I don’t blame you one bit! I would never attempt this with two, much less four!
Great tip! I have heard about g diapers, but haven’t used them. I really wanted to use cloth diapers, and a friend gave us a ton of hand-me-downs. They didn’t fit Thomas quite right- his chicken legs didn’t fill out the leg holes. They worked fine for wet diapers, but poo would leak out. I gave up quickly.
I do have a small supply of regular cloth diapers. Maybe I’ll check out the g diapers.
I love g’s! I use them when I’m out and about with my youngest and funny enough, they are the only diaper that he hasn’t blown out of!! Go figure! When at home, I’ll also use the prefolds inside instead of the flushable inserts. Saves money! For night, I love all-in-one cloth diapers. Very bulky but perfect for nighttime…he doesn’t leak at all and he’s still nursing at night so he tends to pee a lot! So glad you like them
Yep, just like you aviolettel, we’ve had very little leakage - fingers crossed that it stays that way!