Have you tried gDiapers?
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Have you heard of gDiapers? They're the touchy-feely, save the earth one diaper at a time kind of diaper, the one that makes even Seventh Generation look like schmucks. Being new to this whole mommy thing I'd never seen gDiapers until last week. Frankly, until I had a kid I didn't even realize diapers came in different sizes. Proves just how very little I knew about parenting before I became one.
So these gDiapers. The deal with them is that they are allegedly more environmentally sound than the regular (non-cloth) disposable diapers. Apparently regular diapers don't biodegrade for 500 years. 500 years. 500. Yes, 5-0-0. Makes using cloth diapers seem better every day. But, that's not what this post is about. I don't want to (yet) discuss the many virtues and otherwise of cloth diapers. The tale I am here to tell now is that of the gDiapers.
The gDiapers go down the toilet, at least part of them does, not into a landfill. The website offered other interesting facts including that once flushed the contents of the g diaper could be used for fertilizers, etc., so by using them one is not only saving resources(such as trees) and avoiding landfills but one is also giving something back to Mother Earth.
This concept seemed simple enough at first. Then I was informed of all the steps involved.
I was standing in line at the Park Slope Food Coop where I naturally work as well as shop (it's the oldest continually operating coop in the country) when I noticed these new diapers. Well, they were new to me anyway. I said to my husband, oh look at these. I wonder what the deal is with these gDiapers.
The woman directly behind me, with whom I'd previously had a conversation about our adorable infant children, piped right up on how absolutely fantabulous and amazing and wonderful these diapers are, and how easy the whole process for disposing of them was.
After hearing her go on and on about it and checking the website I am more confused than ever. From what I gather there are inserts that go into the cloth outer diaper. These inserts are what gets flushed down the toilet. So, it's sort of like having a cloth diaper only taking the process one step further.
That extra step is removing the soiled insert, hauling it to the bathroom, dislodging all the mucky muck from the insert, then tearing it up with a stick (or something) while it's floating in the john, then flushing the whole thing.
Ok, so it's a little extra work. No problem there, I guess, in theory anyway, as it would be an extra five minutes (according to the woman in line) for the environment. She had an older child too and seemed convincing.
She almost had me convinced to switch from my chlorine-free Seventh Generation size ones until I realized something pretty important. The stark reality is that I don't use cloth diapers because they take too much time to put on and off. I am sure that once I got the hang of it they wouldn't take much more time than changing a disposable, but the truth is that I don't know that I have that kind of time, at least not right now.
When I think about the number of diapers I change every day and how long that takes it baffles me how I get anything else done. When I think about how long it would take me to go through the g diaper process, and how many times a day I'd go through that process, I don't think I would get ANYTHING else accomplished other than changing diapers!
At least this is how it seems in my mind.
My husband also pointed out that you have to flush away the diaper every time or have a stinky toilet. And each time a toilet is flushed it uses ten gallons of water. Yes. Ten. At least around here it does. I thought it was three, which is still too many gallons, but apparently it's ten. So if I flush ten diapers a day that is 100 gallons a day of water I am flushing. That just doesn't seem very environmentally sound to me.
Of course one could argue that I change the baby every time I go to the bathroom anyway and double up on water usage. In a perfect world that would work. The truth is baby and I are hardly on the same schedule.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this all day. I decided while in line at the Coop to just get the Seventh Generation diapers and read about the gDiapers on their website, watch the video, read the FAQs, you know. I also thought I'd ask you guys about the gDiapers, since my guess is at least some of you have taken the plunge and given them a try.
If so do tell! I would love to know how your experience went and whether or not you recommend them.
Let me also add that I do have some cloth diapers that my mom gave me for emergencies. I am tempted to use them around the house when baby and I are staying in to cut down on my waste. While I know I cannot commit to completely giving up disposables, I do use the Seventh Generation brand which we all quite like, and will try to use cloth diapers more frequently.












ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
8-17-2010 @ 9:26AM
Pamela said...I use gdiapers with cloth inserts (that I made, baby maxi pads!) and we do really well with them- no leaks, no problems. We use the flushable insert when we're out, and we use Kushies (full cloth diaper) at night and for naps because he would wet thru gdiapers at night once he got to be about 2mo old. My husband was hesitant because he thought it would take too long or it would be too messy, but he's sold!
We have a diaper pail thats 1/2 filled with water and Oxi-Clean. We wash out the poop in the toilet (toothbrush, swish it, throw it in bucket) and leave the bucket till there's enough to wash. I just grab the diapers out by hand right up next to the washer and dump the rest of the liquid in the tub and refill. We don't have any stains (except where I turned a load partially pink with the pink tablecloth, d'oh!)
Our costs: newborn starter set (12 newborn, 6 small)- $170, 2 more small gdiapers- $26, 6 pack of medium gdiapers- $50, and to date 2 cases of small inserts (still only just started into the 2nd box at 4mo)- $95
Total: $241
And making my inserts used about $20 in materials plus stuff I had (extra receiving blankets, old towels, etc.) and made 50 inserts that have never caused diaper rash! I love gdiapers!!!
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12-18-2010 @ 8:50PM
Amy said...I used the diapers, and I had the opposite experience that you did. I found them very easy to put on and take off...very similiar to disposables, and then tossed the insert into the trash (to hopefully decompose quickly). When I ran out of inserts, I tried the old fashioned cloth insert inside the diaper. but THEN...child pooped (again) and I'm standing there with a cloth insert covered in poo and pee. Where should I put this? Let it sit...um NO...It went in the trash it was so disgusting...I think we'll be sticking with disposables for the most part...
I blogeed about it... my blog is " a nest for all seasons " on blogspot
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9-22-2010 @ 8:58PM
amy said...I would buy the inserts if they were similiar in price to regular disposables, but for now, they are far too expensive for us. I tried....and failed...I blogged about my experience at http://anestforallseasons.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-good-are-g-diapers-and-rocking-leg.html
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9-11-2011 @ 2:53PM
D.Pena said...I found the Gdiapers to be the worse cloth diapers on the market. Not only are they one of the ONLY brands to not include even one insert with the covers, they are one of the more expensive brands.
They leak quite often - and when I contacted customer service, they told me I was putting the diaper on wrong. Well, almost every Gdiaper review page has MANY complaints about the diapers leaking, so if we are ALL putting them on wrong, then the diaper is just too difficult to use. Cloth diapers shouldn't be difficult.
Further, the velcro is horrible. If it even slightly touches the waist band, it pulls off the fabric. It doesn't take but a few times before the waist band looks horrible.
And if all that wasn't bad enough, after just a month, the little "g" came off the diaper!
Save your money - and buy something better.
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12-01-2011 @ 12:55PM
Lisa said...I hate the g-diaper cover, but the g-cloth inserts are great. Once the inserts have been washed a few times, they absorb very well....So, I use them with other cloth diaper covers.
When I use the g-diaper cover, they leak as soon as my baby pees, but if I use the econobum cover, they don't leak, and they absorb very well. Econobum covers cost much less, and work much better....But I do like the g-cloth inserts.
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6-13-2007 @ 2:22PM
emjaybee said...Heh, you're going to get a lot of people telling you to switch to cloth. Which we don't use because we didn't have a washer/dryer when we had our baby, gDiapers hadn't been invented yet, and there was no way to store stinky cloth diapers around the apartment for a whole week.
However, cloth diapers are all velcro now, so maybe they wouldn't take that much more time. gDiapers seem more like something you'd buy if you normally cloth diaper but need to be able to travel more easily.
Frankly, the day there is an environmentally friendly AND non smelly/labor intensive way to diaper will be a happy one. I'll probably be dead by then.
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6-13-2007 @ 2:56PM
ikate said...Yep - like emjaybee said, cloth are all velcro or snaps now. I use Happy Hineys and love, love, love them - take exactly the same time to change as the disposables. We use both - cloth at home and on outings, disposables at daycare (their rules, not mine) and on trips. At 8 months we just recently had to buy the Med-size cloths for our daughter, sold the smalls on e-bay for 80% of the purchase price!
I have a pack of gDiapers (a gift) that I have yet to use. I really want to, but thinking about all the steps usually stops me. Maybe we'll try them this weekend on a visit to my sister's house...and take some cloth as backup. :)
I will say that the "wasted" water in a flush (or by washing cloths) is less of an issue - most cities recycle this water sooer or later. A disposable (or a few thousand) sitting in a landfill for 500 years, to me, seems like a bigger impact.
Can't wait to see if any gDiaper users comment!
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6-14-2007 @ 5:08PM
Scarlett's Mommy said...Cloth diapers don't take a lot of time at all! They have all-in-one diapers that are designed exactly like disposables, except you throw them in the wash instead of in the trash when they are used. I just recently switched to cloth, and I can honestly say it is 100% rewarding. It saves money, time (you never have to go to the store again to buy diapers!) and the environment. Not to mention cloth diapers are SO CUTE. You wouldnt believe the cute patterns and designs out there.
When I first looked into cloth, I was curious at first about g-diapers...but then after all the research, I have heard g-diapers leak with the inserts but work great with a cloth pre-fold inside. So I decided to give cloth a try and havent looked back.
and no as the previous commenter said you would hear: SWITCH TO CLOTH! You might just love it and be addicted to it like the rest of us cloth mamas.
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6-13-2007 @ 3:22PM
Anji said...I think this is the time to introduce yourself to Naty ():
"What are the main differences between Nature babycare and other disposable nappies?
1. 70% of a Nature babycare nappy is biodegradable and of biological origin, compared to about approximately (30-40% ) for conventional disposable nappies made by the large international manufacturers.
2. The biodegradable coversheet in Nature babycare is not only watertight but also “breathes” resulting in a more airy, drier and comfortable nappy.
3. Nature babycare use Chlorine free pulp."
Seriously, these things rock my socks. :D
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6-13-2007 @ 3:23PM
Anji said...Damn, in those parenthesis I intended to put a link to the Naty website:
http://www.naty.com/eng/index.html
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6-13-2007 @ 4:17PM
Ethel said...Have you seen the price on these things? I guess if you have the cash, go for it, but we sure don't.
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8-18-2010 @ 9:59PM
christine said...Add up all the diapers you will use with one child from birth to potty training. With disposables, this cost greatly outweighs the cost of even a more expensive cloth diaper like Gdiapers. Then if you ever have another child you already have all the diapers you need. $0 for diapering a second child sounds great. Even if you never plan on having another child, Gdiapers have an insane retail value on websites like ebay, craigslist, Gdiapers facebook page and many other sites.
6-13-2007 @ 4:27PM
Katrina said...We use Seventh Generation and are also quite happy with them. Oddly enough, my original intention had been to cloth diaper via a local diaper service, since I didn't have a washer/dryer in the house at that time. I had sent a preliminary email to the service to discuss what I needed etc. about a month before my due date. Yeah, I'm still trying to outgrow the procrastinating. So when I delivered 20 days prior to d-day, I was sort of left in a lurch of not having contracted with the service and needing to cover my son's hiney. In the mass hysteria that is the first few weeks home with a newborn, I never even got around to contacting the service again.
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6-13-2007 @ 4:35PM
John said...We tried the gdiapers. I loved the idea of the gDiapers. They seem somewhat wasteful in water usage with flushing, but probably not so bad compared to washing cloth diapers, given the energy for the washing machine and hot water, etc but better than filling landfills. But we never got into the whole gDiaper routine. We used it for a few weeks on and off when our baby was an infant (0-2 months). Only during the day. Our problem was that poop would blow out of the gDiapers every time. We had the right size, the insert was in correctly, and the liner was snug to his legs/thighs. Every poop would go around the liner and soil the cover and often times soil his clothes. This was not acceptable, given how difficult it is to deal with a new baby when everything goes right, having to change outfits every poop seemed somehow wrong and wasteful in creating unnecessary laundry. It shouldn't have been that difficult. So we never got into the groove with them and fell back on the 7th gen. And when we did flush, our low flow toilets (ours are rated at 1.3gpf i think) often didn't have the umph to send it all down in one shot. There was a bunch of plunger action needed. And if it didn't clog, it often times took two flushes to clear everything. First flush was the inner fluff swished around with the stick, second flush was the outer cover. They say you can do it in one flush by dropping the outer cover in at the last minute as the bowl is clearing, but I could never get the timing right and ended up with the cover just in the bowl at the end of the first flush.
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6-13-2007 @ 4:44PM
Katrina said...Some of you may be aware of this, but SG offers product coupons on their website, including a $2 off coupon for diapers. Score!
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6-13-2007 @ 9:14PM
Eva said...Yes, I have tried gDiapers. They suck compared to regular cloth diapers, which are amazing and fun and easy and healthier and more attractive.
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6-14-2007 @ 1:26AM
DawnML said...I think they should have "gmaxipads" for women that we can actually flush and they won't clog the toilet. It would save all those janitors the trouble of changing out the little gross trash cans in public bathrooms, and I usually flush anyway when dealing with sanitary napkins.
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6-14-2007 @ 6:06PM
Nana said...I use gdiapers, and because they are biodegradable, instead of flushing them, I simply throw them away. Sure they end up in the landfill, but they don't take 500 years to break down. If you go to the gdiapers website (http://www.gdiapers.com/watch_vid) there's a video showing gdiapers composting in 54 days. There's still the problems of the mess of having to wash the covers everytime my 14 month old does the dirty, but I find that it's worth it in the long run to have a smaller human impact on the environment. : )
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6-14-2007 @ 7:28AM
brandi said...LOL...I was sitting here reading this thinking of all the products out there I knew nothing about! But after reading this last post it occured to me and I am sitting here laughing as I type this while my hubby looks at me like I'm crazy! Everyone complains about diapers and how you should use cloth over disposables....so on and so forth..well I agree but how come I never hear anyone complaining about the sanitary napkins? Just struck me as funny!
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6-14-2007 @ 6:39AM
Andrea said...Cloth diapers don't have to be that tough to use. There's literally hundreds of varieties on the net. We use BumGenius one-size pocket diapers. We've got 30 of them, and since we don't use wipes (we use washcloths) or cream (don't need it with fleece diapers) our total expenditure for our baby was $600. PLUS, we can reuse these diapers for our subsequent children. That's a HUGE savings, never mind the environmental impact of saving maybe 10,000 diapers from going to the landfill.
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