Newsflash: Diaper Genie not so magical

by Jennifer Jordan (Subscribe to Jennifer Jordan's posts) Jul 9th 2008 10:00AM

Categories: Newborns, Babies, Baby Essentials, Mommy Musts, Chores

As anyone with children knows, dirty diapers smell worse than anything in the entire world. No kidding, once my dog ate cat poo and then threw it up, and even that did not compare to what it smelled like when my son starting consuming solids on a regular basis.

To combat this, and to make life easier in general, the Diaper Genie was born. For those of you unfamiliar with this contraption, it's made out of plastic and has a bucket at the top in which you put the used diaper. You then pull a lever (depending on the model) and it removes the diaper from sight, locking it away in a waste bag for disposal later. Diaper Genies require actual Diaper Genie bags, however, that may be in short supply when you really need a new one.

I have something similar that one can use with any plastic bags. Right now we're using regular old garbage bags in there and it seems to be working out all right. Except for one thing: The unbelievable, undeniable smell that counts as some sort of bio-terrorism in my book (or at least should). Regardless of carrying the odor away in the immediate, once you pull the bag out of the Genie to change it the smell is upon you--it's like that line from Michael Jackson's Thriller where Vincent Price discusses "the funk of 40,000 years." The new Diaper Genies are supposed to be even better at whisking away the smell, but I haven't used one to know whether or not when you pull out the full bag the smell might kill you.

Do you use a disposal system, and, if so, does it really work?

Diaper pic by Photocapy.

Source

Comments (18)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Emily 7-09-2008 @ 10:36AM

Right before we had our first daughter 3 years ago, we read an article in the Wall Street Journal that compared various diaper disposal systems, and it recommended the Safety 1st system. It has worked great. We've never smelled a dirty diaper, except when we're actually removing the bag to take the garbage out (I barely breathe during the process).

Kathy 7-09-2008 @ 11:08AM

Well, I too tried the infamous Diaper Genie. I agree that there is absolutely nothing worse than the smell of dirty diapers. I believe I have a strong stomach, but have had to really hold my breath many times in order not to hurl immediately. I have to say that I have found nothing that works quite as well as throwing the dirty diaper, wrapped in a grocery bag, out onto the back patio. Yes, it may seem gross but at least it gets the smell out of the house right away! I will then take it to the dumpster later. Sorry, but keeping diry diapers in the house in any container simply has not worked.

Lisa 7-09-2008 @ 11:23AM

I have 7 children, one of whom is disabled and recently potty trained at the age of 9! I don't think any diaper disposal system would last through 9 years of the smelliest diapers on earth. I used a Diaper Genie with my third child, and that only lasted about 2 months. Even with not-so-stinky newborn diapers, an awful smell built up inside the unit and no amount of deodorizer would kill that. Also, the liners are expensive! So, for the last 12 years or so of dirty diapers, I have used grocery store plastic bags, double-knotted, and walked immediately out to the garbage can. There's an added bonus to this (besides using up those ever-present freebie plastic bags): I get to go outside and say hi to my neighbors, see if the driveway needs sweeping or the garden needs weeding, and get a teeny-weeny bit of exercise, too. Of course, those lovely plastic bags are on their way out as people become more environmentally sensitive. All I can say is maybe disposable diapers are the next to go. I've used cloth at times and if I were to have any more children (not in this lifetime!!!) I wouldn't hesitate to use them. And then there are other stink issues to deal with.....

Somebody's Mom 7-09-2008 @ 11:54AM

You need to flush the poop. Take the dirty diaper into the bathroom, dump off as much poop as possible into the toilet, and flush. Send poop down the sewer where it belongs. Human feces are not supposed to go in the garbage, and your house won't stink of poop.

meredith 7-09-2008 @ 11:57AM

I have to agree that those diaper pails are about the biggest waste of money for new parents, next to the wipe warmer and travel system.

We used the method of the previous commentors; plastic bag, double knotted, outside until walked to the garbage. Pee diapers are collected in a plastic bag and disposed of at the end of the day.

I have also given pause to the evil that I am doing with essentially wrapping a disposable object with another non-biodegradable object, but it was something I just couldn't compromise on. That and paper towels, but that is another post.

It just doesn't make sense to put something so smelly into a plastic container and not expect the plastic to soak in the smell. In fact, it is downright insane.

ikate 7-09-2008 @ 12:11PM

I have a friend who hated the diaper stink so much she actaully bought a small freezer for her garage and put the diapers in there until garbage day. I'm not even kidding. If they are frozen they don't stink. I can just imagine the bag of frozen diapers sitting at the curb. She is a bit OCD - can you tell? After the kids were out of diapers she bleached it inside and out and sold it at a garage sale. Someout there now has a deep freezer that stored poopie diapers for several years! Yuck!

For me, we just take the bag of dirties outside to the dumpster everyday. If found that when sitting inside the wet diapers were the worst offenders! We used cloth for the first 18 months so it was never an issue before.

JoAnn 7-09-2008 @ 12:14PM

We have two D.G.;s- the original upstairs, and the new version down (they were shower gifts). I like that they trap the smell- but the liners are expensive, and I always seem to forget to pick a new thing of liners up.

I can honestly say this is one of the continuing arguments in my home- since it's my partner's job to "clean the genie" (as a compromise for the fact that most of the caretaking of our son falls to me!). I understand that the noxious smell is enough to melt his eyebrows- but he constantly puts it off! My reminders over the past 3 days have gone unacknowledged, and there is no more room in either genie. And I'm sorry- but with the new version you have to shove your hand down into the thing to put the diaper in past the "stench gate" - which is beyond atrociously disgusting!!

And so... as we speak a dirty diaper is sitting on top of the toilet marinating, exactly where he will take his own daily constitutional (and the bathroom door has been shut for maximum effect!!). I am hoping that by the time I get home this gentle reminder will have proved motivational!!!!

dee 7-09-2008 @ 12:17PM

We use cloth, and once the poops started getting vaguely solid, they started getting flipped into the toilet. As long as about 95% of it went off the diaper, I considered myself done.

I didn't even really have to scrap or dunk until the time when he got a stomach virus around 18m and his butt ran sticky, gross stuff for 3 weeks.

There's an odor right around the (cheap) plastic bin I store the diapers in but it's mainly the smell of urine. I can make the smell go away by tossing the diapers in the laundry and rinsing out the bin.

Leslie 7-09-2008 @ 2:56PM

The Diaper Genie II is definitely better - so good that I can't say enough good things about it. We, too, had one of those pails that you use your own bags with for my daughter. For the first 6 months it was great, and then... horrible. I tried baking soda, scented bags, air fresheners, and nothing helped. Emptying the thing was torture.

So when my son was born I decided to buy the DGII. I kept waiting, past the first 6 months, then past a year, for it to start smelling. It doesn't. He is 15 months now, and no smell whatsoever, not even when emptying it, or even when the emptied bag is lying around. So nice!

veggiewarrior 7-09-2008 @ 1:13PM

This is going to sound crazy but we discovered on accident that having NO DIAPER PAIL works best. I never would have believed it myself but it's working for us. We bought a fairly expensive pail originally and it worked great for a while-then it turned on us. The smell was horrid even with the lid closed. Oh my goodness when we opened it up to put a diaper in the stench could knock me over. My husband's chore is diaper trash and one day a few months ago he sat the whole pail, emptied, out on the back deck with the intention of doing a major, major, cleaning and deodorizing of the pail. The only problem is that he never actually got around to doing it. I was being stuborn and refused to do it and decided that I would just stack the dirty diapers on the changing table for him to deal with (it's his chore after all. Yes, I'm that mature.). Low and behold, even with stacks of diapers piled in our little girls room the horrid smell cleared up. The room never smelled fresher. I think that it's something about air circulation and the amonia disapating. That doesn't happen in a diaper pail so the smell just grows and grows. So, now we don't even bother with a pail. Diapers are either thrown into the kitchen pail (which is open and lidless) or stacked on the changing table until one of us tosses the whole lot. Solid poops are usually flushed down the toilet but I admit that sometimes this doesn't happen and even that smell disapates quickly when left out. I know it sounds crazy!!

Carrie 7-09-2008 @ 1:19PM

These diaper genie systems are so bad on the environment, and what's more, human waste should be flushed into the toilet, not wrapped in increasing layers of plastic to be put into the landfills.

I cloth diapered my 4. Until they're on solids the poop doesn't stink, but once it does, a quick shake and it's in the toilet. Cloth diapering just isn't hard anymore, and cloth babies train several months earlier than babies in disposables.

And a couple drops of essential oil took care of any diaper pail odor until wash day.

http://www.naturalbabyworld.com/diapers.html

Trish C 7-09-2008 @ 1:22PM

This is actually one of the reasons I prefer cloth diapers. Poo gets dumped into the toilet, the diaper gets rinsed and put in the pail for wash day. No smell no problem.

dc 7-09-2008 @ 1:39PM

i buy those green biodegrade disposable bags, throw the diaper in there, tie a knot, and chuck it in our garbage can in the garage. its the best. the green bags seem to hold the stink.

Jenn 7-09-2008 @ 2:57PM

We haven't used any kind of disposable system since Squeaker was about 4 months old, they just go in the kitchen trash can (after disposing of as much solid as possible in the toilet). We have never had any kind of problem with odor (she's almost 2 and a half now).

We did try to switch to cloth diapers, but she was having none of it (she was already almost 2). We'll use cloth with the next one.

I have bigger problems with odor from the cat boxes than from the diapers :(

pbhj 7-09-2008 @ 4:59PM

We used corn-starch bags for when we were out and about (fully biodegradable), but then we mainly used cloth nappies (aka diapers). Like others have said, empty it into the toilet if needed _biodegradable_liners_really_help_here_ (they are like a rough sheet of paper). [I got bored of the poo really quick so sat him on the potty from about 8 months]. We then put the nappies in a bucket with a tight lid fifth-filled with water and a few drops of lavender oil (which is a natural disinfectant and deodorises).

Basically the liner takes all the solid (or nearly all) and the wet nappy gets treated by the lavender water. Wring em and stick em in the washing machine once or twice a week.

The disposable (moltex oko - http://www.ecobaby.ie/composting/vermicompost01.htm -they take 6 months to compost, 1 month with worms!) we just folded and chucked in the bin - never smelt too bad, took them out probably every other day.

I think it's the chemical gels in the mainstream non-biodegradable disposables that cause the nasty smell.

pbhj 7-09-2008 @ 5:00PM

dRailer 7-10-2008 @ 9:28AM

I tried something on a theory and it works pretty well: Rip up one section of a large newspaper (or an entire little local paper if you get one of those) into about 1" wide strips. Pile them in bottom of pail under bag. After about a week pull them out and recycle them, put new strips in. It will not eliminate the odor, but it does a very, very nice job of removing most of it.

paula122 7-11-2008 @ 11:28PM

I have ahd 2 with cloth and 2 with disposibles and I will say that cloth wins, hands down--and what the previous poster said about potty-training sooner is absolutely true. Disposibles are nice if you are traveling, etc but are certainly more expensive and environmentally un-friendly. Invest in good cloth diapers and wash them every 2 days and there is no problem at all