So my lovely friend Danielle is suppose to be test driving "G Diapers" and letting me know if they are good are not. The premise of them is that they are a hybrid between cloth & disposable diapers...offering a better environmental impact but continuing to offer the convenience of disposable. Plus I think they are suppose to be a little more cost effective than disposable? But I'm not sure about that. The liners are biogradeable & flushable and are said to breakdown in 50-150 days.
I have baby brain so I can't remember if Danielle has reported back to me about them yet or not. So I figured I would post a short blog about it (since she is a frequent reader) and let her respond on here (or if it's lengthy I might repost it as another blog).
If y'all want to check out the website in the meantime it is http://www.gdiapers.com/ I know they sell them at Baby Pops in Red Deer, though I'm not sure where else they might be available...
G diapers are made up of a cloth exterior called "little g pants", a waterproof and breathable liner and an absorbent inner liner. The absorbent liner is flushable, compostable and tossable. I choose to throw them in the garbage because I do not trust my toilet. G diapers break down in 50-150 days whereas conventional diapers are estimated to take approximately 500 years, possibly more. If you choose to flush, you must tear open the absorbent liner and allow the inner core to fall into the toilet. You then stir with the swishstick (included in your starter kit). Once the flushable inner liner has broken apart, flush the toilet, then throw in the rest of the flushable inner liner. My sister-in-law has flushed and said it works really well. She was very surprised at how well the inner layer broke down. Keep in mind that you can only compost wet flushables. Toss or flush the poopy ones.
ReplyDeleteI love g diapers. I think they are adorable and I love that they are enviromentally friendly. Everything in the flushable inner liner gets reabsorbed into the earth in a neutral or positive way. The little g pants come in orange and cream in the starter packs, but there are tons of pretty colors available to purchase seperately. The initial start up cost is expensive. The starter kit sells at London Drugs for $36.99, but often goes on sale for $29.99. It includes 2 little g pants, 10 flushable absorbent liners and a swishstick. I recommend having at least 4 little g pants, so you could either purchase 2 starter kits or buy the fancier little g pants seperately. The flushable refills are a few dollars more than conventional diapers, but I think it's money well spent. Lakelyn has not had any trace of diaper rash since we switched. It's very sad to try and picture how many diapers end up in landfills. How many do you go through in a day? A month? In a child's lifetime? How much space would they occupy? Would it fill a room in your house? Your whole house? More? Now imagine all of the diapers in the world. Try to picture that huge mountain of diapers that is not going to go anywhere anytime soon. It's actually pretty shocking.
Like all products, g diapers are not perfect. Because the flushable, absorbent liner just sits in the water proof liner, it can bunch up, which can lead to leaks. This is why I recommend having 4 little g pants. That way you shouldn't have to do laundry every single day. On average, I would say that we experience a leak once every 4 or 5 days. Poop gets on the waterproof liner more often than that, but you just rinse it and hang it to dry.
G diapers recommends having your extra little g pants preloaded with the flushable liners to make changing fast and easy. I agree. When I'm out and about I always carry an extra preloaded g diaper, a few extra flushable, absorbent inner liners and a big ziploc bag, in case we experience a leak.
Here's a brief summary.
PROS
-Flushable/Compostable/Tossable
-g diapers are absorbed back into
the earth in a
neutral or positive way
-break down in 50-150 days so they
are not filling up landfills
like conventional diapers
-breathable which means less
diaper rash or no diaper rash
-adorable, little g pants are
available in many colors
-guilt free
CONS
-start up is quite expensive
-flushable refills are a little
more expensive than conventional
diapers
-flushable absorbent layer just
sits in waterproof liner and
sometimes bunches up, causing
leaks (Although I should note
that conventional diapers can
leak too.)
-have to launder dirty and wet
little g pants therefore g
diapers are slightly more work
than conventional diapers
Like I said, I love g diapers! I highly recommend spending the extra money and trying them.
BTW, according to the website, g diapers are available at 5 stores in Red Deer. They are London Drugs, Baby-Pops Inc, Highway to Health Inc, Hap-E Bab-E and Nutter's Bulk #3.