Product Review: gDiapers

Before Vinny was born, Jeff and I were trying to decide what to do about diapers. Usually, people present the options as cloth or disposables. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages: cloth diapers may be more environmentally friendly, but they require repeated washings. Also, over their lifetime they are less costly than disposables, but the upfront investment is pretty high. Disposable diapers, on the other hand, are very easy to use, require no washings, and while you may spend more over all, you spend it a little at a time. But, they are also very wasteful, in that all that packaging is required to dispose of a small amount of waste, plus it's kind of dangerous to dispose of fecal matter in a landfill. Also, no matter which option you choose, it is smelly. Dirty diapers of any kind are stinky before you dispose of them. Surely there has to be some other choice!

Well, there is. gDiapers combine the best aspects of cloth and disposables, and as an added benefit, they are not stinky! Like cloth diapers, they are reusable and contribute no waste to the landfill. Like disposables, they require (almost) no washing. The basic idea is that there is an outer pants that is reusable, and an inner liner that is disposable. But the liner can be flushed down the toilet, so that fecal matter is dealt with by the system that is best equipped to deal with it: the sewage disposal system.

In order to dispose of the liner, you tear it open and shake the innards into the toilet, then stir it around until the pulpy stuff is dissolved. Then you flush, and at the moment when the water is about to flush down the drain, you drop the exterior of the liner into the toilet and it flushes down too.

The outer pants are machine-washable. You don't have to wash them (except for the liner-holder) very often, unless your baby has a poop explosion or the diaper leaks. The only times we've had diaper leaks, it's been because we didn't change him soon enough. You have to change these diapers more often than you change disposables.

I like the gDiapers because of the environmental considerations, and also because they are fair-trade. While some parts are manufactured in China, they monitor the working conditions and pay their workers a fair wage. I also like the fact that when we use these diapers, we don't have the diaper stench. We were using disposables exclusively for a while and I was always petrified that somebody would come to the house and smell a dirty diaper that we hadn't noticed. We still use disposables for nighttime because I do think disposables hold more.

Some drawbacks are that you have to prepare the diapers before using, by inserting the liner into the pants. (This is something you'd have to do with cloth diapers too.) Also, the gDiapers are larger than disposables, so any clothes that might be getting a little small probably won't fit. Disposing of the liner can be kind of gross, especially after a bowel movement. Also, the gDiapers are kind of pricey. Although the initial investment isn't as large as it would be for cloth diapers, you still need to buy at least four pants (preferably six) and that can run you more than $50. Also, the liners are not cheap. I know that the higher cost is because of the environmental and justice considerations, so I don't mind paying the price, but they may not be affordable for everyone.

But overall, I would recommend gDiapers as a good product for those who want to use an environmentally-friendly diaper.