When we spent a few days at a cabin last month we used a disposable diaper product on Sweet Pea for the first time. We knew we were going to spend more than a day driving, and then several days at a cabin with no washing machine, so we thought this would be one time when using purely cloth diapers might be just too much for us. Maybe we are just wimps because Average's aunt had a great story for us about backpacking with a baby in diapers and washing them in a plastic bag in a hole she would dig in the ground. Now that's commitment! Back to our story though. We decided to go with a hybrid system: a disposable absorbent liner with a reusable cover. gDiapers are available at grocery stores in our city, so we thought that would be an easy option, and actually the only option since we didn't leave ourselves delivery time for ordering anything online. I had also read good reviews of the gDiaper inserts.
We put the first one on Sweet Pea just before we left our house in the afternoon. When we stopped for a break a couple of hours later, she had leaked onto her pants. We are pretty certain that was due to user error, though, as some of the insert wasn't tucked all the way into the cover. After that, we didn't have any trouble with leaking at all. We used a variety of covers including a snapping one-size Flip diaper cover
, and Thirsties
size medium covers. Sweet Pea did great in the gs for the next 3-4 days while we were away from civilization, and we tore them up and flushed them down the toilet (gDiapers are flushable and compostable) in some places and simply threw them in the trash in other places. I did find I felt a sense of freedom in not having to pack so much bulk with us, and Sweet Pea never got a rash with them. They worked fine overnight as well. I was enjoying using the gDiapers so much, I began to question my own commitment to cloth.
Once we reached a place with a washing machine we switched back to our cloth diapers. I did feel like I needed to change Sweet Pea more often back in cloth, and had to remember to always have a wet bag with me. But when I was folding my beautiful fitted diapers after running our first load of laundry, I felt a strong sense of satisfaction, just enjoying the feel of the soft bamboo velour inners and the cute prints. While the gDiapers were easy, they did smell funny to me -- worse than our cloth. Even when a microfiber insert really needs a good soak it doesn't have the icky chemical smell that a disposable has to me.
In conclusion, we had a good experience with our first time using a disposable diaper product on Sweet Pea, but I am just as happy as even with our choice to cloth diaper our child. We are thinking of working on potty learning soon, and I'm sure I'm going to miss our diapers when we are done with them (although I'll be glad to have less laundry)!
We put the first one on Sweet Pea just before we left our house in the afternoon. When we stopped for a break a couple of hours later, she had leaked onto her pants. We are pretty certain that was due to user error, though, as some of the insert wasn't tucked all the way into the cover. After that, we didn't have any trouble with leaking at all. We used a variety of covers including a snapping one-size Flip diaper cover
, and Thirsties size medium covers. Sweet Pea did great in the gs for the next 3-4 days while we were away from civilization, and we tore them up and flushed them down the toilet (gDiapers are flushable and compostable) in some places and simply threw them in the trash in other places. I did find I felt a sense of freedom in not having to pack so much bulk with us, and Sweet Pea never got a rash with them. They worked fine overnight as well. I was enjoying using the gDiapers so much, I began to question my own commitment to cloth.Once we reached a place with a washing machine we switched back to our cloth diapers. I did feel like I needed to change Sweet Pea more often back in cloth, and had to remember to always have a wet bag with me. But when I was folding my beautiful fitted diapers after running our first load of laundry, I felt a strong sense of satisfaction, just enjoying the feel of the soft bamboo velour inners and the cute prints. While the gDiapers were easy, they did smell funny to me -- worse than our cloth. Even when a microfiber insert really needs a good soak it doesn't have the icky chemical smell that a disposable has to me.
In conclusion, we had a good experience with our first time using a disposable diaper product on Sweet Pea, but I am just as happy as even with our choice to cloth diaper our child. We are thinking of working on potty learning soon, and I'm sure I'm going to miss our diapers when we are done with them (although I'll be glad to have less laundry)!
We use gdiapers when we travel or when Ethan needs some diaper rash cream. I really like them. We had to double up on the inserts when driving for a long time and at night. They are just as expensive as disposables so I would never switch over 100% :)
ReplyDelete