this momma's going green

as my close friend's can vouch, i am a bit of a tree hugger - was vegan for 3 years [long story as to why i'm not anymore], recycle & upcycle as much as possible, buy organic & local when possible... so why am i going to let my kids carbon foot print be humongous the first few years of their life until they're potty trained?! unfortunately, by the time i was able to convince my husband to "go green" in the diapering department, hunter [the oldest - 14months] is about to start getting potty trained & i don't see a point in putting him in cloth diapers for a year... but we'll see how that goes. who knows, we might change our mind & have both boys in cloth diapers.

anyhow, being new to cloth diapering, i emailed a fellow cloth-diapering-navy-wife for her opinion of the different types, which were user friendly, best absorbancy, cheapest start up cost, etc. needless to say, after days of talking & [what can be turned into pages & pages of information] relaying the information to my husband we decided to take a dive. but where to start?! i visited kellyscloset.com & diapers.com & they were no help. >.<  so... many... choices! & the prices! oy! i'm going to be honest, when starting out cloth diapering be prepared to spend a couple hundred on different styles, size, makes, etc until you find the one that works... then a couple more to get the inserts [if you're doing "pocket diapers"].

i went with an easy, & popular one: gDiapers. they're sold at babies r us & diapers.com. we bought ours at babies r us + some organic laundry detergent [which, we found out can potentially ruin the inserts... you have to have a certain type of laundry soap to help keep the absorbancy is the pad. >.< a popular one is rockin' green which can be found here]... i'll do some research & then update this post with the information. we bought 2 "shells" [the actual diaper looking thing itself] & it came with 3 plastic snap in liners [$26.99] & a pack of 6 gDiapers reusable inserts [$26.99]. okay, okay.. that's not SO bad.. but it is when you're kid can go through 6 liners in a day! but i digress... so here's the haul:

earth's best organic laundry detergent. 6pk of reusable inserts. 2pk gPants.

inside the gPants package & the package of the inserts.

*must* read if new to cloth diapering

 okay... so now that the package is all open & we're ready to test drive this baby on my little pee machine, here's what a put together gPants look like:

snap in plastic liner & "shell" [or gPants is what gDiapers call 'em]

 now to assemble said diaper. open the insert package [obviously].... the package said to wash the inserts 6 times prior to first use. yeah, uh, about that... i skipped that part. XD

& push that sucker into the plastic liner. you have to adjust it a bit to fit snuggly in the liner. but it doesn't take much finagling.

wipe your baby all nice & clean before putting on this cute diaper alternative. (: the diaper closure is velcro & it wraps around the back of the baby for when they're older they won't be tempted to pull off the diaper [like my 14month old likes doing now]. the diapers are relatively bulkier than disposables, however. =/

& voila! That's all there is too it. so how does the absorbancy hold up compared to a disposable diaper? uh-MAZE-ing! little man pees right through the huggies little snugglers diapers in 4-5 hours. but he slept through the night in his gDiaper [from 9pm - 7am] & there was no sign of leakage what. so. ever!

so how do we "dispose" of the soiled reusable liner? drop it into a pail or a wet bag until laundry day. (: so what happens if you run out of liners or you're a frugal shopper like me? you know those white burp rags that everyone gives you millions at your baby shower? use those! they're really just old fashioned cloth diapers. we have 12 gDiapers liners & 14 burp rag liners. :D

see? the usual 'burp rag'

so how do these 'liners' compare to the gDiapers inserts? they work just as great! grant it, it will make the diaper thicker because you have to fold the 'burp rag' to make it fit into the liner but it works just as good.

 

see? fits right in there.

i wish i could tell you how to deal with a poopie diaper but little man has been constipated  so i will update once i deal with that mess.

would i recommend gDiapers to people? yeppers! i can't believe we didn't start this sooner....

pros:

» better absorbancy [fave word today!] than disposables.

» better for the environment.

» cute colors & designs.

» many types & fits available to suit your lifestyle.

cons:
» start up cost. >.<

» bulkier than disposables.

» most shells can only be ordered online.