My first exposure to cloth diapers of today was to a hybrid system called gDiapers. While I was at work, not doing my work, but surfing the internet for baby stuff I came across gDiapers and I fell in love. They are a cloth and flushable system. I came home and told my DH all about them and showed him their site and he was on board immediately. God bless him. He didn't fight cloth diapers one bit. Through my research it seems husbands can sometimes make or break a commitment to cloth. He was just as excited as I was. Basically gDiapers are a cotton outer pant with a snap in nylon liner. You fill the nylon liner with either a flushable(plastic-free, chlorine-free, ink-free, dye-free, latex-free, perfume-free) maxi-pad looking insert or a cloth insert. The flushable insert can also be composted if you are so inclined. We fell in love with the idea of being able to use the flushables while out of the house, on vacation, and just when we felt too lazy to do laundry. We also love the idea of being able to use cloth to save money and the environment while we're at home. Here's some pictures of the gDiapers system:
These are the little guys coming to the hospital with us. gDiapers recently developed a tiny gDiaper for newborns. It is a little different from their 3 piece system, the pants actually have the nylon lining already and you just put a flushable in the pant. It has a snap down so it doesn't irritate the umbilical cord. My hope is LD never feels a disposable diaper on his little tushie and one of these makes its way onto him right after birth.
These are pictures of the gDiapers system. It is a sized system. The cotton pants come in small, medium, and large. The flushables and cloth inserts come in smalls and medium/large. The first picture shows the cotton pants with the nylon liners snapped into them. The hope is the mess is contained within the nylon liner and the cotton pants can be reused more than once. The nylon liners can be handwashed in the sink if they aren't messy, or thrown into the washing machine on a cold cycle and hung to dry(literally they dry in like 20 minutes or less I was shocked) if they are soiled. The second picture is a nylon liner stuffed with a flushable and a flushable outside the nylon liner so you can see it. The third picture is a cloth insert that I made(with lots of help from my crafty DH). We are hoping gDiapers work well enough for us to be our primary diapering system as we really love the concept. Of course we won't know for sure until LD test drives them all for us!!
Another hybrid system is the Flip system. The Flip system uses a one-size pant that has waterproof coating on the inside. It's very similar to gDiapers. We have a few of these Flip covers and some of their brand of flushables too. A lot of people prefer one-size diapers because the diapers should fit from birth to potty training. I don't think the Flip pants feel as soft as the gDiapers but since gDiapers nylon lining will actually be what touches the baby's skin I guess it probably doesn't matter. Here's some pictures of the Flip cover:
Moving onto the diapers most like disposables is the all in ones. These are actually just like disposables except you don't throw them away when you're done. They are just one piece and go on like a disposable. There's an opening at one end for you to stuff a doubler into to make them more absorbent if you want them to last longer, for example overnight if you have a heavy wetter. These are probably the easiest system to use. We have BumGenius All In Ones and Thirsties All In Ones. The picture shows two open ones and two of the same ones closed. They look just like disposables, only cuter and in pretty colors!!
Lastly I have some pocket diapers. These you stuff inserts into underneath the microfiber top layer that wicks away moisture. You stuff the inserts into the "pockets", allowing you to customize the absorbency needed for a particular baby. If you are going out to run errands and want to be able to go a little longer than normal in between changes just stuff an extra insert into the pocket and it will buy you a little more time. We have Applecheeks and Katydids brand pockets. In the picture I have 2 pocket diapers open so you can see the inside and it you look close you can see the pocket. I have closed ones below and next to the opens so you can see how they look. The inserts at the bottom are inserts that came with one of the diapers. Sometimes inserts come with them and sometimes they don't. The inserts I handmade can be used in all the diapers I have.
Those are they diapers we're planning to test drive in the beginning. I have 56 diapers right now, and honestly those 56 diapers should last until LD is potty trained. But if we have things we end up not liking we will probably sell them for things that we do like. I have spent $422 on $701 worth of diapers(MSRP). I'm pretty sure it would only be a few months in disposables before I spent $400 on them and I would not have the chance to ever get any of that back. I used coupons to get some buy 1 get 1 free, I shopped sales, and I also got diapers from some of my daily baby half off websites. The awesome thing about cloth diapers is if we have a second baby I will just reuse all the diapers we have and we won't have to spend any money on diapers. Of course any flushable inserts we buy will end up costing us, but we really don't plan to use those too often. When we're finished with the diapers they really hold their value and I should be able to sell them for almost what I paid for them. While cloth diapers take a little more time than disposables, I think in our case it's worth the extra time. Right now we're researching cloth wipes and trying to come up with a system that will work best for us regarding cloth wipes. It wasn't something we were going to do, but after talking to a lot of people who cautioned against the chemicals in disposable wipes(nurses and doctors) I think we feel more inclined to take the leap into cloth. It's not a far leap from diapers to wipes anyway. I plan to share again once LD is here and we're utilizing these diapers what we find works best for us and what we're not too thrilled about. From my research it sounds like every baby is truly different and what works for us may not be what works best for others.
