I am engaged in a cloth diapering experiment.  For many reasons, I wanted to give cloth a try. It's significantly less expensive than disposables over time.  Advocates of cloth claim that it's wildly more environmentally responsible than disposables. It pains me that mountains of disposables that end up in our trash, so I want to reduce that visual reminder of my assault on the environment.  Cloth diapering is a marker of social status among a certain parent cultural subset, and I was very curious about whether or not anyone would comment on my diapering choice.  

Three discoveries made cloth diapering seem at least theoretically plausible: 1. dry pail; 2. flushable overlays to collect and dispose of solids; 3. a hybrid cloth system with the flexibility to use washable or disposable inserts. Also, the whole process is a lot less daunting with an 18-month-old.   

I've had some unfortunate mishaps, but now it is going fairly well.  We use the cloth system roughly 60% of the time, and I hope to continue increasing our use.  Although we now venture away from home in cloth, I have successfully avoided changing a soiled diaper away from home.  I find that prospect of dealing with cloth and feces in a public restroom a bit daunting.  Once the permafrost melts and I have the option of changing diapers in the back of the car or on the grass next to the bike rather than a public restroom, I will be more comfortable with cloth nearly all the time. 

We're using gDiapers. You can choose either flushable paper inserts or washable cloth inserts.  The website promotes cloth inserts for home and disposable inserts for travel. The paper inserts work really well.  They're more expensive than a disposable diaper, but very affordable if you use them only occasionally.  Our ancient plumbing balks under low-impact circumstances, so we have not attempted to flush the paper inserts. If you toss them (or you can compost the wet-only ones), they fold up to about half the bulk of a regular disposable diaper.  

We use the cloth inserts. The cloth inserts are awesome for wet diapers.  Changes are fast and easy.  They're pretty good for soiled diapers too, now that I've finally learned how to manage that process. I haven't compared it to other cloth systems, only to disposables.  

 

Anatomy: L to R and bottom-up stratigraphy

gPants, nylon liner, gCloth, extra absorbency

layer, flushable liner for solids 

 

Here's a video from gDiapers: 

 

(I bought size large for the tiny girl because some reviews said they tend to run a little small.  Lg seems to fit my twenty-pound baby with lots of room to grow but few leaks.)  Each kit includes two gPants, 4 nylon snap-in liners, 10 flushable paper inserts, and one stir stick for breaking up the flushable paper inserts in the toilet. 

2     gCloth insert packages of 6                                      $65

1     Roll Kushies flushable liners for lifting/flushing solids    $12

For a total of about $150.00. 

The inventory above is just barely sufficient to comfortably use cloth about 70% of the time.  If we seem to be increasing our use, I will buy two more gPants--these come with an extra nylon snap-in liner (~$40) and another six-pack of the cloth inserts (~$35).   

I have no idea what the extra water and electricity for washing adds to the cost. (Geographic isolation: no diaper service.)  My washing machine has a variable water setting, so the diapers on the "small" setting use about 25% of the water required for a very large load.  I rinse them twice, but I'm not sure that's necessary. The gCloth takes forever to dry in the dryer, so I almost always just air dry everything.  I wash a load of diapers when I either run out of something or when large amounts of fecal matter have soiled the inner layers. This works out to a small load about every other day, but of course that varies. Sometimes it's daily.  Sometimes I don't time it correctly and we end up using disposables for a day while the cloth supplies air dry. 

The question of what wipes to use hadn't occurred to me until I had a handful of soiled cloth diaper, feces, and soiled regular non-flushable wipes. (This incident did not end well.)  A friend suggested I try washable cloth wipes.  I could just toss these into the diaper pail with everything else. It sounded great, and it lasted about a day. The logistics of moistening the wipes felt overwhelming. I may give it another try at some point. She also suggested the solution I have settled on: I use regular disposable non-flushable wipes for wet diapers (here's where I could easily substitute with cloth wipes) and toss the used wipe and flushable diaper liner into the trash.  I use flushable wipes for soiled diapers and dump these out into the toilet along with the flushable liner and the contents of the diaper.  This works out pretty well most of the time. Happily our plumbing seems to be able to handle these items. 

On a side note, do not google "Toilet Cloth" unless you have some free time to click around the blogs on this topic. I was totally fascinated by this distraction.  

I actually really like the gDiapers cloth system.  I think we might even save money eventually. I feel like I'm at least attempting to be environmentally responsible, although that's up for debate*.

 

I would not be comfortable traveling for more than a day with the cloth diapers.  I could probably do a weekend away if I used the disposable inserts.  I'm just not sure where to wash diapers on the road.  Relatives don't want dirty diapers their washing machines, and it seems irresponsible to introduce dubious biological contaminants to what I tell myself are pristine laundromat facilities.

 

Overall it's a terrific system for home and around town, where I have the convenience of my own washing machine and the comfort of knowing we can just run home and shower in the event of an emergency. 

Upon noticing that the tiny anthropologist has a cloth-bubble bum, two random people have commented favorably on the fact that I use cloth diapers.  I absolutely count these incidents as evidence of a (momentary) bump in social status... 

   

     




They do recommend gDiapers:

"Another option to consider is a new flushable product called gDiapers, which consists of a colorful cloth pant and snap-in liner with inserts made primarily of fluffed wood pulp. The pants and liners are washed and reused and the inserts are flushed down the toilet. The ingredients are almost all natural, but do include super-absorbent polymers, or SAP -- which most disposable diapers use as well -- to increase the amount of liquid that the diaper can hold. SAP has been linked to toxic-shock syndrome from tampons, and some parents are concerned about its use in diapers, but studies have revealed no adverse health effects from exposure outside the body.

In any event, gDiapers seem to have the environmental edge over more conventional choices because they send no material to the landfill, use no elemental chlorine or plastics, and require much less washing (therefore, less water and energy usage) than regular cloth diapers.

If you prefer disposables anyway, you can still make a difference by buying a brand made without chlorine, such as Seventh Generation. You could also try a biodegradable brand, such as Nature Boy & Girl, though there is some question as to whether decomposition is possible in the oxygen-less conditions of a landfill. Cloth diaper users can lessen their impact as well by air-drying, washing bigger loads at lower temperatures and not pre-soaking.

Ultimately, only you know which choice you can comfortably live with. My advice is not to sweat it. Just make the best decision you can, then go enjoy your beautiful baby."

Go enjoy your beautiful baby. Don't sweat it.  Great parenting advice.