gDiapers: Great Concept, But Needs Redesign
Jan 09
gDiapers Pros
Very cute covers, good availability online and in health food stores
gDiapers Cons
Messy, Uncomfortable, Leak, Poor Fit
gDiapers: Recommend or not?
Sadly, No, I would not recommend this to a friend
I wanted to like these diapers. I really, really, really wanted to like these diapers. gDiapers promise the best of both worlds, an environmentally-friendly hybrid diaper with a flushable/disposable insert and a washable, reusable cloth outer cover. The fact is, they are good in theory but not in practice.
People have commented that the velcro left marks on their babies. I suggest that it is not the velcro, but the little orange snaps that connect the liner to the diaper cover. My baby had red marks that were the exact size and shape as these snaps, plus red lines where the liner rested on her bottom, and red marks on the front leg area. The large wasn’t large enough, and I can’t imagine a one year old or toddler being comfortable in these.
The diaper changes are totally messy — messy enough that you’ll want to wear rubber gloves to remove a dirty diaper. It really would be better to use cloth, because you wouldn’t have to dig out a hybrid disposable from inside the plastic liner (which needs to be washed). I even bought the cloth inserts to be even more green and hopefully economical in the long run, but they are not big enough to fill the liner.
One good thing about these diapers is that the inserts can be used as diaper doublers on disposable diapers. There have been a few instances where the diaper I was using was just a bit too small, and I used one of the gDiapers inserts and it prevented a blowout on the outer disposable diaper. Additionally, the covers are very cute and can fit over disposable diapers.
I flushed one or two of these, but stopped because I thought they were excessively large items to be flushing and I don’t need a plumber’s bill. Also, in California, we have warnings all over the place that there is going to be a water shortage, so extra flushes seem pretty wasteful to me. It also bothered me that half of the diaper was dry and untouched, and I would still have to flush that part, too. I suppose you could get a scissors and cut off part of it, but that seems a bit ridiculous to me when changing a diaper.
As much as I want to support this company for attempting to merge convenience and the environment, I also want moms to know what they are really getting into before buying them.
Let me know when version 2.0 comes out.
