Green Options

gDiapers fans are no doubt excited to see that they have some new and adorable options for flushable diapers. Their web site is now boasting several new prints for their “little g” pants including Ga, Ga Pink, Goo Goo Blue, Good Vibe Girl and Good Vibe Stripe, which are pretty snazzy if I do say so myself. It has no doubt been hard to compete with the cuteness of cloth diapers but they are certainly making strides.

The little g pants are the outer shell of the gDiaper system or the diaper cover that holds the flushable inserts.  The inserts are the disposable and absorbent inner liners that you toss (flush, throw away or compost). You reuse the gDiaper pants again and again. For about 40 years there have been only two basic choices in diapering. Cloth or disposable. gDiapers offers consumers a third option….a hybrid cloth diaper with a disposable element.

There is a lot of discussion revolving around diapers. Cloth, disposable, hybrid or diaper free? What is the best choice?

For the Earth, a diaper free baby (Elimination Communication or EC) is the absolute best choice. This method requires complete dedication for the parents (as the parents must watch for cues and put baby on the elimination pot when needed). It works wonderfully for many families and there is no “potty learning”, the children make a natural transition to being able to recognize cues and go to the potty.

If going diaper free isn’t for you, then cloth diapers are the way to go. In order to keep this as environmentally sound as possible, some precautions need to be taken.

Two years later than my daughter, my son has almost completed his toilet learning!  It has been different with my boy, as we have resorted to the bare bum method.  Feeling the cool breeze on his bottom seems to be the only way he can remember to hold it in until he reaches the toilet. This works while we are home, but he still had accidents in underwear and clothes.  Since we are down to one diaper a day just at night, I’ve abandoned the cloth diapers for Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free Diapers.

I’ve always professed that every baby should wear cloth diapers; however, with my son wearing one diaper in 24 hours, it takes a long time to make a diaper load of laundry. After a week, these cloth diapers get very rank, and I don’t really want to put them in my washing machine or waste energy and water to wash them more often.  Thus, I’ve resorted to Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free Diapers, as it is too late in the game (I don’t plan to have any more children) to invest in gDiapers. I do feel a slight pang of guilt using a landfill, aka disposable, diaper, but I rationalize six years of cloth diapering two kids has earned me the right to one disposable diaper a day.

Editor’s note: This month, GNMParents writer Tiffany Washko explores diapering options for green parents. We swap original content with GNMParents on the first Monday of every month, so make sure to head over there to check out Jennifer’s contribution to them.

For many green moms and dads the decision about how to diaper their baby does not come so easy. We all know disposable diapers are bad with a capital

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