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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

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Hybrids To the Rescue!

While pregnant I wanted to do cloth diapers, while my husband was all for disposables. Our families' opinions of cloth diapering was very much reflected in these biases as well. I wondered, is there a way to do both?

To help placate everyone I researched and registered for the gDiapers system -- a system that would do both depending on the circumstance. The gDiapers are technically considered all-in-twos, but have a very easy to use disposable insert available if necessary which classifies them as a hybrid system. There is a cover, a liner, and then the insert. Each liner is re-usable after you wipe it out and put in a fresh insert. The covers are as well, and when necessary they can go in the wash with clothes. The soiled insert is the only thing that is changed every time. They are sized (S, M, L, XL) which gives them a trimness that isn't seen anywhere else, except maybe the new fuzzibunz elite.

I figured, we travel a lot so having the option of a disposable is a great thing, but mostly we can use the cloth inserts. We also could use a disposable if out during the day and not wanting to cart around a wet-bag of diapers. The disposables were a few dollars more per package than a package of comparable number disposables, so not really a huge deal in the long run. Ultimately, this is something that has only been an issue if we didn't know where our next washing machine was.

After I approached my husband with my find, we did the math as only two people with three Chemistry degrees between them can. We figured that even though they were sized, since we only had to buy a few covers with many more inserts, it would really equal out to about the same price as a stash full of one sized diapers. Each "size" costs roughly $200, for those of you curious. This is for a stash of 8 covers and 24 cloth inserts. This is part of my current sized M stash, the ones ready to go on the left, unfolded so you can see the liner in the middle, and the inserts to be put in on the far right.

Now the real selling point for his family, (Remember, they didn't want us to use cloth. We've lasted much longer than the week they gave us.) the ability to flush the soiled disposables down the toilet! This means there is no "diaper" smell around the house anywhere. The waste goes down the proper receptacle.

The selling point for my family is the lack of space they take up. At 6 diapers to an inch in height when stacked on top of each other, a lot of inserts can take up very little space. They also simply stack on top of each other, no folding or stuffing when you pull them out of the dryer.

As I said, we travel a lot, and having the hybrid system saved our daughter's tush (she's actually allergic to every disposable that we've tried, except the gDiaper insert) when the airline lost our bag -- naturally it was the bag of my clothes and my entire stash of cloth diapers. We had 3 covers, 5 liners, and 6 disposable inserts and 6 cloth inserts in our diaper bag. After the initial, "What do you mean you lost my bag? Don't you realize that's a lot of time and money invested there?" we were able to run to the store to get disposable inserts to last until we received the bag.

A stash of one brand of diapers isn't really complete, and hybrid diapers round a stash out nicely for many different reasons.

Bio: Carolyn is a work at home mom to one 10 month old daughter. She regularly enlightens everyone to the ease and versatility of hybrids.

1 comment:

Jess said...

I wasn't a huge fan because the size S I had didn't hold much. I would have to wash out the liner after on large poop because the insert wouldn't be able to hold it all. At times this overload wouldn't all be caught in the liner and because the cover is just cotton it wouldn't assist in holding in moisture. So it too would be wet and require washing. It was a promising system and I agree very sleek, but failed to deliver with absorbency.