A foray into cloth diapering

When I was pregnant with Silas in 2008, I started to make lots of changes in our lives. I got rid of all of our chemical cleaners--not only were they not safe for me to use during pregnancy, when my husband used them, the fumes made me so sick, I had to sit in our bedroom with the door closed and the window open for hours until I couldn't smell it anymore. I replaced them with non-toxic all natural cleaners. 

I registered for 7th Generation diapers (or "wheat diapers" as my sister "lovingly" refers to them) . I bought an assortment of organic clothes and other organic baby items and started buying organic food.

My biggest obsession, and serious leap into "greendom", was my desire to try out gDiapers. My husband looked at me like I was crazy, then lovingly said, "OK honey, if you want to try them, I will give them a try". My sister just told me I was crazy and I should just use the pampers that she does--they hold hours worth of urine! She told me--and I was thinking... and why is that a good thing?

See, the thing is, when I was in high school I was basically a "dirty crunchy hippie". I wore my birks in the winter with wool socks (much to my mother's chagrin), had looong, unruly curly hair (actually, that hasn't changed), listened to the Dead and Phish (also hasn't changed). But, somewhere between heading up north to the College of the Holy Cross (holy conservative for a little hippy like me), moving to NYC and discovering you could shop online, I lost my way a bit. I lost... myself a little. I mean, I was green before green was a saying... but then I bowed to pressures and conformed and all that other jazz.

The minute that little stick had two lines though, it was like I was sucked into a time machine and everything I used to care about came rushing back to me.

Ok so... off topic there a bit.

gDiapers were basically a failed experiment. We had a good run, I tried to continue using them for over a year and they just weren't working for us. I don't know if it was human error in putting them on, or the diapers themselves, (though most people love them), but we had a TON of leaks and Silas was being diapered in sposies more and more often. Sure, I bought as earth friendly a sposie as possible. We also left 7th Gen in the dust--hubby wasn't a fan--and switched to Huggies Pure and Natural. We've been using those for a while now and they have been great. But, even they are starting to fail the leak tests! Silas is like a camel with his water--takes after me in that respect--so he is a very heavy wetter.

Recently, a friend of mine sent me a link to Babysteals.com, their steal of the day was Gro baby diapers. A Hybrid and Cloth diaper in one. Huh. Interesting... tell me more.

The outer shell is water proof and has a quick dry mesh lining. Nice, only one piece! gDiapers had two pieces (not including the actual absorbent part). You could buy either a flushable/compostable/biodegradable insert that had sticky tabs so it stayed in place in the liner, or a snap in Organic Cotton "Soaker" Pad. I was incredibly intrigued. I missed the steal on babysteals.com, but continued googling my little heart out regarding Gro Babies. Logging into the gDiapers group on yahoo and asking those fabulous ladies for their opinions.

I finally took the plunge and ordered some. It was the perfect time, the company was changing its branding from Gro Baby to Gro Via... so everything Gro baby was on sale everywhere!

So far, I am in love. They go on just like disposables, and the outer shell is soft and comfortable for Silas plus super trim (for a Cloth Diaper). You can't even tell the difference when he has one on as opposed to a sposie. The biosoakers really contain a LOT without leaking. and the Shells, if they don't get saturated, can be used more than once!

Yesterday I received my second shipment of Gro Baby diapers from Bumrite Diapers. This time I ordered the "Try it" cloth diapering kits instead of the biosoakers. (Quick aside, I love Bumrite Diapers! They have awesome customer service and are incredibly helpful!). So, I have a couple more washes to do, since you need to wash and dry the cloth soaker several times before using them... and then I experiment with cloth diapering. My husband doesn't technically know I am doing this yet. I figure I will try it out before springing it on him.

Although I have technically used cloth diapers before, it was only ever at night, under a gDiaper flushie to create extra absorbency for my little camel. Of course, they still leak, but not as much! But, the cloth insert and flushie were not meant to be used with any of the diaper covers I had used... so I think I will have much more "leak proof" success with a diaper system created to work together!

I will definitely post again regarding my success and experiences with the Gro baby system. Of course, now that they have changed to Gro-Via, perhaps I should have waited and bought the new ones... they actually sound pretty cool. The new cloth soakers has a water resistant back to prevent moisture from seeping from the back of the cloth soaker to the shell... which helps create less laundering of the shells which extends their life. I am sure I will break down and buy some of those as well if my Gro Baby experiments are successful.

Hey Gro-Via--sending out any trial packages for us willing to review and blog about your new product??? If so... I'll be a guinea pig reviewer!