I had lots of questions about using gDiapers and both the president and founder of G Diapers and a mom in Fort Greene answered a lot of the questions: here is what they said on our listserve:

Kimberley Graham-Nye
Mum
President/ Co-founder of gDiapers
www.gdiapers.com

A number of people mentioned they were a little worried about their plumbing. Although we have passed all our flushability testing, if you feel your toilet just isn’t up to it, you can certainly still throw flushables away. Of course they are designed to be flushed or composted, but if they do end up in the garbage, you can rest assured that they won’t take the same 500 years to biodegrade as disposable diapers (yes…that is 500 years for any disposable diaper, regardless of brand, color, or contents). So you can feel good about using gDiapers whether you flush, compost or even if you have to toss them. And the best part is, your baby will love them too!
Thanks again, and please feel free to call or email us with any questions you might have. We really do love talking diapers!
All the best,
Kim

Sarah
(Mom to Felix, 6 months)

I thought that I’d weigh in on the gdiapers issue as I’m the one who contacted Kim Graham-Nye, the President and Co-founder of gdiapers,and asked her to come and talk to our Fort Greene Babies group. I’m a Fort Greene mom and currently have no affiliation with giapers other than being an avid, avid fan. They do have some drawbacks (let’s be
honest) but I believe their benefits far, far outweigh any inconvenience.

First off, plumbing. This is a big issue for me too as we live in a nineteenth century apt. building and I’m still a bit nervous about flushing them regularly. But, and here’s the beautiful thing I hadn’t really thought of… YOU DON"T HAVE TO FLUSH THE LINERS (especially
the wet ones) – you’re still making a huge impact environmentally if you’re throwing away gdiaper inserts that biodegrade in one compost cycle (about 100 days) as opposed to the 500 YEARS (not fifty… five hundred) that disposable diapers take to biodegrade. I don’t think
anyone would argue that disposable diapers are by far the easiest and least complicated option for us parents, but I personally can’t get over throwing away 7-8 diapers a day that will be around for my kids,kids, kids, kids, kids, kids, kids, kids, kids to deal with.

I also alternate between using cloth inserts in the gdiapers and the actual gdiaper inserts. Using the gdiaper inserts is so much easier when we go anywhere away from home when we’ll need to do even one diaper change. So when we go into Manhattan, I always put him in a gdiaper and either flush it there or toss it. We’re visiting family right now so have been using the gdiaper inserts much more regularly and we’ve yet to have a problem with flushing. We keep gdiapers prepared by the changing station so that we don’t have to fiddle with
putting it together while he’s on the changing pad. After he’s changed, we put him down and come back to tear open the insert (there’s always some part that you can grab onto that’s not soiled to rip it open), the inner contents usually just fall out into the toilet. If they don’t, we shake it a little or tear open the other side (you can use the stir stick here if you wish but we find we don’t really need to) and then flush this bit (the inner pulp) down before flushing the outer part that holds the liner together. Then we rinse off the nylon liner in the sink and hang it to dry over the edge of one of the towel racks. When we’re out and about, we take a
couple of the nylon liner/hammocks preloaded with inserts and extra pair of gpants (just in case – though we’ve yet to use them) and they work great to just switch out.

Yes, they can be a bit messy, but they shouldn’t leak. We had leakage problems at first too, but I wrote to gdiapers (which is how I met Kim and subsequently arranged for her to come talk to our mom’s group) and they gave me two tips that virtually solved our leaking
problems.
1. The nylon liner/hammock needs to be tucked-up into your babies’
legs (so that it fits like underwear). So, after you put the diaper
on, reach inside the legholes and be sure that the liner is in place.
2. The waistband needs to come up and over the liner so that you
don’t see any white (liner or insert) sticking out above the
waistband on the either the front or the back.
* I also found the first few times that if I flipped him over on his
stomach after I’d put the diaper on, it was much easier to be sure
that the velcro bits were lined up. (I don’t think this matters so
much for fit, but I’m a bit of a neat freak and it always bugged me
if they weren’t lined up.)

I also have to say that our guy has much less diaper rash than he had before we switched to gdiapers and I feel much better that we’re doing good things for the environment and for him. Even Seventh Generation diapers have a lot of issues. 7th Gen are better than regular disposables (for your baby and the environment) b/c of the bleaching process they employ on the absorbant part, but because they are still covered in plastic (even though it’s brown) they still significantly raise the temperature inside the diaper (which has shown links to scrotal cancer) and they still take 500 yrs. to biodegrade. gdiapers uses the same bleaching process as 7th Gen (so it’s better for your baby), but has a soft nylon as the waterproof
barrier (which is breathable and therefore doesn’t raise the temp) and super soft, super cute cotton on the outside (for all to see.)

Also, the people at gdiapers are really nice and helpful. If you are experiencing leaks (or any other problems)…CALL THEM 1.866.55.FLUSH (35874) – they’ll help you out.

Good luck!

Best,
Sarah
(Mom to Felix, 6 months)

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