03 6 / 2010

PSA to all moms/dads/friends of new parents: why we switched to hybrid diapers when the time came for us to decide which diapers to use on madeline, all the moms i know and pediatric nurses i work with suggested pampers, so i naturally assumed that pampers would be the best choice for my family as well.  initially, we had a really good run with them- no skin irritations, no leaks, and the wetness indicator really helped us out during those first few weeks of parenthood (when life was nothing but diaper changes… seriously, like, 15 times a day… some days i would have changed her 3 times in 5 minutes).   one day, as i was changing mads, i noticed a gel-like residue in between her girly bits. i am very thorough each and every time i change her, so i know it must have come from the diaper. upon further examination, it appears as though the diaper had “split open” and the insides of the diaper were exposed to my daughter’s skin. normally, this happens when a child is left for too long in a wet diaper, or if the pee load is too much for the diaper to handle. i change madeline more often than i should (the girl HATES a wet diaper… do you blame her?), so i knew neither one of these were the case. basically, the diaper had split open on its own and all i could think about was what if that (toxic) substance got inside her girly bits and caused TSS, or worse… right around that time, we were having numerous “exploding episodes” (remember this? and this? and this?), which were causing her to ruin/me to throw away an outfit a day. after doing some research, i found that cloth diapers would fix the problem.  i’m not going to lie- the thought of cloth diapers realllllly grossed me out at first. one parenting forum suggested a cloth diapering alternative, called gdiapers. that’s when i remembered that melissa had written a blog post on gdiapers so i headed over to her archives to see what she had to say. after reading her review (thank you, m!), i checked out the gdiaper website and i loved what i read. i immediately went out and bought a set of gpants and a pack of disposable inserts and got started.  while they definitely took some getting used to, we finally got the hang of it after a few days, madeline’s “explosions” were no longer an issue, and i had peace of mind knowing that her girly bits were safe.  then we went on vacation. on our last day, we ran out of the disposable inserts and i was unable to find a store that carried them. we bought pampers to keep her dry until we were back home and had access to the inserts again. madeline had the pampers diaper on her for about an hour when she let out a blood-curling scream- one we had never heard before and the face she made brought tears to my eyes. i freaked out, made andy pull the car over, got her out of the car seat, and removed the diaper to find CHEMICAL BURNS ON HER BOTTOM. no joke. the circular marks looked like poison ivy- it was a superficial burn and didn’t go deep into the skin (yet). once we got her calmed down, i googled chemical burns and found out that just that week, pampers had been all over the news for their dry max diapers causing chemical burns (the ones we bought were not the dry max). before we even got home, i filed a formal complaint w/the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and joined some “parents of chemical burn victims group” to prevent this from happening to others. i never want to hear the sound of madeline screaming like that ever again, and i am doing everything in my power to keep it from happening to other children too.  i am a HUGE fan of gdiapers. they are “hybrid” diapers, so unlike a cloth diaper, they are disposable. another issue we had with regular disposables was the amount of diapers we were throwing away a week- it was painful to see bags upon bags of diapers in our trash bins. normal diapers take between 150-500 years to decompose… gdiaper disposable inserts decompose in 50 days.  in our house, we either toss the insert into the toilet (if there’s poop… they break open so they don’t clog toilets) or we put the pee diapers in our compost bin in the backyard. the nutrients in the pee help break down my compost pile, so it is actually more beneficial to compost rather than flush them, which i love.  pros: safe for my baby, safe for the environment, cute as hell, easy to use, less diaper changes, no skin irritation, madeline loves them cons: expensive (i haven’t been able to find them any cheaper than 14.99 for a 40 pack), other people are scared to change her diaper bc they are unfamiliar with gdiapers, takes more time to change her (and dispose of the inserts). overall, the benefits of gdiapers far outweigh the negative aspects. although we are not proud of the circumstances that led us to gdiapers, we sure are glad we switched and have no intention of ever going back to regular disposables. 

PSA to all moms/dads/friends of new parents: why we switched to hybrid diapers

when the time came for us to decide which diapers to use on madeline, all the moms i know and pediatric nurses i work with suggested pampers, so i naturally assumed that pampers would be the best choice for my family as well. 

initially, we had a really good run with them- no skin irritations, no leaks, and the wetness indicator really helped us out during those first few weeks of parenthood (when life was nothing but diaper changes… seriously, like, 15 times a day… some days i would have changed her 3 times in 5 minutes).  

one day, as i was changing mads, i noticed a gel-like residue in between her girly bits. i am very thorough each and every time i change her, so i know it must have come from the diaper. upon further examination, it appears as though the diaper had “split open” and the insides of the diaper were exposed to my daughter’s skin. normally, this happens when a child is left for too long in a wet diaper, or if the pee load is too much for the diaper to handle. i change madeline more often than i should (the girl HATES a wet diaper… do you blame her?), so i knew neither one of these were the case. basically, the diaper had split open on its own and all i could think about was what if that (toxic) substance got inside her girly bits and caused TSS, or worse…

right around that time, we were having numerous “exploding episodes” (remember this? and this? and this?), which were causing her to ruin/me to throw away an outfit a day. after doing some research, i found that cloth diapers would fix the problem. 

i’m not going to lie- the thought of cloth diapers realllllly grossed me out at first. one parenting forum suggested a cloth diapering alternative, called gdiapers. that’s when i remembered that melissa had written a blog post on gdiapers so i headed over to her archives to see what she had to say. after reading her review (thank you, m!), i checked out the gdiaper website and i loved what i read. i immediately went out and bought a set of gpants and a pack of disposable inserts and got started. 

while they definitely took some getting used to, we finally got the hang of it after a few days, madeline’s “explosions” were no longer an issue, and i had peace of mind knowing that her girly bits were safe. 

then we went on vacation. on our last day, we ran out of the disposable inserts and i was unable to find a store that carried them. we bought pampers to keep her dry until we were back home and had access to the inserts again. madeline had the pampers diaper on her for about an hour when she let out a blood-curling scream- one we had never heard before and the face she made brought tears to my eyes. i freaked out, made andy pull the car over, got her out of the car seat, and removed the diaper to find CHEMICAL BURNS ON HER BOTTOM. no joke. the circular marks looked like poison ivy- it was a superficial burn and didn’t go deep into the skin (yet). once we got her calmed down, i googled chemical burns and found out that just that week, pampers had been all over the news for their dry max diapers causing chemical burns (the ones we bought were not the dry max). before we even got home, i filed a formal complaint w/the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and joined some “parents of chemical burn victims group” to prevent this from happening to others. i never want to hear the sound of madeline screaming like that ever again, and i am doing everything in my power to keep it from happening to other children too. 

i am a HUGE fan of gdiapers. they are “hybrid” diapers, so unlike a cloth diaper, they are disposable. another issue we had with regular disposables was the amount of diapers we were throwing away a week- it was painful to see bags upon bags of diapers in our trash bins. normal diapers take between 150-500 years to decompose… gdiaper disposable inserts decompose in 50 days. 

in our house, we either toss the insert into the toilet (if there’s poop… they break open so they don’t clog toilets) or we put the pee diapers in our compost bin in the backyard. the nutrients in the pee help break down my compost pile, so it is actually more beneficial to compost rather than flush them, which i love. 

pros: safe for my baby, safe for the environment, cute as hell, easy to use, less diaper changes, no skin irritation, madeline loves them

cons: expensive (i haven’t been able to find them any cheaper than 14.99 for a 40 pack), other people are scared to change her diaper bc they are unfamiliar with gdiapers, takes more time to change her (and dispose of the inserts).

overall, the benefits of gdiapers far outweigh the negative aspects. although we are not proud of the circumstances that led us to gdiapers, we sure are glad we switched and have no intention of ever going back to regular disposables. 

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