gCloth: Product Review

July 7, 2010 update: A few additional tips: Double up the cloths during naptime and you’re far less likely to need to wash the gPants. In additional, we’ve found a much better brand of liners than Kushies, which were narrow enough that they would bunch up and not actually cover the cloth: Bambino Mino. They’re also softer than the Kushies!

And lookit the little gBum!

May 18, 2010 update: We’ve started using gDiapers around the clock, doubling up the disposable inserts at night. Works like a charm, and no more disposable diapers!

Sometime during the Jurassic era of parenting, I posted about our beloved gDiapers, a fantastic apartment-and-earth-friendly alternative to disposable diapers. While they’re a bit of work—especially when the Agent of Chaos wearing them is pooping 24/7—they’re also totally worth it, in my opinion. They’re easy to get used to, treat sewage as sewage, and best part? No stink in a small apartment. Before she moved on to solid foods, we became pros at our gDiping-system:the liquid poo would often stain the liner, so we kept a small tub of borax-mixed water behind the toilet to soak the gPants and liners; even so, six liners and four gPants were all we needed. Once she moved on to solid food and the solids became a little more solid, even easier—fewer messes, fewer stained liners, fewer dishpan hands. (Full review here.)

Fast forward nine months. She’s been out longer than she’s been in. Her nursery is much cuter. She’s starting to get mobile, although it’s still mostly in a backward direction. Once a week, we dump out the trash can from her nursery, packed to the rim with wet gDiaper inserts. Yes, we still throw some away—we always flush the solid-waste inserts, but we give into convenience on the wet ones, mostly because we know they’ll decompose within 150 days in the trash, anyway. But RocketMan’s been doing some calculating and ruminating, and the true environmentalist in him speaks up: “That’s 40 cents a pop.”

Because it’s true, folks: we’d all be environmentalists if we were as cheap as a Yankee. (Or in his case, the descendants of Yankees.) Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the three R’s through the eyes of my husband:

• Reduce: “Do we HAVE to change her diaper every time?”
• Reuse: “Wash off the aluminum foil. It’s still good.”
• Recycle: “I’m using my old sock as a dustrag!”

I’m grateful for his tendencies; as the child of a baby boomer who thinks it’s his right to keep his bedroom at subzero temperatures in the summertime, I’ve grown to enjoy the more frugal style of life, especially since life in San Francisco doesn’t come cheaply. Better still, I don’t laugh at my grandmother any more for saving soy sauce from Chinese takeout. We might just save them up, tear them all open and pour their contents into a bottle occasionally.

So at the end of each week, a little something in RocketMan’s heart would wilt when he lugged the bag of 42-50 diaper inserts to the trash room. (In the spirit of full disclosure: we do use 7 disposables a week. Huggie Overnights are our saving grace for a baby who will take any excuse to wake up and express her displeasure.) We began looking into using a cloth diaper service, but again, the idea of requiring a Diaper Genie scared us both off a bit, as did the commitment. We might still take that route; you’ll read about it if we do.

A few weeks ago while perusing the shelves of the Mission’s premiere crunchy baby store, I saw a pack of six gCloths for $27 and figured, eh, what the heck. It’s low commitment, and if the idea of dealing with a poopy cloth diaper is too much, we can wait to use them until after her morning constitutional. A week later I bought two more packs and a roll of Kushies, flushable diaper liners that protect the cloth from the bulk of the solid waste so it peels into the toilet, neat as you please. They feel a little rough at first, but she’s had no problem with them. We started using the Kushies in her overnights, as well, so we’re no longer putting poop in the landfills.

After two weeks, we’ve more or less gotten our new system down, with some hiccups. Firstly, we only have 18 refills, so we’re thoroughly rinsing them and hanging them to dry after each use. gDiapers recommends six washes before wearing, as the hemp filling becomes more absorbent with soaking (to which I must ask, why doesn’t gDiapers do the washing for me?). Since we pay for our laundry with quarters and don’t want to hog the machine for six cycles, we’re currently tossing them in a bucket of clean water for a few hours, as well. Once a week, all the gCloths go in with our regular laundry.

The Cons

• It’s a little more work for us. I say “for us” because if you’re tossing them in a wet or dry bucket after using, you’re not dealing with any of the immediate cleaning/soaking that we do. But keep in mind the Prime Directive: no lingering stink in the apartment.
• They leak a little more. This is our fault: cloth diapers need to be changed more frequently. Everyone says so. So when we’re a little late on the uptake (i.e., she’s sleeping on her stomach with the gCloth), she’s more prone to leakage. We’ve started doubling them up during naptime, which is what gDiapers recommends.
• We’re reusing diapers that have not been through the washing machine. This might royally gross out some of my readers, but we’re not sweating it. We’re hand-washing after each use, and I’m confident that we’re getting them clean, or else I wouldn’t put it back on the baby. Eventually we’ll probably buy more gCloths so at most, they’re getting 1.5 uses a week (as opposed to the current 2 uses). And we’re not reusing the solid waste diapers. (If you’re thinking, “Why not do laundry more often?” you probably don’t live in a building of 56 apartments and two washing machines.)
• We’re using more water. Proponents of disposables often mention this as a reason not to use cloth diapers; it’s true, we’re using more water. But San Francisco’s responsible with its water use, so I feel comfortable knowing that sewage is sewage, and graywater will be treated. And I won’t be leaving 42 diapers a week to pile up for my descendants.

The Pros

• Fewer worries about contributing to waste.
• Using fewer resources in general. (Compare making one gDiaper insert every time she pees to making one gCloth insert for six months.)
• Last, but not least, RocketMan’s favorite reason: cheaper. Every day I come home from work and he says, “We saved $2 today!” Or “We saved $1.60 today!” Of course, we haven’t actually earned out the $75 we’ve spent on gCloths yet. We figured that’ll take about two months, and it’s likely we’ll continue using the flushable inserts when we go out or visit friends. But we’re $14.00 closer to the goal of making our money back. Save the earth, save some cash.