And the Cloth Diaper Award goes to….

GroVia All In One with an assist from gCloth! I love this diaper and want to share. It can be really hard to find a cloth or hybrid diaper that fits well, doesn’t leak and keeps moisture away from baby’s skin. Did you think accomplishing all of these tasks was impossible? Think again!

GroVia (formerly GroBaby) has made this momma happy. I have great things to say about gDiapers but I couldn’t find a combo with my G’s that made it through most nights on my SON (boys are much harder to diaper) without a leak. GroVia changed that – but not without some help from gCloth!

GroVia’s AIO (all in one) diaper is made from great soft fabric. It has super stretchy side tabs which make for a comfortable fit. It is a one size diaper that grows from infant to toddler with three different snaps on the front to change the rise, along with snaps on the side tabs for waist size. The entire inside (except the waist tabs) is lined with organic cotton. It has one soaker sewn into the back of the diaper only. This allows you to use a second soaker (which comes with the diaper) by snapping it to the bottom of the first soaker. Greater absorption for bigger babies. Why not just sew all the soakers together? By keeping the soakers free to detach except in one spot, GroVia created a AIO diaper that is completely dry in one dryer cycle. That is pretty much unheard of. Yet again, creating a diaper that is better for the environment by consuming less energy to dry it. Cheers to you GroVia! (I understand that it takes NO energy to line dry but many of us can’t wait for our diapers to air dry! Twins people! I’m still blazing through 12-16 diapers a day).

Where does the assist from gCloth come in you ask? Do I ever do things the way the manufacturers might like? No. I have to add my own little twist. I found GroVia’s AIO to be lacking in only one department. When changing a diaper I found my kids skin to feel wet where ever the cloth was wet. Not cool. The double fleece top layer of my gCloth inserts kept them feeling nice and dry so I just added a gCloth as a top layer to my GroVia AIOs. Presto! Fabulous diaper plus a stay dry layer and a little added absorption to top it off (the double layer of hemp on the bottom of gCloth). I do have to make sure the gCloth is tucked in at the legs so that it doesn’t wick moisture out.

Did I mention that my kids sleep 7:30PM until 7:30 AM? I’m not rubbing that in the faces of those mothers out there who are still attempting to sleep train. I’m letting you know that my kids sleep 12 HOURS in ONE diaper! Wohoo!

I also use GroVia’s AI2 (all in two) diaper during the day – yes with my personal modifications… of course. In a previous post HERE I detailed my use of prefolds under a gCloth in the GroVia AI2 shell. More recently I found that if I use the GroVia booster (instead of a prefold) under the gCloth I get enough absorbency and a trimmer fit. It can be really difficult to find a pair of pants to fit an 18 month old with too much junk in the trunk. I’m just sayin’….

P.S. I got all my GroVia diapers on sale. They have great sales and just came out with a whole line of new prints! I also bought the shells alone at a cheaper price since I already had a stock of inserts from other brands.

Hybrid Diaper?!?

When I got pregnant with twins, I started looking into an alternative to disposable diapers. When they were newborn, I changed my little ones up to 12 times a day and now, at 18 months, I change them around 7-8 times a day, EACH. The US alone sells between 18 and 23 BILLION disposable diapers every year. The thought of making my own landfill over the first approximately 2 1/2 years of my two babies lives alone made me ill. I wanted to make you aware that there are options and alternatives! Please know that I am in no way judging the billion moms out there who are using disposables. Most of us go with the flow and use the products that the majority of the population uses.

Options! There’s a Hybrid diaper? I thought hybrids were a car..

Yes, a hybrid diaper is one that can be used in a washable, reusable outer shell. This “insert” or diaper is disposable and some are even flushable! The two hybrid diapers I have experience with are gDiapers and GroVia.

gDiapers have a cloth outer shell with Velcro closures toward the back (so baby has less chance to take them off!). The shell also has a breathable plastic liner that snaps in. You place either a disposable/flushable insert or a cloth insert into this plastic liner. I have had great experience with both inserts. (Note: I do find that it is necessary to make sure the plastic liner is tucked into the highest leg crease to prevent leakage) We used the disposable inserts for our babies first 6 months and then gDiapers came out with a cloth insert, called gCloth. Suddenly, cloth didn’t seem so daunting. I was already washing covers… gCloth inserts are a top layer of fleece with a hemp backing. The fleece leaves baby feeling dryer than any other cloth I have found. So, now we use the gCloth inserts on top of a seperate organic Gerber prefold insert. This “doubling” ensures that I can wait 2-2 1/2  hours between diaper changes without leaks. We still use the disposable inserts when we travel. It’s much less bulky to travel with the disposable inserts than the cloth. gDiapers has a great article on cloth vs. disposables vs. hybrid. Read all about it at: www.gdiapers.com/happy-planet/great-debate

GroVia are wonderful diaper covers as well. Their cloth inserts, which are organic cotton, do not have a fleece top layer so I prefer to use only the outer shell. My gCloth inserts (with the Gerber prefold under) fit just wonderfully in these, which makes for a nice compatibility. The GroVia covers are quick drying (you must hang them dry) and come with a choice of snaps or Velcro closures. They are lined with a water resistant layer, which keeps wetness on the inside. GroVia has many different types of diapers. For more info to to: www.gro-via.com.

So, getting down to business. Cost.

As a baseline for our comparison, you can get 228 size 3 Huggies disposables at Costco.com for $50. The gDiaper shells come individually or in kits. You can save a bit and get 6 “pants” with a case of inserts for about $100 or $16.99 each. gDiapers “pants” come in newborn, small, medium & large, so you have to buy the pants as baby grows. GroVia outer shells are a one size adjustable pant. You can get 6 outer shells and 150 disposable inserts for $125 at Costco.com. Additionally, you can buy 128 GroVia disposable inserts from Costco.com for $60. You can get 160 small disposable/flushable gDiaper inserts for $52 (free shipping from Diapers.com or when auto shipped from gDiapers.com). Yes,  you pay more to save the environment by going with a hybrid disposable diaper. The real money savings is, however, in going cloth. Imagine not paying for diapers every month! The gDiaper cloth inserts are $30 for a pack of 6 and come in small and med/large. The Gerber organic prefolds that I use as a doubler under the gCloth are $12 for a 6 pack at Babies R Us. So, you have a greater up front cost, when buying diaper covers and cloth inserts, but then you’re done!

With two babies I bought 6 packs (for a total of 36) of the gCloth and the Gerber prefolds each. We use the GroVia and gDiaper pants both to keep from creating any pressure points from constant wear. I like having 10 outer shells per baby. You can make do with less, but I like to have one ready in the diaper bag, and I stuff diapers for an entire day at one time.

There are an outrageous number of options for cloth diapers and a few for hybrid diapers. These were just my favorite – so far!

Next Blog – My day to day use and cleaning of Cloth Diapers

See a picture of the diapers mentioned in the last post below.