Someone recently asked me if I'd done any research on biodegradable diapers. Her cloth-diaper service is shutting down after 20 years, and she's distraught over the thought of throwing disposable diapers in the trash. She asked if I'd heard of "biodegradable disposable diapers." I hadn't (again, no children), but I'm always wary of a disposable product that claims to be biodegradable. Matt and I watched one of his science shows a few nights ago (or, as Baltimoreans would say, we "looked at" one of his science shows), and some students were doing an archeological dig in a landfill. They unearthed a newspaper from the Nixon administration! A 40-year-old newspaper! What's more biodegradable than paper? But if a material isn't exposed to oxygen, it just won't biodegrade.With no cloth-diaper delivery service and the distressing truth that something can't be both disposable and biodegradable, I ended our conversation feeling defeated. So I did some research. Maybe some of you with little boos have already heard of gdiapers. It looks like the old-school flushable liners my mom used to use, but upgraded so poo doesn't ooze everywhere (though the price seems pretty upgraded, too). Their promotional video alone is enough to guilt me into trying them one day:
I'm a bit out of the baby-product loop, though, so what does anyone who has changed a diaper this decade think? Does this look like a viable alternative, or the equivalent of snake oil for guilty parents? It looks like there are several similar options out there (Kushies Diapers, for example) though they all appear to be equally pricey.
Of course, there's always this less-conventional route...
4 comments:
Hey, I knew you would be able to help! Those gdiapers look fascinating. They seem cost-efficient, minimal effort (which is why we can't wash our own right now), and seemingly eco-friendly. We are going to research that option.
We did talk about washing our own. We just don't see how we can do that. We are barely keeping up with our daily tasks as is. Add my return to commuting, and we have even less time to do normal laundry. I haven't swept the kitchen floor in weeks... We can't imagine adding the work of washing diapers twice a week. It's more complicated than just throwing them in the wash. Grrrr....
Oh, and the whole EC thing (elimination communication)? I know a few people who do it. I thought the CNN piece was a bit harsh. It's not potty "training" for parent convenience, because it's not about teaching your baby to use a toilet. It's responding to your baby's cues in order to be able to catch their waste in a bucket instead of a diaper. It requires a LOT of one-on-one time with your child. I do not see how it would ever work for families with parents working outside the home.
Anyway, thanks for the tip!
I wish I had more time to devote to this topic - but we do disposables and are adding to the landfills.
I watched both of those clips, though, and they were both interesting. I've heard quite a bit about Elimination Communication - and as far as I'm concerned it's "Parent Training", not potty training. If it works for people, great... but if it's stressing them out - I'd say go back to the diapers.
I really like the laid back, child-led route that Dr. Brazleton talks about - I read his book "potty training the Brazleton way" and have followed most of his suggestions successfully. I also read some of the more aggressive potty training books and found them very off-putting.
I'm having my own diapering dilemma, and I was set to use cloth, and I think I still, but I'm going to look again at gdiapers. Many of the reviews I read said they are horrible with poop. Maybe with a toddler it wouldn't be so bad?
Thinking back to my diaper-changing days when I babysat non-stop in high school, I would think solid toddler poo would be better with these than liquid infant poo. I'll be curious to hear what Rebecca thinks of them.
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