Cloth Diaper Review

Yesterday I got the privilege of going grocery shopping all alone with no time restraints. Costco was closed, so I ventured out to the local Nugget Market and started my slow perusal down the aisles. In the diaper aisle, I discovered that our local grocery store sold a brand of cloth diapers I've never seen before.

I use cloth diapers because not only are they environmentally sound, they are better in the long run for your budget. My all-time favorites are Fuzzi Bunz with one each of fuzzi bunz and joey hemp inserts. They are not as cheap as using Proraps and Chinese Pre-folds, but not as expensive as name-brand all-in-ones. But these diapers, "g diapers", caught my attention because they seem to be the best of both the cloth and disposable diaper worlds.

I bought the starter kit in size large, which is supposed to fit babies weighing 26-36 pounds. It comes with 2 cloth pants, 10 flushable refills, a plastic stick for swirling in the toilet and a hook to hang said stick. The cost was $24.99 plus some for sales tax. I couldn't wait to try it out since I was thinking to spend $30 on one Fuzzi Bunz diaper.

The appeal for me was the flushable liners, and the reusable cloth pants. They feel like undies and the inside plastic part snaps in and fits around the liner like a fitted sheet on a bed. And when I opened the diaper, I found they put an extra plastic part with each diaper. So at each change you can have a clean liner ready to go.

I put the ensemble onto wiggly Henry, and it seemed a bit big since he's not quite 26 pounds. But the velcro adjusts (and in reading the box for this review I discovered you can put it on backwards so baby can't take the thing off. any experienced mom knows that when they discover they can take the diaper off they usually manage to do it only when they are alone and only when poopy. so SCORE!) and it truly did fit nice and cozy like undies. I loved the design of the inside plastic part, which when stretched fit around the baby booty quite nicely.

After one naptime, the disposable part was pretty wet but not leaky. In order to flush the thing, you are supposed to rip it apart and swirl with the stick and then flush. Well, after having my 5th baby my post-partum depression is manifesting itself in the form of germ-phobia, so after one look at the toilet I decided to just toss it. It's plastic-free and biodegradable so though it's not as green as flushing, tossing it can be earth-friendly. You can even garden compost the wet ones. Now came the next test: nighttime wearing.

I was happy this morning when I checked his clothing after breast feeding. Dry on the outside, a good sign. In changing, the liner was beyond soaked and the pants slightly wet. Henry's onesie was slightly damp around the bottom edges, but not enough for this mother of 5 with mounds of laundry to care. So overall not bad for a nearly 12 hour stint. Putting in an extra liner for the night-time isn't a problem at all.

The next thing I tried is putting a Fuzzi Bunz liner and Joey Hemp Insert into the plastic thing. As we say in the Rosendale household, "Winner winner chicken dinner!" Now I can save the life span of my Fuzzi Bunz pants since they get a little stretchy from being washed and dried. The g diaper pants are cloth, so they are much more durable than the plastic on the Fuzzi Bunz. And, since we are on a corset tight budget, I don't have to buy the flushable refills, which are more expensive than regular disposable diapers.

So overall I am pleased with these diapers and plan to buy more. To read more about g diapers and check out their entire line, go to www.gdiapers.com. Here are my final grades for this product:

Comfort and fit: A (Large fits fine on my 18 pound 5 month old)
Convenience: A
Color and style: A
Accessibility: A (can order online)
Durability: Let you know in a couple months.

on Good Parenting

Considering myself a good parent is a struggle. I feel like I have all kinds of opinions, books, advice, etc thrown at me. I am constantly being pulled in all directions with the expectation that I can take care of it all. And when I do lose it and show my human side I get funny looks in the grocery store, family members with hurt feelings, and a guilty conscience. Well, this being the start of a new year let's start off right by wiping our slate clean of all guilty feelings. So repeat after me:

--I will not feel guilty if the baby spits up on my shirt and I don't change.

--I will not feel guilty if I only take showers two to three times a week.

--I will not feel guilty if I never take my children to the grocery store. And when the marshmallows run out and hubby is working crazy overtime, I will not feel guilty about yelling at them while I am shopping and they are squishing the bags of bread.

--I will not feel guilty for having children. They are blessings, not diseases.

--I will not feel guilty for putting my marriage first, for that is the essential tool to good parenting.

--I will not feel guilty for the noise level, the toy clutter, the handprints on the tv, the little pieces of paper on the carpet, and the use of the dryer as a dresser.

--I will not feel guilty at not being able to do everything that everyone demands of me. Which means I will not feel guilty if I lock the door when I take a shower and I will not feel guilty if I don't share my In'N'Out with the family.

--I will not feel guilty at being slightly overweight while my children are very small. I have the rest of my life to get back to pre-pregnancy weight.

--I will not feel guilty at teaching my older children to help out. "Family first" is an important attitude to have that needs to be made a priority.

--I will not feel guilty for making my children a priority. They might always remember that we had to eat small, boring meals at home. But they will also remember that I was the one who made it for them with love.


Happy parenting, and remember that you have the hardest but most important job in the whole world!

Parenting 101

So I started this blog during my pregnancy for no particular reason except to write down my thoughts. But my thoughts were either depressing or made no sense at all. I blame pregnancy brain. Now, 5 months after the birth of Henry, my brain has started clearing up, life has been returning to normalcy, and I've acquired a new Twitter addiction.

All that to say that I am going to put my Twitter addiction to good use. Instead of just following up on celebrities that I'll never meet in real life, I decided to start tweeting helpful and useful parenting tweets in combo with this blogsite. From now on I'll be available to discuss any and all topics on parenting. And as a mother of 5 I'll be here to let other moms know that they are not alone in the daily grind of raising the world's youth. So let's get this party started!