Pinko Magazine Hedonism + Activism

Editor’s Note: ‘Commie Tots’ is a new series highlighting the products and trends for little subversives and their rabble-rousing parents. Up first: gDiapers.

We always try to be an environmentally conscious family. We recycle. We buy organic. We live in an apartment and believe that words like “lawn” and “car” should never be used in polite company. When we had our daughter, we wanted to avoid the waste associated with disposable diapers and use cloth diapers instead. This was a good idea in theory. Reality was a different matter.

For starters, three people in a one bedroom apartment can create a startling amount of laundry. This is especially true when one of them throws up on the sheets every night. (You’d be surprised which one! Or maybe not …) That being said, we still never could get around to doing our laundry. The idea of regularly washing cloth diapers (or more likely storing soiled diapers between laundry days) was a little more than we could handle. Ultimately we relented and ended up using chlorine-free diapers from Seventh Generation. The idea of cloth diapers was tabled indefinitely.

As our daughter got older, we became more and more overwhelmed by the amount of trash we where producing. Some days we would go through as many as ten disposable diapers. It was a ton of trash. It was chlorine-free, all natural trash, but it was still ending up in a plastic bag, in a landfill.

We needed a better solution. We wanted the reduced waste of a cloth diaper, but we could also legitamitley appreciate the ease of a disposable.

Enter … gDiapers.

gDiapers are a “diaper system” consisting of an attractive cloth underpant, a breathable liner and a biodegradable, flushable insert. Yum!

The underpant looks sort of like a baby swimsuit bottom. There are a wide range of colors from “Giggle Pink” and “Goodwill Green” to the infinitely practical (and aptly named …) “Got Chocolate Brown”. Each has Velcro closures that fasten in the back outside of the reach of your child’s curious hands. If you’ve ever heard the stories about children getting their diaper off and doing a little impromptu “repainting” you’ll be able to appreciate the little details like these.

The liner has an almost latex-like feel to it. This is the firewall between the outside world and that which lies beneath. You’ll go through a few of these between laundry days so there are two packaged with every underpant.

The insert itself looks more or less like a regular diaper, minus the waistband and all the cartoon characters. This is the part that will get flushed, chucked or maybe even composted. These are made of all natural fibers and contain tree farmed fluff pulp. If you don’t know what tree farmed fluff pulp is, you aren’t alone. The gDiaper site explains it all here.

Once your precious little one has made it’s adorably “contribution” you simply pull the insert out, tear of the sides and plunk it in the toilet. This part can take a little bit of practice, but isn’t nearly as involved as you might think. Wet diapers are a snap. The liner can be rinsed out by hand (I know, kinda gross) and reused. Soiled ones take a little more care. Have no fear. Both the liner and the underpant can be washed in the washing machine. We have four cloth diapers and 8 liners. That lasts us about a week.

It should be noted that I’ve never used gDiapers with a child younger than a year. I can’t imagine using them with a newborn. Or on myself. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but if your child is pooping more than a few times a day, I wouldn’t recommend them. However, If you’re like me and looking for away to reduce the waste produced when your child produces waste, gDiapers are an easy and fashionable alternative to cloth diapers.

You can find out more here.

You can buy them here and here.

About The Author - Stirling McLaughlin is an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator in New York City. Stirling enjoys vegan baking, expensive sportswear and mustard and relish sandwiches. Stirling lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter. - Visit Stirling's site.