Can somebody already please invent something better than a diaper?! I swear, some days I feel like just going to Sears and picking up a wet/dry shop vac to suck up poop off my daughters behind. Disposable diapers have been around, for what 40-400 years now? And regular cloth diapers are just plain nasty to clean, aren't good for parents like me who are always out and about, oh yeah- and they suck for the environment too (spotted owls can't nest in them or something like that...)
Last week my daughter had the nastiest diaper rash, I'm not sure what kind of experiences other parents have had, but this was pretty bad. Her little butt looked like she sat in a can of red paint. The pediatrician prescribed something called "Butt Paste". We laughed, of course, thinking it was an inside joke. Upon picking up the prescription at the pharmacy we were surprised to find out it is in fact called "Butt Paste". Anyhow, we've narrowed it down to either milk or too much fruit that gave her the runs (or medically known as “the squirts”), and the possibility of non-breathable disposable diapers. If you think about it (which I haven't really), that butt is airtight in there.
So we decided to try a part-time, semi-cloth alternative called gDiapers ($20.99 starter kit @ Whole Foods), a new unconventional diaper with cloth covers and a flushable inserts. I must admit, as a designer, the packaging and concept drew me in. It really is an ingenious idea as a middle ground between cloth and disposable diapers. The inserts are flushable and come with a toilet stir stick (But I still threw the liner in the diaper pail for fear it could cause a toilet back-up). They also claim you could "throw the liner in your garden to decompose".... uh, that's pretty disgusting to me and I don’t want the dog digging it up (or the neighbors to think we’re hippies and smell funny). So far, they're working but we're only using them at night for now. But if they leak or aren't super absorbent, those spotted owls are back to nesting in my daughter's diapers once again and I'm going to Sears.