Before all the environmental vegans get on the defense we cloth diaper. However, no one at Gro-via will tell you when you invest in their diapers that if you buy Velcro closure tabs instead of snaps that their lifespan is about 15-18 months and then you have to pay them once again ($5 a diaper…after initially paying $17 per diaper SHELL to start with!) to convert the Velcro to snaps. I do wish someone would have told me this as I never would have wasted money on Velcro to begin with but I digress. So our 28 Gro-via shells are on their way to the company to have the shells converted to a snap closure.

So in preparation for sending them off, as I don’t see a point in doing them in sets since it takes 10-12 days might as well do it all at once, I researched the “best” diapers to use in the meantime. Not only were there rave reviews by independent bloggers, moms and a company that JUST tests out diapers and reviews them, but I was sold on the ingredients.

Seventh Generation has a new line called “Like Cloth” and Honest Company has “premium Eco-friendly disposable diapers.” The other reason we wanted to check out diapers is because the Gro-via diapers are for 10 lbs and up and likely our newborn (see the last post) will need disposables until they can wear cloth. Gro-via used to sell their own disposables, which we used with Ellie, but for some reason they discontinued them.

Anyway. Those two brands basically looked pretty good and with them both available atTarget aka my favorite place I could compare and read the list of ingredients too. Now let me say I have always been a fan of Seventh Generation. Until Ellie was born and we took our first trip away where we used disposable wipes. We usually use Charlie Banana cloth wipes in a wipes warmer and we just put water and coconut oil on them. All natural for my baby! So when we went away when she was 4 months old and used the Seventh Generation wipes I couldn’t have ever known her poor bum would turn beet red and have a severe reaction to the chemicals in their wipes. We ended up using Burt’s Bees wipes as the ingredients looked better than what we had used. Thankfully they don’t irritate her bum but I still wanted something less icky for my babies. The Honest Co. Wipes were $1 for a 10 pack at Target so we gave them a whirl. I have to say they are THE softest wipes we have used and they are thick too. I currently only have them in her swim bag, but when we run out of the Burt’s Bees we will go to the Honest brand.

(AGAIN A DISCLAIMER FOR MY ENVIRONMENTAL VEGANS…we have bought literally those three packages of wipes. And the Burt’s Bees wipes have less than half used and my girl is 16 months! We believe in our environment!) So the diapers!!

So Sunday we had to do a load of wash and I figured we should launder and then mail the diapers on Monday to Gro-via for the snap conversion. I ordered Honest Co. Diapers on Target.com as they had a deal and we paid $22.88 for a pack of 68 diapers. Thanks to my Target red card and my 5% savings all the time!! So Sunday began the test. We had heard how so many disposables leak. Not just at night but with BIG poops. And hello, we are vegan, my kid eats 99% plant based diet and a bit of tofu, Gardein, Tofurkey, Field Roast Grain Co., etc. So we have HUGE poops. The last cloth diaper poop she had I was sure would almost have been what I have heard described as a “blowout” where the poop shoots up the back, front, or both of the baby, if I hadn’t changed it sooner because it was centimeters away from leaving the safety of the diaper shell. Obviously leaks and blowouts terrified me. We have had leaks (we also have to replace the leg elastics in all the shells when they get back from Gro-via but don’t get me started on that!) but never ever a blowout or poo-splosion. I was nervous.

Sunday we had a long day with my bestie’s bridal shower and the diapers didn’t seem to cause ANY irritation and they don’t smell NASTY like I recall disposables smelling. Then there is the absorption. These things hold liquid. MAN do they hold it. She had 0 leaks all day. Then after 13 + hours (12 1/2 hours of sleep plus falling asleep and waking up) of the same diaper Monday morning gave me a BIG diaper and a BIG poop. NO leaks.

Now it’s Tuesday evening and we have had 0 leaks, loads of big poops and pees and not one single issue. No bum irritation, no anything. I have to say this cloth mama is SUPER impressed. If it weren’t for the environmental impact of disposables and the cost (our stash of cloth was $800 up front which paid itself back within 90 days of cloth diapering) of them versus cloth I have to say I would switch. Of course they are easy since you toss them, but they are soft and great quality.

Literally THE only downside and it’s actually quite funny, is the diapers are SO thin in comparison to her cloth diapers that she has a teeny tiny bootie now and I have had to dig out old clothes as the current ones she is wearing literally fall off her bottom half. Gerbie (my nickname for my beautiful sunshine girl) is 30 1/2 inches tall and weighs 20 lbs. She is long and lean. And now she clearly looks it and has a tiny bootie. It’s so cute.

Honest Company has really impressed me. Now I can only dream that before April of 2015 they will design a cloth diaper with a snap in insert, like my Gro-via all in two diapers, and I would switch to them. They have won me over for temporary use.

For earth friendly Mamas at least these diapers have natural ingredients for the most part and aren’t nasty petroleum, plastic crap. I highly recommend them. I STILL recommend cloth because I think it is worth our kids having natural fibers on their skin and helping our environment as much as possible.

Let me know about your diaper experiences, cloth and disposables!