A Diaper Update/Review

I wrote about my unplanned switch out of cloth diapering here, but that has not turned out to be the end of the story. First off all, sorry about the rant. :) I was venting. My bad.

Second, I have to admit that I was still not 100% pleased with the reality of being back in disposables. Oh sure, they were working out much better, but I hated knowing how environmentally destructive they are (solid waste in a landfill for 500 years seems, to me, worse than an increase in wastewater treatment... the wastewater does actually get treated, after all) and that their processing and creation contains a buttload of chemicals... that then end up on my child's butt. So when Nick and I were at the BX (base exchange, for all you civilians not hip to the DoD lingo) picking up a fresh pack, I saw the Seventh Generation Chlorine Free diapers and decided to give it a try.

7th Gen (as I shall now call them because I'm a lazy typist) diapers are completely free of choring, latex, fragrances, and lotions. That's rather nice, in my mind, because it removes a few things that would otherwise be on my daughters girly bits. They also claim, on their website, to have a "reduced enviornmental footprint", although I'm still not sure what that means. Hey, it's a step in the right direction... not a solution to every problem.

My biggest concern, and the reason I bought only a small package, was how well they would work. I had a bad experience before with the disposable inserts for the Flip system. They claimed to be environmentally friendly and they leaked like crazy. I also was worried about their fit, as I have noticed that different diaper brands seem to very a lot in sizing. Then, I was concerned about closures. Huggies have those cool stretchy little tabs that sort of velcro to the front. In fact, almost every mainstream disposable diaper has these. Still, there a huge degree of variance in how stretchy they are and how well they hold.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Aside from the fact that it looks like my daughter is wearing an unbleached coffee filter, they are almost identical to the Huggies. They fit her perfectly, they are super absorbent, and the side panels stretch nicely and attach securely. As an added bonus, they seem to be marginally gentler on her booty. The last few days she's had a wanna diaper rash threatening her bottom, and now it's gone. I can't totally attribute that to the new diapers, since I also switched to original formula A&D ointment, but I do think that removing one more chemical from the equation can only help.

If you've been considering these diapers, thinking perhaps you could step up the environmental consciousness without having to jump all the way into cloth, I would recommend you go for it. They are slightly more pricey, but not enough to scare the unbleached coffee filters off of me. If my cheap ass is willing to pay it, I'm pretty sure that means they're ok.