I see there’s a flushable diaper in town. My town, to be precise. gDiapers are based in Portland, OR, where clean, green living is ingrained. Flushable diapers hold the promise of not choking the landfills for the next 500 years (the time it takes a traditional disposable to degrade. They are not bleached with dioxins and the ingredients get “re-absorbed back into the eco-system in a neutral or beneficial way.” You can even compost them (JUST the wet ones though). The flushables are manufactured in the USA from sustainably farmed trees made into fluffed wood pulp. The covers are cotton and elastene, the diaper liners are breathable polyurethane coated nylon, not PVC. They are made in China, though under China Labour Watch, and the company claims to be continually looking for ways to improve working conditions of their labor force. They sound like an eco-Mom’s dream come true (well, after a full night of sleep and one uninterrupted, non-baby related conversation).

When my daughter was a baby we had a three-month go at cloth diapers, then when we couldn’t get rid of thrush I tried Tushies and Seventh Generation. Tushies, which are bleached white without dioxins and have no super-absorbent gel, were OK, but felt kind of cheap and rough. And this is one time I didn’t want to opt for a more rustic choice in order to be environmentally sound. So we tried Seventh Generation, which are fashionably unbleached, but do use a Super Absorbent Polymer (as do gDiapers) which they assert is non-toxic, not carcinogenic, and non-irritating to the skin. They worked great – comfortable, it was easy to tell when she was wet, didn’t leave her sweaty, and never gave her a rash. The kraft paper brown peaking out of her onesie gave me an air of self-satisfaction. And any time I started feeling foolish for paying a premium price for diapers and opted for a regular, dioxin bleached, high absorbency diaper -- wham, instant diaper rash. So we stayed with Seventh Generation until she potty trained herself before she was 2 ½ (I know, we’re blessed).

But flushable gDiapers seemed so great, I asked my neighbors, with adorable, chubby baby Gabe, to try them. Sharon and Scott assessed their flush and determined they were good candidates for flushables. I got a starter kit: two very cute diaper covers (green and blue), four diaper insert holders, ten diapers and one swish stick. The diaper covers have a little “g” on the back, so if your baby has a G name it is especially cute. Baby Gabe is stylin’. And Baby Gabe’s folks loved the diapers, with a few exceptions. Sharon suggests if you’re going to use them, get at least four diaper covers, with the accompanying eight liners. The covers are thick and take awhile to dry; if you have two poop diapers in the same day you may be stuck with one dirty cover and one not yet dry. Have a convenient changing table set up, with space for several pre-assembled liners with flushables to just snap into the diaper cover. The post-diaper change ritual is more time consuming than disposables, and Sharon, as the voice of experience, says, "Don’t hurry when you swish -- do it right or you will have a clog." It’s a mind-adjustment, since everything takes a little longer. And since you have to take the flushable out, rip it and dump the contents into the toilet, it’s not so easy to ignore the pee or poop -- you have to deal with it when it happens or you’ll really have a mess. Of course, if you are composting them, you could do as Sharon’s friend does and have a diaper compost pail and deal with the wet diapers later. The considerably higher cost of gDiapers is daunting, but even with the drawbacks Sharon said it felt great to use them, knowing that it wasn’t so bad for the earth.

If you are pregnant, I’d suggest giving it all a try before you get your little G home. Assemble the diaper inserts and learn the flushing technique now while your brain is intact. Then you’ll be less likely to run to Huggies and bequeath your tot’s 8,000 disposables to the next 16 generations.

Image: gDiapers.com

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gDiapers

Cost: Starter kit $24.99, Flushable refills $14.49 (40 small, 32 medium/large, bulk cases also available at a discount).

Where to Buy: Whole Foods, many local health food stores, and online at the incredibly informative website