gDiaper redesign comparison and review

On August 1, 2007 gDiapers released a new version of their product. In the following pictures the green diaper is the old version and the cream one is the new version. The pictures of Del modeling the product also include one of him in a small old version (the blue one). And for those who wonder, the mark on Del's thigh is his birthmark.

First, some side-by-side comparisons:

Side-by-side

An original gDiaper on top of a redesigned one, long-tab-end lined up you can see how the old one bowed at the non-tab end, new style lays flatter because the entire waistband is elastic similar to that found on adult men's underwear instead of fabric with elastic inside at the middle like the old ones.

A redesigned gDiaper laying open without the liner snapped in (the inside fabric on the ones from the starter kits is printed with words that start with the letter g)

Original and redesigned gDiapers, with liners snapped-in and a flushable insert inserted.

Close-up of the rear fasteners of both the original and redesigned gDiapers. Notice that there is a slight gap between the two kinds of velcro on the new version - this allows for a nicer fold without bending the velcro as was required by the original design, possibly reducing how much lint gets into the scratchy part of the velcro in the wash.

Close-up of the same parts of the diaper, folded over for laundering - you can see (though it's a little blurry) that the new design folds with a better "seal" on the velcro, hopefully limiting lint access.

The front tabs open, same change was made with the velcro here - there's a small space between the two different sides of the velcro

And again with being folded over, there's a tighter connection on the full length of the tab with the new design, whereas there was a slight gap at the fold that could allow lint in on the originals.

The label on the pants has also been changed, before it was on a tag and now it is tagless and printed in black, making it easier to read (the original tags get hard to read after a few washings, the text color was too light). The liners on the new diapers still have tags like the old liners, only visual difference is the orange snaps (though the difference is also decernable by touch - the new liners are much smoother on the pant-side and have a distinct texture on the insert-side, whereas the original liners feel pretty much the same inside and out).

My sweet little 8 week old babe in an original small gDiaper (this was the first clear picture I ever caught of him smiling, incidentally)

Same sweet baby a few minutes later in the original medium from the above photographs

And my sweetie in the redesigned medium from above. Don't take his progressively sour facial expressions as the baby's review of the product - this picture was taken a few minutes after the green diaper one, and he was getting a little annoyed at being re-diapered repeatedly!

So, overall, I think I prefer the redesigned ones. They feel nicer in the hand, and I think the elastic of the waistband will be easier to pull down when doing Elimination Communication. The preference isn't really strong though at this point. That may change once Del is actually big enough for mediums - he's hovering right around 13lbs right now, and original smalls are "advertised" as fitting 6-13lbs while the mediums of both styles are supposed to start fitting at 13lbs. I didn't feel that he had a good enough seal around the leg yet when I checked with the new mediums (Liam was crawling around and I had to move fast to protect the camera so I didn't get a chance to check the original mediums but they do feel like they're a little closer to fitting him). The old pants can be used without the snap-in liner (and I've done that a lot when our homemade cloth inserts are all in the laundry and I resort to using rectangle-folded prefolds - I find they are too bulky in the snap-in liners so I just lay the folded up rectangle on top of the pants with the front extra length folded over and velcro the pants over it). Since the new design has no waterproofing in the outer pants at all, unless you're REALLY just using them as EC training pants and WANT to know as soon as the kid wets (and potentially wind up doing much more laundry), they're gonna need the snap-in liner in them.

I wish I'd gotten a small diaper of the new design to get a better idea of how the fit differs, I thought Del was closer to growing out of the smalls than he is apparently, so I can't really give a full review of how well they work - any mediums are likely to be leak-fests on him right now I suspect, so it wouldn't be a fair review. I'll update this when he's older as I have many more original gDiapers than new ones to keep in rotation.

Oh, and someone on the gDiapers Yahoo Group mentioned that they thought that the new liners were stiffer/noisier than the original ones. I suspect that the issue they're noticing is because their original ones have been washed and the redesigned ones hadn't been yet. I used my camera phone to shoot a video of myself handling 2 fresh-from-the-box liners, one original and one with the new improved waterproof fabric, and I found that the new one is actually slightly quieter unless you're rubbing the textured inside part directly across itself. I can't get the embed feature to work right now (still learning how to use Drupal, the software running this site). To watch the video go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=ebDPUaQjmhA (clicking this link will navigate you away from this site).

Update:
We've now been using gDiapers for a bit more than 6 months, no other diapers even as backups since early August (it is mid-January as I write this). We absolutely love them. Del finally sized into mediums in the old style around Halloween I think, around 14.5-15lbs at 4 months old. Between when I wrote the original review and then we had transitioned into the mediums by keeping him in smalls during the day when he was changed/pottied more frequently and the mediums at night with an extra insert so we could get as much sleep as possible (we're still only ECing for poops, will try for pees when it's warm enough to have less clothing on him). The new style moves significantly more on a semi-mobile baby than the old style does, which can result in leaks out between th e legs sometimes. Our household preference is the old style during the day when Del is rolling/scootching/insisting-he's-about-to-crawl around the floor (which results in the body of the gPants moving all over the place, and the waist a bit too since it's not quite as snug). The new style works better than the old style at night though, especially now that he's sleeping 8 hours at a stretch at night but has turned into an absolute pee factory some nights (where the heck did this kid come from? My first didn't sleep more than 2-3 hours at a stretch until he was over a year!). The old style liner, when really saturated, WILL leak onto the pant waterproofing (and sometimes wick up to the waistband for an all-out leak, but those diapers were so wet I think even a premium disposable would have leaked). The new style doesn't suffer from that problem, only the snap-in liner will need rinsing.

As for washing, my predictions about the velcro for the most part held true, though my orange new style's elastic got chewed in the wash a bit first time through (was washed in a laundry bag with a lot of the old style ones in there, which is what I think did it - probably would have been better off if they were just tossed into the laundry instead of bunched together). The new style does stay folded-over closed in the wash better than the old style does, and the wasteband around the velcro doesn't suffer from the rolling that the old style is prone to. The noisiness issues with the liners that others reported have become unnoticeable after repeated washings, just required a "breaking in" period and now they're pretty much as silent as the old liners. The colors at least in the starter pack (which is all I have of the new style) make it hard to tell if any fading has occurred, the only color that I have noticed significant fading with are my old style red pants and the Hawaiian print ones (which I received used from other gParents on the gDiapers yahoo group - hi guys, yes I'm still alive, just been insanely busy and exhausted).

Overall, my recommendation for a baby at the stage mine is (rolling all over the floor, trying to "army crawl", sitting unassisted, about 18lbs when naked) is to have both on hand if you can manage to get old style ones in good condition. I think the new style will be my preference as he gets a little bigger. This will be especially true if they come out with some new cute prints (ahem... paisley and plaid... that's my suggestion ;) ).

Oh, and after 6 months of usage, I see no difference in function putting the diaper on with tabs to the front vs. tabs to the back. We're more likely to put them on toward the front in public or when Del is sleepy, only really putting them on with tabs to the back when he's REALLY wanting to be on his tummy. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the advertising them of fastening in the back is a "gimmick", I think the option to put them on either way is actually very advantageous over other diapers.