You could try a diaper service that does all the washing for you. I think I’d go with disposables to start with if I were you, too.
I haven’t read the whole thread, only skimmed, but I did see up above that someone asked about gDiapers (they’re flushable or compost-able and the website is easily findable to answer the basic questions). We are currently using gDiapers on our third child, who is 20 months old, after having used disposables for the first two. We started with the gDiapers on this one at around 6 months, I think. They are definitely worth checking into, especially given the complexities of competing environmental claims (landfill space vs. chemicals vs. hot water use, etc.–GreenGuide has the best overview article I’ve seen).
Anyway, the biggest pro of gDiapers is that they eliminate diaper smell entirely. You flush away the poop and the diaper insert that was pooped upon, and whoosh, it’s gone. (We use a small number of flushable wipes.) We have no diaper receptacles in the house at all, which is lovely. The biggest con of gDiapers compared to disposables is that you have somewhat more direct contact with pee and poop, as you have to manipulate the diaper insert (tear off the sides, etc.–it’s explained on the website) before flushing it; you can’t just drop the whole thing in and go. (I can’t speak to pros and cons compared to cloth diapers as we never tried those.) Also, we have not had success with gDiapers for overnight use–they just can’t handle my son’s overnight pee output (in fact, not even a regular disposable can handle it–we use a disposable PLUS a gDiaper insert–but that’s another thread entirely!).
Anyway, I would be happy to give more details about gDiapers if anyone in this thread is interested.
Lily Milliner, thanks for the gDiaper info. How about cost? Seems like the gDiapers are considerably more expensive than disposables (and certainly cloth).
We’re sort of 50/50 to the gDiaper/cloth route right now.
To be honest, cost was not our primary concern… we wanted to do right by the environment in our particular area, which has significant water concerns, and we wanted to support a cool new diaper technology.
But, to answer your question, I did a very cursory on-line price check and came up with a price-per-diaper (for Pampers, admittedly a high-end diaper) of about $.34 for the size 5’s that son now wears. At 52 for a carton of 128 flushable refills, gDiapers are .40 per diaper. Now, of course, you do need to invest up-front in the cloth pants and plastic liners, but you don’t need too many of those. So, I would say that gDiapers are slightly more expensive than high-end diapers but not outrageously so. YMMV, of course.
We just gave up the ghost on our old washer, and got a very high efficiency one. I seriously don’t know how it does such a good job on what looks like no water at all. So, I think we’d be better off with the cloth than the gDiapers, from an environmental view even without the economy of scale of a service. This is with absolutely no calculations though!
Appreciate the advice on the gDiapers. Thanks.