fluff n. slang term for cloth diaper.

When our daughter was about 3 months old, we invested in a gDiapers “starter kit”. It came with 2 gDiaper covers – Great Orange & Genuine Vanilla Bean – and an assortment of accessories to give us a chance to “test-drive” the system before really jumping in and committing. We LOVED them. While our daughter would still manage poop-tastic messes out of her disposables, everything was ALWAYS contained in the gDiapers. We had struck paydirt and didn’t mind paying the little bit extra for a system that WORKED and helped us feel better about the method of diapering since we weren’t contributing to the massive messes in the landfills any longer.

So … from mediums to larges to potty training and “done”, she’s now 3.5yrs old and a big sister … enter baby brother!

Knowing how I felt about gDiapers ahead of time, we opted to invest in the “smaller” gDiaper versions for him and get started with them right off the get-go. Again we LOVE them and have even moved one step further into the realm of cloth inserts almost 100% of the time. Super, fantastic, awesome!

I love our gDiapers. I love the quality, efficiency, and … drum roll please … the COLOURS!

No, this post isn’t about how great gDiapers actually are – believe me, I’ll be posting about that sometime soon! THIS post is about the crazy trend in the cloth-diapering world of paying insane amounts for retired or limited-edition colours/patterns. It’s shocking to me that people will pay MORE than the original value of a cloth diaper (something our children PEE and POOP in that they wear UNDER their clothes!). The term “gInflation” has been coined by gDiaper enthusiasts and I’ve seen some of their limited edition gPants sell on Ebay and Facebook for sometimes double, triple OR MORE than the original value. There was buzz this past weekend about an Ebay Auction that resulted in one gDiaper cover selling for over $100 because it’s rare and “so hard to find”. WHAT?!

Now, don’t get me wrong. One of the things I love most about cloth diapering is that, with proper care, the diapers retain some value – so you can invest a whole bunch to build up your stash in the beginning, and add to it little by little as you go, and when diapers are no longer needed in your home, you can resell them and actually offset some of your original costs – pure genius! And when raising (and diapering!) kids is expensive enough, this is a SUPER way to balance things out a bit.

And it’s not just gDiapers – many cloth diaper companies release limited-edition prints and then resale forums pop up on Facebook and through other social media outlets and like magic, people start a bidding war over these diapers. Check out this one up for auction today … there’s little less than a day left and it’s one, retired, limited edition, “hard-to-find” print from another cloth diaper company and it’s at $300. For a diaper. One diaper.

I admit freely that I’m a total sucker for the ‘cute prints’, and while I try hard to never pay full price for anything – especially “baby” stuff because babies aren’t babies for very long!! – I have, on occasion, purchased the “cute print” gDiapers at full price. I don’t think I could bring myself to pay MORE than full price for a retired print, but I definitely, secretly pine for them from afar! There’s just something super, duper adorable about a baby bum all decked out in fluffy goodness that makes cloth-diapering mommas kind of nutty (myself included)! This cloth diapering paradigm is one that I strangely yearn to be part of, can’t afford to indulge in, and will never, fully understand …

When it’s all said and done, my kid doesn’t discern. He’ll poop in whatever kind of diaper I put on him and could care less what he looks like in them … perhaps I could learn a thing or two from my 9 month old …