Flannel fitted cloth diaper that I made a couple of years ago. I used unbleached cotton flannel, bamboo terry, zorb and a flannel print for this one.  It’s one of the most asked about cloth diaper I’ve ever made.  It must be the beautiful print :)

Did you know you can use gDiaper inserts with cloth diaper covers?  Since my daughter never seems very comfortable in her gPants (the gDiaper cover), I recently decided to try the disposable gDiaper insert (gRefill) with a Bummis PUL cover.  It worked great and my daughter did not try to remove the diaper like she does her gDiapers.  So, whenever I’ll need to use a disposable I’ll probably use a gRefill with a cloth diaper cover such as Bummis or Thirsties.  I haven’t tried it with wool and fleece covers, but I assume it’ll work just as well.  I do wonder though, what the wool and fleece covers might absorb from the gRefill.

I tried the gRefill with a Bummis cover at night as well and it worked great.  I did use a wide Zorb doubler along with the gRefill because I’ve heard one gDiaper insert is not enough for night-time – whoever said it was right because the doubler was quite wet in the morning.  I could have used two gRefills, but that would create extra waste which I’m not comfortable with.

I ended up using the refills with a PUL cover two nights in a row because we’ve had a hard time getting rid of my daughter’s yeast rash.  Usually, I use bamboo fleece fitteds with wool covers, even when my daughter has rashes.  If she does have a rash, it usually heals quickly thanks to the fitteds and wool, but this rash has been really stubborn.  I wonder if potty training had something to do with it since she hasn’t been wearing very absorbent diapers anymore.  Anyway, I decided to try disposable diapers because I wanted my daughter to be as dry as possible between changes since as you probably know, yeast loves moisture.  Well, it turns out disposables do not help heal yeast rashes, the rashes stay the same or get worse.  So, the next thing I decided to try was the gRefill with a PUL cover that has been neglected for at least a couple of months.  I was happy to discover that her rash did look better in the morning.  I suspect the gRefill and cloth diaper combination is more breathable than a disposable diaper which sped up the healing process.

So, if you do like gRefills, but not the gPants, you can get out your PUL covers and start using those with the disposable refills whenever you can’t (or don’t want to) use a cloth diaper.

Zorb(TM) is one of Wazoodle’s DiaperMaker fabrics.  According to the manufacturer, “Zorb absorbs 10x its weight in less than half a second — that’s 20x faster than cotton, bamboo or hemp. Zorb has incredible holding power too, a single layer holds up to 3 times the moisture of the best absorbing knits”.  How could that not make you want to try this new fabric?

The popularity of Zorb has been on the rise.  A lot of cloth diapering moms think it’s a solution to their night-time cloth diapering problems.  Some think it’s miracle cloth… at least until they try it.

As a lot of you know, I make Zorb doublers.  The doublers are actually made of two layers of OekoTex certified bamboo fleece and one layer of Zorb.  I think a lot of people forget about the bamboo fleece part of the doubler.  They forget that bamboo fleece itself is very absorbent (after several washes of course), that Zorb alone does not do all the hard work.

Zorb(TM) and Bamboo Fleece Doubler

Here are some pros and cons of using Zorb that I’ve experienced:

PROS:

• Quite absorbent
• Does not retain odours
• More cushy than bamboo fleece by itself
• Cheaper than bamboo, hemp and organic cotton.

CONS:

• I hate sewing with it.  I find that I’m spending more time serging Zorb doublers than bamboo fleece only doublers.  I also tend to make more mistakes when sewing with Zorb than without.
• I find the absorbency of one layer to be comparable to that of two layers of the thinner bamboo fleece.  Note that 1 layer of Zorb is approximately as thick as 2 layers of my thinner bamboo fleece.
• It’s not made of natural fibres only.  Might not bother most cloth diapering people out there, but it does bother me a little.  If you looked at my diaper stash, you’d see that most of my diapers are made of natural fibres only.

So, what do you think about Zorb?  What has been your experience with it?