Internal Gussets: Yay or Nay?
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In the race to be innovative and have your diaper design stand out in a crowd, there are now more cloth diaper features than you can shake a stick at. Some are fantastic innovations that make your cloth diapering experience easier, and others are . . . well . . . not so much.
Now we have All-in-Ones, front loading pockets, back loading pockets, All-in-Twos, and the list goes on and on. One of the items on that list is the internal gusset. You may be familiar with this feature in diapers from Rumparooz, old school Funky Fluff, Glow Bug, and more.
What is an internal gusset?
An internal gusset is a row of elastic within the inner lining of a cloth diaper that runs parallel to the leg elastic. Some are just a row of elastic, as seen in the Funky Fluff. Others are almost a pocket on the inside of the diaper. Others are almost a pocket on the inside of the diaper which is the mother of all internal gussets.
Behold, the Poo Fence!
Pros
- internal gussets are supposed to keep poo contained better within the diaper
- they may be especially helpful with newborn baby poo
Cons
- spraying poo out of them is a nightmare
- They may require a second wash
My opinion:
In all honesty, I have never had a poo explosion in a cloth diaper whether they had internal gussets or not. In my opinion, I just don’t see much of a benefit to cloth diapers with internal gussets. Plus I really, really don’t like cleaning poo out of them and I have been known to mutter choice words under my breath while spraying them clean. Because of this I only use them when I know that Dub isn’t going to poop. Kind of defeats their purpose, doesn’t it?
Because of this I only use them when I know that Dub isn’t going to poop which kind of defeats their purpose, doesn’t it?
What do you think? Do you like them or is it ixnay on the ussetsgay for you, too?
On one hand… they can be a pain to clean up. On the other hand, when Eudora was starting solids, I gave her a whole jar of prunes. Oops. The entire day was just massive liquid mess. Double gusset diapers were able to contain it. Single gussets? Not so much. But my kids tend to have ploppable poo when they get bigger, so double or singles don’t make a difference for us.
For the newborn stage, we used prefolds and Thirsties duo wraps and never had blowout issues. I guess I like external gussets over the inner ones!
I LOOOOOOVE internal gussets! We have some older Glow Bugs that we bought for my daughter when she was a noobie, and then when she was on solids and such they were a nightmare, but now I have a son who has newborn poops again and I love them again! They’re great! If you’re into getting two different stashes (a “newborn-solids” stash and a “when they’re older” stash) then they’re great!
Gro-via also has some internal gussets, sort of, but they’re better than regular internal gussets for getting out solid/toothpaste poop.
I’d love to try the new 360 gusset in Glow Bugs, sometime. But the Glow Bugs I have from before are all delaminated. They started delaminating as soon as I got them, and they assured me that it was an isolated incident . . . but then the ones they sent me to replace the first ones also delaminated. So I’m not sure if I want to go through that frustration again. :/
I’ve had that Glow Bug for about a year now and haven’t had any problems with it. Overall I like it much better than the old style Glow Bug that I used to have.
Hmmm…right now I absolutely love them. But I am diapering an EBF 5 month old. I guess my opinion might change in a few months! I always reach for them when we are going out because they really do help keep her explosive poos contained!
I’ve heard that they work well with explosive EBF poo. I have never used them on a newborn personally and may like them better in that situation.