Cloth Diapers?

[whistlebait]

My mother used cloth diapers on me and my younger brother, but kept disposables on hand for trips out. I tend to feel, as she does, that cloth, dispite the added mess, just works better. But although the diapers are easy to find the extras--oversized safety pins and rubber pants are not.

 

[Lena_Horne]

By the time I kept removing my diapers (and apparently disposing of them in a very efficient manner, my mother never found a single one) my mother just decided to potty train me. Ah the days of plastic covers, down with Pull-Ups.

L_H

 

[Dis]

My father worked for a diaper service when I was a kid. I remember going down to the plant on saturdays while he serviced the giant washers and dryers they used. We used to climb into the dryers to pry off the melted plastic pants that people accidentally dumped into their diaper pails.

I used a service for my eldest. I'll never forget the day my son decided to do a huge blowout and I was locked out of the house...

 

[Big Joe]

I thought for a minute I was on the wrong web site.

Big Joe

 

[mysterygal]

I used cloth diapers on my first child for a week, if that...it was just way too disgusting....being a neat freak and having to clean that stuff...was way too much!:eusa_doh: disposables are awesome, they hold unbelievable amounts of...stuff, no leaks and a happy baby

 

[clevispin]

Precious picked up this whole organic thing from her cousin in Germany. Cloth diapers, wooden toys only, Waldorf school etc. Bullsh--. Used cloth diapers & wool covers on the first kid. Had a service and the price seemed allright. But they always seemd damp all over-they did not wick like the modern wonder fibres do. I would not subject the next kid to that kind of torture-disposables all the way. Fresh, easy, in every sense - the perfect solution. Dress-up the disposable with a fancy cover if you like but keep the ever-damp cloth diaper off the innocent kid.

m

 

[Barbigirl]

My daughters were born in 1992 and 1995, we were 100% disposable diapers 100% of the time. It was plain easier and I will never make an excuse for it. They were cleaner, less stinky, more convenient. I may get excommunicated from the lounge for saying this, but IMO there are some very wonderful recent inventions...disposable diapers being once of them.

 

[CWetherby]

At the risk of actually keeping this thread going...

Children were potty trained at a ridiculously early age in the Golden Era.

Washing machines are not a recent invention, but they have vastly improved over what our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had to work with.

Pretty much by the time a child could walk, it was time to start letting it romp "al fresco" from the waist down and make that cute little potty chair very available. With mom home with the younguns all day, it was really only a matter of days before junior got the idea and was, for better or worse, using the potty (although I'm sure there were quite a few accidents after that...).

Today's disposables, while being huge impovement in many ways, probably delay potty training more than any other factor in a child's life. As has been mentioned, if you can't FEEL that your diaper is wet, what's your motivation for not just staying in diapers. From the child's perspective, who wants to stop playing to go use the potty??? But if you're wet and/or smelly, ah, such an incentive!

Ok, enough said! lol

 

[mysterygal]

if a kid is having a lot of fun, getting their dirty, stinky diaper is the last thing on their mind! I have found that true also that disposables work so well that when it comes time for potty training, they can't feel anything....so here comes the fun part that a lot of moms dread, you either bhave to spend a good week at home, letting the little tike run around naked or buy these special kind of underwear thats padded

 

[CWetherby]

Or wait till they're in school and the peer pressure forces them out of diapers.

lol lol lol

 

[mysterygal]

lol ....actually though (I'm not sure if this is true for all preschools) but the preschool that my daughter goes to, the kids have to be completely potty trained before entering....not that I blame them!

 

[DancingSweetie]

I used a diaper service when both my girls were newborns for about 3 months with each of them. It was very convenient to not have to wash them myself, as babies use a lot of them at first, about 10 a day. I liked using cloth but when I went back to work I had to get the disposables for daycare.

 

[Caledonia]

First off I admit, I have no children. But that said, disposables are not in my line of ken. Landfilling the amount of disposables we produce is not sustainable. I had regular cloth ones as did my brothers, and we all got nappy rash, and we all survived it. But my mother in law had a better option (not counting wee). She worked out that her children (8 of them) would poop after feeding. So she held them over newspaper till aforementioned poop pooped and saved herself at least half the cleaning. While I think I probably would carry a couple of disposables when travelling, for all the reasons everybody's said, cloth nappies are the way I'd go, but without the rubber overlay. If it's wet, change it, wipe it, powder it, and this is attested to by several friends who went down the reproduction route, some of whom did the community cloth diaper laundry service, and some who put them in the sink, so it's not just coming from my child free and hence inexperienced viewpoint.

 

[WEEGEE]

We have two wee ones...or wee wee ones

One out of day time diapers...one 11-months-old. We use throw aways.

http://www.perc.ca/waste-line/articles/diaper.html

 

[scotrace]

...my mother in law... worked out that her children (8 of them) would poop after feeding. So she held them over newspaper till aforementioned poop pooped and saved herself at least half the cleaning...

Oh G'won! Poopage on demand?


Are any of the now-grown children in therapy? lol

 

[NewMexExpat]

Cloth, both kids

We used cloth diapers (no diaper service) with both our boys, (1985 & 1987). The two main reasons: 1.) Better for the baby's skin; 2.) Less expensive than disposable.

Caledonia, I think the rubber pants were indispensable when away from home for any length of time. Not because the intent is to let the child stew in its own juices, but because babies don't always eliminate "on demand". Nor are there always convenient/appropriate places to change the diaper.

- Mark

 

[mysterygal]

Cal, I'd be very interested to know how long you make it with the cloths after having a kid! especially babies, sometimes they don't guy quite regularly...sometimes not at all one day then...BLAM! explosive diaper! Who know's maybe someone will figure out a disposable that's more bio degradable [huh]

 

[K by the bay]

safety pins

They used cloth ones for me and one of my early memories is my Dad jabbing me with a safety pin. Gotta watch out for that.

 

[Warden]

Who has been to www.moneysavingexpert.com?

Well here is a true vintage money saving tip about cloth nappies.

Terry Nappies. The biggest sticking point for most people considering reusable terry nappies is the washing. In our experience, it's not as bad as you think! We wash every second day, sometimes less. All you need to do these days is to stick the soaked nappies in the washing machine with powder and a little vinegar (helps them rinse clean) and hey presto, nice white nappies that look lovely hanging on the washing line!

Of course being vintage fans young Edna is able to find a solution to the problem of washing terry nappies. (Hey kids, this is a joke ~ remember never wear a WW2 gas mask as the filter contains asbestos. The one Edna is wearing has been specially treated).

Harry

 

[olive bleu]

Not only did i use cloth diapers, but i even sewed my own fitted ones, with elastic around the legs, .white flannel on the inside , patterned flannel outside, oh so cute.I really didn't mind the laundry once i got into the routine.