Diaper Doody
Ah the good
old days, when men were men and diapers had to be cleaned. That’s right young people, diapers have not
always been disposable. Ewww!
Actually, it
was not so bad. For my first three children we
paid for a diaper service. Lots cheaper
than disposables are today. Each week
the service picked up the dirty diapers and dropped off clean ones.
Changing and
storing the dirty diapers was not as bad as some might think. Poopy diapers were simply dunked in the
toilet then rung out and left in a diaper pail which was designed to conceal
odors…pretty well…I think.
The worst
part of the cloth diapers was the diaper pins.
Large safety pins that were only “safe” once attached and closed. Squirmy babies and sharp metal being forced
through thick cloth was not an easy task.
In an effort to not stab your baby, a thumb or palm often fell victim. It took a few weeks to get the hang of
it.
Then you had
to slip one of those plastic covers over the diaper to prevent leaking. It did prevent leaking, but also eliminated
“baby butt breathing” which led to nasty rashes.
Naked baby airing-out
the rash was effective, but it did result in accidents. You had to be on your
toes and limit the airing-out to short intervals.
We did have
disposables around baby number three, but they were expensive and we had the
cloth thing down pat so we kept the service.
We did use some disposables for traveling. The cloth things were no fun in a car. We may have left a few dirty diapers along
the Rt 13 roadside.
For this
“green” aware generation, I’m not sure how disposable today’s diapers really
are. I suspect the landfills do not
consider them that disposable.
Anyway,
diaper duty (doody…see
what I did there Val?)
is something I do not miss. I will say
this for the old cloth diapers, they were strong as heck and well made. I still have one from my forty-frumpting-year
old daughter that I use to wipe down my guitar.
There is no
better wiping cloth then those old diapers.
Yep ... the Good Old Days !!!
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I wish I still had some of those 'proper' nappies. I still have the 'proper' safety pins though, they've been a godsend at times when the titchy so called safety pins failed to stay closed.
ReplyDeleteI had cloth nappies (diapers) too for all my children. I bought four dozen when I was first pregnant and had to buy an extra dozen by #4 baby as some were quite thin by then. They made excellent bathroom rags, great for drying out the bath, mopping up spills etc. I had no cleaning service so washed them all myself. Ten years of a clothesline hung with nappies every day. I had the plastic "pants" too, but none of my kids ever had nappy rash except child #2 when I worked for a few months and the babysitter didn't change his nappy all day long. Her own children had rashes always. I quit working because of that and never saw another rash.
ReplyDeleteMy husband uses one to clean his glasses. It must have been a hand me down from his mom because we only ever used disposables.
ReplyDeleteAh yes...we used the diaper service too and kept the dirties in the container on the balcony for extra stink separation lol.
ReplyDeleteI remember babysitting babies with cloth diapers. I did not like the changing of them. That's probably why I used disposables. Makes me wonder if there are even diaper services these days.
ReplyDeletebetty
Yes, there are still services. Here in Australia at least, because a few people still prefer cloth nappies. It may be the same in other countries. check the phone book. The paper one.
DeleteI salute you for your doody! I noticed your clever title right away. We used disposables, but Genius had a cloth diaper that he carried around like a favorite blankie. It was easy to switch it out with another one when it needed washing. He called it his "Ine". No idea why. Also no idea how we ended up with a few cloth diapers, since they were never used for their intended purpose.
ReplyDeleteI remember the cloth diapers too. Used them and those safety pins were downright dangerous at times. We washed the diapers in the washing machine. Never knew about a diaper service, but I didn't live in a big city either. I don't miss this one bit either.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day, Joe. 😎
You got me curious so I went looking to see if one could still buy the reusable ones. Yes but they sure don't look like the older ones. The new ones have snaps--not pins and inserts. There are actually still a handful of diaper services left in the US.
ReplyDeleteI trust the one you use for wiping down your guitar is of the clean variety.
ReplyDeleteCloth diapers are still some of the best cleaning rags around. Sweetie has a t-shirt that reads
ReplyDeleteD.A.D.D. -- Dad's Against Dirty Diapers. It's Not Just A Job, It's A Doody!
I used mostly disposables, but on occasion used cloth diapers. Those were great for cleaning rags until the "baby" went to college, by which time they just disintegrated from use and washings.
ReplyDelete