Terry Nappies

*NotSpaghetti" - yes, she starting trying to get them produced around 1947 and got a patent under the name PaddiPads SueDonim. I must say I can't claim Valerie Hunter Gordon as a friend as she was one of what we up here in the north of Scotland call "the landed gentry". Herself and her husband did a lot of good work for the local community - there is an interesting Wikkipedia page on her and her family. Her grandfather was a great inventor and founded the "Ferranti" company.

Everything about the old terry nappies was grim, except them fluttering in the breeze and no contributing to landfill. I hated the drudge of the twin tub out every 2 days, the smell, the leaking overnight, the sore bottoms, the difficulty of going out and about and carrying the used one around TIL you got home.
I used them for child one and 2 in the early 80’s and think I remember renting out paddipads, were they on a roll that you cut a piece off to size? I folded the terries in the kite shape as I had all boys.
Child 3 was born in 1991 and I used disposables.
The disposables my grandchildren have all used are brilliant, thin, no leaking and last for hours with no sore bottoms. The littlest grandchild (2) has disposables that last about 8 hours if just wee, so not that expensive, from Aldi or Lidl. If I had a baby now I would use them. If you add up the laundry and electricity it is not that expensive.
It is very worrying about the landfill though, I read somewhere that it Henry V111 had worn disposables they would not yet have decomposed!

Renting??? Trying out that should read!

My daughters have used "real" nappies for all their babies - my son and wife have not.
The new style ones have done 4 babies each and are "dry-pailed" unlike the terry nappies of my day. This means almost no smell. Certainly not the horrible ammonia smells described above.

Both my "girls" bought or were given second hand ones so one lot had already done 3 babies ahead of my grandchildren.
Neither daughter had a tumble dryer at the time and although both have used disposable nappies when camping I don't think either have had any problems with them. One has a clothes-horse in her spare room/study where she drapes them if it's raining.

Regarding the old terry nappies, I can honestly say I didn't find them any real bother. Like franbern I have washed a fair few- and although we didn't have central heating and have never had a tumble dryer I don't remember ever running out. I think it suited me to be honest. I have just one left now which I was using as a floorcloth only yesterday and it's still in reasonable shape. It's at least 30. Could be 40 this year (depending which "batch" it was) - either way, it's never been out of use!

I used terry nappies for my children who are in their mid thirties now. No disposable nappy was efficient enough especially for my eldest child, but the terry was. I had a Berco boiler and I recall the health visitor remarked how unusual it was to see terry nappies.

So a bit of common sense perhaps? Those who have a washing machine and a garden use them, and those who don’t carry on as you were.

Of course if you can’t get any and you’re stuck at home then if the child is old enough (12 months?) perfect time to start potty training,

I’m so surprised Tickledpink - I would have thought that cloth nappies were still the norm 35-ish years ago. That would have been about 1985 - I didn’t know anyone at all who used disposable nappies at that point (unless say, on holiday) - they were just too expensive.

Perhaps your health visitor covered a very affluent area?

I used towelling nappies with soft muslin lining nappies. I sluiced the solids off them and soaked them in a bucket outdoors so no smell.

Putting families in gardenless flats is no way to make people live their lives. It would be nice if this epidemic caused government to build adequate social housing.

PS I lived in a caravan on a RAF site. I washed everything by hand and dried everything out doors and my babies never had nappy rash.

Calendargirl You obviously live in a different world from me,I dont know anyone who stayed at home with children for more than 8 weeks ..that was in the 70's.I left work at 12'30 on the Thursday ,baby was born 7 hours later.We stayed in hospital for a full week because she was jaundiced and I was back at my desk on the Friday with her beside me in her pram .My best friend had 7 weeks off before going back to work and she thought that was a long time .

I think most of us lived in a different world to you paddyanne
I only know one person who went back to work straight away in the 60s and 70s.

No one I knew when my boys were born in the 70’s went back to work after having a baby. There was almost no daycare for babies or toddlers back then. A few mums eventually got evening jobs or did Tupperware/Avon parties but that was mostly about it. I did a little bit of childminding for a neighbour with older children who had a PT job, I do recall that.

Play groups (2 or 3 hours a day) were run by mums and children were not allowed to start until after their 3rd birthday.
There were no nurseries that I knew of and, unless you had the luxury of family nearby you looked after your own children 24/7; some of us had husbands who were away for months at a time too. We set up babysitting groups so that you could have an occasional social evening.

I can just imagine what would have happened if I'd taken a new baby with me into my previous workplace!!

Same here, Calistemon I stopped work in 1975 with our first child, and my friends were all at home with children for a number of years. None of us were well off, but everybody was in the same boat. A Pippa Dee party was a big night out!
I managed fine with terry nappies, and the bucket with Napisan didn’t smell. I used paper nappy liners, and for a while there were cloth ‘ Marathon’ liners, which claimed to keep baby dry.
I remember using disposables in hospital, and, as you took home everything which was in the cupboard under the baby’s cot, the nurses advised us to fill it up with nappies the night before we were due to go home!

Franbern, this is how I folded my nappies -

youtu.be/NMUJJEZ6HCk

Goodness, that’s a blast from the past, Daddima!

I’d forgotten about the Pippa Dee parties! All of the washing lines had the kids striped pjs on them!