Remember when diapers were CLOTH?

My daughter had reusable ones for both her babies (now 19 and 13) and they were made of towelling, but cut and folded into shapes that had to be put together to fit in the brightly coloured outer covering. When I was baby sitting I used to spend about an hour putting all together ready for the next day. They were easy to wash and dry, and the babies never had a trace of nappy rash. She also got a grant of £30 from the council when she first bought them.

Boy, just reading through your post, DeeDaa, reminded me of how far cloth diapers have come compared to the old days.

My kids did get an occasional diaper rash every now and then, but for the most part they were rash-free aside from a little elastic gather rash from the rubber pants which warm weather and wet diapers brought on.

Grandchildren all wore disposable diapers.

oh yes the old terry towel nappies...I remember being in hospital when my son was only 7 months....my oh washed his nappies in the machine, unaware that one of his wine coloured socks had made it's way into the machine, it was a boil wash...he was the only baby around with pink nappies.

Oh, yes, the good old terry nappies, folded into a kite shape! I used them for dd1, but went on to disposables for dd2.

Oh my... I never had such happen with my kids, Pably, but do remember helping my mom wash a load of my baby siblings diapers one morning in her old wringer washing machine, and us popping a pair of rubber pants running them through the rollers the wrong way!

OMG, yes, the classic kite fold! I folded diapers the same, Witzend!

With a little extra fold at the front of back when diapers were too large, the kite fold allowed me to diaper my kids using the same fold from the newborn stage to toilet training!

Back in 1967 I bought shaped nappies from Mothercare. I never saw anyone else with them though. Living in East Anglia at the time I put the nappy bucket outside the back door one day and the whole thing froze.
I wouldn’t like to have nappy buckets around now.

Never had diapers, only terry nappies. Until recently some of them were still being used as dusters!

Disposable nappies were hardly ever used when I had my babies (now in their 50s!), so the routine of bucket soak, machine wash and dry was automatic. Nappy liners, which were flushable, dealt with the worst of the mess. The pants were plastic, not rubber.

Oh my, Liaise, I can't imagine such!

My worst vision was tripping down the basement stairs on laundry day with the plastic diaper pail in hand!

Fortunately I got through the entire diapering stage of my kids without such happening, however, the thought visited me often, like every time I washed diapers!

remember the lovely white nappies hanging on the clothes line, blowing in the wind

I remember it well, Pably!

I also remember how bulky my kids bottoms were, them waddling around like penguins, because of how thickly padded their double diapers were!

Also remember the plasticy rustling sound the rubber pants made!

My C are now 60 and 55 so proper nappies were all we used but it stood me in good stead once when in an emergency situation with a GS and I had no disposables.
I still had several nappy pins in my sewing box and was able to improvise using Terry tea towels.
I hasten to add we did only use the tea towels for floor cloths afterwards.
My DiL was very impressed at my ingenuity and how successful the idea was.

Absolutely splendid solution putting a few tea towels to use!

I had three late trainers that took forever to make it through the night dry, and good old-fashioned, no-nonsense, proper diapers were the best.

Doubled and even tripled, crib sheets and pyjama bottoms were always dry in the morning!

My first baby wore only terry towelling nappies, but by the time his younger brother was born disposables were available so mum bought me a month's supply, then it was back to towelling nappies again and the enamel bucket with a lid.
I've still got several nappy pins.

Yep, me, too, still have my children's old diaper pins stowed away in my notions basket. They come in extra-handy for this and that.

I agree it was lovely seeing a line full of snow white terry nappies blowing in the wind.

Yes, I'm with you 100% on that, Lady!

I remember how the diapers would sway, bounce, flap, and dance in the breeze!

So old-timey!

When my son was born, I didn’t have a washing machine. I had a little baby Burco that I boiled his nappies in. ( Rest of the washing was a weekly trip to the launderette. ) I did use the disposable nappy liners though.

I forgot about the disposable/flushable diaper liners!

Yup, I used the liners for a handful of weeks after the birth of each of my kids. Boy, did they ever work well in helping keep the diapers cleaner after a soiling! Little to no rinsing!

Is this an American thread?

Terry towelling nappies with muslin linings were the order of the day for our bairns.
There were disposables but they were inclined to disintegrate. They came on tear-off roll and tucked into a pocket in plastic pants.

Later Mothercare sold pads with tie plastic pants which were better but there was a lot of leakage! I potty trained my 4 toddlers as soon as possible - well before their 2nd birthday.

The pampers style of all-in -one fancy nappies only appeared in the 1980s.

Some of our DGC used real, washable nappies shaped and fastened with velcro. So it went full circle.

Grammaretto. In 1992, my youngest two (13 months apart) were both in diapers, and I remember seeing Velcro cloth diapers for the first time on the next door neighbours clothesline.

They were hourglass shaped and rubber pants were still required with them. As for myself I was still perfectly right at home with carrying on using diaper pins.

I always used pull-on rubber pants with my babies and never had a problem with wetness/accidents.

Grandma70s

Disposable nappies were hardly ever used when I had my babies (now in their 50s!), so the routine of bucket soak, machine wash and dry was automatic. Nappy liners, which were flushable, dealt with the worst of the mess. The pants were plastic, not rubber.

Same here. If the liners were just wet, they got sterilised an re-used. I used a nappy steriliser solution in the soaking bucket, then put the nappies in the automatic washing machine and pushed the button. Easy peasy. I had a tumble dryer, essential in winter , but often put them out on the line to blow in the sun. Pristine snowy white nappies out on the line first thing on a summer morning was a little silent *one-upmanship" thing between neighbouring mums.

We had four under five, and the first two were only 11 months apart so for a while we had two in nappies. H is a Virgo and a design engineer, and became an absolute master at the perfectly tailored made to measure kite fold. A well-fitted cotton nappy is comfier than disposables IMHO, and better for the skin.