Remember when diapers were CLOTH?

Grammaretto

Because it was part of our lives Rosiesmaw!
After all we talk about illnesses and sadnesses so why not about baby care?

It was good to see Karmalady's reminder that disposables are a scourge on the planet. I even read somewhere that not one disposable nappy had biodegraded since they were first made and sold 60 or more years ago.

My Danish SiL was even more environmentally and health conscious than any of us as she refused to put her babies in plastic pants so knitted soft wool 3 ply pilches for them.
She insisted they neither leaked nor smelled but I am not sure I believed her 😂🤣

Grammaretto. Thank you for your support and helping make this an enjoyable place to visit!

Calendargirl

Lots of the topics on GN are of no interest to some members.

If people want to reminisce about cloth ‘nappies’, not (diapers!), why not?

Don’t read it if you’re not bothered about it, just scroll on by.

3 or 4 pages show that some are interested enough in the subject.

Calendargirl. Thank you for your support and helping make this an enjoyable place to visit!

NotSpaghetti

RosieandherMaw - given that this whole thread is really about nappies why are you bothering if you aren't interested?

When nappies (and/or diapers) were part of my everyday life they were the last thing I'd have wanted to discuss!

Now, many years on, it is vaguely interesting!

Also (just as an aside) if you don't want 3 pages of something you can probably alter your posts per page somewhere... (I am still on page 1 as it happens).

NotSpaghetti. Thank you for your support and helping make this an enjoyable place to visit!

Grammaretto

Because it was part of our lives Rosiesmaw!
After all we talk about illnesses and sadnesses so why not about baby care?

It was good to see Karmalady's reminder that disposables are a scourge on the planet. I even read somewhere that not one disposable nappy had biodegraded since they were first made and sold 60 or more years ago.

My Danish SiL was even more environmentally and health conscious than any of us as she refused to put her babies in plastic pants so knitted soft wool 3 ply pilches for them.
She insisted they neither leaked nor smelled but I am not sure I believed her 😂🤣

Oh my... cloth or wool diaper pants/covers.

I have no experience with fabric/wool diaper covers, but my stance is the same as yours, Grammaretto, I would think odour would be an issue, because it's my understanding that wool covers (in particular) were reused again and again without laundering.

With regular ordinary plastic/rubber pants, when damp on the inside, providing the elastics were dry, I'd take a baby washcloth to the pants, give them a quick wipe, turn the pants inside out and drape them over the end crib post to air-out while I tended to the actual diaper part of things, then when fresh diapers were pin-fastened, rubber pants were ready for another round on baby's bottom.

Never did have enough pairs of rubber pants to change them out for a fresh clean pair at every diaper change. My mom did the same with my baby siblings.

nieces ask me about clothe diapers disposables were available since 1965 i know because my bro was a premie and the pampers were smaller then doll clothes, my dad brought me one so i could see how tiny he was fit in the palm of my 12old hand
clothe from my twins did them my self,washer then a service came along that was cheap
taught my niece to deal with them
both her babes used clothe 2019

I had cloth nappies for my first child in 1986. When I went back to work, I had to make up eight nappies every day with muslins etc and give them to the child minder who would put the dirty nappies in a nappy bin and hand that to me when I picked up ds. They would be washed and the next morning I would repeat the process. By the time dd was born, disposable nappies were around and I thankfully used those instead. Exh queried the cost until I told him he could take over cleaning the cloth nappies every night. He changed his mind 😂

We never called them diapers. What does the word diaper mean?
Did Dr Spock talk about diapers?

I had a copy of Baby and Child Care but made the mistake of quoting him to my health visitor who told me to throw the Baby books away.

I replied that I had no-one else to ask and she hadn't visited me when I came out of hospital. I had slipped through the net and DM and DMiL lived 500 miles away. I knew no other babies and I was 21 years old living in a top floor flat and was worried that my baby who was projectile vomiting after his feed.

Not sure what you mean furret about diapers but agree about cloth ones being the reason my children were out of nappies early.

I remember when diapers were disposable nappies.

I’m sure terry nappies was the reason my children were out of nappies early. .

Having read about all your experiences, I'm just very thankful that I never had to deal with cloth nappies. Disposables all the way for me!

Lord above! Poor Mum dealing with buckets of the disgusting items under the sink soaking for hours on end.

Or still on page 1 for some of us, Calendargirl!

Lots of the topics on GN are of no interest to some members.

If people want to reminisce about cloth ‘nappies’, not (diapers!), why not?

Don’t read it if you’re not bothered about it, just scroll on by.

3 or 4 pages show that some are interested enough in the subject.

RosieandherMaw

Oo-er, that’s me tellt!
Yes it is about nappies and I still wonder why anybody should want to reminisce abut them.

To me they are one of the least important or interesting memories of motherhood and hardly warrant the shouty capitals of CLOTH in the thread title.

I don't particularly want to remember either!

I had two in towelling nappies in 1976- remember that hot summer? The standpipes went up in the street and I bought a galvanised bucket so I could boil the nappies on the hob. Happy days.

...they were a beautifully soft felt.

Oh yes! Good idea.
My daughter's were 3rd/4th hand from a friend.

NotSpaghetti. I can see you can buy them ready made but if anyone's looking for a knitting project......

Take a look at this video, 'knitted pilcher nappy cover pattern 4 ply' share.google/2E5X43GYhFRuNApSu

One of my daughters had wool covers for her baby's nappies too Grammaretto

Because it was part of our lives Rosiesmaw!
After all we talk about illnesses and sadnesses so why not about baby care?

It was good to see Karmalady's reminder that disposables are a scourge on the planet. I even read somewhere that not one disposable nappy had biodegraded since they were first made and sold 60 or more years ago.

My Danish SiL was even more environmentally and health conscious than any of us as she refused to put her babies in plastic pants so knitted soft wool 3 ply pilches for them.
She insisted they neither leaked nor smelled but I am not sure I believed her 😂🤣

Oo-er, that’s me tellt!
Yes it is about nappies and I still wonder why anybody should want to reminisce abut them.

To me they are one of the least important or interesting memories of motherhood and hardly warrant the shouty capitals of CLOTH in the thread title.

RosieandherMaw - given that this whole thread is really about nappies why are you bothering if you aren't interested?

When nappies (and/or diapers) were part of my everyday life they were the last thing I'd have wanted to discuss!

Now, many years on, it is vaguely interesting!

Also (just as an aside) if you don't want 3 pages of something you can probably alter your posts per page somewhere... (I am still on page 1 as it happens).

Liaise

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.

I bought some of those shaped ones from Mothercare before dd1 was born. I don’t know whether she was a particularly wet baby, but I found them utterly useless and very soon ditched them.

I fear that one of the “7 Signs of Ageing” is the question which starts “Remember when….?”

With all respect I have no nostalgia about my girls’ toilet or otherwise habits of 40-50 years ago.
It was a stage on the way, but no fond memories here of nappies, nappy pails or any of the things that it seems characterised babyhood.
I don’t deny that those days existed, but I am astounded at getting on for three pages of misty-eyed reminiscences.
Yes, nappies used to be made of cloth.
Just as sanitary protection evolved from “rags” to pads to tampons. So what?
Are our lives not more meaningful than the pre-potty training days?
My memories of my daughters’ early years are, to me, much more varied, enjoyable and colourful.

NotSpaghetti

My US born baby wore both nappies and diapers.
UK nappies being, highly absorbent terry towelling fabric finished into a large square, (maybe 24"x 24"). These were folded (in my case) into variations of trangles of kites.
I really only used them as nappies and not as a burping cloth for example as they are bulky.

My US diapers were also cotton but not terry toweling, and not square. They were very soft and useful - a bit like a huge table-napkin.

Most diapers that we had were cotton birdseye which is a weave with a little (very low) texture that's pretty absorbent. They were bigger than UK nappies and rectangular and so were folded into various rectangles before pinning. They gave a slimmer shape to the baby as not so bulky on.

Some of my diapers however were the newer "prefolds" these had a pre-sewn thick panel down the middle composed of several layers of this same soft cotton material.

Here's a traditional UK nappy, a birdseye cotton diaper and a prefold diaper. (See photos - found online..)

Great post, NotSpaghetti!