Cloth Diapers

Back in the stone-age of parenting, cloth diapers were the norm. Made of absorbent cotton, the nice ones were "prefolded;" that is, they were folded into a rectangle about 12x18 inches with a lot of padding in the middle and sewn together that way. Expectant mothers purchased them by the dozen, along with a diaper pail to stow the dirty ones in, and assorted diaper pins. Of course, diapers required plastic pants. A dozen or more were basic, with elastic at the waist and legs, they came in various pastels and white, and in Small through Extra-large.

What were the advantages of cloth diapers? Cost, of course. The initial outlay wasn't cheap, but the ongoing costs were low--a little laundry soap, an occasional replacement of plastic pants that had become stiff, and thus cracked and crackling, with age, and that was it. Oh, eventually the diapers wore out, but most likely you'd have enough to get by until the next one came along, and then you'd get another dozen or so to fill in the gaps.

(Of course, there were, and are, diaper services, in which a company drops off clean cloth diapers from time to time and takes away the dirty ones. But I have never used one, nor has anyone I know mentioned using one, so I cannot comment, except to say that they are rumored to cost more than doing your own, and are less likely to cause diaper rash.)

There are those who say that it is more environmentally sound to wash cloth diapers than to toss the disposables. They are probably right.

Another very slight advantage, and I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here, is that inquisitive toddlers are less likely to unpin a cloth diaper than gleefully rip off the adhesive tab from a disposable. It can take a fair number of ruined disposable diapers before the parents recognize a trend and start using duct tape.

Disadvantages? There were plenty. First off, cloth diapers are prone to cause diaper rash, for two reasons. First, cloth diapers that haven't been thoroughly cleaned and rinsed irritate the baby's behind. Second, cotton diapers have no high-tech synthetic filler or lining to wick away the wetness from the baby's skin. So an undetected well-soaked diaper could launch a vicious case of diaper rash. Hefty tubes of Desitin were essential grooming aids.

Second, diaper pins were not for the squeamish. Moms quickly learned to slide the left hand between the diaper and the baby while navigating the pin with the right hand. Even so, experienced mothers punctured their fingers from time to time, and nearly every baby was inadvertantly jabbed at least once. Occasionally, too, a diaper pin would come unpinned, and leave the toddler dragging the unhitched diaper around an ankle until s/he cheerfully stepped out of it and dashed around au naturel.

The third, and probably the most widely recognized, disadvantage was that cloth diapers require maintenance. First, the soaking (or worse) diapers must be removed from the baby bum without ones' hands having the protection of a fused-on plastic outer shell. No, the plastic outer shell is a separate entity and must be removed first, and carefully, too, if covered with--oh never mind. And then, ewww, your hands are dirty. Thank goodness for wet wipes.

But after the baby has been cleaned up and changed and stowed safely, the diaper and other contaminated clothing must be dealt with. If they are merely wet, they can be tossed into the diaper pail and left until laundry time. But if they are soiled, they must be rinsed. In the toilet. Dunked in and out with one's own heretofore clean hands. EWWWWWW. And then wrung out. Again, with one's own heretofore clean hands. EWWWWWWWWWW. And then stowed in the diaper pail. At first, the new mother questions if her hands are ever really clean. Ever. For the rest of her life. Then she becomes callous and decides that since she washes up with soap and water, and nobody has hepatitis, it's not worth thinking about. (In years to come, little boys will have a harder time grossing her out. Maybe this should go under "Advantages.")

Eventually, the dirty stinking diaper pail, woefully inadequate for containing the odor, must be emptied, and the diapers laundered. And laundering diapers must be done properly, or woe betide the delicate infant bottom. My usual method was to upend the diaper pail into the washer and run a prerinse to remove whatever chemicals had been percolating in the diaper pail. Then the heaviest possible wash cycle, fortified with heaping dose of top-strength laundry soap and chlorine bleach. Chlorine bleach, of course, has a way of burning holes in diapers if poured undiluted, and of making plastic pants crunchy in no time at all. However, its whitening and sterilizing powers command unmatched respect, so the bleach was diluted before joining the diapers. Of course, after the wash cycle, an extra rinse removed the residual bleach. And a little fabric softener sweetened the wash and softened up the diapers considerably, particularly if they were to be line-dried. (If you shudder to imagine a stiff-as-cardboard bath towel, imagine a stiff diaper.)

So that, dear children, is the story of cloth diapers. And now you know why nobody uses them anymore.