# Old-fashioned cloth diapers w/pins & rubber pants **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 25, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503 "2020-02-25T17:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/21 "2020-02-25T23:04:33Z")
We did the cloth diapers even though “disposable”\* ones were common then. Had to use the latter when the kids went to daycare and traveling, though. Hung to dry in the Sun outside. Used them as rags afterwards. Wonderful for that. Maybe have one or two barely-there ones lying in rag piles still. - The city we lived in when these became popular was troubled by them. They shouldn’t be flushed into the sewers since they’ll add to the waste and clog stuff. Can’t be put into the garbage because human waste isn’t allowed there. They wondered “Why are we allowing these to be sold here, then?” ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/22 "2020-02-26T00:21:07Z")
> [@Polyester](#): > > Once the baby/child was changed, I’d take the dirty diaper to the bathroom, and while holding onto the diaper tightly, I’d flush the toilet and dunk the diaper up and down in the swirling water to rinse the poop out, then I’d give the diaper a quick wring, and into the plastic diaper pail it would go. Ok, I did remember that correctly after all. I think that the problem was that our modern Australian low-flow toilet just wasn’t suitable for that kind of action. Not much water in the bowl, and not much water coming past, and turning off almost as soon as you took your finger off the button. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/23 "2020-02-26T01:16:05Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > My parents tried a couple different diaper services when my brother and I were babies but we both turned out to be super allergic to whatever they washed the diapers with so they mostly used disposables after we developed oozy blisters (we had the stereotypical fragile skin associated with redheaded babies, unfortunately). Yet I’m familiar with plastic pants and even have memories of holding some as a little kid…I think our babysitter used them with a couple of toddlers she also took care of. Red-headed baby born in the '70s here… Mom said she used cloth diapers and rubber pants on me and I was constantly covered in hives. Mom and the doctor finally figured out I had (still have) a latex allergy so she switched to disposables. ---
**Author:** ![Polyester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@Polyester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polyester)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/24 "2020-02-26T01:32:10Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > We did the cloth diapers even though “disposable”\* ones were common then. Had to use the latter when the kids went to daycare and traveling, though. Hung to dry in the Sun outside. > > Used them as rags afterwards. Wonderful for that. Maybe have one or two barely-there ones lying in rag piles still. > > - The city we lived in when these became popular was troubled by them. They shouldn’t be flushed into the sewers since they’ll add to the waste and clog stuff. Can’t be put into the garbage because human waste isn’t allowed there. They wondered “Why are we allowing these to be sold here, then?” I never did use disposables, not-a one. Traditional fold-and-pin diapers with pull-on pants all the way – 1983 to 1996, with (at times) two children wearing them. Related to disposables, the waste factor, both from the standpoint of material used in the making of the diapers, in addition to babies waste inside the diapers (which I’m convinced few parents dispose of properly before discarding the diapers), are my two main arguments against the use of, however, as Melbourne mentioned, in some countries, water availability simply isn’t there, so no choice other than to use disposable diapers is the reality. Just wish there was a better way. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/25 "2020-02-26T01:37:05Z")
We used cloth diapers with all three of our kids. But we used a diaper service. Ours were slow to train. The third was not trained by 4 and we told him that it was impossible that a 4 year old not be trained so we could not have a birthday party. Four days after his birthday, he was fully trained and on day 5 we had the party. He still remembers it and says that he fully understood our irony. He does not hold it against us. ---
**Author:** ![Polyester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@Polyester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polyester)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/26 "2020-02-26T01:37:14Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Ok, I did remember that correctly after all. > > I think that the problem was that our modern Australian low-flow toilet just wasn’t suitable for that kind of action. Not much water in the bowl, and not much water coming past, and turning off almost as soon as you took your finger off the button. I can definitely see that as being an issue. Today they have sprayers that hook up directly to a main water source, where a flexible hose attachment is ready and waiting for such rinsing of diapers, but being able to dunk dirty diapers as I did when my kids were little, was really handy. Everything was done in the toilet and powered by the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/27 "2020-02-26T01:45:29Z")
I remember them. I remember when my parents used them for my youngest brother (in his fifties now). For my three kids (one still in diapers, being only three months old), no. No way. ---
**Author:** ![Polyester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@Polyester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polyester)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/28 "2020-02-26T01:52:13Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > Red-headed baby born in the '70s here… Mom said she used cloth diapers and rubber pants on me and I was constantly covered in hives. Mom and the doctor finally figured out I had (still have) a latex allergy so she switched to disposables. I had a nephew that suffered the same when he was a new baby. His butt would light-up as a result of my SIL using rubber pants, so for the first 12-14 months of his life, plain pinned cloth diapers were the order of the day. It was all he could wear. I remember occasionally babysitting him and having to triple diaper him, because he couldn’t wear rubber pants, and having to change him the very instant he wet. Then as fast as dear nephews problematic skin condition started, it ended, much to my SIL’s relief. Dear SIL wasted not a second in putting dear nephew straight back into rubber pants, and from that day forward my nephew never again suffered any further consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Polyester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@Polyester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polyester)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/29 "2020-02-26T01:58:34Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > We used cloth diapers with all three of our kids. But we used a diaper service. Ours were slow to train. The third was not trained by 4 and we told him that it was impossible that a 4 year old not be trained so we could not have a birthday party. Four days after his birthday, he was fully trained and on day 5 we had the party. He still remembers it and says that he fully understood our irony. He does not hold it against us. Oh my goodness, I do remember the days. Nighttime diapers were the worst. Went on and on in our home… thought I’d never get two of my kids out of them. Good on you for standing your ground on the issue. Sometimes that’s what late trainers need, a little motivation. ---
**Author:** ![Polyester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@Polyester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polyester)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/30 "2020-02-26T02:01:34Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I remember them. I remember when my parents used them for my youngest brother (in his fifties now). > > For my three kids (one still in diapers, being only three months old), no. No way. I’ve always said, as long as children are kept clean, dry, and fed, then job well done. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Newtosite](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/newtosite/32/8623_2.png) [@Newtosite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newtosite)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/31 "2020-02-26T03:46:21Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I remember my mom putting cloth diapers (with safety pins) and rubber pants on him. > > Edit: [Rubber pants.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_pants) I remember a babysitter sticking me with a safety pin when she was putting cloth diapers on me for the night (I told my mom, “She gouged me!”). I had a baby doll that came with rubber pants. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/32 "2020-02-26T03:56:23Z")
Folding cloth diapers was my job as oldest. Millions of them ---
**Author:** ![someone11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@someone11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/someone11)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/33 "2020-02-26T03:59:41Z")
If only more young kids today, were able to have seen their mothers use proper cloth diapers with plastic over-covers, and they were able to be more in touch with their children as human beings, by way of caring about their nappy rash and so forth, then we would not have this current generation of whatever they are, x or millennials, I don’t know but I do know that if they witnessed the care and love that goes into raring a delightful bundle of screeching joy, then surely they’d think to themselves, ‘no fcuking way am I going to be breeding’, thus making the world a better place with one less carbon footprint. ---
**Author:** ![someone11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@someone11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/someone11)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/34 "2020-02-26T04:06:05Z")
> [@Polyester](#): > > Waterproof panties I used were soft vinyl-plastic… Panties?! they’re not ‘panties’ they are diaper covers, if anything they’re more like ‘[manties](http://www.manties.net)’, but not as luxurious. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/35 "2020-02-26T06:15:29Z")
When I was 8, my aunt showed me how to change my infant cousin’s cloth-and-pins diaper. When I recently reminded my cousin of that, she cringed (she’s now 66). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/36 "2020-02-26T07:58:41Z")
I raised my kids with cloth diapers, and their mom had to wash them with a wringer washer and hang them on a line to dry. Yes, we had solar dryers then. Men all made enough to support the family with one job. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/37 "2020-02-26T08:14:27Z")
I never made any kids (and arguably may never have been one) so I wouldn’t know a whole lot about diapers. But this: As a senior in high school (age 17/18), lo! these 50 years ago, I lived for one year with my big brother and his wife (who had, some 10+ years earlier, been my babysitter), and their babe-in-diapers. I saw sister-in-law (who, to this day, I still see as my babysitter) hand-washing kiddo’s diapers. So I would have to guess they were re-usable cloth. She washed them in the bathroom sink. The same bathroom sink whereat I brushed my teeth! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/38 "2020-02-26T13:23:14Z")
In the late 80s I lived in an apartment building in Landsdowne, PA for a while. Someone in the building had a diaper service, so once a week there’d be a big bag of diapers in the vestibule where the mailboxes were located. The smell was pretty awful. The sack of stink would be left there in the early morning and not picked up until late afternoon. There were complaints, petitions, nasty graffiti, etc. Then I moved. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/39 "2020-02-26T13:49:26Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > Folding cloth diapers was my job as oldest. Millions of them We used almost exclusively “pre-folded” diapers. But … you still had to fold them to put on the kid. Marketing buzz terms, gotta love them. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503/40 "2020-02-26T14:22:04Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > We used almost exclusively “pre-folded” diapers. But … you still had to fold them to put on the kid. Marketing buzz terms, gotta love them. Un-prefolded diapers are single ply and very large. Prefolded are the ones we all remember, with several layers of thickness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-cloth-diapers-w-pins-rubber-pants/848503.md?page=3)