Did anyone's mother use cloth?

[JBaxter]

I was just wondering. I remember changing my sister's diapers when I was about 7-9 yrs old. Yes my mother let me cloth diaper w/ pins at that age. I remember using the bikini twist and double diapers at night. Mom used good ol' gerber "plastic" pants and did the toilet dip to rinse them. My job was also to hang the diapers on the line. Did anyone else have similar experiences?

[american_mama]

I think a lot of our mothers used cloth as disposables did not exist or were expensive or poor quality. I was born in 1970, and my mom used cloth with me and my older siblings, I think exclusively. My MIL used cloth were her sons, born in 1969 and 1966, and said, "Believe me, I TRIED to use disposables, but they didn't work well and the kids got rashes."

[babystuffbuff]

Yep. My mom used cloth for all of her kids -- me (24) my sister (20) and my baby brother (5). My sister and I had the Gerber plastic pants, but with my brother she used a diaper service and covers with velcro front fastenings. All plain white, no fun colors. I changed quite a few of those. :)

Sarah

[turtledove]

We were all cloth diapered. I am a middle child, but I remember my younger sister in prefolds and plastic pants. I don't recall ever changing them myself (I would have only been between 3 and 5 yrs old). I know they had a diaper service and I would love when they delivered "fresh" diapes! To this day, my mom uses old prefolds for dusting the house - she says they are the best. And, at over 25 years old, she has gotten her money's worth of use out of them!

[elliput]

Yep! She CD'd all three of us. My brother is only 11.5 months younger so I don't remember the whole experience. My Mom did say that one thing she liked about cloth diapering was the folding, as it was about the only time she actually was able to sit down for any lenght of time! Like a PP Mom also kept the old diapers for dusting. She probably still has some and it has been almost 35 years since my brother has been out of diapers. :-)

[bcky2]

yep, a cloth diaper baby here :)

my mom did keep a box of sposies around on the off chance that they may go out somewhere it was treat for her to use one on me. i have pictures of me in my big cloth diaper where my butt looks like the size of texas.

[mainepotato]

My mom CD'd part time. All that I can remember about it is the plastic pants. When I told her I was going to CD, she was amazed at how CD'ing has changed over the years. She loved the idea of fleece liners to keep baby feeling dry.

[Puddy73]

My mom used plain old flats with pins and pull-on "plastic" pants on all five of us. I remember hanging them out to dry and folding them, but mom never made me do the toilet dip, thank goodness. She still uses diapers as dust cloths, too!

Jennifer
Mommy to Annabelle 9/08/03 & Finn 10/31/05

"If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience." - Woodrow Wilson

[kitmama]

Yes, with me they were the only availble option, so I was CDed exclusively. PFs, pins and plastic pants, I think. My brother came along 5 1/2 years later, and he was mostly CDed but my parents were product testers for Huggies so they used a fair number of those too. My Mom started out with CDs with my sister (the youngest) but ended up switching to sposies pretty early on.

My Mom has also been impressed with how far CDs have come, and has been the most willing to use them when the boys are at her house. (I keep sposies around for MIL, who CDed all 4 of her kids but doesn't want to fool with it now). They've both been very supportive of us for using CDs!

[lizajane]

another 30 year old cloth bottom! i actually have the very dipes that she used!! curity prefolds! i used them for newborn prefolds for schuyler.

my mom and dad cd'ed my sister (33 this month) and me, but not my brother (20) because they were so busy rushing off to this soccer game and that school play, etc. since my sister and i were 12.5 and 10 years when he was a baby. but they did pull out the cds when he had a rash and i do remember that!!!

oh- and they used the ol' gerber pants, but not pins- clips. they did pin them at the hip when my brother had rashes, so they would hang loosely around him and let the air breeze through!

and when my dad changed schuyler for the first time with an appliz prorap he thought it was better than sliced bread! he went nuts at how easy it was! (that's right! grandad changes CDs!!)

[niccig]

Mum used cloth for 3 kids under the age of 4. She was very against us using cloth as she doesn't have fond memories of the soaking pail and the washing line full of nappies. She's come around now that she's seen what I have (mostly fitteds) and she's even knitted DS a few soakers.

[Saartje]

My mother CDed me, as well as my five older brothers and sisters. With the older kids, disposables either weren't available or weren't worth using; and by the time I came along, my parents already had everything they needed, so why bother switching?

MIL CDed DH, too. (How's that for a string of acronyms? :P) He's my age, and was an oldest child; but they switched to cloth on the advice of his pediatrician when his high-acidic urine was burning him in disposables.

[mudder17]

Oh, yes, flatfolds, pins, and rubber pants. I was rinsing out some of Kaya's diapers in her toilet yesterday and my mom walked in and basically said, "Oh yes, I had forgotten having to do all this!" I told her that the minishower has made things much easier, but yes, we definitely have to deal with poop. :)

My older sister's job was to pre-fold the flatfolds, which was in at least two pieces. I remember watching, although I don't actually remember changing the diapers. I was 4 when my brother was born.

ETA: I forgot to mention that she did use disposables with my brother occasionally, since he was born in 1975. I don't think they had disposables when my sisters and I were born (pre-1972). Oh, and I'm pretty sure we still had many of my brother's flatfolds even when he was 20, since they made such great rags and dustcloths. :) DH was also CD'd.

Eileen

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[ribbit1019]

Yes, my mom CD'd my sister and I ('78 & '81). We were both allergic to disposables, so she really had little choice. I would have been to young to change any diapers then.
She marvels at DD's dipes and loves changing her!! A welcome break for me when I see her, lol!

Christy
"My Mommy" to Maddy born 06/09/04
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[RwnMayfair]

My mother did, but since she used them on me, I have no memories of it. ;) All I remember are some of the pins left from diapering that were still around when I was older and out of diapers. She has commented that the cloth diapers I use are much easier though!

-Melissa

Taran, November 20, 2003
Elowen, August 20, 2005

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[new_mommy25]

My mom used prefolds and rubber pants with all four of us kids. I was 5 when my youngest sis was born so I don't think I changed any diapers. I sure remember having to fold the laundry though. Blech.

[toomanystrollers]

My mom had a diaper service b/c my behind could not tolerate Pampers!!!

So she's amazed by my diaper collection :)

[Momof3Labs]

I was born in 1972 and was exclusively cloth diapered. Money was VERY tight for my parents, and they figured that cloth would be better for my skin. Don't know about my brother, but he was 3 years younger, so I wouldn't have been changing him anyways. My mom has been supportive of CD'ing, but was always the first to reach for a disposable when she was changing DS's diaper, lol.

[aliceinwonderland]

yes, but she had no choice.

[ktshea]

Yep, mine did! I'm the youngest (born in '75) so I don't remember anything about the diapers, but when I told my mom I was going to be CDing she thought I was crazy. She used cloth because she says the disposables were terrible. Mom and my MIL were amazed to see the things out there in the CD world these days! My mom told me her favorite diapers were the flat-fold birdseye diapers because she could fold them into fourths or thirds or whatever was needed at any given time. I'll have to take her word on that, though, as I'm too lazy to even do prefolds most of the time. And, she used a wet pail and says it ALWAYS stunk. I wouldn't doubt it! She was shocked and appalled that I was going to put my dipes in a dry pail and (gasp) not bleach them! She quite proudly told me how she always bleached the diapers and they NEVER had stains. After seeing my stash (and helping to sew some of it!) she has come around, though, grudgingly admitting that my UB CPFs are quite soft and the sun takes away any stains without bleach. She was most impressed, though, with the covers (no plastic pants!) and pocket diapers.

I think I really shocked the whole family, though, when I started using wool covers for DD. My mom told me that HER mom used wool covers and hated them because "the baby always felt wet". I absolutely love my wool covers and my baby never feels wet. I can't imagine what Grandma's issue was, unless she hadn't lanolized her covers often enough (which seems odd because they lived on a farm and had sheep; lanolin should have been abundant). It's fun to show them how nice cloth dipes are now!

[kijip]

No, because I was allergic to all detergents and they could not get the diaper clean without something that caused a huge rash. All but 1 kind of disposible caused a rash/burn so they used that 1 kind.

My older brother was cloth diapered but he had no such skin issue.

[linsei]

Yep, my mom used CD on me. Like other posters mentioned, the were reincarnated as dusting cloths. At her house, the upstairs toilet would flush on it's own sometimes on a windy day... so she lost a CD to the septic tank.

Linda