When the Diaper Pin reined supreme...
- Thread starter Aunt Marg
- Start date
jujube
SF VIP
Love your story, and especially love the part as to how you liken the many mothers actions to that of zombies! Perfect mental image as I read your story!
Brilliant of you to come up with the idea of padding one diaper with the absorbent material of another!
We made a few road trips when a couple of ours were little, and I can still see it now, them sitting in the backseat of the car in their white rubber pants and double didies. Dear husband would pull the car over periodically so I could change the babies, then back out on the open road again for another hour or two before another pullover was due.
Plastic bread bags were my best friend for such occasions!
Absolutely! No wonderful zip-lock bags back then.
jujube
SF VIP
Oh, I remember that feeling well. My daughter once removed a loaded diaper in her crib and proceeded to "decorate" herself, the crib and as much of the wall as she could reach with the contents. I seriously debated just burning the house down after I got her cleaned up. I was also debating selling her to the next band of Gypsies that came by.
My granddaughter didn't engage in "poop art" but she did manage to get the top off a huge tube of zinc oxide-based diaper ointment and "painted" the walls of her room as high as she could reach. No matter how hard you scrub, you can't get the oily stains out of the paint. I had to paint the room with Kilz before repainting.
Pecos
Well-known Member
- Location
- Washington State
Changing my son's diaper one night, I had just gotten the wet one off and before I could get a dry one in place, he pee'd on me. I was in the direct line of fire, and he was deadly accurate.
As the old saying goes, don't dare take your eyes off of them for even so much as a minute.
When my kids were around water I especially lived by that old saying.
That is great! LOL!
So grateful to be able to say not one of my kids ever partook in painting.
Little stinker! One of the first things my mom taught me, was to cover up my baby brothers - you know what, when changing him.
Fast-forward to when I started babysitting, remembering my moms advice and teachings, I never dilly-dallied between the process of lifting a baby boy by the ankles to suspend their bottoms in the air long enough to slide the clean diaper under their tush, and lowering their legs. When ankles were released and legs hit the crib mattress or changing table surface, up between their legs the diapers went.
The painting thing has got the be the worst, and next in line... when a heavily soiled diaper would let loose around the legs, and the soiling ended up in the rubber pants.
Didn't matter what method you adopted to get those soiled rubber pants off, there was no pulling those panties down and off baby's butt and past their feet without spreading the mess down the entire distance... diaper area to feet!
No telling how many times over the years I had to stand my kids inside the bathtub to drop their diapers, followed by a waist-down bath, before fresh diapers could be applied.
It was those times where soiled diapers sat soaking in the toilet for a half hour (or more), before diapers could be rinsed, and the staining in the elastics of the rubber pants was permanent, no matter how many times you washed them.
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Pappy
Living the Dream
jujube...your story hits home. Mom said I did the same thing when I was little. Walls, crib and me. Maybe that’s where the term ...s...faced comes from.
Was inspired by another topic on the forum to take a snap of a few leftover things I still have from the baby days in our house.
Pair of plain, old-fashioned, pull-on rubber pants, pair of snap-on rubber pants, box of Curity Diaper Liners.
Snap-on rubber pants (I loathed), though the snap-pants did work well when someone had a diaper rash, because they allowed for more air to circulate in and out of baby's diapers, helping to keep their bottom cooler and more comfortable.
However, as a mom, good old pull-on rubber pants were king in my books (used them 99% of the time). Loved pull-on rubber pants. Quick, no-fuss, comfy-fit, easy-on/off, and the soft, gentle, stretchy elasticized openings made for a reliable waterproof fit... even over the bulkiest of diapers, and the balloon style allowed for more freedom of movement for a little one in diapers to kick their legs, crawl, and bend.
As for the diaper liners, I only used them for the first few weeks after each of my kids were born... made dealing with those early meconium poops a breeze. No diaper-rinsing needed!
Call me old-fashioned, but I'd opt to use cloth diapers and rubber pants again if I had babies in the home, that's a fact.
Pair of plain, old-fashioned, pull-on rubber pants, pair of snap-on rubber pants, box of Curity Diaper Liners.
Snap-on rubber pants (I loathed), though the snap-pants did work well when someone had a diaper rash, because they allowed for more air to circulate in and out of baby's diapers, helping to keep their bottom cooler and more comfortable.
However, as a mom, good old pull-on rubber pants were king in my books (used them 99% of the time). Loved pull-on rubber pants. Quick, no-fuss, comfy-fit, easy-on/off, and the soft, gentle, stretchy elasticized openings made for a reliable waterproof fit... even over the bulkiest of diapers, and the balloon style allowed for more freedom of movement for a little one in diapers to kick their legs, crawl, and bend.
As for the diaper liners, I only used them for the first few weeks after each of my kids were born... made dealing with those early meconium poops a breeze. No diaper-rinsing needed!
Call me old-fashioned, but I'd opt to use cloth diapers and rubber pants again if I had babies in the home, that's a fact.
JaniceM
Well-known Member
- Location
- still lost between two shores..
I never heard of diaper liners or rubber pants.
Both kids had disposable diapers; when it was time for them to start giving them up, the oldest had thick terrycloth pants and the youngest had PullUps.
Oh yes, Janice, back in the cloth diaper days, I'm talking the REAL cloth diaper days when diaper pins were all in a day's work for whoever was doing the changing, diaper liners and rubber pants were the norm.
Yes, the old waffle-knit training pants, yep, I used those, too. Forgot about those until you mentioned them. I used to double the pants up when my kids were first learning, and just like I did when they wore diapers, I put rubber pants on over top.
The diaper liners were disposable and could be flushed.
Having a laugh right now remembering how my attempt at using the liners when my kids got older, failed, as the liners never stayed in place, so within minutes of a child having their pants changed, a few toddles up and down the hallway from one end of the house to other, and diaper liner would slump down inside the child's diapers creating nothing more than a lumpy ball.
I personally found diaper liners only to be useful for younger, smaller babies. They supposedly helped prevent diaper rash, too.
JaniceM
Well-known Member
- Location
- still lost between two shores..
Like that old saying- "Learning something new every day!"
So true, Janice.Like that old saying- "Learning something new every day!"
I got an early start changing diapers, having grown up in a home with baby siblings, and that's all we had in our house was cloth diapers and rubber pants.
JaniceM
Well-known Member
- Location
- still lost between two shores..
I never changed a diaper til I had my first child. The few kids I babysat for before then were preschool-aged and already potty-trained.So true, Janice.
I got an early start changing diapers, having grown up in a home with baby siblings, and that's all we had in our house was cloth diapers and rubber pants.
Gosh, some people get all the luck.
In all the years I babysat, I don't ever remember sitting at a home where there wasn't at least one child wearing diapers, and no one I sat for used Pampers.
When you were diapering your kids in disposables, did the diapers have elastic gathers, or where they the old-fashioned style without?
JaniceM
Well-known Member
- Location
- still lost between two shores..
I think they were elastic.
Being the old-fogy that I am, I remember the early days of disposables, when the padding shifted and bunched, the tapes stuck to the plastic and ripped it if you tried opening the diaper to check it, there were no elastic gathers around the legs, and they were really bulky, and I also remember the strong baby powder-like scent they had.
If a baby got a rash it was because they weren't changed often enough. Urine is acid and irritates the skin, causing a rash. Nothing to do with wearing cloth nappies.
I always blamed diaper rash in our house on the rubber pants (more than anything), especially when the weather turned warm, and when my kids both wet and soiled through the night, that, too, was usually good for the start of a red and irritated bottom by morning.
Unless my kids woke through the night crying due to discomfort, I never changed their diapers until morning.
Courtesy of covering so many old-fashioned and back in the day topics, I just remembered a little something related to the diaper days in our house.
I almost always had a spare set of diaper pins fastened to either the lower part of my shirt/blouse (whatever I was wearing), or fastened to the top-front of my pants, and I remember there being a few times where I left the house with them on to go shopping, pay bills, or run around town, and only realized what I had done once I arrived back home.
They truly were the badge of motherhood back in the day.
I almost always had a spare set of diaper pins fastened to either the lower part of my shirt/blouse (whatever I was wearing), or fastened to the top-front of my pants, and I remember there being a few times where I left the house with them on to go shopping, pay bills, or run around town, and only realized what I had done once I arrived back home.
They truly were the badge of motherhood back in the day.
StarSong
Awkward is my Superpower
- Location
- Los Angeles Suburbs
My kids wore disposable diapers exclusively. For nearly a year (1985) I had three in diapers at the same time. That was madness!
A friend had her daughter in cloth diapers and I have to say that her kid had waaaaay more diaper rash issues than mine. (Disposable diapers wick the moisture away from the baby's skin.)
My mother encouraged me to use disposables even though all six of us were in cloth. Mom said cloth and rubber pants were leaky and messy, and that houses with babies always vaguely stank of urine during cold weather. (Yuk!)
My mother was so meticulous that she IRONED the diapers. So if cloth were too gross and too much work for her, I knew for sure that this was an adventure I could happily miss out on. No regrets on the disposables for me.
I do have a couple of cloth diapers in my house that I use as rags, and have always had diaper pins around.
A friend had her daughter in cloth diapers and I have to say that her kid had waaaaay more diaper rash issues than mine. (Disposable diapers wick the moisture away from the baby's skin.)
My mother encouraged me to use disposables even though all six of us were in cloth. Mom said cloth and rubber pants were leaky and messy, and that houses with babies always vaguely stank of urine during cold weather. (Yuk!)
My mother was so meticulous that she IRONED the diapers. So if cloth were too gross and too much work for her, I knew for sure that this was an adventure I could happily miss out on. No regrets on the disposables for me.
I do have a couple of cloth diapers in my house that I use as rags, and have always had diaper pins around.