I enjoyed the article. Nappies are very impressive and something I never really thought about before becoming a parent.
Reminds me of something I often slightly chuckle about as a parent.
I’ve often encountered non-parents, particularly teenagers, who remark how the thought of changing nappies horrifying and a really big deal. But as any parent knows, changing nappies is really one of the easier parts of looking after babies and toddlers.
Aurornis 4 hours ago [-]
I had read so many casual internet comments about infants being horrible and how unbelievably difficult it was that by the time I actually had kids, it seemed almost mild by comparison.
It's not an easy thing, but some of the histrionic claims about child raising on the internet are really out there. It's no wonder kids are horrified by the thought.
acuozzo 43 minutes ago [-]
> It's not an easy thing, but some of the histrionic claims about child raising on the internet are really out there.
Have you considered that objectively difficult infants/toddlers/children exist? Children with O.D.D., for instance, show symptoms early, but diagnosis usually doesn't come until much later.
Perhaps the comments you came across online were from the parents of those kids.
-A parent of a very challenging child with Level II Autism
arjie 2 hours ago [-]
One similar funny experience I had was that I've never had any trouble with poop or diapers, but a family member said "Just wait till she starts eating solids!" and then she started eating solids and there was no step function in experience. Changing her was still the same.
hattmall 55 minutes ago [-]
My kids were considerably larger and smellier when they started eating solids, but still nothing crazy. Changing diapers is basically nothing, but having all the stuff that they need related to diapers and just being at the age when they are in diapers is mildly challenging if you travel a lot.
munchbunny 5 hours ago [-]
> But as any parent knows, changing nappies is really one of the easier parts of looking after babies and toddlers.
For sure, probably because stinky diapers are visceral but psychological challenges aren’t, yet I think most parents would agree about having to dig far deeper into our inner resolve to deal with age-appropriate behavioral issues.
le-mark 3 hours ago [-]
> who remark how the thought of changing nappies horrifying and a really big deal
It’s a similar experience to changing parents diapers when you are an adult and they are end of life. Seems horrific, then you just do it.
jrumbut 2 hours ago [-]
Babies are easier because they leave the faintest stain on the diaper the first week or so.
Then it becomes more but not much scent, like a training period. And it's really only 4-6 months that it begins to get foul.
Another advantage for the baby side is a hack I can't believe more people don't do. Just notice when they make a very recognizable face or start grunting then hold them over the toilet.
False positives are no big deal (just a fun change of scenery for the baby), for false negatives you change the baby as normal.
appplication 1 hours ago [-]
Easier the first week? Have you forgotten the meconium days? I mean it’s nothing crazy but that stuff was so sticky. We thankfully didn’t have any total blowouts but talking to parents who do it sounded pretty rough to clean up comparatively.
jrumbut 1 hours ago [-]
Maybe ours was weird then? We just didn't have much volume of that.
No amount of it is pleasant but it still felt, even at the time, like training wheels on a diaper.
manwe150 4 minutes ago [-]
Our first kid’s poops came out with velocity. For the first month or two, every poop change was also a full outfit change. We are very glad that our second kid’s poops come out at a normal speed, so that it is just the normal amount of drool which necessitates the new outfits instead.
gwbas1c 3 hours ago [-]
When I had my first, she pooped in her diaper as I was holding her at the dinner table.
Then I looked up and my mother came running towards me, all excited to be able to change a diaper for the first time in seven years.
Andrex 6 hours ago [-]
A soldier adjusts to the horrors of war in the same way, fwiw. ;)
mcphage 3 hours ago [-]
Oh, there’s definitely hard parts of having kids—but changing diapers isn’t really one of them.
yen223 57 minutes ago [-]
The truly hard part is putting them to sleep
itsboring 2 hours ago [-]
I agree, I never found changing diapers that difficult or bad. I was also hardened by years of chronic insomnia so the sleep disruption wasn't a big deal, I took most of the night-time duties to let mom sleep.
The thing I remember being most annoyed about was cleaning all the bottles. That was really obnoxious.
bardak 2 hours ago [-]
Honestly the hardest part of changing diapers is when they get bigger and insists on wiggling everywhere while you are changing them
5 hours ago [-]
the_af 2 hours ago [-]
Nappies are no big deal but I honestly think it's simply some switch in the parents' brains that goes "let's not worry too much about this, it needs doing". You filter out the gross and you simply do it on autopilot.
I sometimes wonder about the people who must clean messy public restrooms. All of the gross, none of the "but it's for the sake of a cute human that I love".
Auracle 2 hours ago [-]
Eh. Apart from sleep/scheduling it's probably the worst part about babies. We just had our first boy and we're adjusting to the whole penis spraying piss everywhere...thing. I didn't realize just how far they could spray. Also, somehow the back of his clothes keep getting wet while he's fully dressed in and in a diaper which completely boggles my mind.
Personally I'm really bad with smells, though. Even with hundreds (thousands?) of diapers changed I still really have to focus on not losing my lunch on the bad smelling ones.
Toddlers...yeah.
lurking_swe 2 hours ago [-]
> I didn't realize just how far they could spray.
i’m assuming you’re the mom? ;) Yes the pressure starts off strong, can easily fly onto their face lol. happened to me…fun times.
> somehow the back of his clothes keep getting wet while he's fully dressed in and in a diaper which completely boggles my mind.
We just solved this recently with our baby boy. I can try to offer some tips. He likely needs a different diaper size, or (more likely), his penis isn’t correctly facing downward when putting the diaper on. 1st secure one side, and before you secure the other, peek at his penis (looking into the diaper from the side - near his hips). Make sure it’s pointed straight down and adjust if necessary. then quickly strap the other side. Basically you want the diaper to gently and firmly keep that penis pointed down all day. When boys are about to pee, the penis becomes briefly erect. If the diaper is not firmly holding that penis down, the penis can easily drift sideways and shoot urine in a weird direction. When this happens the urine can leak around the hips and up the back - instead of going into the absorbent pad. A quick test - when you change his diaper, is his penis still pointed down? If not then that’s the issue. If it is, try other troubleshooting steps.
Girl diaper changes are “easy” in this regard.
scuff3d 2 hours ago [-]
Was just talking to my wife about this yesterday. Our son is 10 months old so we're still in the diaper stage, and it's really not a big deal. Since disposable diapers and baby wipes became a thing, not really sure why anyone complains about it.
Compared to trying for hours to get him to sleep, or dealing with the sheer panic we felt when we had to have him rushed to the hospital, a poopy diaper is nothing.
madcaptenor 3 hours ago [-]
It also helps that newborn poop doesn't smell particularly bad. It only starts smelling like poop when they start eating real food.
ignoramous 5 hours ago [-]
> But as any parent knows, changing nappies is really one of the easier parts of looking after babies and toddlers.
When you have twins, or triplets, or more... Nothing at all is easy. Unless you're privileged (or have help), their early years become your living life's only work.
> ... encountered non-parents ...
One reason why I hold anxiety for infants at orphanages or under care.
forcedfakelaugh 3 hours ago [-]
Our family uses cloth diapers (except when we’re traveling). We chose them because we don’t trust the chemicals in disposable diapers that come into contact with such a sensitive area. They’re a bit labor-intensive, but having a washer and dryer helps a lot.
vscode-rest 3 hours ago [-]
Is there a pre-cleaning step at all? Or do you toss them right in to the washer? Do they get their own load?
gwbas1c 3 hours ago [-]
It's explained in the article. First quote:
> You want a covered pail partially filled with water to put used diapers in as soon as removed. If it contains soap or detergent, this helps in removing stains. Be sure the soap is well dissolved, to prevent lumps of soap from remaining in the diapers later. When you remove a soiled diaper, scrape the movement off into the toilet with a knife, or rinse it by holding it in the toilet while you flush it (hold tight).
> You wash the diapers with mild soap or mild detergent in [the] washing machine or washtub (dissolve the soap well first), and rinse 2 or 3 or 4 times. The number of rinsings depends on how soon the water gets clear and on how delicate the baby’s skin is. If your baby’s skin isn’t sensitive, 2 rinsings may be enough.
The technique hasn't changed much.
pbhjpbhj 3 hours ago [-]
We had a lidded bucket, dump any solids into the toilet, fold any remaining mess inside, put in bucket. We primed the bucket with water into which we put tea-tree oil (for scent and disinfectant purposes). Some people will use the toilet as a pre-rinse; never did it myself.
We used nappy liners, a piece of paper to catch the worst of the poo. And 'wraps' on the outside. The nappies had poppers; you could popper them differently as they grew.
On wash day, empty the water from the bucket into the toilet, lift the nappies individually into the [front-loading] washing machine.
We bought our cloth nappies on eBay, already second-hand. We passed them on still usable years afterwards.
I did start potty training as soon as they went on solids, well before they could sit unaided! We used baby-sign, and I tried a couple of elimination communication techniques. Baby-sign was great, they could tell us they needed potty before they could talk; first child even made a new toilet sign to differentiate between wee/poo.
We had compostable nappies for times when we needed them - too rainy to dry clothes, too sleepy, backup for when they wee/poo on the nappy as you're putting it on them when you're out and about.
Only thing we'd wash with the nappies was soiled clothing (baby grows) or towels we'd lie on the bed to change their nappy on. A month or so in we got a changing table (Ikea).
paulhebert 2 hours ago [-]
If there is poop on them you need to scrape it off.
We bought a pack of thin disposable diaper liners. These go inside the diaper and catch most of the business. They then get thrown away (but it’s much less waste/garbage than an entire diaper)
They do get their own load. The ones we have tell you to run them in the wash twice.
onionisafruit 20 minutes ago [-]
You throw away linen every time your kid wees?
intrasight 3 hours ago [-]
We did as well. We were fortunate to have a good diaper service in the neighborhood. I think it was less expensive than disposables.
leonidasv 3 hours ago [-]
When my mother gave birth to my younger brother, she started using cloth diapers on him, worried about the environmental impact of disposable diapers like the ones she used on me during my childhood. She went back to disposable in less than a month.
onionisafruit 18 minutes ago [-]
You were definitely worth an environmental catastrophe, but your mom wasn’t so sure your brother was worth it. I hope you hold that over him.
Procrastes 2 hours ago [-]
Diapers are no problem, as other folks have mentioned. The hard part for me is the over-the-top hypervigilance. One little breathing change, and I was halfway across the house to her room before I realized I was even awake. I could feel every sharp corner and tripping hazard in the house as if they were gouging my own skin.
XorNot 2 hours ago [-]
There was no feeling like the night my son started crawling on his own and we suddenly realized everything needed to be baby proofed even more.
Suddenly you couldn't put him down and he'd roughly stay wherever you left him.
onionisafruit 23 minutes ago [-]
Everybody thinks they baby proofed until their kid goes mobile.
arjie 6 hours ago [-]
Spock! A classic. My parents, when raising me in the '80s and '90s, had a copy of his book and tried their best to follow what it said. I still recall the cover with the smiling baby. An amusing anecdote my father now has retold many times over (as fathers do) is that despite Spock's best advice there was something that I refused to do. His friend, a psychologist, pointed out that while Spock's advice might be good, my father could not expect me to behave as described because I had not read the book.
Another thing that's interesting here to me is the two fingers below the diaper to avoid sticking the infant with the pin. Two fingers under the diaper is still standard enough guidance that we and others we know received it at the hospital when diapering our child, though the reason expressed was one of tightness. I wonder if perhaps the former is the origin and the latter is a backformation.
And finally, the environmental question. Since my wife and I are quite old[0], and I want us to have more than one child I have pushed our household to the extreme end of consumerism[1]. We live in a 2 story flat in San Francisco, and until recently we had a changing station downstairs and two upstairs, with a diaper pail by each.
Here I encountered the problem that plagues anyone who has many battery-powered appliances - what convenience you gain in use, you lose when it comes to replace batteries. The Diaper Genie tall can we have is a very effective device at keeping smells in, but multiple cans means the time between replacement is doubled - something which you are rapidly made aware of by your senses[2], when it's time to replace the bag. The convenience is still worth it.
I do have a friend with more children than us, who will probably continue to have more children than us, whose family uses cloth diapers. So it is not an impossible task, and for someone adequately concerned about the environment and appropriately disciplined, perhaps quite straightforward to do.
1: my rationale was that by easing the difficulties of pregnancy, I might reduce any resistance my wife might have to having the next child.
2: "Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output" - Chairman Shen-ji Yang.
laurencerowe 18 minutes ago [-]
FWIw I’ve had no problems with smells from our Ubbi Steel diaper pail which uses regular garbage bags. (Do use thicker bags though.)
shawn_w 3 hours ago [-]
Checking to see if you're able to fit two fingers underneath a dressing to make sure it's not too tight and won't cut off circulation is standard practice in health care; not just diapers.
arjie 2 hours ago [-]
Ha, much simpler explanation then.
firesteelrain 3 hours ago [-]
Favorite memory of diaper genie was after the pail is full, and you slice off the captured diapers, was slinging the long sausage link like string of diapers into the apartment dumpster. Ah the memories
arjie 3 hours ago [-]
Haha! I'm still living this. Down the garbage chute you go, diaper sausage!
firesteelrain 2 hours ago [-]
Been close to 20 years for us. Enjoy the kids while they are young!
FarmerPotato 2 hours ago [-]
Oh yeah. I slinged it into a high-floor garbage chute. Then I felt it was wiser to bag the whole thing.
sikozu 4 hours ago [-]
Thanks for the link! I've never seen this documented in a wiki format on the internet before, truly cool.
arjie 2 hours ago [-]
Glad you liked it!
m463 5 hours ago [-]
> plagues anyone who has many battery-powered appliances
costco sells these AA+AAA coast lithium ion batteries that are 1.5v and seem to have high capacity and long charge time.
Seems better than either duracell disposables or the nimh rechargables that I use.
arjie 2 hours ago [-]
I've got the duracells from Costco. I've go to try these. Thanks for the tip.
XorNot 4 hours ago [-]
Oddly enough I have a whole bunch of the lithium-ion ones with a USB-C connector in the side. Keeping a specific charger around for batteries sucks but I have a lot of Anker chargers so this works quite well.
m463 4 hours ago [-]
These batteries have usb-c charging with a charging LED and come with a usb-a to 4x USB-C cable. Pretty convenient.
In comparison, the duracell batteries have a pretty good lifetime, but just go dead. They also don't work in the cold.
the nimh batteries are rechargable and somewhat convenient, but have a short lifetime. This seems to be because they are 1.2v and the devices think they're low on power more easily, plus their self-discharge is lots faster than other batteries.
mrcsharp 5 hours ago [-]
This is the first thing I read this morning and I'm not even a dad yet (or maybe never).
I miss this side of HN nowadays.
Markoff 3 minutes ago [-]
Do people claiming cloth diapers have lower environmental impact just ignore the vast amounts of water and chemicals you use to wash and reuse them? I'm not so convinced they are that much better than disposable ones.
Same goes for financial aspect, washing (water/electricity)+washing gel vs picking them up in the store where I'm going anyway. Daily expenses on disposable ones are negligible to outweigh the convenience.
I can see only good reason for cloth being health reasons since there were cases when materials inside irritated babies skin sometimes, even famous brands had this issue and you have to figure out which brand works best for your kid.
I would make same argument about murdered Christmas trees vs artificial ones, I'm using my artificial Christmas trees for 9th year, meanwhile neighbors have their murdered trees transported by trucks to shop, then they transport them by car to their homes, then they throw them away after 2-3 weeks at home making mess on street expecting waste collection service collecting them (from everyone's money) with trucks and dispose them.
uma_ch 3 hours ago [-]
Interesting side note. In some countries such as Japan the sale of adult diapers has now overtaken baby diapers. Pretty sad to think about. Wonder how manufacturers in other countries are thinking as birth rates drop.
msuniverse2026 6 hours ago [-]
Seems easier to just sit em in the backyard and hit em with the hose
speed_spread 5 hours ago [-]
This has interesting side effects below freezing temps. Icicle babies don't smell at all until they thaw.
drfloyd51 5 hours ago [-]
They hold their poses better when they are frozen too.
schnitzelstoat 6 hours ago [-]
This was really interesting! I’d never considered how challenging it is to manufacture and mass produce them.
The books it mentions of business/corporate histories look worth a read too.
dllu 6 hours ago [-]
Nowadays some parents went back to opting for cloth diapers. Apart from the obvious environmental aspect, there's the idea that ultra absorbent and comfy diapers disincentivize babies from signalling that they are about to poop. Apparently, babies can communicate when they need to go even quite early on, in what's called "elimination communication". This also makes them a lot easier to potty train later on.
I used cloth diapers to great effect with my two kids. We'd use disposable ones when going out, but for around the house (and at daycare, bless them!) we were able to use cloth. I think we saved a pile of money, and yes, they were both trained pretty early.
Nobody wants them, even free... I guess I'll just throw them all out eventually, I've offered to new parents and they're all horrified by the concept
shawn_w 2 hours ago [-]
My parents used cloth diapers for me, and then later reused them for years around the house as rags.
yen223 4 hours ago [-]
Haha, we got second-hand cloth diapers. Figured it can't be worse than what our little one is going to do to them!
samch 2 hours ago [-]
Agreed - like the sibling comment, we also used cloth diapers with our two kids. They were actually great. The ones we had were basically two-part construction: there was an outer shell with adjustable snaps for appropriate sizing, and an inner liner that absorbed the moisture. Both were easily washable. Like other parents we knew who did this, we added a small hand-held sprayer / bidet wand to one of our toilets and used it to hose off the diaper and liners. We would then toss them in the washing machine. I think these also provided more cushion for the kids’ bottoms and they both ended up sitting and scooting on them pretty fast. Also like the others here, we used disposables on the go / on vacation. Just my two cents, but we loved our cloth diapers.
hermanb 4 hours ago [-]
Our baby was capable of sending these signals when she was a few weeks. So most pees she does hanging above the sink. This saves so many diapers, crazy. And much more comfortable for her to never have a wet butt, not even a minute. Would recommend!
I think within the next few months we can actually get her to go to the potty by herself. She’s 15 months now.
This industry wasn’t just good. It did destroy babies sensitivity to soiling.
danielodievich 5 hours ago [-]
We had cloth diaper service for our two children, where they'd deliver a huge stack of nice soft thick cotton squares, and take away the dirty ones, once a week. They barely smelled, especially in the beginning before solid foods start. They were excellent as burpy cloths on the shoulder too. Disposable diapers were more excellent for outside, and at later times for sleeping through the night when we realized that the absorbency was better for sleep. We definitely felt better about the environment with the reusable cloth ones.
DonHopkins 4 hours ago [-]
I thought "Elimination Communication" was the technical term for Trump tweeting from the toilet.
wodenokoto 4 hours ago [-]
I’ve seen the cotton diapers my parents used for me and I don’t see how they could have competed with any lackluster version of the disposable diaper mentioned in the article.
yen223 4 hours ago [-]
I use cloth diapers, but modern disposable diapers can hold a lot, a lot of pee. Significantly more than any cloth diapers can. This means a lot less blowouts with disposables.
cogogo 6 hours ago [-]
Our kids have been out of diapers for a couple of years. We loved these bamboo diapers[0] Nearly as good as pampers. Much softer and much better for the environment. I have no relationship to the company.
And disposables dropping at 10cents a pair. Holy crap! I thought they were expensive now.
Finally we had a crazy trustee in our condo assoc that wanted us to scrape the poop off before we threw diapers away in our community barrels (in sealed bags of course). We just smiled and nodded.
That site is worth visiting just for the wavy scrolling marquee text that's actually selectable. Very satisfying!
greekrich92 5 hours ago [-]
Great read. Being an engineer in the mid 20th century must have been fun and satisfying.
We pay for a diaper service. The price is comparable to disposables. The population density where I live helps with the price I'm sure.
fsckboy 5 hours ago [-]
it is recommended (search, you'll see) that at home you don't wash your underwear with your other clothes because there is a nonnegligible amount of fecal matter and associated bacteria remaining after washing.
extending that notion to nappies being community washed in large vats (separated by mesh bags and kept separable?) is horrifying. I suppose they put in some chlorine bleach to sterilize? Still, chlorine bleach might whiten the masticated corn kernels but...
xyzzy_plugh 4 hours ago [-]
I think your imagination is much worse than reality. While your home laundry is arguably questionable (a lot of the sterilization occurs in the drier!) industrial laundry is a different ballgame altogether. How do you think hospital bedding gets cleaned? Most if not all industrial laundromats do regular testing of cleaned items to test for bacteria, organic matter, etc.
A nappy service is very likely to do a much better job than you'd do at home.
nmbrskeptix 41 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
crmd 3 hours ago [-]
As an American, I’m embarrassed because it’s a thought-terminating cliché, but I hear great “modern marvels”-type stories about innovation like this and think, “we used to be a country…”
IncreasePosts 6 hours ago [-]
Is this the first written reference to having a poop knife?
speed_spread 5 hours ago [-]
It was always implied in the expression "cut the crap"
Reminds me of something I often slightly chuckle about as a parent.
I’ve often encountered non-parents, particularly teenagers, who remark how the thought of changing nappies horrifying and a really big deal. But as any parent knows, changing nappies is really one of the easier parts of looking after babies and toddlers.
It's not an easy thing, but some of the histrionic claims about child raising on the internet are really out there. It's no wonder kids are horrified by the thought.
Have you considered that objectively difficult infants/toddlers/children exist? Children with O.D.D., for instance, show symptoms early, but diagnosis usually doesn't come until much later.
Perhaps the comments you came across online were from the parents of those kids.
-A parent of a very challenging child with Level II Autism
For sure, probably because stinky diapers are visceral but psychological challenges aren’t, yet I think most parents would agree about having to dig far deeper into our inner resolve to deal with age-appropriate behavioral issues.
It’s a similar experience to changing parents diapers when you are an adult and they are end of life. Seems horrific, then you just do it.
Then it becomes more but not much scent, like a training period. And it's really only 4-6 months that it begins to get foul.
Another advantage for the baby side is a hack I can't believe more people don't do. Just notice when they make a very recognizable face or start grunting then hold them over the toilet.
False positives are no big deal (just a fun change of scenery for the baby), for false negatives you change the baby as normal.
No amount of it is pleasant but it still felt, even at the time, like training wheels on a diaper.
Then I looked up and my mother came running towards me, all excited to be able to change a diaper for the first time in seven years.
The thing I remember being most annoyed about was cleaning all the bottles. That was really obnoxious.
I sometimes wonder about the people who must clean messy public restrooms. All of the gross, none of the "but it's for the sake of a cute human that I love".
Personally I'm really bad with smells, though. Even with hundreds (thousands?) of diapers changed I still really have to focus on not losing my lunch on the bad smelling ones.
Toddlers...yeah.
i’m assuming you’re the mom? ;) Yes the pressure starts off strong, can easily fly onto their face lol. happened to me…fun times.
> somehow the back of his clothes keep getting wet while he's fully dressed in and in a diaper which completely boggles my mind.
We just solved this recently with our baby boy. I can try to offer some tips. He likely needs a different diaper size, or (more likely), his penis isn’t correctly facing downward when putting the diaper on. 1st secure one side, and before you secure the other, peek at his penis (looking into the diaper from the side - near his hips). Make sure it’s pointed straight down and adjust if necessary. then quickly strap the other side. Basically you want the diaper to gently and firmly keep that penis pointed down all day. When boys are about to pee, the penis becomes briefly erect. If the diaper is not firmly holding that penis down, the penis can easily drift sideways and shoot urine in a weird direction. When this happens the urine can leak around the hips and up the back - instead of going into the absorbent pad. A quick test - when you change his diaper, is his penis still pointed down? If not then that’s the issue. If it is, try other troubleshooting steps.
Girl diaper changes are “easy” in this regard.
Compared to trying for hours to get him to sleep, or dealing with the sheer panic we felt when we had to have him rushed to the hospital, a poopy diaper is nothing.
When you have twins, or triplets, or more... Nothing at all is easy. Unless you're privileged (or have help), their early years become your living life's only work.
> ... encountered non-parents ...
One reason why I hold anxiety for infants at orphanages or under care.
> You want a covered pail partially filled with water to put used diapers in as soon as removed. If it contains soap or detergent, this helps in removing stains. Be sure the soap is well dissolved, to prevent lumps of soap from remaining in the diapers later. When you remove a soiled diaper, scrape the movement off into the toilet with a knife, or rinse it by holding it in the toilet while you flush it (hold tight).
> You wash the diapers with mild soap or mild detergent in [the] washing machine or washtub (dissolve the soap well first), and rinse 2 or 3 or 4 times. The number of rinsings depends on how soon the water gets clear and on how delicate the baby’s skin is. If your baby’s skin isn’t sensitive, 2 rinsings may be enough.
The technique hasn't changed much.
We used nappy liners, a piece of paper to catch the worst of the poo. And 'wraps' on the outside. The nappies had poppers; you could popper them differently as they grew.
On wash day, empty the water from the bucket into the toilet, lift the nappies individually into the [front-loading] washing machine.
We bought our cloth nappies on eBay, already second-hand. We passed them on still usable years afterwards.
I did start potty training as soon as they went on solids, well before they could sit unaided! We used baby-sign, and I tried a couple of elimination communication techniques. Baby-sign was great, they could tell us they needed potty before they could talk; first child even made a new toilet sign to differentiate between wee/poo.
We had compostable nappies for times when we needed them - too rainy to dry clothes, too sleepy, backup for when they wee/poo on the nappy as you're putting it on them when you're out and about.
Only thing we'd wash with the nappies was soiled clothing (baby grows) or towels we'd lie on the bed to change their nappy on. A month or so in we got a changing table (Ikea).
We bought a pack of thin disposable diaper liners. These go inside the diaper and catch most of the business. They then get thrown away (but it’s much less waste/garbage than an entire diaper)
They do get their own load. The ones we have tell you to run them in the wash twice.
Suddenly you couldn't put him down and he'd roughly stay wherever you left him.
Another thing that's interesting here to me is the two fingers below the diaper to avoid sticking the infant with the pin. Two fingers under the diaper is still standard enough guidance that we and others we know received it at the hospital when diapering our child, though the reason expressed was one of tightness. I wonder if perhaps the former is the origin and the latter is a backformation.
And finally, the environmental question. Since my wife and I are quite old[0], and I want us to have more than one child I have pushed our household to the extreme end of consumerism[1]. We live in a 2 story flat in San Francisco, and until recently we had a changing station downstairs and two upstairs, with a diaper pail by each.
Here I encountered the problem that plagues anyone who has many battery-powered appliances - what convenience you gain in use, you lose when it comes to replace batteries. The Diaper Genie tall can we have is a very effective device at keeping smells in, but multiple cans means the time between replacement is doubled - something which you are rapidly made aware of by your senses[2], when it's time to replace the bag. The convenience is still worth it.
I do have a friend with more children than us, who will probably continue to have more children than us, whose family uses cloth diapers. So it is not an impossible task, and for someone adequately concerned about the environment and appropriately disciplined, perhaps quite straightforward to do.
0: if you want to see what happens when you have a baby near 40, https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Pregnancy
1: my rationale was that by easing the difficulties of pregnancy, I might reduce any resistance my wife might have to having the next child.
2: "Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output" - Chairman Shen-ji Yang.
costco sells these AA+AAA coast lithium ion batteries that are 1.5v and seem to have high capacity and long charge time.
Seems better than either duracell disposables or the nimh rechargables that I use.
In comparison, the duracell batteries have a pretty good lifetime, but just go dead. They also don't work in the cold.
the nimh batteries are rechargable and somewhat convenient, but have a short lifetime. This seems to be because they are 1.2v and the devices think they're low on power more easily, plus their self-discharge is lots faster than other batteries.
I miss this side of HN nowadays.
Same goes for financial aspect, washing (water/electricity)+washing gel vs picking them up in the store where I'm going anyway. Daily expenses on disposable ones are negligible to outweigh the convenience.
I can see only good reason for cloth being health reasons since there were cases when materials inside irritated babies skin sometimes, even famous brands had this issue and you have to figure out which brand works best for your kid.
I would make same argument about murdered Christmas trees vs artificial ones, I'm using my artificial Christmas trees for 9th year, meanwhile neighbors have their murdered trees transported by trucks to shop, then they transport them by car to their homes, then they throw them away after 2-3 weeks at home making mess on street expecting waste collection service collecting them (from everyone's money) with trucks and dispose them.
The books it mentions of business/corporate histories look worth a read too.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication
Nobody wants them, even free... I guess I'll just throw them all out eventually, I've offered to new parents and they're all horrified by the concept
I think within the next few months we can actually get her to go to the potty by herself. She’s 15 months now.
This industry wasn’t just good. It did destroy babies sensitivity to soiling.
And disposables dropping at 10cents a pair. Holy crap! I thought they were expensive now.
Finally we had a crazy trustee in our condo assoc that wanted us to scrape the poop off before we threw diapers away in our community barrels (in sealed bags of course). We just smiled and nodded.
[0]https://dyper.com/
We pay for a diaper service. The price is comparable to disposables. The population density where I live helps with the price I'm sure.
extending that notion to nappies being community washed in large vats (separated by mesh bags and kept separable?) is horrifying. I suppose they put in some chlorine bleach to sterilize? Still, chlorine bleach might whiten the masticated corn kernels but...
A nappy service is very likely to do a much better job than you'd do at home.