Have Anyone Ever Used Rubber Pants or Plastic Pants When Cloth Diapering?

Updated on March 28, 2014
S.C. asks from Detroit, AL
18 answers

I was just wondering if there was anyone that used rubber/plastic pants when cloth diapering their babies? I find that they work great and are very economical.
If so, what was your experience using them with the cloth diapers
Thanks!
S.

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J.L.

answers from Tulsa on

Oh yeah! I waited til my babies were a bit older and eating solids a lot. That way their bowel movements were much more regular. So-- what I did- don't laugh---is, AFTER they had a BM in their disposable diaper- then- I would put the cloth diapers on. Doubled up. Used those liner things too. That way I could always try to only have to wash out only pee diapers!!!! I would be able to cut the pamper costs in half at least. I did use plastic pants. Got real big ones. Used them later for potty training! Never used pull-ups. They liked to potty in them!
J.

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D.L.

answers from Little Rock on

I had my first child in 1983 and I was also a stay at home mom and decided that cloth diapers and rubber pants would be the route I took. It seemed so much more economical and enviromental friendly. My daughter kept developing yeast infections and I was washing her diapers in Dreft a baby safe detergent. I never let her sit in a wet or dirty diaper. I spent probably hundreds of dollars on pediatric visits and medications. Finally when she became so raw and inflamed that she was screaming in pain and another visit to the doctor. He told me to try disposable diapers. I got the medications for her poor little bottom once again and got the disposable diapers. In two days she was a compleatly different baby. And a happy one. The doctor told me that the rubber pants hold in amonia and that the disposable ones were more breathable. At that time the diapers were not as contoured and light as they are today. I don't know if there have been any improvements made in rubber pants. I did not even try cloth on my son when he came along. But if your child is not getting rashes and it is working out for you, Cloth is good. I will say though that the disposables do pull moisture away from the babys skin much better than cloth.

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S.L.

answers from Oklahoma City on

S.,

I used cloth diapers and rubber pants. At the time I used Sears rubber pants and found that when you did put them in the dryer they kept soft and the elastic stayed great - no cracking around the legs! I used triple fold diapers. My children are 27, 22 and 20 so I know products have changed. I did not use liners - there were none at the time. What I did after ever diaper change, I washed my child with Safeguard soap (antibacterial soap) and used diaper cream. I did not have problems with diaper rash using cloth diapers. I also used regular training pants for all my children in the beginning and then switched to regular panties for the girls and underware for my son - I had no problem - they did not like the feel of peeing in their pants! On the economical side of cloth, I agree with you, I did not have a diaper service, my husband at the time was in the military and we needed to save where ever we could and like you I was also a stay at home Mom, another thing I did was ground my own baby food. You can save a lot of money this way also. I just bought the baby cereal and baby prunes. Enjoy your 7 month old! Good luck with diapers.
S.

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A.F.

answers from Oklahoma City on

No, I never used rubber or plastic pants. I did use nylon pants occasionally and they worked fine, but I really prefer Velcro or snap-closing covers (Bummis, Mother-ease, Blue Penguin) because they are easier to get on a baby who is lying down and/or already has pants on. Also, they hold up better in the wash and are more breathable.

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P.P.

answers from Jonesboro on

S., I have 5 children all grown now. With the 2 oldest, I used cloth diapers w/plastic pants. Pampers hadn't come out yet. It meant more laundry, but hey, there was no alternative. The younger of the two boys was almost ready for potty training when Pampers hit the market. I used disposables on the other kids. Actually I was satisfied with both. Of course, disposables are more expensive for the pocketbook and the environment.

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C.D.

answers from Lafayette on

I tried using the cloth diapers on my oldest grandchild who is now 16. I found that he got a diaper rash more quickly than when we used the disposable diapers. I did use the rubber or plastic pants while using the cloth diapers. Maybe if you got some liners to put in the diaper it would keep the moisture away and not cause a diaper rash. I find that the disposable diapers are just easier and you can throw the mess away.
good luck

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A.C.

answers from Oklahoma City on

no, i used AIO's, but you might check out www.diaperpin.com to see what they think. there are tons of diaper wraps out there.

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J.S.

answers from Tulsa on

I used them with my two children when I first started because I didn't want to make the investment in other types of cloth. I found that they worked and were very economical. The draw back that I found was that you need to change more often and they are not as absorbant. I do know that hemp and babmboo diapers are more absorbant but are also a bit more costly. They are so worth every penny! Good luck and hope you find a system that works for you.

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H.M.

answers from Florence on

Hi,
I used cloth diapers with rubber/plastic pants, and sometimes nylon pants with 7 of our 9 kids (we didn't have a washing machine at home with the first two). They worked fine. They actually kept the clothes drier than the velcro closure covers (my baby is 8,so things may have improved). my babies had much fewer rashes in cloth than in disposable, although I did use disposable for trips and long days out. Especially if you plan to have more than one child, the cloth diapers become even more economical.

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S.S.

answers from Oklahoma City on

Hi S.!

We cloth diaper but I don't use the old-style plastic pants. We use a variety of covers that are made with PUL and also some pocket diapers which are a diaper/cover combo. If you want to talk about other variety of cloth diapers and covers feel free to message me. Good luck, and good for you for your interest in cloth diapers!!

S.

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R.S.

answers from Pine Bluff on

Hey S., LOL, i didn't think anyone used cloth diapers any more. I used them with my kids but they are 29 and 21 now. I used plastic pants and what can you say, they work for what they are designed for. my hat's off to you for doing the cloth....take care R.

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P.V.

answers from Little Rock on

My children are grown, but when they were babies I used plastic pants, with my girls they had the cute little fancy pants ones, not sure what is out there now, as i am a 56 year old grandmother. My experience was a good one with the plastic pants. Enjoy that baby.

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L.B.

answers from Fayetteville on

you mean covers? oh, totally! They're great! Mine are polyester, actually, but they look plastic. Thirsties never leak a drop and the colors are lovely. But i like the bumgenius 3.0 pockets best, over using covers + prefolds or fitteds or anything else. they're so easy, and great for overnight/naps/being out and about (i hate diaper changes on the go). Plus, cloth diapering, i'm saving about $2,000 in disposables. I've only had to buy 1 pack of disposables for a long trip (came in handy during the ice storm power outage, too, when we couldn't do laundry).

L.

ps i just read Deborah's account, and I really feel for her and her daughter! But I'd like to stop a myth from spreading. Good cloth diapers will keep the moisture away from that baby's skin. A Bumgenius diaper feels almost completely dry in the morning after 7-8 hours of my daughter being in it. The moisture goes straight to the inserts, where it remains. Other diapers are great, too, but, sure, you will probably have to change them every couple of hours. This is a good thing. For hygiene reasons, no baby wearing any diaper should go for hours on end without a diaper change. Even if mom and dad feel they can "get away with it." Maybe it is for this reason that cloth-diapered babies (these days, anyway) tend to get far fewer rashes than disposable-diapered ones. They've done studies! Now, I can imagine that rubber covers or other non-breathable materials would usually cause problems. Fungus, for one thing! But the covers on the market today generally deal with that using PUL (polyurethane laminate, I believe) and other breathable materials.

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C.S.

answers from Fayetteville on

I didn't do cloth diapers but used them with the thick training underwear and that really works well. The only thing I can tell you is don't put them in the dryer even if they say you can. It causes the elastic around the legs to get hard and hurts their little legs.

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V.M.

answers from New York on

I used cloth diapers and rubber pants (plastic pants) with both of my boys with no problem. The only thing I would say is that prompt diaper changes are recommended in order to avoid diaper rash (and also a liberal layer of Desitin creme at each diaper change helps to reduce the risk of redness and rash). At nighttime I would double-diaper my boys for added protection. The savings moneywise over buying disposable diapers are significant. Also, an advantage of cloth diapering that is seldom mentioned during in kinds of discussions is the fact that potty training is often much easier with cloth diapers - some of my friends who use disposable diapers on their babies have commented to me that their babies don't mind being wet or soiled that much when they are wearing disposable diapers. This is because disposable diapers minimize the discomfort of a wet or soiled diaper to such an extent that the baby is less "motivated" to be potty trained. A wet or soiled cloth diaper, on the other hand, is more uncomfortable - thus, baby is more "motivated" to move on to training pants. Hope you found my comments helpful. Happy diapering!!!

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M.K.

answers from Monroe on

I'm not planning on using the plastic pull-on pants until the new baby is potty learning. I am going to use cloth--prefolds and wrap-style covers until she/he (due in sept) is big enough for my pockets and AIOs. We are slowly building our stash with clearnace and sale products, this way we won't be out a whole bunch when baby comes, we'll have it already. Part of our income tax return will be for diapers...two packages, one from greenmountaindiapers.com and one from divadiapers.com and then some OS pockets by nature's love from ebay, they are 20 dipers for $145 and I've had several people recommend them (both locally and online). When potty learning begins we'll use either gerber training pants or whatever style I get recommendations for to order from online...and hopefully my pockets will still fit and I can stuff them full for overnight.

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B.I.

answers from Chicago on

I wore cloth diapers and plastic baby panties until age 15. They worked
very well. My mom would diaper me and slip two pairs of rubber baby panties on me for xtra protection. I slept like a baby.

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R.C.

answers from Montgomery on

I used cloth diapers and plastic pants on my first child, who is now 22. A lot more economical, but also a lot more work. It wasn't too bad at that time because I only had one child. With my next 2 children, I used strictly disposable-simply because we were stationed in Germany and washing was difficult (we lived on the 4th floor and the laundry room was in the basement) Try lugging that up and down the stairs with a baby and 2 toddlers in tow! I tried cloth diapers on my last child (he's 15 now). We opted for a diaper service because I had 2 toddlers, the baby, and one just starting kindergarten. This didn't last long. He had an allergic reaction to whatever they washed them in. They didn't have any other options to offer as far as what they cleaned the diapers with, so we went to disposables and everything was fine after that. When I did use the plastic pants, they seemed to work well-until they became really active. Sometimes we'd have leaks from them moving around and the covers would get out of whack. But the greatest thing about the cloth diapers-they lasted forever! I'm sure we still have a couple floating around here somewhere that we use for cleaning. My husband is retired military and the cloth diapers are great for shining boots! They're also very economical to use in place of paper towels. Absorbent enough to clean up most messes and we kept a "rag" bucket and washed them every few days. When they all outgrew the diaper stage, the plastic pants went to the girls for their dolls that would "pee" when they'd give them a bottle-that saved the sofa numerous times!

I think it's just a personal decision-you have to find what works for you and your child.

I have noticed that the covers have become a lot more stylish now days. That's a plus-especially for the little girls that wear dresses. The old plastic covers were just UGLY! Kind of reminded me of a shower cap that had been altered.

Good luck,
R.

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