The Prepper Diaper: Baby Care Post Collapse

Having just had my first child, many of my thoughts on my preps have changed from focusing only on Beans, Bullets and Bandaids to Diapers, Baby wipes and onesies.

I have begun to stock up on baby rash creams, formulas (we breastfeed but redundancy is the key) and extra outfits for various ages.

Thinking about the diaper question, you cant re-use disposable diapers, they are well, disposable and not made to be re-used, so what are the other options?

CLOTH DIAPERS

Cloth Diapers are old school, and what many parents had to deal with in the past, and theres a reason why they arent as popular anymore.

The Basic, no frills cloth diaper is a big piece of thin cotton that you fold until it s the right size, which you wrap around the babys bottom and pin it, however  you could probably use the ace bandage holders as well.  My mother used cloth diapers on my but gave them up the day she stuck me good with a pin and I apparently cried for a long time, which she felt bad about.  The issues with these diapers is you have to change your child 2,3,4 times as often depending, they dont have the absorbency so where with a disposable if the child peed a bit you can leave them in the disposable when with the cloth diaper you cannot.  Cloth diapered babies get rashes more often as well.  However you can clean and reuse the cloth diapers as often as you want, which makes them more “prepper” than a quadcon (conex shipping container) full of costco diapers.   You wash them out in the toilet, scrape the nasty out and soak them in bleach to disinfect, wash them and wallah you have new diapers! Leakage is a major concern.

PREFOLDS

There are pre folded versions now, pre folded for the size so you dont have to keep folding the large cloth everytime. same issues as the regular plain jane cloth diapers however.

SNAPPI

Snappis are an alternative to pins, and are more baby friendly than pins.

Waterproof covers

These are waterproof wraps that go over the cloth diaper to help reduce leakage issues, they are made to be somewhat like a disposable diaper, but are made of waterproof fabric like polyurethane laminate and fasten with velcro or snaps. You can air out the covers between changes and have a couple you use throughout the day, using 1 and letting the other 2 air out, unless they get…gunky!

FITTED CLOTH DIAPERS

A cousin to the prefold, they behave roughly the same way, but require no additional folding, and no pins or snappis, and are already in the shape of a diaper and fasten with snaps.  You will still need to use the covers for these, but you can also use a wool cover.

WOOL COVERS

Wool covers are more breathable than the plastic ones, and doesnt need to be washed as often unless poop gets on them, but they are expensive.

POCKET DIAPERS

These have an outerlayer of the PUL material what is sewn to a cloth layer that lays against the baby’s skin with an opening between the two which you put an absorbent insert between them.You remove the insert and put both in the wash.  You can buy the inserts that come with the brand or just put regular cotton cloth in their as well.

ALL IN ONES

These have a waterproof layer, absorbent layer and layer against the skin all sewn together that use aplix or snaps and its reusable as well.  However at 15+ per diaper they are expensive and some of the hardest to clean.

CLOTH WIPES

Just like the cloth diapers, these wipes are used once then washed, you use the wipe stick it with the diaper and wash it all in one fell swoop.  Most people recommend having over three dozen of these since you use alot of wipes throughout the day and NEVER want to run out.  With these you will need a spray bottle filled with water so you can spray the babys bottom and wipe it after.  You can use 1 or two to get the majority of the poop when theres a big mess and then spray and use another two to get the residual.

Cleaning the Cloth

If theres only pee then throw it in the cleaning pail, but poopy ones you need to wash out first.  Often most people just clean them in the toilet, unless they are still on milk.  Basically dunk them up and down in the toilet or get a spray attached to the toilet.  If you have prepped to continue to use well water under pressure in a survival situation then this tutorial on how to make your own sprayer for diapers next to the toilet will be of some help.

Then you will soak the diapers in a pail of bleach water until wash time to kill the bacteria and whiten the cloth (if you have designer or non-white diapers then youll need a different system).  You will need to wash at least once every three days to keep any nasty buildup of bacteria and nasties. As far as washing goes, its the same, BUT you will need to use a detergent that leaves no residues behind and is baby friendly as their skin is very sensitive. In good times Dreft or other fragrance free soaps are great, however a borax washing powder with vinegar in the rinse cycle should do the trick as well, and that is easier to stock up on.

1 cup Baking Soda

1 cup Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

1-3 tbsp per load

*Be careful as Borax can age PUL and elastic if your using those*

NO DIAPERS

In the western world we often keep babies in diapers for a long time, but in other parts of the world they are potty trained AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE so to reduce the time they are soiling their clothes.  Why? because they usually use swaddling cloths (much like cloth diapers) only for as long as is necessary to get to potty training time. The swaddling cloths were for accidents and not to be used as a diaper in the sense of they go when they want, we change them they do it again type of deal.

Most moms and even dads can tell when the baby needs to go or is about to, the parents in those countries would then hold them so as not to be in “the line of fire” and they went where they went, this may seem gross now, but in the future who knows?