How was bedwetting handled before disposable diapers/pull-ups were invented?

[Stacy]

I'm curious how parents handled kids that were bedwetters before disposable diapers/pull-ups/goodnites came out. I would imagine cloth diapers and just wet beds?

 

[Chloris]

For myself I can't say as I was in disposables on and of until about 12.. but my mother told me when she was young she had to wear cloth diapers with plastic/rubber pants and a sheet on her bed. It's how I knew she understood my wetting and that she didn't judge me on it

 

[jamiejamie]

I had plastic backed vinyl under the bed sheets. It absorbed a majority of the wetting so that my mattress doesn’t get wet. When I wake up wet in the middle of the night, I just lay down a bath towel over it, change my pajamas/underwear, and then go back to sleep. My mom would take care of the laundering in the morning.

 

[KCA]

PVC sheet on the mattress under the sheets.

 

[dpcare]

my parents used a small about 3'x3' sheet of actual rubber on my bed sometimes it wasn't enough coverage

 

[Karoq]

Terry square cloth nappies pinned on with a folded one inside as a soaker then covered in pull up plastic pants. I am a child of the 60’s who was wet at night until around 16. When I outgrew the standard baby sizes my grandma bought material to make larger ones. Before late 80’s / early 90’s most babies, young children and I guess incontinent adults had no other option than Terry nappies

 

[bwsteve]

plastic mattress cover always on my mattress .or any bed i would sleep on. i wore cloth diapers and plastic pants nightly until my teens and very rarely woke up in dry diapers

 

[Eclectic]

One word. Laundry.

 

[Pajamafan5]

My parents handked it with a paddle to my butt. It was frustrating being punished for something I can't control!

 

[Lyric]

Mom diapered my two sisters and me with cloth diapers and Gerber plastic pants. I remember two different styles of cloth diapers, one was birdseye 36" X 36" square diaper that she used until we reached a certain size and than the used Curity diapers 40" X 21". She folded them quite differently and I wore the larger Curity diapers until I was 17. My sister wore them until she was almost 13.

 

[Stacy]

Mom diapered my two sisters and me with cloth diapers and Gerber plastic pants. I remember two different styles of cloth diapers, one was birdseye 36" X 36" square diaper that she used until we reached a certain size and than the used Curity diapers 40" X 21". She folded them quite differently and I wore the larger Curity diapers until I was 17. My sister wore them until she was almost 13.

Was it pretty embarrassing having to wear cloth diapers at that age? I cant imagine having my mom put a cloth diaper on me at those ages. I bet you got plenty of leaks too!

 

[Stacy]

My parents handked it with a paddle to my butt. It was frustrating being punished for something I can't control!

Yikes yea that would be tough. Like every time you woke up wet?

 

[Pajamafan5]

Yikes yea that would be tough. Like every time you woke up wet?

Yes every time. I tried hiding it every time it happened.

 

[messydiaper]

I grew up in the 70's and we could tell who wet the bed because some of the guys wore their pee stained underwear to school. Not kidding. In physical education lockers we all had to change around one another and there was always more than one guy whose underwear was stained yellow and he smelled like pee.

I wet the bed a few times when I was out of diapers and my mom did the laundry and my mattress got pee stained. But I never wore the pee stained underwear to school. Not even once.

I had a friend who wet the bed into high school. I was surprised to see a rubber sheet on his bed when I visited his house. He didn't mention it.

But in the 70's and 80's the protection I saw was either a rubber sheet or nothing at all resulting in a pee stained mattress.

Goodnites came along when I was in college and I have never worn that product.

 

[TexasDiaperLover]

PVC sheet on the mattress under the sheets.

Yep. Wet sheets. For years. Ugh.

 

[Wetshisbed]

Growing up I was a chronic nightly bedwetter and back in those days it was Terry (cloth) nappies and plastic pants. I wore these at night until I was about 8 or 9 and then on the insistence of our District nurse I was taken out of nappies as it was thought being wet and uncomfortable at night would soon have me dry. Yeah right like that worked. I just got used to a soggy smelly wet bed every night.

 

[totters]

I wore disposable diapers until the summer of first grade and then they got taken away. I had a PVC sheet on my bed under the sheets and I got to enjoy the freezing cold wet sheets every night for almost a year. Mom must have been so tired of the laundry every day but Goodnites weren't a thing back then and i think I'd out grown the noname diapers they could buy at the grocery store by then. I don't miss waking up to wet sheets every day - it really sucks when I overfill my diaper and have a leak as it brings back those unpleasant memories.

 

[Rodgers]

I was a bed wetter in the late 50’s and I wore pin on cloth diapers and plastic pants until I was about 6. They were bulky because I recall trying to put pants on over them one morning and could not zip them up.

 

[andrea29]

cloth and pin diaper and a lot of smell )

 

[andrea29]

i start using disposable after 6 year old and it was totally better