You definitely didn’t make that up 😊
What your mom did was actually very common for cloth diapers, especially before modern diaper services and washing machines became standard.
Here’s why:
🚽 Why Rinse in the Toilet?
Before disposable diapers became widespread (especially pre-1980s), families using cloth diapers often:
- Shook or rinsed solids into the toilet
- Swished or dunked the diaper in toilet water to remove waste
- Squeezed it out
- Stored it in a diaper pail until laundry day
The toilet was practical because:
- It already contained water.
- Waste went directly where it belonged.
- It avoided clogging sinks.
🪣 The Diaper Pail Method
After rinsing, diapers were:
- Stored in a covered pail
- Sometimes soaked in water with baking soda or mild disinfectant
- Washed in hot water every day or two
This was completely normal household practice.
👶 Before Disposables Took Over
Disposable diapers became widely popular in the 1970s and 80s. Before that, cloth was the standard. Even today, some cloth-diapering parents still rinse diapers in the toilet (though many use sprayers attached to the toilet instead of dunking).
So no — you didn’t imagine it.
It was a practical, common method for generations of parents.
If your friends still don’t believe you, just tell them: that was pre-disposable diaper life.
