So I’ve gotten more than a few comments on my posts over the past several months (yes I read them!) and many of them have to do with my choice – yes choice – to dunk and swirl poopy cloth diapers in the toilet instead of install a diaper sprayer.
Some of you are downright appalled that anyone would willingly stick their hand into a toilet full of water to clean off a child’s poop. Even as I wrote that sentence, the “pre-kids-me” shuddered a little bit because truly it is gross. But, I decided, it is better than the alternative.
The truth is, I do have a brand new diaper sprayer. In my linen closet. Still in the packaging. And every time I get it out and contemplate installing it, my three-year-old suddenly appears by my side very interested in exactly what I am doing with that cool-looking contraption. I usually mumble something about cleaning diapers and quickly put it away.
I have a couple of excuses issues. First, it would definitely be my very non-handy hands installing it. My husband has so little time at home with us and his list of to-dos is already very long. My daughter might be potty-trained by the time he got around to it. Either way, messing with plumbing intimidates me immensely. I know I should suck it up and just follow the directions but…
The other reason why I haven’t made myself install what one of you called a “life-changing appliance” is that I am worried what creative uses my three-year-old might find for it. I have had visions of him spraying my entire bathroom with the super-fun sprayer, deciding his sister needs a bath with the sprayer or setting up a car wash for his trucks. He uses that bathroom a lot. And he’s independent enough to go to the bathroom and climb up on his stool to wash his hands on his own, so I am not always there – nor do I want to be there – to make sure he’s not touching the sprayer.
Also – this might be silly – but I don’t have a place to mount the sprayer. There is tile behind the toilet that I am not willing to drill into and the wood vanity is along the side, but again, not willing to drill into it. How do others solve the mounting dilemma?
Bottom line is that I am probably not going to install it (though I really am curious). My daughter is 11 months old now and she generally only poops about once a day. Sometimes less. Her poops have become more solid over the past couple of months and relatively easy to shake off into the toilet.* Sometimes the poop comes off cleanly enough that I don’t even have to dunk it. Sometimes I do need to give it a couple of quick dunks and flushes. And yes, there are times that I spend several minutes crouched in front of the toilet, swirling, flushing and shaking (okay, cursing and shuddering too) to get the poop off. And I do have to wring out the diapers over the toilet when I’m finished. But overall, I think my method works well enough for me to continue.
…especially because I don’t have to worry about an early morning wet bathroom surprise!
Tell me are there those of you out there that have chosen not to install a diaper sprayer? Or maybe there are some of you that installed it and removed it out because it was being used for “alternative purposes”? Or are there some alternative uses you’ve found that make it worthwhile?
*I have learned a couple of tricks along the way that do make my method a little easier. First, sounds gross, but leaving a poopy diaper alone to dry out a little makes the poop a lot easier to peel off and plop into the toilet. Second, I have a designated rubber spatula that I keep in the bathroom to help flick the poop off the diaper and into the toilet. Don’t worry, it will never be used again for food – I wrote “poop” on the handle just to be sure.
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every Tuesday.
