Elian wanted to know if I had enough diapers and pants in my bag before we left her apartment and after adding one of her special cloth diapers and a pair of new blue plastic pants to it and then we were ready to go. Adam led the way down the street just filled with him self as he swung around every sign post along the way. It was just after noon and the sun was still high in the sky for a late August Saturday. Elian and I looked like the proud parents that we were. She assumed the role of the over protective aunt and I of the “I am the Mother”. It was only a short walk to the park and we arrived just minutes after Adam who was already on a swing begging us for a push. Elian went first; pushing him high in the air and with every push Adam giggled a laugh, yelling higher, higher! I took my turn after Elian looked all tuckered out. Adam just couldn’t get enough of our attention. I was surprised that his diapers were staying up and that he looked and played like he wasn’t wearing them at all. Finally we got a chance to sit on a bench and talk all the while watching Adam as he made the rounds of the play equipment, teat-ter totters,

slides, monkey bars and ending up in the sand box with a few other children.

There was another mother there supervising at the slides and Adam was the biggest child in the rotation. I think the mother noticed that Adam was diapered by the way she helped him off the bottom of the slide. Before he made it to the sandbox Elian called him over and when he arrived, she tied the bottoms of his shorts closed and then sent him on his way.

“See Beth, doesn’t that work well? Now when he is sitting down in the sand they won’t be able to see what he is wearing under those shorts!”

We started talking about old times and about Jeffery and his diapers.

“Elian, how come you never told me about Jeffery before, I remember coming and staying with you at least four times over the years and you never said a word?

“Well, I never told you in the beginning because I thought it would take care of itself and when Jeffery got older, he didn’t want Adam to find out because he thought that Adam wouldn’t accept him. Jeffery thinks the world of Adam and asks about him all the time. I told him that you were experiencing the same thing with Adam that he had gone through. He thinks that you are doing the right thing, I mean, diapering Adam, until it all straightens out one way or the other. Jeffery asked if I could redo his room after he heard the news that Adam and you were coming for a visit. Jeffery is coming to stay with me more often too since I did the room make over, it needed a fresh new look anyway and I think the nursery look worked out well. Look at him over there, playing with the other children, he looks happy to me! Now then Beth I want to talk to you about all the things that I have learned about diapers and diapering over the years and some of the events that have happened to Jeffery and I.”

“It sounds like this is going to be a long story! What age was Jeffery when it started?”

“Jeffery was eight, maybe eight and a half when the bedwetting started. He was having a hard time excepting that his dad didn’t visit or come around much. They didn’t speak the same language, I mean his father always expected him to do more and wasn’t very excepting of any problems, especially the bedwetting. Jeffery usually wet his bed after a visit. It was all I could do to console him and change the sheets. Then after much thought and a couple of doctors visits, I decided to put him back in diapers at night time. Goodnites and other bed wetter diapers weren’t available then and Pampers were only made up to size five. I had to buy Attends, youth size, for Jeffery and they gave him a rash. He didn’t like them at all, so one day while in the baby department at the store, I happened on some Gerber toddler sized baby pants. As I was standing there with package in hand, a sales lady approached and asked if there was anything that she could do for me. I was reluctant to ask at first, but she seemed nice and I did have a problem. Then she asked how old my child was. Well I told her eight years old and then she said, “Boy or girl,” like it was a common occurrence. I replied “Boy” and then she said that if he weighted less than ninety pounds, they would fit. The package said sized for over 36 pounds and that is a fare cry from ninety! I grabbed four pairs and took them over to the counter, and then she asked if I would be needing any cloth diapers and pins, saying that she had some large toddler pre folds in stock and on special.

Jeffery arrived home for dinner that night and I showed him what I had got for him. He took the longest time examining the packages. He told me that he didn’t think that he would fit in the baby pants. All I said was “We‘ll see after dinner.” What was missing was any kind of objection on his part, which surprised me! After dinner I put him in the bath and went and laid out his new cloth diapers on the bed, ready to be pinned onto him. I thought to make the process as quick as possible, not wanting to have to struggle to get them on him. I went and finished washing him, wrapped him in a towel and escorted him to the bedroom. To my surprise, he was all too happy to hop up on the bed and get into position asking me if I was going to diaper him like this every night. Before, with the disposables I insisted that he put on his own diaper and I only had to refasten it tighter if it was to lose. With pins involved I thought it best if I diapered him.

He now wanted me to take my time as he paid close attention to every part of the process. I had to use some diaper rash cream on him because of the rash that he had from the disposables and he criticized me for not putting it on everywhere saying that I had missed some spots. I put three pre folds together and slipped them under his butt. After gathering the front of the diaper together he immediately opened his legs as far as possible in order to allow me to pin them on tightly at the top. Then I gathered them at his legs and pinned them again there, keeping the pinning as far forward as possible so they wouldn’t bother him in his sleep. Remember to insert the pins in the diapers from the bottom to the top so that if they come undone, they will simply slip out and into his baby pants with out sticking him. Finally it came time to put the baby pants on over his pinned on diaper. I opened the package and shook them out, the smell of the fresh vinyl mixed with the diaper rash cream and the baby powder reminded me of when he was a baby even though I had always used disposable diapers on him. He wiggled a little as I slipped the stretched open leg holes over his straightened out feet and pulling one side up to his knee before pulling the other side up to the same height, before extending the waist to its maximum and asking him to rise up so I could slip them over his diaper. Well from that moment on, I never saw him so happy to be in diapers and plastic baby pants and that is how I started using cloth diapers on Jeffery.”

“I went through, and I am going through the same thing with Adam except that now there are disposable diapers that fit him on the market. Now you can go into any drug store and find diapers that will fit an older child. I don’t think that there are any more bed wetting older children out there today compared with your time with Jeffery, but it is becoming more acceptable to diaper them. As for cloth diapers, there are no choices at all, even the wahm’s are not making diapers for older children, and to top it off, Gerber is not making toddler sized baby pants as big as they used to. I asked at a few places for cloth diapers for Adam and I got a look that if I used cloth diapers on him, it would be considered child abuse! We tried the disposables at first and they fit him alright but leaked at night when he slept on his side and they didn’t have the capacity that the cloth diapers have. If Adam has a big day and drinks a lot, I can add a boaster pad in his night time diaper and expect that the bed will be dry in the morning, I can’t say the same thing when he has a disposable on. People say that the cloth diapers are warmer than the disposables, but I have not found that to be true!”

“Beth, you are right, cloth diapers worn under large baggy plastic pants are just as cool, and maybe, cooler than disposables. The larger the plastic pants, the more surface area to shed the heat. Tight fitting diapers are necessary to cut down on the chaffing and rash, but the larger the pants are, the less heat build up that you get. Adam, come hear dear it’s time for us to go! Beth I’m going to check his diaper before we go. I think I saw him wetting as we were talking.

“How can you tell that he is wetting Elian?”

“Adam is just like Jeffery, he stops what he is doing only for a moment and then he gets this daydreaming expression on his face. That coupled with a smile that is not quite a smile and you know that he is wetting his diaper. Oh, there you are, did you have fun with the other children?”

Elian greeted Adam’s return and held him at the waist and told him that she was going to check his diaper and to just sand still. She cupped the seat of his pants first and squeezed it a little. Then she patted it while feeling the weight of it between his legs.

“It will soon be time for a change don’t you think Adam? That’s ok; I was hoping that you would need one! Were going to walk over to the mall and have some fast food for dinner ok, and then we can do some shopping. I want to get you something special for your bedtime tonight Adam, sound like a plan?

“Yes, I guess, I am sorry if I wet my diaper to much Elian, It just happened and my diaper hasn’t leaked any yet.”

“That’s ok Adam, that’s what the diaper is for. Beth I didn’t tell you, but the fast food place that I want to take you guys to, has a new change table in the ladies washroom, it’s marked that it has a capacity of one hundred pounds and I just can’t wait to put you, Adam on it and try it out. What do you think, won’t it be fun Adam and then you can come shopping with us with a nice dry diaper on.”

“Won’t there be other people in the washroom too?”

“Yes, but it shouldn’t matter, most of the women in there have seen babies getting changed before!”

We walked up the street and to the mall; we had to cross the boulevard and walk across the large parking lot. Adam’s diaper was sagging and you could tell by the way he was walking that it was becoming more uncomfortable for him. We all sat down at a booth in the restaurant first because there weren’t many places left. We started to decide what we were going to have, burgers or chicken, and Elian asked Adam if he wanted to have his diaper changed right a way or if he wanted to wait. Adam was a little apprehensive; to say the least and it took him a while to respond. I guess he was trying to imagine how long the changing would take and where.

“Well Adam, we only have one way to do this unless you want us to change you out here in the booth! You’ll see, it won’t take that long and we will try not to embarrass you. We brought the diaper bag with us so we would not have to go home after the park and you knew that we would have to change you somewhere and at sometime before we got home. If we don’t change you soon your diaper will leak and then we will have to go home and you won’t get your surprise. Well Adam, make up your mind, now or when it’s too late!”