Using a Diaper Sprayer

Pretty much the least fun aspect of cloth diapering is dealing with poopy diapers. Normally dealing with #2 doesn’t really bother me much, but every so often there’s an “extra special” diaper that makes me really cringe. Luckily, I have a sweet Mom who knows just how much fun it is to swish a dirty diaper from her own first hand experience cloth diapering me and my siblings, who had pity on me. She bought me my very own shiny new diaper sprayer awhile back. I was excited to try it out, but I soon found there was a finesse to getting it to work without spraying ickiness all over the place. I’d like to share my technique with you so hopefully you can avoid some of the silly (and messy) mistakes I made.

Yes, I spared you and used a clean diaper for my demo photo

1) Place the diaper in the toilet laying the dirtiest part towards the bottom of the bowl and lean the diaper against the front of the bowl.

2) Turn the sprayer on just a tiny bit until you figure out how much pressure you’re going to have (this is very important to avoiding spray nightmares) then point the sprayer diagonally downward hitting the diaper keeping the sprayer a few inches away from the diaper. If you try to spray horizontally directly at the diaper it will make a big old mess. Make sure you keep the sprayer pointed diagonally downward the whole time you’re spraying.

3) Squeeze out diaper and you’re done!

Things to note:

With pockets you may prefer to place the pocket opening at the bottom when spraying so the diaper doesn’t fill with water. I find it depends on the type of pocket opening whether I prefer placing the pocket down or at the top. The pocket openings that have a flap (like the one in the picture) tend to get icky stuff stuck in the pocket if you put them opening downwards.

I’ve had a few issues with defective parts on my sprayer, and waited until I couldn’t even use the sprayer anymore before calling. Don’t do this… call right away if you notice the pressure isn’t adjustable or anything is leaking. They replaced my parts pretty quickly and my sprayer is working great now.

Be aware (in case you already aren’t) that toddlers are very attracted to shiny things that spray water. You may need to shut the bathroom door to avoid your child taking a “shower” outside of the bathtub! (No, this didn’t happen to me… yet, but Angelo’s gotten close a few times)

Using a diaper sprayer is pretty easy if you follow this method, and it’s way less icky than the swish and flush method. I have definitely noticed my diapers had less staining and stink/build up issues since I’ve had my sprayer.