My Nannie’s 1950s & ’60s cloth nappy routine

Jes and her Nannie talk about how cloth nappies were done in rural 1950s and ‘60s New Zealand.

A few months back, Katie posted about her mum’s 1980s cloth nappy experience here in New Zealand. It was so enlightening (and a little scary) to read how nappies used to be cared for in years gone by. This sparked a question I had, What was it like before that? Back before there were options for detergents, laundry soakers and boosters. Heck, before there were even washing machines!

Thankfully, I have the sweetest and most incredible Nannie who raised five kids whilst living and working on a dairy farm. We had a very eye-opening chat about how things were for her when she was raising her young family in ‘50s and ‘60s rural New Zealand. 

My Nannie’s cloth nappy routine

At the time electrical household appliances were still somewhat scarce in rural areas, not everyone had a fridge and no one had an electric washing machine. 

When my Nannie was raising her children, the most she had in nappies at a time was two. Toilet training was common at 12-18 months and babies were started on a potty at a year old maximum. 

When my aunty (the second child) was a toilet-trained toddler, my Nannie and Papa unexpectedly took on another infant as whāngai, a cultural practice of raising someone else’s child as the parents aren’t able to. 

This meant that with no notice, they went from having two toilet-trained children to their newest family member arriving with nothing but a nappy. 

Cloth nappies were the only option and they consisted of terry towelling flats over a cotton flat, held together with a nappy pin and then a pair of plastic pants over the top. 

Overnight babies slept on plastic sheets and nappies were changed with every feed. It was common to go through a couple of sets of cot sheets a day. The plastic sheets and pants were wiped out with sunlight soap and water.

These plastic pants didn’t last long. They were noisy and hot and the elastics would break after a few months. Knowing what we know now this was likely due to ammonia build-up.

The laundry setup

There were no laundry detergents like we have now. The cleaning products were salt, boiling water and some sunlight soap.

All the family washing was done in an outside laundry. Instead of a washing machine, there was a washboard, a copper boiler and a mangle (wringer). 

Similar setups were found all over Australia and New Zealand at this time.

Scrubbing, soaking and boiling

The absorbent part of the nappies, the terry towels and cotton flats were taken to the laundry room (outside the house) immediately after being changed, and any bowel motion was scraped off with a wooden or plastic scraper. The flats were scrubbed on a laundry board before being soaked in a tub of warm water with salt dissolved in it. The next day these were all put in the copper and boiled until clean. If they still had staining after the salt soak, they would be scrubbed with sunlight soap before going into the copper.

Once they were removed from the copper by a wooden stick, they would be left on a tray to cool off a bit before being rung out through a mangle and then hung on the line to dry.

It was common practice to leave stained items out overnight if you were expecting a frost as the frost could leave your whites bright and help lift any soiling stuck in the nappies.

The sun was used for helping to lift stains where other methods available at the time weren’t able to cut the mustard.

Every part of this process was hands-on. Scrubbing, boiling, and feeding through the mangle. This took a fair bit of time each day, and that’s on top of working on the dairy farm and taking care of a young family.

Frost sometimes works to help lift soiling as ice is a larger particle than water, it can sometimes push the physical soiling to the surface of the material as the water freezes, making it easier to wipe off and look cleaner. The sun bleaches surface-level stains, making the material appear brighter and whiter.

A note from the present day

It is important to note that these methods are unreliable and a good wash routine is far more effective. We have products and tools at our disposal that make it much less labour-intensive and significantly more reliable.

I showed my Nannie our pocket nappies with their polyurethane laminate (PUL) outers, the cotton tri-folds, bamboo cotton and hemp inserts and how we use snaps and velcro to get the perfect fit and we both shared how grateful we were that times have changed, technology has improved and having multiple babies in nappies at one time is easier than ever.