Picture courtesy Mini-Shower
So there I was changing the stinkiest, stickiest (yes, stickiest) post-chili poopy diaper ever. Cooper, as usual was attempting the alligator death roll. I somehow managed to fold the diaper quickly enough so that he didn’t get an ankle or worse, a whole leg covered. I wiped him clean and then put his diaper on while he stood up. I never thought I’d be so good at putting a Duo Fab Fitted and cover on a standing baby. But I’ve had to adapt.
But of course, as is the case with cloth diapers, I still had one more task to do…I had to get the poo off of the diaper and into the toilet. This was no “log” and the old “flick, roll, plop,” routine was not going to work. This was going to involve some “peeling, plucking and wiping.” While I was dumping the diaper, I suddenly thought of diaper sprayers and how handy one would have come in right then.
In case you’ve never heard of them, diaper sprayers are little hoses with high-power spray nozzles that attach to your toilet pump. They pump clean water from your pipes, through the hose and can be used to spray the solid waste off of cloth diapers and into the toilet–the same job I do with a piece of toilet paper. Apparently, they are quite easy to install and work really well. But then, I wonder, how do you carry the dripping diaper back to your diaper pail? Do the wet diapers smell more or less than dry? These are things I don’t know the answers to because I don’t have a diaper sprayer.
Cooper is my third and final baby and he’s already 15 months old. We will not be investing in a diaper sprayer at this point, though I really like the idea and by some of the reviews I’ve read, some parents swear by them. If you use a diaper sprayer, tell us about it. Was it easy to install? What do you do with the wet diapers–do you leave your diaper pail in the bathroom? Would you recommend a sprayer to your friends considering cloth-diapering their babies?
I’ve debated getting a diaper sprayer too. We are on baby number one, but I’m hesitant to get one…
I don’t have a sprayer. I keep a small bucket and a long-handled wooden spoon in the bathroom near the toilet. I use the spoon to remove the sticky poop. If I dunk the diaper, then I use the spoon to squeeze out the excess water before I put the diaper in the bucket where it will wait until wash day. Poopy diapers don’t go back to the diaper pail where the pee diapers are, so we don’t have to worry about dripping diapers.
I love my diaper sprayer! I just keep my wet bag in the bathroom. The sprayer is great for cleaning out the baby potty too.
We had a bad experience, It leaked, got it replaced and that one leaked from a different spot! Got a refund as I didn’t feel like causing water damage! I am thinking about trying to DIY one so it’s repairable but I am still afraid of leaks.
We use a diaper sprayer. Have had it since our first son. It is invaluable! Our boys are healthy poopers, plus it also comes in handy for rinsing out the froggy potty during potty training. We wash diapers every other day and have never noticed any smell.
I never thought about using one on the froggy potty. It would have totally paid for itself!! Especially since I can’t get my son to stop using his froggy potty even though he is WAY too big for it
So, I went over 6 months without a diaper sprayer. I wash twice a week and I’m thinking of switching back to every other day because of the sprayer. Before, I used to have to dunk and swish, soak, use the toothbrush (I work kitchen gloves), etc. I went down to twice a week bc that way I had a full load of diapers and I only had to dunk/swish twice. Now with a sprayer, I can’t decide if I like it or not. Sometimes it’s great. Other times, I’m still using the soak method and the toothbrush. Either way, I have it now, so I guess it’s here to stay =) (By the way, no real smells. I use a 5 gallon bucket as I rinse, so dirty diapers don’t rejoin the wet ones, and my diapers are in good shape regardless of method.)
We have a sprayer. We use liners so most of the time there is no need for the sprayer, but when the liner shifts and there is sticky poop on the diaper itself, the sprayer rocks!!! We wash about every other day. I don’t really notice the diapers getting anymore smelly once they are wet from being sprayed. We take them down to the basement though. I’ve used it for other things that need to be rinsed out in the bathroom too, like the tub! My husband did think it was kind of hard to install. The directions were easy but he broke a piece that goes to the toilet. User error
I would totally recommend getting one, because when I need it, I’m VERY glad I have it!
I would not still be CDing if I did not have my diaper sprayer. The first time I had to use it, I was way more than grossed out and I can’t imagine dunking. I’m a wimp when it comes to poopy diapers!
I would wholeheartedly recommend one. I have never noticed more of a stink after spraying the diapers. I also now have my diaper pail in my bathroom along with the changing table. It makes things quite easy!
I don’t have a sprayer. I just do the old fashioned dunk and swish, and don’t worry about getting every bit of poop off. I just get the chunks, and the rest comes off in the wash. I have a small diaper pail, so I just carry it with me from the bedroom next door to the bathroom when I have a diaper to rinse, and the rinsed diaper goes right into it from the toilet.
We’ve sprayed from the beginning, even just breastmilk poop. We used a communal apartment laundry room, and wanted to be able to reassure people that we had already washed the poop off the diapers. Also, sometimes when we didn’t spray a wipe or anything like that, we waited too long to wash and then the dried poop stayed on through the wash stuck to the diaper or wipe–gross! The unsprayed dipes were also much more likely to stain. Overall using the sprayer for poop let us wait longer between washes and made me feel better as just another step toward making the diapers clean.
I don’t have a sprayer, but I would love to have one. Someday…
Such a BRILLiant idea… there is so much to learn about cloth dipering.. thank you soo much!
I have loved our diaper sprayer. I have a nearly three-year-old and a nearly one-year-old and the one-year-old’s poop is more solid than the three-year-old’s. Which means that I’ve been changing toxic mushy poop for a long time. This is not a case of using a little toilet paper to get it off the diaper. So my diaper sprayer has been really helpful. I keep our diaper pail and a pair of rubber gloves in the bathroom and I wear the rubber gloves while I spray. The diaper sprayer comes with quite a kick, by the way. Once I’m satisfied that there’s enough poop off of the diaper I can squeeze the extra water off while I’m wearing the gloves. I pull the diaper pail over a couple of feet so that I don’t even have to worry about drips on the floor.
A friend gave me the diaper sprayer after she decided she didn’t want to do cloth anymore. Before that I was swishing and using the force from the toilet water coming in to get the poop off. That worked fine, but it was a pain to have to wait a while for the tank to fill up after the toilet had flushed if there was still more poop to get off.
Installation is not too difficult. The most important thing is to turn off the water before unhooking things. The water going into the toilet is very forceful and it would be a huge mess if you forgot.
I am about to have #3 and have really thought about getting one but I have gone this long without one… But a major DUH moment! I have a laundry tub in the laundry room with a sprayer. So the other day I got a bucket to capture the water and solids, and sprayed a super yucko diap, then dumped the water ect into the toliet, sprayed the diaper with bac out and done. Why hadn’t I thought of this before!!
we just got one. the “what to do with the wet diaper” thing didn’t hit me until i sprayed my first diaper. ugh. but we use g diapers, so i just set the wet insert into the snap-in liner and move it to the laundry bag that way. we keep our bag next to the toilet, which cuts down on travel, too. but i do love our flo diaper sprayer!
We are expecting our first baby this summer and plan on using cloth diapers. We have heard from multiple sources that it can make or break cloth diapering in some cases. We plan to use one but are still looking.
I suspect my husband will really want a sprayer once our kid starts on solids.
We’ve not yet begun the solid-food-poop fun, so I’m watching this thread to see if a sprayer is in our future…
I couldn’t imagine cding without one!
Still debating…still only ebf poop..so no issues…the gross factor may come and give me the need
I haven’t decided if I’m going to use one yet… Thanks for all the comments!
I have no actual experience just yet, but just the thought of dunking makes me queasy! We’ll definitely be getting a sprayer, particularly for the harder diapers. I don’t think I could get my husband on board without it!
We use a diaper sprayer – I believe the Bum Genius brand. It has been great having one, for moments like the one you described! We keep her diaper pail in her room and I usually ring out the diaper in the toilet before running it back to her room – I know gross but I’m going to wash my hands anyway. Haven’t had any problems with dripping diaper on the floor yet. Although, the diaper sprayer does sometimes drip water onto the floor from the connection. It’s kinda a cheap construction so it doesn’t surprise me, but other then that it seems to be holding up. All in all, couldn’t live without it!
My daughter is on a daily dose of Miralax, so we rarely (if ever) have the ‘flick, roll, pop’ kind of diapers! Both my husband and I find the diaper sprayer to be a huge help. Mind you, we still have to get more involved on occasion, but for the most part, the sprayer gets the job done. Our diaper pail is in the bathroom, so moving the wet diaper is not much of an issue. And as for smell, it never crossed my mind that there would be a difference
We’re lucky that we have a half bath in our laundry room. We keep the diaper pail wedged in between the toilet and the washing machine, so we have no worries about post-sprayer drip! We love the diaper sprayer!
I don’t have a sprayer but after 2 months without it I told my husband to make me one. I was using liners but my plumbing would not agree with it unfortunately
. I tried dunking but…. well it is just not for me…. Cannot wait to use a sprayer, let’s hope my husband will get to it sooooon…. Let’s hope for that! 
I seriously do not know what we would do without our diaper sprayer!!!
Thank you for this post!! I have been wanting one, but not sure if the cost is worth it, but from what others are saying the sprayer makes it quicker and probably less water than multiple flushes. Although we don’t have a sprayer, we too keep our pail in the bathroom for even the old fashioned sloshing, wring and then put it in the pail. We used to carry it back to the room…not a good idea as you will have drips eventually. Yuck!!
The sprayer was easy to install (for my husband). I bought the sprayer, and while I did like it for the most part, eventually I succumbed to using a flushable liner. The sprayer still came in handy when the liner would bunch or whatnot, but I think in the end the liners were more useful.
My main issue with the sprayer was that in order for the spray to be strong enough to get the toughest stuff off, it was so strong that there was a fair amount of splatter. (Ick!) I suppose if you have an apparatus that you can use to shield the splatter, it would be great, but we didn’t. I’m picturing using something like a Home Depot bucket with the bottom cut out, setting it on the toilet bowl, then spraying within. But then you have to clean the bucket…
I don’t have one as I’m just expecting my first, but it sounds like a super idea to me! I might also keep the pail in the bathroom.
I would not be so enthusiastic about cloth diapering if I didn’t have one! I got mine about a month in, and it makes all the difference in the world! lol The day it came I was going to wait for my husband to hook it up when he got home, but then DD had the grossest poop EVER and so I went ahead and attempted it myself. It was super-duper easy to install. It cleans so much more of the poop off. And after I spray, I just roll up the diaper and wring it out. DD’s bedroom is right next door, so I just pop around the corner and toss it in the pail, and then I wash my hands (though I do have a hanging bag that I could start keeping in the bathroom). It is the coolest thing, essential for our family, worth the cost, and I absolutely recommend getting one to my friends that are considering cloth.
I originally was not going to buy one; we don’t plan to have another child and I thought it would be better to save the money at this point. But once my husband learned there was such a thing, he decided we HAD to have one!
We just installed a diaper sprayer last week and LOVE it! I don’t know why we didn’t do it sooner! It helps so much with those stickier then ever poops!
We don’t have one and honestly I am not sure for us it is worth the money. To me it really isn’t that big of a deal not having one
The thing I wonder about is water usage. Does it use a lot of water or only a little? Certainly it would use less water than flushing a few times, but I could just do it the old-fashioned (cheap) way. I’m not very squeamish but I would love the convenience/time saver.
So I’m wondering, is it worth the extra water?
Hm. we seem to be doing fine without a sprayer… the prewash gets rid of any lingering solids, and I can’t say that any lingering messes really smell, even in our open-top diaper pail… the idea of rinsing the potty is a good one, but our toddler potty is downstairs, and the poopy diaper flushing potty is upstairs so the logistics might not work for us…
I’m due in a few weeks but I already ordered mine. I can’t wait to use it. I plan on keeping the diaper pail right in the bathroom so I’ll just spray off, wring out, and throw them in. I doubt my husband would have been so convinced to cloth diaper if I hadn’t told him about this. I’m just afraid of it leaking which seems to be the common problem. Guess I’ll find out soon enough!
I don’t have one, but after reading about it on this blog I am considering one for when baby starts solid foods.
Oh, by the way, a few days ago my son threw up. We had to use up a lot of towels to get it cleaned off the floor (thankfully it happened on linoleum this time), and after that the diaper sprayer came in really handy for getting the majority of the stuff cleaned off the towels before we put them in the washer.
It’s been on my must-have list since I started CD about a month ago, but didn’t feel the need… until DD started spacing out her poops. Now I can’t get one soon enough! LOL. What a mess…
Since my baby is still only breastfed I’m not using a diaper sprayer now, but I’ll definitely get one for when he starts solids!! It’s such a handy device!
This is r last (5) baby and first in cloth. So far we haven’t installed one, but at 9 months old we still get quite a few that won’t just plop either. I think we r going to install one soon.
I do not use a diaper sprayer and i have no problem i just go to the bathroom dump the poop in the toilet then i go to the shower and rinse it out with the detachable shower head. then i will go down and grab the bucket or if the wet bag is almost full just put it in there, then clean the shower out with my seventh generation spray, wash my hands and take it back down to the washer and usually wash that day. yes using the shower means one more step by cleaning it but it works just as good and cheaper.
I love our sprayer! As others have mentioned I’ve found it comes in handy for more than just diapers. We’re also lucky enough to have room in our bathroom for a diaper pail, so no transporting drippy diapers.
I have a diaper sprayer but haven’t used it yet as we’re still exclusively breastfeeding. I think it will be very handy when we start solids!
I didn’t have one with dd but we used liners and thankfully she never had a runny one! We didn’t start CDing her until she was already eating some solids though. When/if we have our next, I will definitely be having dh make us a sprayer for BOTH bathrooms!
We use a sprayer to get big poops off little girl’s diapers, though you have to be careful with the pressure or you will end up with a crazy mess. Thankfully, our nursery has a little half bathroom in it, so it makes clean up pretty easy. I imagine spraying will be easier once she has more solid poops.
we don’t have one. we use liners and it works well for us.
we definitely do! We love our sprayer! We sometimes use fleece liners too, but sprayers are handy for so much more than just diapers. When DH is working in the garden or outside and is gross and doesn’t want mud/dirt in the sink, I just spray his hands/arms off before he washes
That aside, it’s great for cleaning the toilet, and… of course, the diapers!
I do not use one right now ds its only 3.5 months old, I plan on getting one once he starts solids.
I installed mine all by myself…it was daunting to me at first…I was going to ask my dad to do it for me but I thought i would try to learn a lil bit about plumbing…10 min later it was installed no leaks or issues….It is one of the things that have kept me using cloth it is a life saver we love our diaper sprayer! my mom is still intimidated when it comes to changing poopy diapers….but shes going to end up having to do it someday when im not there so she’ll learn!
I don’t use a sprayer. I dunk and dunk until it is gone. I wear a glove for the really bad ones to dunk and squeeze until it is completely clean. I never notice a smell and I use a wool wet bag.
Don’t have one yet, my daughter is only 6 weeks. Will be getting one when she starts solids!
I am also debating on getting a diaper sprayer. You can find them pretty cheap on Ebay.
Okay. There is a whole technique to getting the poop off without a sprayer. It involves folding the diaper backward on itself (inside out essentially) and holding it by the top edges and dunking the messy part into the toilet water. Usually most of it will come off just from multiple quick dunks, but I often find if I flush the toilet and let the diaper sit in the flow of the flushing toilet the suction from the toilet flushing will pull most of the solid waste off the diaper. You have to be sure you have a good grip on the diaper though because the diaper can get sucked down the toilet. I learned this technique when my sister was a baby 30 years ago and have always used it with my babies. That being said, I am considering a diaper sprayer, mostly because I live in an apartment building and the shared washing machines aren’t very good, so I find myself prerinsing diapers in the bathtub and it would be nice to do that in the toilet instead.
By submitting a comment you grant Thirsties Baby a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.