Stroller

I'm in cloth all the time, apart from when we go away and don't have access to a washing machine. I wear cloth principally for environmental reasons. Avoiding disposables altogether is impractical for me, and probably for you too, for the same reason. So you'll have to work on softening up your other half's 'no more disposables' rule. In my experience, pinned or Snappied cloth nappies aren't really practical for daytime wear if you're at all active. They tend to fall down, and they're pretty bulky. I find that pocketed nappy covers work better. The ones fastened with poppers are less bulgy than the velcro ones, which often have a more noticeable front bulge. You'll need a load of soakers to go in the nappies, and you're much safer in plastic pants as well, whatever the manufacturer claims about how waterproof the covers are. I'm generally in velcro nappies in the winter months, under dungarees, and popper nappies in the summer, under cargo shorts. Whatever you wear, they're more visible than disposables, so you need to choose your outer clothes with care. Buy one of every type of cover you can find, and a couple of every soaker, and try them out until you find out what works best for you. The same goes for plastic pants - I'm usually in Gary polyurethane pants, which cover well and are comfortable, but they are pretty noisy. Breathable they are not, which I see as a big advantage. I manage OK with two nappies a day, plus a pinned/Snappied terry nappy overnight. Good Luck!

It's a 'yes' from me. I have to be a lot more careful these days, & head for a toilet at the first sign. No major incidents yet, but there've been a few close calls.

It's just not a problem, for me anyway. That's UK hot weather of course - I've never worn in tropical conditions. I'm OK in a onesie and cargo shorts and a pair of sandals. Although I'm generally in a cloth nappy and plastic pants underneath my onesie, I don't feel any hotter or sweatier than if I wasn't in a nappy. I don't seem to get nappy rash any more than in cooler weather either, but then I don't get skin conditions often anyway.

It's a big change. We were there temporarily for three years, once our younger daughter went off to university. Then she came back, and has been here with us for the past two years. There are signs that she might be off again soon though. We ended up with operating in two different states, depending on whether it was just the two of us in the house... On our own: I can prance around the house in a nappy all I want, I never lock the bathroom door, Teddy is often downstairs on the sofa in the day, dummy in my mouth whenever I feel like it. Mummy brings me a bottle of warm milk when she comes to bed and feeds me. Mummy is totally OK with all this. My wet nappies live in a drybag in the bathroom, & I take them down to buckets by the washing machine each morning. With offspring around: Dressing gown needed when I head for the bathroom, bathroom door locked, Teddy stays under the covers (though not really hidden). My dummy is in my pocket and rarely comes out during the day. I take my own glass of milk up at bedtime - my bedtime remains at 10pm, and Mummy makes sure I stick to it unless there's something special on the telly. Wet nappies now live in the secret cupboard under the bath, and I sneak them down when I can. We're planning to head off for a week's camping next weekend, just the two of us with Binky (dog). That should work fine I think. I'll switch into disposables for the week. If either of the kids were around for that there would be a lot of anxiety on both our parts - there's not much room to hide things when you're camping. Every noise stretches for miles, every bag is near to everyone else. I have to say though that it's a lot easier to keep things private from adult kids than from young kids - once they're older they respect privacy more, and we can give them their own privacy more easily too.

It's another warm sunny day here today, so we've decided it's time for me to switch out of dungarees and into cargo shorts for the summer. I've taken all my shirts and vest onesies out of my shirt drawer, and all my vanilla T-shirt onesies out of the bag under the bed, and I've swapped them round. I've got three new ABU onesies for this summer - orange, purple and bright green. And I've put most of my winter daytime cloth nappies in storage in the garage - the rest will have to wait until after the next wash. They don't really work with cargo shorts as there is a noticeable bulge at the front because of the velcro flaps. My summer daytime nappies have side poppers instead. So tomorrow I'll be in shorts and a onesie, and will stay that way until the autumn. Last night I couldn't sleep properly, so when Mummy came to bed she lay on her back for me to nurse on her for a while. After a bit she rolled onto her side so I could nurse on the other side, until I was sleepy enough. That doesn't happen very often in the middle of the night, but Mummy looks after me when I need her to. I suppose I was nursing for 20 or 30 minutes. Then I was nursing again in the early hours before it was time to get up, I suppose for the same length of time. That happens most mornings, until Mummy tells me I can get up. There's no milk of course, but I pretend, and I feel very little and very close to Mummy. She usually dozes while I'm nursing.

Lets' see... Well I've got about 10 vest-style vanilla onesies, that I wear under my shirt in the winter months. At the moment they're in my chest of drawers in our bedroom (in my shirt drawer). White ones, grey ones and navy blue ones. I've got about 12 t-shirt vanilla onesies, and they're my daily wear in the summer months. At the moment they're in a bag under our bed, as there isn't enough room in my shirt drawer for them. Mostly in bright colours, with a couple in red and white stripes. I've got about half a dozen AB onesies, which I only wear occasionally at home. I mainly wear these at AB events. I'll be switching from dungarees/vest onesie/shirt to cargo shorts/T-shirt onesie in the next week or two I think, when Mummy says I can. It's starting to get a lot warmer here. Then I'll switch the stuff in my short drawer round.

No - they work fine.

My routine is similar, but of course not identical... I don't change in the shower - I just put the wet nappy in a drybag & transfer it to a lidded bucket as & when I can. I wipe myself down with a wet flannel. I wash my nappies every 2 days. That just fits in the washer, and any longer would mean them getting smelly. I use a long 60 degree wash. I use non-bio washing powder & add a couple of caps of anti-bacterial additive. I can't line dry as there's nowhere with enough privacy, so I have to use the tumble-dryer. With my nappies that takes a couple of hours. Plastic pants get a daily wash in hot water in the sink - no detergent.

No. I approached going 24/7 gradually, for a number of reasons. Eventually I'd been 24/7 for months, and I needed the space so I binned my underwear. I hadn't worn it for a long time. It's all a lot easier if you go there gradually, as you've got plenty of time to learn what works best for you, and sort out any issues. Of course, this approach misses out the potential big buzz of going from vanilla to relying on nappies in one big life change, but realistically it works better. And you can pause or retreat as and when you feel you need to.

That would explain the gap between the comments around here and my experience too. It's a long while since I wore Tena nappies, but they worked OK for me. Their pullups are really good: just the job for hiking trips as they don't chafe and are highly resistant to damage - under plastic pants, which is how I wear them. I wouldn't be without them.

Yep. Many years ago, before I took early retirement, I had my strategy down pretty well I think. Firstly I wouldn't go to meetings unless there was a clear agenda written down that made clear what the meeting was intended to achieve. Secondly I wouldn't attend unless someone competent was going to take minutes, assuming the objectives included dishing out work &/or making decisions. Thirdly if I got bored in meetings my objective was to get the meeting to move on to the next item in the agenda, whatever the outcome. All that meant I managed to get a fair amount of work done.

Well yesterday I finally got round to some repairs on a couple of my cloth nappies. These were a couple of my normal daytime nappies from Dotty Diapers. These are really very good nappies, and I must have worn and washed some of the ones I've been wearing for the past years at least 250 times. They look like lasting a lot longer yet. However, they fasten with Velcro-a-like, and that wears out a lot more quickly. So every year or so I need to replace the Velcro. When new, the hook and loop material used in these nappies isn't top quality. The nappies are made in Pakistan, and the hook and loop is presumably sourced there. I bought a load of better quality hook and loop from Germany a while back (pre-Brexit), and that lasts much longer. So yesterday I unpicked all the Velcro from two nappies, and unpicked the stitching along the top of the front of the nappies. If you ever do this, it's much easier if you have the right tool for it (a seam ripper - they don't cost much). The seam along the top front needs unpicking to allow sewing in the replacement Velcro - sewing through the whole thickness of the nappy is too much for Mummy's sewing machine. Next I cut out replacement Velcro, making sure I got the hook and loop in the right order - loop on the front, hooks on the side bits. I rounded the corners to make sure there were no sharp points, as Velcro can scratch skin. Now they're all ready for Mummy to sew in - I'm not big enough to use the sewing machine. She'll do that over the next day or two, or at least that's what she said. I'll have to keep reminding her until she gets grumpy, and then she'll do it.

I don't think I'll manage to persuade Mummy to wear a nursing bra. Anyway, most of my time sucking on Mummy's breasts is in bed at night, usually in the early morning or when I can't sleep. Wetting while I'm at the breast happens often, usually automatically.

Thanks for the update, oznl. I thought it was a good opportunity to compare where you are to where i am now. It's now 3 years of unbroken 24/7 for me, mostly in cloth nappies, plus 18 months before that wearing full-time during the daytime. I think this is where your focus and mine were always a bit different, so I'm not surprised we're not quite in the same place now. I junked the "mental checklist" right from the start of 24/7, wanting to lose the responsibility of control as my main priority (don't ask me why, but it's fundamental to why I'm ABDL). So there was never any question in my mind about controlling my wetting being an option. So I learned early to relax the relevant muscles, and trained myself to ignore any urge to control my wetting when my bladder spoke. So "I just peed" is my normal state and has been for a while. I know I'm wetting when it's happening, but it doesn't always register in my memory. And I don't need to make any decisions before wetting these days. Often I've no idea how my nappy becomes as wet as it is. And of course I've still no idea whether I've lost continence, as I've not tried to stop my wetting once in the past three years. I've still never wet in my sleep, as far as I'm aware. No idea why not, but it doesn't particularly bother me. When I'm in bed half awake I often wet without any warning. If I need to wet, I can still take a conscious decision and then wet, if there's anything in my bladder. I don't often need to do this, but it's sometimes handy just before a nappy change that it would be inconvenient to put off. I never have a full bladder though - I've always wet long before I have that much in my bladder. As fas as I'm aware my bladder empties fully when I wet, when I'm upright anyway. At night when I'm horizontal I don't think it empties fully, but I don't see that as a problem - it's just that gravity isn't contributing.

Rubber Life magazine, back in the mid 1970s. Found in a dodgy back street magazine shop somewhere. I kept that first copy for many years, hidden in various places. It went in a purge cycle a long time ago.

I've switched to wearing Suprima pants (made in Germany). The Continence People have a limited range in stock. They're not cheap, but they're comfortable and well-made, and if you pick the right ones they have a good wide crotch. I've also bought some Gary polyurethane pants from Llmedico in the States. They're great pants apart from being very noisy - and they're not cheap. The Arizona Healthcare polyurethane pants were pretty much noiseless, but I think the Gary ones are made from a slightly thicker grade of Euroflex which makes them a lot noisier. The Haian pants you can buy through Amazon are very cheap & worth considering in my view, but the leg holes aren't forward-facing, and I had to go a size larger than usual due to the tight leg elastic. I've still got some, but the Suprima pants are a better fit, so that's what I'm usually wearing. Hope that helps.

My ears are burning... I can confirm that being exposed to UK Marmite from birth also readies you for the Vegemite experience. Nearly every day my breakfast consist of a mug of tea and a slice of toast with either UK Marmite or Vegemite on it. Not that sparingly applies either. I oscillate between the two to make sure I don't get stuck in at rut... And, if I could get hold of any, I'd make it a 3-way rotation with New Zealand Marmite, which is a different thing, but not different enough to break the spell. I have to admit I sometimes branch out into marmalade on toast instead, usually with peanut butter. The darkest marmalade I can find, with big bits of peel in it. If you're in the US, I'd skate over this part of the thread if I were you to avoid getting upset...

Yes. It's very important for me. In bed at night, usually in the early hours.

If she's made that from an online pattern, do you think you could post a link to it? My mummy could make me some. And I'd help.

Love those - I've been on the lookout for nice rompers like that for ages. Where did she get them from? It's my birthday soon...

It's a good question, but I've never known it be a problem - I've never noticed anything. Most events have a 'no messing' rule anyway (but not all). Anyway, I can't smell as much these days - thank you Covid! Mind you, having a limited sense of smell means I'm having to take extra care over my own hygiene, just in case.

I'd be happy to relinquish a lot more control to Mummy if she'd take it on, but she's quite vanilla, and isn't really into being controlling. She sends me up to bed at 10, and rations my chocolate intake, but that's about it. I'm a good boy usually (apart from the chocolate sometimes...) and generally do what I'm told. I'm just not told to so things or not to do them very often. I'd definitely be up for being 'managed' a bit more, but I don't think it's going to happen.

Monday's washing day here, generally. And I need to wash my nappies every other day. That means that once a fortnight I need to wash nappies on a Monday. Three people in the house, lots of cotton clothing, and often sheets as well. There aren't enough hours in the day. At least I don't have to iron the nappies...

Yes, that sounds about right for me too. I still occasionally get a bit of chafing, but usually I can sort it out by a bit of judicious rearrangement down there. I used to be careful not to walk Binky in a wet nappy, as it tended to lead to chafing, but these days no such problem, and we just go, so to speak. And that'd generally in thick cloth nappies, for a walk of about 4 miles. For longer walks I wear disposables - there's still a limit to what I can get away with in cloth. Initially I could only get away with wearing a Tena pull-up, as anything thicker would chafe. I carried a spare of course. Then I experimented with wearing two pull-ups, so I could discard the inner one without needing to remove my shorts & boots when I needed to change. I then tried adding a booster to my pull-up. Both worked, but again I had to be careful early on, or I'd get rubbed red-raw. Now it's far less likely to cause a problem, and in fact I can wear any disposable for a long walk and usually I'm fine. Of course the nappy itself tends to clump and disintegrate after a while (Tena pull-ups being the honourable exception now I think about it), but since I always have plastic pants over the top, that doesn't really matter too much. I don't even use BodyGlide much these days. It used to be my daily chafe protection, and made a big difference. More recently my supplier/manufacturer of polyurethane pants retired, and I'm reduced to wearing vinyl (PVC), which rots at the mere sight of any known lubricant, as far as I can tell. So I stopped using BodyGlide, apart from on the longest walks, and lo! rhino hide protection kicked in. It's a bit like a superpower...

I've been to plenty over the past 35 years, the most recent was on Saturday. I was terrified the first time I went to one - it was the first time anyone had seen me as an AB. And excited as well. These days I'm well used to it of course. The events vary a lot: sometimes it's a group of middle-aged men in nappies talking about their cars - not really my scene! The ones I love most are where there are lots of young people, in their twenties and early thirties mostly, with a good mix of sexes and a lot of fun. Of course I'm a lot older than most of them, but they are just younger versions of me in a lot of ways, and I feel comfortable in the environment. And yes, most of us are wearing nappies, and kids outfits, and just enjoying ourselves without worrying about it. There's safety in numbers!