Before disposable diapers became a normal part of American parenting, most families relied on cloth diapers. Long before the name Pampers appeared on store shelves, babies were changed with folded pieces of cotton cloth, fastened with safety pins, covered with rubber or plastic pants, then washed and reused again and again.
Name: These were commonly called cloth diapers, and many families used flat diapers or later prefold diapers. A flat diaper was a simple square or rectangle of absorbent cloth. A prefold diaper was stitched with a thicker center section to make it easier to fold and more absorbent.
