Ancient Diapers
Posted November 13, 2005 
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What did babies used to wear before the infamous disposable diaper? Well, yes they did wear cloth but what about cultures in ancient times?
Documents show that babies of ancient times may have used Milkweed leaf wraps, animal skins, and other natural resources. Babies were “wrapped in swaddling bands” in many European societies since antiquity or strips of linen or wool that were wrapped tightly around each limb and then crosswise around the body. Innuits, an Eskimo people, placed moss under sealskin. Native American mothers packed grass under a diaper cover made of rabbit skin, as it was done by the Incas in South America. In warmer tropical climates babies were mostly naked and mothers tried to anticipate baby’s bowel movements or urinations…this would be called elimination communication today and is still practiced.
It is interesting that so many cultures managed diapering their offspring effectively for many, many years before the disposable diaper was invented…but yet many modern mothers do not even consider that diapering without disposables can be done.
