When I started using cloth diapers when my first son was five months old, a cloth diaper sprayer was out of our budget. I ended up just using the swish and dunk/scrape off, whatever method I could find to get the stuff off. I did that for a couple years until I found a pet sprayer that hooks up to your shower on sale. I didn’t really like it because you had to manually hook it up every time and disconnect it to use the shower. But it beat buying a $50 cloth diaper sprayer. It worked for a while until it started leaking one day. And then after continued use, it starts spraying out of the hose connector onto all the walls!
I also found tutorials on how to make one yourself with parts from hardware stores. After getting to check out though, the total ended up being around $45 for us, so we just put everything back. I could buy one for that much and save my husband the hassle of putting it together.
When our second son started eating solids I knew I had to get something set up as a sprayer. I was not going back to dunking/scraping in the toilet. I ended up finding a detachable showerhead that was perfect for the job! Here are all the reasons I love using it as a cloth diaper sprayer.
*This post contains affiliate links. That just means if you click through one of my links and purchase something, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my disclosure policy.
Reasons to Use a Showerhead as a Cloth Diaper Sprayer
Hot Water
With a regular cloth diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet, you can only use cold water. But with a showerhead for a diaper sprayer, you can use whatever temperature you need! Warm is good for freshly soiled diapers, but if you happen to forget to spray a poopy diaper right away, it can really get stuck on there! The hot water helps immensely! If I only had cold water, I would have to soak the diaper before even attempting to spray that.
More Powerful
A typical cloth diaper sprayer only has one spray setting. You can’t adjust how fast or hard the water comes out. The showerhead I use has jet settings from forceful to gentle that work extremely well to get everything off!
Kids Can’t Reach It
When I contemplated buying a regular sprayer I was worried that I would walk in the bathroom one day and find a giant mess on the floor and walls if any of the kids ever got a hold of it. The shower head eliminates that fear as long as it’s put back in the holder and not left dangling after use.
Cheaper
I read through so many listings on Amazon and the showerhead I picked has great reviews and it ended up being cheaper than any cloth diaper sprayer I could find at the time! The price has dropped all the way to less than $6 at one point!
Downside
The only downside I can find to using a showerhead as a cloth diaper sprayer is that it might not reach to the toilet. My solution to that was spraying into a 5-gallon bucket in the bathtub and then dumping in the toilet. It’s one extra step, but worth it in my opinion for all the above benefits! If you can find a compatible longer hose that should work too!
Now that you’ve read all the benefits, would you choose a showerhead instead of a cloth diaper sprayer? Let me know in the comments!
Related Posts:
How to Make DIY Cloth Baby Wipes
Cloth Diapers – 16 Reasons You’ll Love Them
Cheap Cloth Diapers – 10 Tips To Getting Them Free Or Cheap
11 Cloth Diaper Accessories I Wish I Had From The Start
Spraying with hot water might not work for everyone! I had a wonderful wash routine going and couldn’t figure out why my diapers were smelling barnyard like and looked dingy until I realized that spraying my diapers with hot water was opening up the fibers and likely soaking some of the poop deeper into the fabric. I use the duo hemps prefolds by thirsties. Not to say that it doesn’t work at all but maybe depending on the fiber of the diaper? I could visibly see that it looked like some poop was going further into the fabric.
Yeah, that could be possible. In that case, I would only use hot water if I forgot to spray it out right away. Thanks for the tip!