When you first begin to use cloth diapers, (provided you breastfeed) your baby’s poo is very liquid, and doesn’t need to be flushed before washing the diaper. It just rinses right out in your washing machine with no mess or trouble. But after about six months, when you’ve began to introduce foods to your baby, you will eventually get a diaper with a sticky poo that just won’t come out without help. In the past, this would result in sticking your hand in the toilet to swish the diaper around until you liberate the diaper from it’s poopy mess.
Fortunately, there are people out there with the smarts to make sure there are alternatives to this reality. Someone invented the Diaper Sprayer.
A diaper sprayer attaches to the water supply on your toilet so you can conveniently spray the poo into the bowl, without getting your hands in the muck. These usually run about $40 and up, depending on where you get them.
I did not use a diaper sprayer with my first son’s diapering. I had not heard of one, and so I diligently stuck my hand in the toilet and was thus motivated to get my boy potty trained before he turned two! Yuck!
But, now I’m in the know. And while I think $40 is totally worth a sprayer, for the DIY crowd (I am one), there are less expensive alternatives! I found a blog with an awesome tutorial (which I see no need to replicate) with good pictures, so I wanted to share the link: Gidget Goes Home as well as a great YouTube instructional video on the subject.
In the video, the man recommends using a ball valve to shut off water to the sprayer when it’s not in use. I really liked this addition to the recommended tools/parts from Gidget’s blog since I think it will head off and potential for my toddler to use the sprayer to, shall we say, *clean* the bathroom by himself!
We ended up with something that will be easily detached from the system when the new baby is out of diapers. Here are the pictures (click for best view, the thumbnail too):
The sprayer has great pressure, and the ball valve is already proving it’s worth, since my toddler wants to spray the hose. It took all of fifteen minutes to install… if that. All we need now is a hook for the wall next to the toilet to hang the nosle on.
A copy of this post is on my birth/parenting blog: SweetSprouts.wordpress.com
To see more of my Do-It-Yourself projects click the DIY category on the right.
The Lazy Homesteader 
Thanks for passing this along to us when you did! Ted did get this installed on our main floor bathroom – he made several trips to Lowe’s to get it just right. It’s super powerful too! Ted even made a little ‘vanity’ for the sprayer out of a trash can. He installed the trash can upside down and screwed it down to the floor so it doesn’t come up when the sprayer is pulled up. We tell all of our guests that we have a built in bidet!
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My husband did this for us. It has saved my sanity.