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Let me say, I am a firm believer that the diaper sprayer is the best thing since sliced bread! Okay, well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration. However, today as I was spraying a particularly dirty diaper, I was struck, luckily not literally, by how much I appreciate this small little invention called the diaper sprayer! It is quite a convenience to have a terribly soiled diaper which can be easily cleaned with a handful of squirts with my diaper sprayer.

In a hurry? No time to read all about the different diaper sprayers and shields? It’s ok! You can just skip right to the combination I personally use the Aquaus SprayMate & Aquaus 360 Premium Diaper Sprayer for Toilet Bundle Combination found on Amazon.

A diaper sprayer is used in initially cleaning out and rinsing soiled and dirty clothes or reusable cloth diapers. There are several disposable diapers available in the market, however, a large number of parents still prefer conventional reusable cloth or cotton. I think most prefer cloth diapers not only to save on costs but also to help reduce wastes that are being thrown in the environment.

One of the first questions I am asked whenever someone finds out that we’ve cloth diapered our children, is “What do you do with the poop?”

Pee diapers are the easy ones, you just take those off and throw them in your pail. Done. The poop diapers have a couple of different approaches. If your baby is exclusively breastfed, you do not need to do anything special with these diapers–just throw them right into your pail along with the rest of them!

As you start solids, you’ll want to make sure that the diaper is free of solid poops. You can usually just shake it over your toilet and be done with it–sometimes stubborn poops require a bit of a dunking. You can either spray these off with a diaper sprayer, which easily attaches to your toilet, or by “dunking and swishing” them in clean toilet water. I’ve tried both methods and I can tell you I prefer my sprayer!

Another option is to use diaper liners on top of the cloth inside of the diaper. A diaper liner is flushable and keeps the poops separated from your cloth and makes clean up even easier!

There’s no clear record on how these specific sprayers came into existence. But just like any other equipment or household items, they were created by necessity. The sprayer makes cleaning diapers way faster, easier, and more hygienic. Diaper sprayers are just like the sprayers used in the kitchen, in laundry areas, or the pressurized washers for cars. The cloth diapers toilet sprayer creates pressurized water sprinkle to remove all solid surface dirt from the diaper before it is taken to the washing machine.

The sprayer is usually installed in the toilet to provide easy access in flushing the waste or dirt directly to the toilet. The sprayer resembles some kinds of toilet bidet. It has nozzles for control, and the tube is flexible similar to a rubber hose. The tube can either be made out of metal, rubber or perhaps, flexible plastic.

Among the benefits or uses of the diaper sprayer include:

• A better and hygienic way of disposing of your babies’ regular diaper waste.
• Cleaning out diapers even without touching or messing up the “poop.”
• The pressurized nozzles help conserve water instead of using running or flowing water from the faucet.
• It minimizes risks of spreading that stinky odor in another batch of clothes for washing.
• And that the sprayer can also be used for other personal washing purposes in the bathroom.

Before I purchased my cloth diapers toilet sprayer I would swish my diapers in the toilet to remove soiling from the diapers. I do not know about you but it felt like an incredibly ineffective and messy method for removing soiling. I just kept thing “There has to be an easier way than this!!” Besides the fact that not much soiling would actually come off the diaper that I was furiously swishing, the idea of sticking my hand into the toilet with a soiled diaper just didn’t appeal to me…call me crazy.

For those of you who have never used a diaper sprayer, or maybe never even seen one, I will give you a quick description. A diaper sprayer is very similar to the sprayer that is present in kitchen sinks. Like the kitchen sprayer, diaper sprayers hook into the house’s water line. In the case of the diaper sprayer, it is the line which goes to the toilet. The diaper sprayer draws water directly from the house’s water line, not from the toilet bowl. The diaper sprayer basically consists of a hose to carry the water and a hand-held sprayer. On my diaper sprayer, there is a small lever, where the diaper sprayer connects to the waterline, which controls the amount of water that comes through the sprayer. There is also a small button on the hand-held sprayer which is held down to actually spray the water. In addition, there is a small hook that can be placed above the toilet to store the sprayer when it is not in use.

To clean a poopy diaper without a diaper sprayer you would “Dunk & Swish.” Simply put, you would place the poopy diaper in the toilet, dunk it a few times, swish it around, flush and dunk again. You repeat this method until all fecal matter is washed from the diaper.

There are only a few companies that specialize in this aspect of babywear and diaper care. Among the well-known brands available in the market today include the following.

BumGenius Diaper Sprayer.  BumGenius is one of the global brands specializing in the development and production of sanitary products for babies. Its line of baby care products include the numerous styles and designs of the best cloth diapers, flannel wipes, bottom cleaners, odor remover, insert sock, stay dry doublers, paid liner, traveler wet-bag, diaper detergent, and the diaper type of sprayer. All of which are carefully designed to fit the sensitive sanitary requirements of all babies.

The Aquaus Mini Shower Diaper Sprayer. Another popular brand available in the market is the Mini Aquaus sprayer. It has that classic stainless steel metal look, flexible stainless steel hoses, and unique nozzles that produces shower like water sprinkles.

Aquaus 360 Premium Diaper Sprayer. Aquaus SprayMate is another brand that specializes in baby care. Aside from cloth diapers, the brand is also producing other baby care essentials and accessories like the diaper pail, wipes, tote bags, changing pads, nursing pads, and diaper cleaning aids like detergents and sprayers. The company also offers these products in kits or perhaps, in bundles.

When confused about choosing or shopping for the right sprayer you need, the following simple tips should be of help.

• Go for the popular brand. Because the top brands already have succeeded in providing and satisfying the needs of most consumers. These are usually the brands that have been tried and tested.
• Choose a water-saving sprayer; high on the pressure but low in actual water output.
• Choose stainless steel or durable rubber for the hose. This prevents rusting for the steel and early damage or cracks for the rubber hose.
• Choose a sprayer that is fit for your home’s kind of plumbing.
• And always try to look for a good deal in terms of the price and freebies.

With a diaper sprayer, you will never have to manually face the burden of manually handling your precious little child’s waste again.

There are very few name brand companies that carry cloth diaper toilet sprayer shields and even fewer that I would say work exceptionally well. Here are my top picks for the ones you can trust to stand behind their products.

Spray Pal. The Spray Pal was invented by a cloth diapering mom and dad who were tired of cleaning up the mess caused by the diaper sprayer.

When choosing a sprayer shield, we suggest the following.

• Go for the popular brand; Again popular brands have been in business longer, have a reputation and stand behind their products.
• Choose one that you’ll be comfortable using; watch the three videos I’ve provided. Seeing is believing and once you’ve watched all three of the diaper shield videos hopefully you can pick the one you think will fit your lifestyle and comfort zone.

With a diaper sprayer shield, you will never have to worry about spraying poo all over your bathroom!