biggest problem I see with plastic diapers is seeing them in parking lots where people have run over the smelly poopy things spreading poop all over the place on car tires. If you are going to use them at least have the courtesy to dispose of them properly!

You don't know how right you are. Many plastic diaper companies continue to up the available sizes of their diapers that there are probably ones that go up to 8-years-old, and I do mean actual baby diapers, not training pants or night pants. To be fair, these are probably meant for children with autism, cerebral palsy or other disabilities or otherwise has crippling toiletry issues, not for children who have no issues going to the toilet and managing their own toiletry needs. A number of years ago, I think in the early 2000s there was a bit of a controversy by Procter & Gamble where parents had no real issue toilet training their little boy or girl with Pampers Easy Ups but when they finished toilet training, a large number of children didn't want to stop wearing the Easy Ups because they were so darn comfortable, way more than kids underwear. They had no issues with the toilet, or at least not any more than young children normally do but they just wanted to keep wearing them as their permanent underwear. Normally children want to stop having to wear diapers or anything like diapers as soon as possible because it means that they are not a baby any more but not in the case of early 2000s Pampers Easy Ups. This really makes me question of why did Procter & Gamble change their Easy Ups design? Manufacturing diapers (or toilet training pants) that are so gosh darn comfortable that children never want to stop wearing them is a genius business strategy.

Cloth diapers in my day were 3 sided. Right over left, left over right, bottom pulled up between the legs and pinned in front with a big safety-pin. Dirty ones rinsed out and put into a porcelain bucket with a lid. About once each day they were washed and boiled. folded and put away until needed. Which seemed to be often.

these are modern day cloth diapers and you will see how much different it is now. i have over 200 diapers and wash every 3 to 4 days. no bucket or pins that might poke a child. no plastic pants.

http://www.storeofbaby.com/Alva-Cloth-Diaper-Review-Cloth-Diaper-Wraps-Cloth-Diapers-A125C.html link will take you to the different styles that are made now

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=alva+cloth+diapers&fr=yhs-mozilla-002&fr2=piv-web&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

Rose the safety pin used to hold the diaper had a plastic cover over the head of the pin that locked the point of the pin in place. Yes, I am sure there were some that did get stuck at times. Most kids were toilet trained by 20 months old. They didn't need "pull ups" which is just a way for diaper companies to make more money from you and don't do anything toward training a child how to use the toilet.Parents are either too lazy or to busy to properly care for their children. They should never have children in the first place.

Plastic may not be an absorbent material, but it's good at blocking fluids. That's why old cloth diapers used to be paired with plastic pants because while old cloth diapers were definitely absorbent, there was a low risk of the pee eventually managing to spread to the outermost part. Plastic diapers essentially just combine the two functions into the diaper by itself, with a super absorbent polymer or SAP to absorb all the pee which makes up the bulk of the diaper and why they are so bulky and it is surrounded by a plastic outside so the pee has nowhere to leak out, to escape.