Diaper Covers

Plastic pants, plastic panties, and diaper covers are all basically the same thing. They are devices worn over a diaper for the purpose of containing liquid or solid waste that may otherwise leak through the fabric. more...

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They are most commonly worn with cloth diapers, although sometimes with disposable diapers. Today, "plastic pants" are usually made out of vinyl, plastic or, in some instances, the traditional rubber. The original diaper covers were made from wool, which was naturally waterproof.

Plastic pants are available in sizes for infants, children and adults.

Plastic Pants replaced the earlier Rubber pants that were made of rubber. They were already in existence by the late 1940's and to this day are called "rubber pants". These are a true panty since they do not have a fly front.

They have fallen into disuse since the 1970's as a result of the waterproof plastic covering used with disposable diapers. However, this is not a good practice as these diapers tend, no matter how they are made, to leak around the leg openings. Also since this covering is part of the diaper, if the diaper sags, the covering sags and the whole assembly falls to a point where the anti-leak construction of the leg openings lose their effectiveness. Plastic panties, being held up by their own elastics and being more full-cut will stay up longer than the diaper.

In the early days, these panties were more "high-waisted, meaning longer than normal underwear from waistband to leg opening and had a "wide crotch", meaning that the material there was much wider than normal underwear. Also, unlke normal underwear, the front and back were cut the same way instead of with the "forward facing" leg openings so that being worn "frontwards" and "backwards" were meaningless. This protected whatever the baby or toddler was sitting on. when in use, they resembled 15th century pantaloons or very short bloomers and were called "baby bloomers". The erleir plastic panties were very full cut and fit over the diaper quite loosely while the elastics held them in place so there was good air space. Also the leg openings were not so sharply angled and, when not in use they looked almost like a short pantaloon. This was all quite necessary as the flat diapers were folded in such a way ast to be the same thickness throughout wint no extra thick padding. If more material was noeed, diapers were simply doubled; used in twos and thress which the full-cut panties could accommodate quite well.

When the prefold diapers came into prominence, the panty became more close-fitting with less "breathing room". Also over the years, the quality of the garment has deteriorated as the material became thinner and the lifespan of such a garment went from several years, used with up to three babies in the same family then given to a younger sister for one or two more infants, or to a little girl for her doll, to about two and a half years and really good for only one baby per family and given to a younger sister for her child, since families have much fewer children over the past four decades. In the earlier years, it was usually the waist or leg bands that let go with the material of the body of the panty still being sound. Now, the seams often let go after about three years at the most and the garment is pretty worn out after two babies.

Read more at Wikipedia.org