It’s the middle of the night and your baby is sleeping soundly beside you in his diapers, plastic pants and onesies with his thumb tucked adorably in his mouth. When you put him to bed earlier, he looked so cute as he fell asleep while sucking his thumb!

Abruptly, he begins to whimper as if he has a wet or poopy diaper. You’ve been through this countless times before, so you get out of bed and go to the closet to take out a clean diaper only to discover that somehow you had used the last one without either washing another load or buying another package of disposable diapers. Your baby is whimpering and won’t let you get a moment’s rest until you’ve gotten him cleaned up and into something dry and clean. You look around and try to think of what you might use in the emergency.

Then suddenly, you remember this article.

Step 1:

Find a large absorbent cloth such as a beach towel (or best, a flannel sheet). Flannel sheets can be folded in much the same manner to make a properly sized diaper for an adult baby and are much more comfortable than a terry-cloth towel. Beach towels, although not as comfortable as regular diapers, are large enough to be used for a diaper. If your beach towel isn’t large enough to fold, then use a standard rectangular fold for prefold diapers.

Step 2:

Fold the beach towel in half, lengthways, to make them as square as possible, then fold again diagonally to make a triangle. (Ignore the two inch overage on one side! Remember, this is an "impromptu" diaper!)

Step 3:

(See "How to Change a Baby’s Diaper" in this section.) Lay the baby down on the diaper or lift his legs and bottom so that you can slide it beneath his bottom with the top point of the triangle pointing to his feet.

Step 4:

Draw up the lower point of the diaper and hold with one hand while gathering up the first of the other points of the triangle with the other hand and placing it beneath the bottom point held by the first hand. Next, gather the other point of the triangle and place it too, under the other points.

Step 5:

Pin the tips together horizontally with several diaper pins

Step 6:

Have your baby step into the diaper as if it was a brief, then snuggle it up his hips. If using a beach towel, the pinning area will be much lower than usual, but if a flannel sheet is used, the diaper will appear more normal. Have your baby lay down and adjust the pins for the best fit.

Step 7: Kiss your baby’s forehead maternally and mumble sweet motherly nothings to him to calm him before your put him back in bed so he can return to sleep. Once he’s slumbering again, then you take the opportunity to sleep yourself!