How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents • Hacker News Board

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#231

Post by em-bee » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:17 PM UTC

ms_menardi wrote: post #229

tetromino_ wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But cloth diapers are obviously much better for the environment It's obvious only if you save and reuse the same set of cloth diapers for 2 or more babies. (Which places some constrains on brand, durability etc.) If you have only one kid, I am not sure which side is environmentally more friendly; growing and processing all that cotton (not to mention the plastic for all the waterproof covers) uses a lot of water an…

Water is free, it comes from the sky. energy is free, it comes from the sun. cotton is free, it grows from the ground. plastic is not free, there will never be more of it. I think that resolves the equation. (this is an oversimplification obviously but I wanted to reframe it from "how much of our current resources does this action use" to "how much of our TOTAL resources does this action use")

water is not entirely free. it has to be cleaned, which costs energy. energy is free, but access is still limited. likewise cotton also requires effort to produce.

i agree with your overall point though.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#232

Post by watwut » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:26 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #112

xivzgrev wrote: post #46

Parent of 2 kids. Parents receive enough judgement. Do whatever works for you! -cloth diapers? Awesome -train early? Awesome -train later? Awesome There's trade offs for each, and you are going to figure out what works best for you. If you want to train later and the diaper companies make more money, that's how a market is supposed to work. They're providing a product you value. So all good!

Parent of three teens headed to college/trades in the next year. While I completely understand your positivity nihilism, this kind of parent as victim mentality needs to stop altogether. I’m looking around where I live and literally zero of these people have to raise their children because they didn’t have the access to abortion, contraception or public services.* 99% of parents decided to keep and raise a child. It…

.9% and 1.2% of children being result of rape and then forced birth combo is awful lot. It implies that both rape is super prevalent and forced birth is super prevalent.

This in turn likely means that quite a lot of parents were subject of a rape that did not resulted in that kid. (Otherwise we would have to assume that all rape kids are first kid).

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#233

Post by watwut » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:30 PM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #221

4er_transform wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is. Kids grow up to run the world, a world I’m going to live in. I have a stake in that. This should be obvious if we take our civilization seriously.

We can barely even meaningfully define UPFs, and they aren't cleanly correlated with junk food. Potato Chips are not UPFs but tortillas with an added preservative are. Ice cream purchased at the store that has emulsifiers is a UPF. Homemade ice cream is not. But I think we'd agree that it is the fat and sugar in the ice cream that is the bad part to feed to kids.

I will go further and say that eating some ice cream does not hurt kids at all. No, you are not a bad parent because you gave your kid ice cream. And fat is completely legitimate part of food. Likewise sacharides.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#234

Post by m4rtink » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:32 PM UTC

ms_menardi wrote: post #229

tetromino_ wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But cloth diapers are obviously much better for the environment It's obvious only if you save and reuse the same set of cloth diapers for 2 or more babies. (Which places some constrains on brand, durability etc.) If you have only one kid, I am not sure which side is environmentally more friendly; growing and processing all that cotton (not to mention the plastic for all the waterproof covers) uses a lot of water an…

Water is free, it comes from the sky. energy is free, it comes from the sun. cotton is free, it grows from the ground. plastic is not free, there will never be more of it. I think that resolves the equation. (this is an oversimplification obviously but I wanted to reframe it from "how much of our current resources does this action use" to "how much of our TOTAL resources does this action use")

Plastic is just hydrocarbos basically - hydrogen and carbon. You can totally synthetise it. Might just not be as cheap an convenient like making it from mined oil, at least initially.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#235

Post by pinkmuffinere » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:37 PM UTC

thrtythreeforty wrote: post #224

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to hear this perspective, especially helpful because you have a kid and I don't. I wonder if the child really has to recognize the problems, or just has to be conditioned that this-feeling-means-potty-time. To be fair, I don't know how that conditioning would happen without the child leading the process in some way (how would they associate bowel movements with the bathroom if not by willingly going…

The one that took us the longest was (3). He knew he needed to go, knew all the steps, and would pee in his pants just to spite his parents. It's really eye opening and frustrating to see children be stubborn just for the sake of it. They're literally still developing and it's normal, but they are just too young to reason with. You have to create the environment where positive feedback happens, and... wait a very lon…

tbh I think this is an underappreciated aspect to human behavior in general. Adults will do the same thing, sometimes even if they are corrected as politely as possible (my coworkers pee in their pants just to spite me too!) I think a lot of our systems don't explicitly account for that. We have meetings where a "correct" decision is made, and then we immediately expect everyone to get over their ego and accept the decision. In my experience, alignment is greatly improved if there can be a buffer of 5-7 days after the meeting where the topic receives no discussion. People come back in a less emotional state, and suddenly play nice. Maybe the time away helps forget the emotions, while the merits of the different options are still remembered? It also helps to remove ownership of ideas, or even reassign the "good ones" to any potentially-butt-hurt parties!! It's dishonest but it works. Finally, just because I'm writing this doesn't mean that _I_ am immune from these, I see the same behaviors in myself.

Sorry for the soap box, just seemed somewhat topical.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#236

Post by markdown » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:52 PM UTC

tshaddox wrote: post #183

the_gastropod wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think as a general rule: a reusable thing is more environmentally friendly than a single-use thing (especially when the reuse cycles are high). Yes, there are exceptions. But you’ve got the bizarre case to make here, if you want to suggest single-use diapers (that also use water, require transportation, are fabricated, packaged, etc.) are a more efficient use of resources.

But there are lots of exceptions, right? Like a huge bunch of medical equipment where cleaning the thing to make it safe for reuse would be both more expensive and worse for the environment than single-use versions.

In many parts of the world they throw them in a basin of water and laundry detergent, let them soak for a bit, then hand wash them. No medical equipment necessary.

Of course if you have a washing machine you just launder them like any other item of clothing.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#237

Post by bombcar » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:53 PM UTC

stevehawk wrote: post #28

echelon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern American middle class norms are that babies cost a fortune. The best nutrition, daycare, early childhood learning, classes, tuition, etc. Extreme expenses. All throughout history, children have been cheap, and if you look back far enough - disposable. And even parents viewed kids as a free source of labor. Kids used to be left to roam the woods, streets, and neighborhoods. Now a lone child will get a call from…

> We did okay for hundreds of thousands of years. Did Big Advertising get the best of us and make us needlessly devote expenses and energy? ever since my wife was pregnant i've actually started paying attention to the advertising targeted at women. Holy shit, I feel so bad for them. It's easy for me to laugh at and ignore the "if you buy (this product) then this sexy woman will be attracted to you" ads (spoiler: she…

The No New Things book (written by a woman!) pointed out that women are the primary purchase decision-maker 78 percent of the time!

The vast majority of marketing is aimed at women, and it gets pretty disgusting pretty quick.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#238

Post by vjvjvjvjghv » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #202

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ That's like $3 per day (a coffee).” Or $1000 per year? That little coffee a day already pays for a vacation flight.

Yeah, but you can hunt for discounts to reduce that bill quite a bit

I was just objecting to the typical phrase "it costs just as much as a coffee" making it sound like nothing worth thinking about. This stuff adds up to real money over time. I have explained to several people that their Starbucks habit costs more than their car insurance (and also may give them diabetes depending on the drink). It's even worse with Doordash or Uber.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#239

Post by bombcar » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

antonymoose wrote: post #40

cowpig wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comments are just totally out of touch with the realities of being a parent today. The average person can't afford to raise a kid because of the time demands of constant work to make rent and afford food. We're discussing an article about diapers.

The average person can absolutely afford children! I’ve got a buddy, his wife works at a daycare and he does network installs. They’re right around the median household income of 80k or so in a middle-low cost of living area. They have 6 kids. Perhaps ironically, I have a household income of roughly 200k. I have three kids and wonder how does he do it, I can’t imagine having three more kids and the expense of it all.…

A big part of it may be that once you fall below a certain percentage of the federal poverty level, you start getting assistance. WIC kicks in pretty early, as do ACA assistance and Medicaid/CHIP.

And percentage can be anything below 400% of the poverty level, and the poverty level goes up with each kid - 400% of the poverty level for a family of 8 is $216k. https://snapeligibilitycalculator.com/fpl-calculator/

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#240

Post by phatfish » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 11:00 PM UTC

tetromino_ wrote: post #119

sfpotter wrote: post #88

Cloth diapers are good. We used them for our last kid with a diaper service and are going to do it again washing them ourselves with our next who is due at the end of the month. Regular diapers are useful to have either way. But cloth diapers are obviously much better for the environment and if they're an option for you, you should consider them. Not a hard concept, not worth a big discussion.

> But cloth diapers are obviously much better for the environment It's obvious only if you save and reuse the same set of cloth diapers for 2 or more babies. (Which places some constrains on brand, durability etc.) If you have only one kid, I am not sure which side is environmentally more friendly; growing and processing all that cotton (not to mention the plastic for all the waterproof covers) uses a lot of water an…

I assumed the environmental angle was the reduction in waste going to landfill with all the extra plastic generated, by the diaper and the small bags that are usually used to reduce smell and keep things clean during changing.

The energy saving would not be as clear to me, but i wouldn't be surprised if reusable were a better choice there as well, just not as clear cut.

The amount of waste generated by disposable diapers was a concern, and we tried reusable ones. But they leaked often, the absorption material in disposable ones is way better than the cotton pads you get with reusable ones.

I would be happy with a middle ground. Reusable outer "pants" and a disposable insert designed well to work with the reusable part, as plastic free as possible.