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Why are diapers so expensive?

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Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#251

Post by billyhoffman »

distances wrote: post #106
brohoolio wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 changes a day is not an outlier for a newborn, it’s normal. My son is 18 months and we change him probably 6 times a day at least. Diaper pricing is dependent on how many you buy at once, I buy giant boxes so my unit cost is low. If you don’t have $40 to buy the giant box, but only $10 to buy a small package. You are paying twice the unit cost.

> 12 changes a day is not an outlier for a newborn, it’s normal. My son is 18 months and we change him probably 6 times a day at least. You can start potty training a kid at around one year's age though, which will decrease the need for diapers. That age depends on a kid of course, in my family it has started around when the kids learn to walk so age of 1-1.5.

What? Potty training is dependent on physiological changes around muscle control. It is usually not possible before 18-24 months. I have 3 kids under 5, and 24 months is the earliest that interest to go on the potty started.

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddler/...

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#252

Post by Nition »

hycaria wrote: post #245
Nition wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but time is always a factor. No washing machine makes it harder.

How is time a factor when you don't work ?

I have to assume you've never looked after a baby full time, or your babies have been exceptionally well behaved. It's easily a full-time job, especially if you have another child already.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#253

Post by avar »

rusk wrote: post #229
avar wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you think that back in the 50s and 60s > when your parents or grandparents were > buying the first mass produced disposable > diapers, they would have expected 60 years > later people would be forced to go back to > washable cloth diapers because they couldn't > afford regular diapers? I tried looking up the real price of diapers since the 50s until modern day, and the only thing I could find suggests that this…

... their grandchildren are going to live in a country where disposable diapers are as cheap as cloth diapers. That doesn't sound so bad. I'm going to regret sticking my head over the parapet on this one but ... You're making the argument that it's great that diapers are a quarter of the price that they were, and isn't that great. But we're speaking in the context of how the poor can't even afford them at that price.…

No, I'm not trying to make that argument. There's certainly people today that have kids and can't afford diapers in first-world countries even if they were say 1/4 of current prices.

I'm specifically responding to a part of the GPs comment that seems to be claiming that things have been getting worse since the 50s.

Which is not to say that anyone being unable to afford diapers can't be considered unacceptable, or that you could argue that social policies should be changed to amend that problem.

But it doesn't help anyone if the discussion isn't factually based. As far as I can tell poverty has been going down since the 50s[1] (with some bumps), and more generally, if you would present anyone in the 50s struggling to raise kids at their income level to swap with someone in 2018 at proportionally the same income level they'd take that swap in a heartbeat.

All of which is not to say that thing can't get even better, but there's no way to set sensible social policy for the future if we don't look at the data showing where we've already been, and what current trends are.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#254

Post by soVeryTired »

DanBC wrote: post #244
soVeryTired wrote: post #241

Looks like a whole comment thread got deleted because it got too political. I understand that political discussion isn't right for HN, but I don't approve of comments disappearing silently. It would be nice to see a note from the moderators explaining that that's what happened.

In your profile there's an option called "showDead" which you can toggle to show comments that have been killed. Comments can be killed by mods, but I think the vast majority are killed by user flags not moderator action. The karma threshold to flag a comment is small, about 50. TO flag a comment you click the timestamp of the comment, which will take you to a page where the flag option appears. The karma threshold t…

Thanks for the info

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#255

Post by pbhjpbhj »

distances wrote: post #106
brohoolio wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 changes a day is not an outlier for a newborn, it’s normal. My son is 18 months and we change him probably 6 times a day at least. Diaper pricing is dependent on how many you buy at once, I buy giant boxes so my unit cost is low. If you don’t have $40 to buy the giant box, but only $10 to buy a small package. You are paying twice the unit cost.

> 12 changes a day is not an outlier for a newborn, it’s normal. My son is 18 months and we change him probably 6 times a day at least. You can start potty training a kid at around one year's age though, which will decrease the need for diapers. That age depends on a kid of course, in my family it has started around when the kids learn to walk so age of 1-1.5.

With my first child I decided pretty quickly I'd had enough of changing pooey nappies once we began with solid food; so we started at c.6 months with potty training. All the guides said don't even try until they're 2½ IIRC. At that age they can't usually sit up, you hold them on first thing in the morning, and any time you're changing them.

Worked quite well. I added in audio cues after reading some Elimination Communication (EC) info.

3rd child, 2½ yo, will now poo & wee in potty a couple of times a day, and can tell us when he needs it. A good strong feedback loop, positive praise, no negativity about lack of "production".

Cloth nappies seem to accelerate potty training too (we've done cloth and compostable, solely the latter with current child), I think they can feel they wet themselves more easily, better feedback. If the nappy is so "good" they don't feel wet then there's no intrinsic incentive and no feedback.

As we did our version of baby sign (with parallel vocalisation) from c.6 months our eldest was able to tell us he needed the potty before he could talk.

Breastfeeding seems to make a positive difference with nappies and potty training too, I think the child has a healthier bowel and so perhaps more control, less gas, etc.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#256

Post by spaceandshit »

Just to provide some perspective, I have worked on the structural analysis (FEA) of diapers for P&G, when I was working at an engineering consulting firm. As the article states, these companies pour millions into R&D, and for me that included running simulations to determine if the diaper's material properties were appropriate. To do this, I was running simulations of a diaper being wrapped onto a baby, the baby walking, and then pooping. The pressure, forces, stresses on the diaper were calculated and we drew conclusions based on these simulations to improve the quality. When I was working there, I also worked on new razors, loofahs, bottles, etc.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#257

Post by snovv_crash »

billyhoffman wrote: post #251
distances wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 12 changes a day is not an outlier for a newborn, it’s normal. My son is 18 months and we change him probably 6 times a day at least. You can start potty training a kid at around one year's age though, which will decrease the need for diapers. That age depends on a kid of course, in my family it has started around when the kids learn to walk so age of 1-1.5.

What? Potty training is dependent on physiological changes around muscle control. It is usually not possible before 18-24 months. I have 3 kids under 5, and 24 months is the earliest that interest to go on the potty started. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddler/...

Then how do Asian kids do it by age 1?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#258

Post by hycaria »

watwut wrote: post #250
hycaria wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She wouldve slept out of exhaustion too if you were willing to try. There's no such thing as screaming to death.

I have seen a baby cry for three hours straight. His sleep deprived mom slept, nobody else did.

I don't understand your point.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#259

Post by KON_Air »

zeth___ wrote: post #71
FuckOffNeemo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a legal loan shark to purchase nappies, we're now robbing Peter to pay Paul, the net gain once the legal loan sharks fees are rolled in would be pittance. How far did society have to fail for us to have to encourage the use of loan sharks so our children can take a shit, seriously? Edit: in an attempt to lighten the conversation which has suddenly became a class dividing conversation on economics and privilege.…

Have we thought about feeding the weaker children to the stronger ones and making diapers out of their skin? It's only a modest suggestion.

Great idea, soft ideas like supplementing disposable diapers with washable kloth diapers wouldn't kreate the HARDKORE-ULTRA-VIOLENT generation we need anyhow.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#260

Post by varjag »

hycaria wrote: post #222
c22 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first child screamed whenever she was not on a human for the first six months. She slept, but only on a person.

She wouldve slept out of exhaustion too if you were willing to try. There's no such thing as screaming to death.

There is such thing as screaming to hernia.

Our son was just like GP's one, screaming all the damn time and hardly sleeping for the first 6 months. Undiagnosed digestion problem, which 10 years after was finally pinned on a milk protein intolerance (not lactose).

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