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How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

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

#281

Post by beAbU »

simulator5g wrote: post #269
beAbU wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner wanted to try the same thing. And cloth nappies and exclusive breastfeeding, and infant hand signals, and every other zeitgeist baby thing you can think of. In principle EC sounds interesting, but then our daughter arrived, it has balls to the wall survival for 3 months bow. We ended up bottle feeding, use disposable nappies and sometimes we put her on her side to sleep so that she can fall asleep easier.…

What's wrong with sleeping on your side? Most people find it very uncomfortable to sleep on their backs. No doubt this applies to infants as well.

Like a sibling comment says, you risk the baby rolling on to its face and suffocating. All the midwives at the hospital and all the books say to not do it, but any mother in law will tell you to just put the baby on its side if it's fussy. If you challenge the MIL she'll throw the "I've raised more babies than you so I know better" remark in your face. A tale as old as time I guess.

Eventually we caved, and it really works to calm them down. But we only do it under supervision. When she's asleep we'll roll her on her back.

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

#282

Post by jswelker »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #276
jswelker wrote: post #138

I did the math meticulously when I had my first kid years ago, comparing store brand diapers vs cloth. Once you factor in the up front cost of the cloth diapers plus the cost of water and energy and detergent running the wash, the costs are virtually identical. The math looks better for cloth if you use them for years or multiple kids, but that's not super hygienic. That's not even factoring in time and convenience.…

> but that's not super hygienic. You're willing to wash and re-use for one kid but not then to let the next one re-use? So does that mean the wash doesn't get the diaper clean? And if that's true, why re-use them at all for anyone?

It's more about the accumulation of fecal matter over time. I don't feel convinced that a washer removes it all, hence staining. And I don't feel great about making my kid sit in another kid's shit.

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

#283

Post by orwin »

onli wrote: post #189
orwin wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s not “objectively bad” To feed your children ultra processed foods. It is though, it's in the definition, UPF are distinguished from processed food by having additives of no culinary nor nutritional value. So at best, they aren't better than processed food, at worst, they have additive that increase negative health outcomes. note that if an additive (let's say high-fructose corn syrup) have inferior nutritional…

A good example for upf that is not likely to be bad for you is (European style) frozen pizzas. And I think your comment is wrong. Parent is right in saying that there is no clear definition of what exactly ultra processed food is. However, in general, processed does not mean having additives, it means processed, running through multiple industrial processes to be made.

> Parent is right in saying that there is no clear definition of what exactly ultra processed food is

The definition of upf is 'food having additive of no culinary or nutritional value'. That's the current definition.

The original nova definition is 'food with additive of no culinary value', which isn't useful for nutritionists, hence it evolved.

I seriously doubt all frozen pizza are upf, the main advantage of frozen food is that you don't have to add nitrite salt or other conservatives. Maybe in some pizzas, to keep colours bright?

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

#285

Post by [deleted] »

jswelker wrote: post #282
fred_is_fred wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but that's not super hygienic. You're willing to wash and re-use for one kid but not then to let the next one re-use? So does that mean the wash doesn't get the diaper clean? And if that's true, why re-use them at all for anyone?

It's more about the accumulation of fecal matter over time. I don't feel convinced that a washer removes it all, hence staining. And I don't feel great about making my kid sit in another kid's shit.

[deleted]

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

#286

Post by nephihaha »

em-bee wrote: post #231
ms_menardi wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It depends where you are. The main problems are that a) we keep polluting water and b) most of the water is salty.

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

#289

Post by sfpotter »

jswelker wrote: post #226
kqr wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you calculate based on buying cloth nappies second hand and then reselling them? That was a great alternative for my family. Worked out to something like $100 in total nappy costs for one child, including the opportunity cost of tying up the capital up front. That's less than $1 per week. Make it $1.5 if we include electricity and water costs of laundry, compounded over that period. I would struggle to find singl…

I guess if you buy them used the math changes. Second hand diapers was a line in the sand for my wife. But these people talking about diaper washing services, at that point, surely what is the point? I guess the thought of diapers in a landfill keeps some folks up at night.

What do you find confusing about the idea of a diaper service? It seems too unsanitary for you? The idea that it might cost slightly more than disposable diapers is intolerable to you?

Do you have any reason to believe washing diapers actually is unsanitary?

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

#290

Post by pc86 »

abustamam wrote: post #174
pc86 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't care if anyone uses cloth diapers but the cloth diaper evangelists always seem to take a page out of the people who say "renting is always bad" or "leasing a car is always bad." Focusing on the (completely legitimate) negatives associated with the thing they don't like, and completely ignoring the (no less legitimate) negatives about the thing they like. I don't see it anywhere here, which is refreshing, but…

I don't like those people either. If people ask I do tell them I use cloth diapers but I (at least hope!) don't make it my entire personality. Maybe I'd be surprised if I asked my friends and co-workers what my personality is though. Cloth diaper usage seems like it could also correlate highly to being vegeterian or vegan, who have the stereotype of that being their entire personality.

If it helps I can tell just by this thread it's not your entire personality! :)
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