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Why are diapers so expensive?

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Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#31

Post by JackFr »

bgirard wrote: post #6
shiftpgdn wrote: post #2

My wife and I cloth diapered both of our children. In addition to being radically cheaper it also resolved rashes/eczema in both kids as well as accelerated potty training. There is an 'ick' factor but liners and a toilet sprayer take care of 99% of that.

Same, at first I wasn't sold on the concept but my wife wanted to try. It's way cheaper and better for environment. Now I don't regret it and find the idea of using 100% disposables silly. We still use one disposable each night because they absorb better or one here and there when we're out. The upfront cost was $150 so that might be an issue for some.

If you didn't have in home access to a washer and dryer (that is, assuming you do) would your opinion change?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#32

Post by mantas »

craftyguy wrote: post #24
ythn wrote: post #16

> Diapering a child now takes about $1,000 a year for an average product. That doesn't seem right. Are these people buying the smallest quantities possible? You can buy ~300 diapers for $30 on amazon. That's only $360 /year.

folks living paycheck to paycheck cannot afford big upfront costs like this. even if it saves them money in the long term. too bad personal finance isn't a thing taught in public schools.

$30 is big upfront costs? Seriously?

Of course, that may be a bigger sum in 3rd world countries. But they don't have Amazon there at all and probably don't use diapers either.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#34

Post by MereInterest »

akira2501 wrote: post #13
corvallis wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people don't live in places with an in-home washer/dryer. They have to go elsewhere in the building for pay laundry or to the laundromat. This makes it logistically and financially nearly impossible to use cloth diapers. Not to mention the substantial up front cost for cloth diapers, which makes them inaccessible for people living paycheck to paycheck. This is an example of how having money allows you to sav…

When I think about UBI I worry about responsible spending and wonder if just subsidizing common items food, clothing (diapers) and household goods wouldn't be a smarter solution overall. In relation to the case in the article, I wonder if we couldn't subsidize certain items and allow parents to receive a one month supply at low to no cost? Why should we give disadvantaged people $180 a month just to let several middl…

The main idea behind UBI is that the government doesn't know exactly what each individual needs at any given time, but does know that those things can probably be bought for money. One person might need diapers, another socks, and yet another a car payment to take their child to school. Given money increases flexibility, as opposed to a fixed list of items that may or may not be needed.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#35

Post by nielsbot »

zik wrote: post #7

I feel like this article was an extended ad for Huggies. Particularly with the happy ending being "Tonight, she was bringing home Huggies".

advertorial? I mean, it happens all the time, right? e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/weekinreview/13goodman.ht... (although that article is from 7 years ago...) Sorry, I read more articles about this recently... blogs doing paid mentioning/sponsorships and not disclosing it.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#36

Post by linkregister »

akira2501 wrote: post #13
corvallis wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people don't live in places with an in-home washer/dryer. They have to go elsewhere in the building for pay laundry or to the laundromat. This makes it logistically and financially nearly impossible to use cloth diapers. Not to mention the substantial up front cost for cloth diapers, which makes them inaccessible for people living paycheck to paycheck. This is an example of how having money allows you to sav…

When I think about UBI I worry about responsible spending and wonder if just subsidizing common items food, clothing (diapers) and household goods wouldn't be a smarter solution overall. In relation to the case in the article, I wonder if we couldn't subsidize certain items and allow parents to receive a one month supply at low to no cost? Why should we give disadvantaged people $180 a month just to let several middl…

This has been done in the past, e.g. government cheese.

It turns out that letting the market deliver necessities based off of demand is far more efficient than the alternative. That would be a government anticipates how much a community will use, what styles of diapers they'll want, etc.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#37

Post by mythas »

I have an 8 month old and just the other day was thinking how are they able to make these things so cheaply? Seriously for 80 cents a day I can avoid the nightmare of cloth diapers (sorry planet). All the estimates in the post are soooo far off the mark. They are done with the cost of premium diapers for 4 year olds at the rate of use of a sub 2 month old. I’d say 350 bucks Canadian a year if I extrapolate out our costs to complete our kids first year.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#38

Post by cobalt »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #17
corvallis wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people don't live in places with an in-home washer/dryer. They have to go elsewhere in the building for pay laundry or to the laundromat. This makes it logistically and financially nearly impossible to use cloth diapers. Not to mention the substantial up front cost for cloth diapers, which makes them inaccessible for people living paycheck to paycheck. This is an example of how having money allows you to sav…

You can hand wash them in a bucket with washboard (though we didn't) and line dry them. We actually line dried ours about once a month to air them out and sun-bleach the cloth. About 30 $5-15 cloth diapers lasts you 3-4 days between washes.

where are you line drying them? In your bathroom, most people are lucky if they have an outside space to do this when living paycheck to paycheck

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#39

Post by kaybe »

war1025 wrote: post #22
projektir wrote: post #9

Whenever something like this comes up, my first question is always: "OK, how did we do this before diapers were invented, and what happened to that?"

In addition to cloth diapers, babies got potty trained significantly younger than they do now. We had our daughter ~90% potty trained by her first birthday. From what we've found looking into it, that was extremely common until the past 50 years or so. Its not uncommon now for 3 year-olds to still be in diapers. That's two full years longer in diapers, simply because parents either can't be bothered to potty train th…

Can anyone here remember wearing diapers as a baby/toddler?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#40

Post by dpeck »

craftyguy wrote: post #24
ythn wrote: post #16

> Diapering a child now takes about $1,000 a year for an average product. That doesn't seem right. Are these people buying the smallest quantities possible? You can buy ~300 diapers for $30 on amazon. That's only $360 /year.

folks living paycheck to paycheck cannot afford big upfront costs like this. even if it saves them money in the long term. too bad personal finance isn't a thing taught in public schools.

Perfect example of the Sam Vimes Boot Theory (https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Econom...) at work.

Nothing is more expensive than being poor.

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