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Why are diapers so expensive?

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Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#351

Post by dancek »

josefresco wrote: post #312
dancek wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Props for doing that. We tried with our twins, but eventually decided cloth diapers are for people with single kids that aren't burnt out.

"cloth diapers are for people with single kids" Maybe not for twins , but "one kid at-a-time" is more than doable and the second kid is where the real money savings come in.

Yeah, I meant that by single (English is my second language).

And of course cloth diapers are probably a good idea for twins too, but I just couldn't handle it. There comes a point where you'll give almost anything to get five minutes of free time every now and then.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#352

Post by brianwawok »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #255
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.

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 Commu…

> All the guides said don't even try until they're 2½

That is absurd. I wonder if the diaper companies wrote them?

We did something like 18 months which is far less impressive than yours but was not rocket science or anything. Maybe cheap diapers helped, as they don't feel as dry?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#353

Post by sspiff »

perakojotgenije wrote: post #293
nostrademons wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just had a kid 2 months ago, and 12 changes a day doesn't seem all that unreasonable for a newborn. At our one-month checkup he was averaging 9 pees & 5 poops per day - several of the poops were doubled-up where he also peed, so a dozen per day is about right. It's dropped a bit since, but instances where a single changing results in multiple diapers used (eg. he shits the table right as I'm getting the new diaper…

> or he pees all over the table including the diaper that's waiting to be put on) Now, that's just you being n00b :-). Source: father of 3.5 years old and 4 month old kids. And yes, I also think 12 is too many. 8-9 diapers a day was max for a newborn, now 4 months later it's around 6-7.

This seems like a classic case of annecdotal evidence being extrapolated into general truth.

Two kids from an identical environment and sharing the same ancestors are hardly a significant sample.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#354

Post by xienze »

sd1642 wrote: post #335
hycaria wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put it to adoption ?

Because the color of your skin matters. African American babies are cheaper to adopt but stay in the system longer because they are harder to place in adoptive homes.

Not really relevant to solving the problem of getting rid of the baby. Any parent who's OK with aborting that baby probably doesn't have any issue with how long the baby stays in the system.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#355

Post by alex_hitchins »

Nition wrote: post #215
alex_hitchins wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting point, what is the carbon footprint in washing a soiled nappy compared to making and disposing of disposable ones. I don't know, be interesting to see if there is a difference. Thinking for washing them you would need high temperatures and a lot of water.

I've looked this up before. Some sources claim it comes out just as bad (or worse!) to use cloth, but when I looked into it further they were considering hot water washes and drying in a dryer. Whereas in reality you can usually cold or warm wash cloth nappies and line dry them. They also seem to consider them being used on only one child, when they can usually be reused for more than one child. Looks like Wikipedia…

Thanks for that link, looks like where is some good information in there.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#356

Post by xienze »

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…

> 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.

Irresponsible spending is precisely what will happen with UBI. When you cut a check not earmarked for a specific purpose (food, rent, clothing, etc.) you will inevitably end up with people mismanaging their money and coming back for more ("but I'm broke through absolutely no fault of my own, how will I afford to eat?"). This will lead to backstops beyond UBI for people facing emergencies, which will lead to a small but significant portion of people gaming the system by, well, having "emergencies" every month that leave them unable to afford necessities.

The fatal flaw of UBI is assuming that there will be no abuse.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#357

Post by avar »

rusk wrote: post #276
avar wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tha…

I would have to seriously question your assertion that poverty has been on the decline since the 50s .. I've seen the stats you present, but also stats to the contrary so the case is far from closed. What I do know is that the average industrial wage relative to the cost of living has been steadily declining with a marked plunge from the 80s onwards. I will concede that the 50s is a poor comparison, as much of the we…

Yes that may be wrong, however it would have to have gotten much worse for someone buying diapers to be worse off than 50 years ago, since their price in terms of purchasing power has plummeted in the meantime.

I don't know about the average "industrial wage", but that sounds like a bad metric to focus on. Manufacturing in the US has dropped from around 25% during this time down into the single digits, so it's not as common a job as it used to be. If anything I'd expect the wage to have gone up, since those jobs are now more specialized.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#358

Post by KozmoNau7 »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #324
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a $30 corded hair trimmer and switched to a buzz cut (I was starting to bake anyway) and a full beard. I use maybe one double edged razor blade or disposable razor per month for the edges of my beard, that's all. I haven't calculated the savings over the last 6-7 years, but it has to be a lot , compared to shaving daily and going to the hairdresser.

I can't grow a beard. Five days in and I give up. I do buzz my own hair though. It's super easy if you just use the same guard all over.

Don't give up, it takes time. If I shave off everything, it takes around 2 weeks before it's pretty good, and a month before I'm actually happy with it. But now that I have it, maintenance is super easy, I just keep the edges under control and trim any stragglers and stray hairs.

All beards look scraggly as they grow at first, you need to give it time to properly fill in before you give up. If you can, let it grow wild for a month, resist the urge to cut or trim. Then you can start adjusting it.

The most important tips I got were to set the bottom edge right above your Adam's apple, make it mostly a straight line and feather it out, so you don't have a hard edge. Feather in the sideburns as well. For the cheeks, I prefer to keep them natural or just lightly trimmed, but it depends on how hirsute you are.

I buzz my head without the guard, to the shortest possible setting. I did shave my head for a while, but I decided it isn't really worth it.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#359

Post by sailfast »

dbatten wrote: post #298
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.

Serious question(s) from a father of 2 under 2... How do you get the cloth diapers clean? Like, really clean so they don't still smell after they've been cleaned? My wife and I were planning on cloth diapering. We bought some high-end cloth diaper and liners and started on our merry way. We found that no matter what we did, our little guy smelled like piss all the time. My wife was washing diapers 2 or 3 times in bet…

Have you tried putting them in the sun? Sunlight does a lot of good on diapers. If you have the option I'd put them on a line outside.

As for the other stuff, we used a double-rinse with powdered detergent and things seemed to work pretty well.

The time factor was _super_ annoying. Maintenance for cloth diapers is a full-time job sometimes, but it felt good not to add a billion pounds of waste to the landfill.

Full disclosure: Now that we travel a lot more, we're pretty much only in disposables.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#360

Post by Simulacra »

My husband and I are gearing up for our first pregnancy. We're at the point in our careers for we know we can actually afford this. That said, we are really liking the idea of washable diapers. I'm surprised this hasn't caught on. Instead of more diapers, what if the state paid for a service to collect and wash those?
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