Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why are diapers so expensive?

tampabay.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 563 posts

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#371

Post by chevman »

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…

We used cloth diapers on my son (who is now almost 4). Our technique was as follows:

-One wash cycle in warm water using no soap.

-One wash cycle in hot water using soap.

-Dry

Every couple weeks we would put white vinegar in the no-soap cycle. This helps cut the smell down.

Every couple months we would put a small amount of bleach in the no-soap cycle. Any more frequent than this and we found the diapers then irritated our son's skin.

If I had to do it all over again, not sure how I would choose. As you call out, there are additional costs to the cloth diaper approach (water, detergent, etc) that add up, plus it takes quite a bit of time.

One advantage that we found is that our son, and other folks we know who used cloth diapers, all had kids who ended up potty training sooner (anywhere from a couple months to 6+ months earlier) than kids wearing disposables.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#372

Post by [deleted] »

endymi0n wrote: post #78
gizmo686 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or political. Abortion is not accessible in all parts of the country.

With all due respect, I never understood the prevailing attitude in the US to do everything it takes to make you keep that „sacred life“ if you get pregnant by accident – and then once it‘s there, drop it like a hot potato and do exactly zero to make it a tax-paying, happy and productive member of society. The hypocrisy of it all just blows my mind.

[deleted]

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#373

Post by hycaria »

tallanvor wrote: post #308
hycaria wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IUD anyone ?

They're more effective, yes, but carry more risks since you're keeping a foreign object in you for up to 10 years at a time. You can see the various options and pregnancy rates (both based on the typical use and the perfect use case) for the first year: http://www.arhp.org/Publications-and-Resources/Quick-Referen... Personally, rates like these makes me glad to be a gay male.

> carry more risks

Citation needed, and good luck finding one considering the long list of pills side effects.

Also all your previous objections to birth control are invalid in the case of IUD.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#374

Post by hycaria »

hyperpape wrote: post #292
hycaria wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IUD anyone ?

Very effective and a good choice, but I know someone who had a child after getting an IUD.

IUD pregnancies are often extrauterine (which are mostly non viable, so that solves the unwanted pregnancy problem). And there's still abortion. I wonder to what point having a child was a choice in the case you evoked.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#375

Post by rgovostes »

GordonS wrote: post #302
war1025 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are making minimum wage, which I believe is ~$7.50/hr, and are most likely not working full time, that is a good chunk of a day's pay. Granted, if you are in that situation, you are probably getting some government assistance. Also, some people are just terrible at managing money.

I think the latter is the bigger of the issues. 360 nappies will generally last for 2 months. If you can't afford a mere $30 for that, then it's a case of your priorities being wrong (e.g. buying alcohol, tobacco, Netflix etc before thinking about your kids' needs) - in which case you should probably give serious consideration over whether you should bring kids into the world.

Did you read the article before writing this presumptive and judgmental comment?

She had a difficult pregnancy and thought this would be her only chance to have a child. She left her job to avoid being exposed to harsh chemicals that could jeopardize her pregnancy. On welfare, she was allotted only $180/mo for necessities beside food. When her partner got a job, she was disqualified for the assistance—he had to work 18 hours a month just to make up the aid they no longer received. She struggled to find a job herself but ultimately got one.

The article notes that the average diaper is $0.25, so your 360 would cost $90 on average, 1/4 of her monthly assistance on one item alone—assuming she only needs 6 diapers per day, which sounds like a low estimate. She did proactively seek out coupons and discounts, and decreased the frequency of changes—which had minor medical consequences.

The article is about the plight of a mother who faced adversity in providing for her son, but persevered the best she could. I defy you to justify your claim that her priorities were wrong, or that she was unfit to be a parent.

Perhaps the only disqualifying attribute for parenthood is the utter lack of empathy for another human being.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#376

Post by conductr »

eli wrote: post #344
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…

Not everyone has the ability to buy in bulk. They are considerably more expensive buying them 12 at a time at a corner store.

I feel like this is a problem the non-profits should tackle. The mother in the article does this, it seems she really is trying to work and not depend on charity/welfare. However, there is some financial literacy / access to capital / cashflow planning type issue going on that prevents her from planning properly (buying in bulk ahead of time). If the non-profit simply offered her affordable diapers (I imagine removing the retail markup alone saves a huge amount), a line of credit or something and helped her plan her diaper supply needs it seems like it could be a helpful service (maybe they do that, article only made it sound like they give away diapers to the poor)

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#377

Post by dfsegoat »

djrogers wrote: post #28

There are a couple of ‘facts’ listed here that don’t line up with my current reality and very recent knowledge (3 kids, most recent is 18mo). First off, 12 changes a day is a huge outlier - even for a newborn. 8 would be a more reasonable number, and it drops down to the 4-6 range in the first year, and by now we’re at 3 if we don’t go swimming. Second item that sounds waaay off is $1000/yr for diapers. Again, that h…

Anecdotally I agree. Especially if you are buying the Costco branded diapers in the 168-count boxes.

The Costco diapers (and formula actually) are the same mfgr as the name brands, at a significant discount.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#378

Post by matheweis »

Simulacra wrote: post #360

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?

A big part of the reason this isn’t a thing right now is because modern water-saving eco-friendly washers are simply not capable of washing diapers. This is further compounded by the fact that modern laundry detergent is phosphate free. Basically, the average person no longer has access to the necessary equipment to properly do it.

If you are well off, you may be able to pay a diaper service with commercial equipment to do the washing for you. We had a relative cover this for our third child, and I can attest that it works out quite nicely.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#379

Post by chrissnell »

avar wrote: post #176
s4vi0r wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, your comment and the other replies just straight up reek of privilege/ignorance. What you're suggesting is obviously the pragmatic choice - obviously, if she's poor as shit and can't afford regular diapers, using reusable cloth ones is a great solution. But that's not the fucking point of the article - its $CURRENT_YEAR in the richest country in the world, this absolutely shouldn't be a thing that happens in t…

> 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…

You're quoting prices for a diaper service--one that comes to your house and picks up the dirty diapers, launders them, and gives you clean, folded diapers in exchange. This is a rich person's service. My parents didn't use a diaper service in the 1970s, they washed them in the washing machine like virtually everyone else. So, in today's money, those $0.01-0.02 cloth diapers would be about $0.10-0.25 in 2018 money each and let's say that soap would be another $3 in 2018 money. 40 cloth diapers and soap is about the same as that 40-pack of Pampers and you get to keep and re-use the cloth diapers. You're breaking even after one load.

Any parent here who has ever used cloth diapers can tell you: they save money. They should be teaching cloth diapering like they teach breastfeeding to mothers of newborns.

Post reply on HN