Why are diapers so expensive? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#461

Post by jakobegger » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

Fnoord wrote: post #342

tartuffe78 wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the the same issue with my now 5 month old, I'd guess most first time parents do.

This is one of the reasons why I am happy with Kraamzorg [1]. I learned from them that if you got a boy the first thing you do when you change a boy's diaper is put something on their penis (such as a burp cloth) so that they can't pee you in the face (or on the carpet/wall/door or w/e). I remembered that even though we don't have a boy; we had a girl about 2 months ago. :-) FWIW, we're changing diapers roughly every…

That blue strip on newborn diapers must be generating billions of revenue.

Newborns pee so little and diapers absorb so much that one diaper would be enough for the whole day. But with the strip, people switch them every few hours :)

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#462

Post by alistairSH » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:39 PM UTC

chevman wrote: post #371

dbatten wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 irritat…

Why do cloth diapers result in faster potty training? Is the urine/feces felt by the child (ie, all that fancy absorbent material in disposables is harmful to training)?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#463

Post by mantas » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:39 PM UTC

war1025 wrote: post #443

mantas wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say small packs cost $85/mo (as per $1k/year). Big monthly pack is $30. So weekly supplies in small packs are barely cheaper than buying in bulk for a month. Unless you pay day's diapers every day.. Do you think poor people are stupid and can't plan even a week ahead? They're getting paid weekly or monthly in most cases after all. In my experience, poor people are much better at managing money than better off f…

My comment wasn't about poor people being dumb. My comment was attempting to point out that, when you are poor, small amounts of money matter a lot more. I may have worded it poorly or misread the context of the comment I was replying to, but the point I was trying to get across is that when you don't have much money, you have to be much more conscious about how you spend it. And if you aren't, then you go broke and…

Exactly, they're much m ore conscious about how they spend it. Thus putting aside $30 is no brainer vs buying in small packs. Most people, poor or not, get paid weekly or monthly. It's not that hard to buy $30 worth of goods after getting paid vs spending $10 every few days...

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#464

Post by mantas » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:43 PM UTC

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #444

mantas wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say small packs cost $85/mo (as per $1k/year). Big monthly pack is $30. So weekly supplies in small packs are barely cheaper than buying in bulk for a month. Unless you pay day's diapers every day.. Do you think poor people are stupid and can't plan even a week ahead? They're getting paid weekly or monthly in most cases after all. In my experience, poor people are much better at managing money than better off f…

It's usually not that they are stupid, it's often that they literally don't have the money to pay the upfront cost of the bigger pack because they are living paycheck to paycheck.

How big is paycheck? Probably more than $30. When buying in bulk for 2 months is cheaper than buying weekly for 1 month, it's kinda nobrainer. And they'd need even more from one paycheck to another to get supplies in smaller packs. Unless they're getting paid weekly. But even then, $30 is not that much of a stretch. especially if you buy food in bulk one week, diapers in bulk another week.

Your point would be correct for bigger hundreds-or-thousands-of-dollars purchases though. But $30... Come on?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#465

Post by alistairSH » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

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…

hvidgaard got it. The problem is the reliance on day-care providers, who have little incentive to stick to a potty-training regimen. Kids can be trained much earlier than today's average, but with today's time-crunched parents, it's hard.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#466

Post by zefhous » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

dfsegoat wrote: post #377

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.

Unfortunately for families that struggle with finances and like many other issues — it takes money to save money.

People buying small packs as needed will end up spending significantly more than those who can afford to stock up at places like Costco.

I also use Costco diapers, and I basically only buy them when they're on sale at $8 off per pack, which is a 20%-25% discount, depending on diaper size.

To do this you have to:

- be educated about looking at unit prices and be able to think through these issues

- afford a Costco membership in the first place. Yes — it "pays for itself", but you have to afford it in the first place and have the self-control to not spend more than you should.

- afford and plan accordingly to stock up by buying multiple boxes of diapers at a time when they're on sale. You have to buy enough that you don't need any for the 3-4 month gap between sales.

Besides Costco, I've found that the Target brand is priced rather reasonably, even at the smaller quantities.

The difference between buying newborn diapers at Costco sale prices vs a normal-sized Pampers box is $0.11/unit vs $0.28/unit. It's huge, and remains high as sizes go up ($0.21 vs $0.40 for size 5).

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#467

Post by eli » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

esaym wrote: post #451

I always take it personally when people complain about diaper costs. The fact is 30 years ago, most kids were out of diapers by the age of 2 [0] and nothing is stopping you from using reusable products just like people had to do 30 years ago. The shear unpleasantness of non-disposable diapers is what pushed people to start training their kids at age one. But now the "convenience" of throw away diapers leads modern pa…

WIC doesn't cover diapers.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#468

Post by astura » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

white-flame wrote: post #30

craftyguy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does this not contaminate your washer with feces?

Do you think your washer is somehow not already contaminated with feces, from washing underwear? I read an article a while ago that tested and found substantial fecal residue in typical washing machines, without cloth diapers going through them. Can't find it now among all the cloth diaper related search hits.

My grandma always used to wash undies by hand separately and then pour boiling water over them. I found it to be very weird when I was a kid, but she might have been onto something. I would do this if I was living with an immunocompromised person but its probably overkill for a healthy family.

It's also suggested you clean the washer every once in a while too.

Fecal bacteria is found everywhere it seems, so that's why frequent hand washing (especially before food prep) is important.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#469

Post by Fnoord » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

jakobegger wrote: post #461

Fnoord wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the reasons why I am happy with Kraamzorg [1]. I learned from them that if you got a boy the first thing you do when you change a boy's diaper is put something on their penis (such as a burp cloth) so that they can't pee you in the face (or on the carpet/wall/door or w/e). I remembered that even though we don't have a boy; we had a girl about 2 months ago. :-) FWIW, we're changing diapers roughly every…

That blue strip on newborn diapers must be generating billions of revenue. Newborns pee so little and diapers absorb so much that one diaper would be enough for the whole day. But with the strip, people switch them every few hours :)

A whole day? Until poo? Last night I last changed our little one at around 1 AM and my partner changed her diaper at around 8 AM. Suffice to say, she was completely wet.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#470

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

zefhous wrote: post #466

dfsegoat wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unfortunately for families that struggle with finances and like many other issues — it takes money to save money. People buying small packs as needed will end up spending significantly more than those who can afford to stock up at places like Costco. I also use Costco diapers, and I basically only buy them when they're on sale at $8 off per pack, which is a 20%-25% discount, depending on diaper size. To do this you h…

> afford and plan accordingly to stock up by buying multiple boxes of diapers at a time when they're on sale. You have to buy enough that you don't need any for the 3-4 month gap between sales.

Right, and “afford” doesn't just mean the price of buying the diapers in one shot (which is simply the discipline of saving for intermittent purchased) but also affording adequate storage space for the stockpile (including after all applying a similar strategy to any other productd for which it provides a higher return.

The “cheaper if you buy bulk packs at Costco, and cheaper still if you buy multiple of those when they are on sale” thing is true, but is equivalent to “cheaper if you have a big chunk of storage space you can devote to it, and cheaper still if you have a giant chunk of storage space.”