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Why are diapers so expensive?

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Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#501

Post by logfromblammo »

otterley wrote: post #433
logfromblammo wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not the same thing. Deionized water may contain neutral organic molecules, including viruses and bacteria, as it uses ion exchange resins pre-loaded with protons and hydroxides to remove all other anions and cations. Distilled water has been vaporized out of one container and recondensed into another, so contains nothing but water and molecules that form azeotropes with water. Distilled water is deionized, but…

Nobody's arguing that they're identical processes. My point is about the _labeling_ differences. Distilled water is often sold as deionized water in various parts of the world.

But there is literally zero additional printing cost for using the word that precisely matches the purification process. They even have the same number of letters in English. Why would anybody do that?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#502

Post by kolpa »

soVeryTired wrote: post #241

Looks like a whole comment thread got deleted because it got too political. I understand that political discussion isn't right for HN, but I don't approve of comments disappearing silently. It would be nice to see a note from the moderators explaining that that's what happened.

When the mods/admins intervene, they usually "detach and mark off-topic" (move to bottom of page), not delete. Users flag posts to hide them.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#503

Post by coryfklein »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #358
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wi…

> Don't give up, it takes time.

It also takes the right genetics. Some of us will not have a real "beard" regardless of how much time we give it.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#504

Post by 0xcafecafe »

triangleman wrote: post #452
mythas wrote: post #37

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 co…

The planet will be fine. Maybe better off, in fact--do you have any idea how much water it takes to wash these things?

What about the amount of water it takes to manufacture disposable diapers?

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#505

Post by bkovacev »

rusk wrote: post #275
bkovacev wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am glad you did, now you can freely eat it.

Is that what you do? Eat your own puke? For me it was straightforward enough to just quickly swallow it again as it emerged. No need for any additional ceremony.

No I leave that to ignorant commenters that add nothing to the discussion.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#506

Post by conductr »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #430
astura wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably buying fakes, IIRC a study found the majority of name brand razor blades on eBay are counterfeit. Amazon has a counterfeit razor blade problem too, but I don't know the prevalence.

Probably, but if his face can't tell the difference, it's not a problem for him.

Until he gets hep C ( /s kind of )

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#507

Post by pnathan »

balls187 wrote: post #493
pnathan wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unscrupulous individuals will abuse the system. Welfare fraud isn't that prevalent, and adequate checks on gratuitous abuse are not exactly difficult to implement. For the people who would rather see newborns have health issues than pay taxes, I frankly find their morals odious and their foresight lacking.

The point being there are checks. "No questions asked" implied no checks. > For the people who would rather see newborns have health issues than pay taxes, I frankly find their morals odious and their foresight lacking. The article referenced a black, un-wed, young mother stuggling to pay for diapers. That portrayal of poor minorities is what the anti-welfare state sees when fighting for less taxes. The money isn't g…

> The point being there are checks. "No questions asked" implied no checks.

it really doesn't.

no questions need to be asked if you aren't tripping the fraud wires of, e.g., grabbing 30 diapers a day for 1 kid.

> Said more plainly, the health and wellbeing of black and brown babies are worth less to (some|many) Americans than white ones.

I agree that that describes the reality that exists. I find that morally problematic, however: whatever else we can pick at, I feel that babies are all equal and they matter.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#508

Post by jjeaff »

nostrademons wrote: post #149
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…

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…

>$0.25-0.30 when bought in bulk

Are these silken luxury diapers? I just bought diapers and they were $0.16/each for Costco brand and that's not on sale. A quick search on amazon shows 0.14 - 0.17 for any bulk buy of brand name diapers and that is not considering the cheaper rate you could get if you subscribe or the frequent coupons and deals that show up.

The only option I see for diapers in the 0.25-0.30 range are a small pack of 29 diapers shipped for $7.97

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#509

Post by rubicon33 »

mirimir wrote: post #56
rubicon33 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would people bring a child into the world if they can't even afford diapers, will always blow my mind.

Because they got pregnant. And an abortion wasn't possible, for medical or ethical reasons. Edit: Or for other people's ethical reasons, manifested as laws against abortion.

> "Because they got pregnant"

Really? In 2018, given the myriad of ways you can cost-effectively prevent pregnancy, I hardly accept "because it happened" as an answer.

Yes, birth control sometimes fails. That statistic alone cannot explain the quantity of individuals having children, who simply shouldn't be. People can down vote me all they want, but what I am saying is true: Having children when you cannot afford to take care of them is reckless and incredibly selfish.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#510

Post by angel_j »

triangleman wrote: post #448
daeken wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, diapers pale in comparison to formula costs. My daughter gets changed ~8 times per day, but she eats up to 36oz of formula. That's about $1.76 in diapers and up to $6.79 worth of formula. Add in DI water (since we make it from powder) and the obscene cost of bottles, and it gets even worse.

We managed to save about 50% off the cost of formula by making our own. A can of goat milk powder (Myenberg) costs ~ $10 and makes 3 quarts. Before 6 months we made sure the formula matched breast milk, using a spreadsheet--I'm working on a web app!--but let's say after 6 months it's fine to feed straight goat milk. Assuming a quart (32 fl oz) per day, that's about $3.33 per day, compared to $6/day for Enfamil ($27 f…

triangle man hates particle formula they have a fight, triangle wins triangle man!
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