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How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

thehustle.co

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Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#81

Post by stackedinserter »

> More recent studies and surveys, tell us that the average age for starting toilet training is ~21 months.

The way they raise kids in NA was one of the cultural shocks for us. 6yo kids in strollers. Parents never walk with their babies outside. Well, baby pram is not even a thing here. Diapers until age of 3 or 4. Overall hygiene/cleanness doesn't exist. It's ok to pour frootloops in a dirty tray and let the child eat it with their dirty hands. Kids' clothes are forever dirty. It's ok to send your kid to school/daycare with holes in their socks. School assembly? Let kids sit on the gym floor for an hour. Field trip - kids sit on the ground.

I'm not surprised society is so mentally unwell here.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#82

Post by KaiserPro »

allturtles wrote: post #55
noemit wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She had me on a schedule and would hold me up. Yep at 3 months babies can't even sit up. She said at the start she would hold me up until I went, even if it took hours, and if I went she would reward me. She Pavlov'ed me. I think she said I would cry or babble in a certain way, or if she even suspected I needed to go she would put me on the potty and hold me up.

Fascinating. I'm not sure what would drive someone to do this, since until the child can actually go to the toilet on their own, you haven't achieved the actual point (IMO) of the training.

Manual labour of cleaning clothes without either a dedicated washing machine, and probably no access to a tumble drier.

That seems like a reasonable motivation to me

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#83

Post by basket_horse »

echelon wrote: post #27
cowpig wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comments are just totally out of touch with the realities of being a parent today. The average person can't afford to raise a kid because of the time demands of constant work to make rent and afford food. We're discussing an article about diapers.

> The average person can't afford to raise a kid Yes they can, they just choose not to. I think the reason people aren't having kids is that they're on their phone all the time. I'm serious. Phone use is a dopamine sink and removes pauses throughout the day otherwise spent on relationships and thinking about the future. I'm not the only person to think this. https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast/405376/pronatal…

Do you have kids? The phone comment seems pretty out of touch.

I have two young kids in NYC and it’s objectively very expensive. Ignoring all consumables, daycare and needing a 2 bedroom apt triples our monthly expenses as compared to before having kids.

Of course for both of these it’s technically possible to solve. If we lived in the suburbs space would be cheaper and having kids wouldn’t double our rent. If one of us didn’t work or had grandparents willing to help daycare wouldnt be needed. In less developed / modern places these issues might not be as acute, but for many modern day families they are very real issues.

Regardless, kids are a lot of work and expensive, and I don’t see how being on your phone a bit changes that.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#84

Post by gus_massa »

abustamam wrote: post #5

We're using cloth diapers for our daughter (6m). She's still exclusively breastfed so no solid poops but so far I estimate we've saved over $100/mo by this decision. The story may change when she starts on solids but I recommend everyone to try out cloth diapers, just make sure you have a routine and system in place to make it less overwhelming (we have two diaper pails next to the changing table, one for disposable…

That's like $3 per day (a coffee).

Most diapers only get pee, but cloth diaper are more difficult to use, let's add 2 extra minutes, 4 or 5 times per day.

No solids means "not hard rock solids", they still make a nasty stinky brown paste. Hopefully only once per day. But that diaper MUST be partialy hand-washed, don't put it as is in the washing machine. At least a partial hand wash and then go with the rest to the washing machine. This is like an additional 5 or 10 minutes.

So it's like half an hour of extra sleep for $3, and when you have small kids sleep time is never enough.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#85

Post by KaiserPro »

echelon wrote: post #20
cowpig wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah keep up the fight against big baby keeping our child labor rights down.

Kids should have jobs in high school. It's a fantastic way to learn budgeting, work ethic, entrepreneurship, and gives them a drive to study harder. For kids without two stable parents, it soaks up their time and keeps them out of trouble. Since when did we start viewing this as bad? I worked at 14 doing lawn work for neighbors to save money for video games. It taught me a lot. There's nothing wrong with that.

So there is a difference between a kid having a safe job to keep them preoccupied and a kid needing a job to make ends meet.

There is also the exploitation part of this, where its much much cheaper to pay a teenager, and the bonus of, they don't know what OSHA is.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#86

Post by UncleMeat »

joenot443 wrote: post #33

Have any parents tried Elimination Communication? Basically teaching your baby to inform you that they’re ready to go, and taking them to the toilet immediately. This is something my partner wants to try when we eventually have kids. Something I’d never heard of until last week. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication

You can try it. Parents should try what they want and there is a huge amount of "you must do it this way or else" material that just produces unnecessary stress.

My observation is that there is limited research showing that this actually works and that the amount of extra effort required to constantly be observing the baby for these cues makes the already extremely difficult task of caring for a baby just more difficult, even if it did work.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#87

Post by vjvjvjvjghv »

gus_massa wrote: post #84
abustamam wrote: post #5

We're using cloth diapers for our daughter (6m). She's still exclusively breastfed so no solid poops but so far I estimate we've saved over $100/mo by this decision. The story may change when she starts on solids but I recommend everyone to try out cloth diapers, just make sure you have a routine and system in place to make it less overwhelming (we have two diaper pails next to the changing table, one for disposable…

That's like $3 per day (a coffee). Most diapers only get pee, but cloth diaper are more difficult to use, let's add 2 extra minutes, 4 or 5 times per day. No solids means "not hard rock solids", they still make a nasty stinky brown paste. Hopefully only once per day. But that diaper MUST be partialy hand-washed, don't put it as is in the washing machine. At least a partial hand wash and then go with the rest to the w…

“ That's like $3 per day (a coffee).”

Or $1000 per year? That little coffee a day already pays for a vacation flight.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#88

Post by sfpotter »

Cloth diapers are good. We used them for our last kid with a diaper service and are going to do it again washing them ourselves with our next who is due at the end of the month. Regular diapers are useful to have either way. But cloth diapers are obviously much better for the environment and if they're an option for you, you should consider them. Not a hard concept, not worth a big discussion.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#89

Post by pc86 »

gus_massa wrote: post #84
abustamam wrote: post #5

We're using cloth diapers for our daughter (6m). She's still exclusively breastfed so no solid poops but so far I estimate we've saved over $100/mo by this decision. The story may change when she starts on solids but I recommend everyone to try out cloth diapers, just make sure you have a routine and system in place to make it less overwhelming (we have two diaper pails next to the changing table, one for disposable…

That's like $3 per day (a coffee). Most diapers only get pee, but cloth diaper are more difficult to use, let's add 2 extra minutes, 4 or 5 times per day. No solids means "not hard rock solids", they still make a nasty stinky brown paste. Hopefully only once per day. But that diaper MUST be partialy hand-washed, don't put it as is in the washing machine. At least a partial hand wash and then go with the rest to the w…

I don't care if anyone uses cloth diapers but the cloth diaper evangelists always seem to take a page out of the people who say "renting is always bad" or "leasing a car is always bad." Focusing on the (completely legitimate) negatives associated with the thing they don't like, and completely ignoring the (no less legitimate) negatives about the thing they like.

I don't see it anywhere here, which is refreshing, but there's also something about cloth diaper use that lends itself to people making it their entire personality.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#90

Post by xbryanx »

sfpotter wrote: post #88

Cloth diapers are good. We used them for our last kid with a diaper service and are going to do it again washing them ourselves with our next who is due at the end of the month. Regular diapers are useful to have either way. But cloth diapers are obviously much better for the environment and if they're an option for you, you should consider them. Not a hard concept, not worth a big discussion.

> But cloth diapers are obviously much better for the environment

What about this is obvious? Water usage, transportation, fabrication factors, different usage patterns; seems like there are many things to tease apart here.

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