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Vintage Plastic Pant Name?


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I remember a boy who was a bedwetter and his mom used cloth diapers and plastic pants on him. The plastic pants were something I hadn't seen before, they had some vents, nothing more than some holes in the plastic pants, covered by a flap of the same material as the plastic pants. I think the vents and flap were towards the waistband, on the rear of the pant. The top of the flap was probably attached to the waist band, the sides probably ended at the side of the pant. I think the year I saw these plastic pants was somewhere between 1962 and 1967, but that's just a guess.

Has anybody ever seen plastic pants with vents similar to what I described? I wonder if they were more of a marketing gimmick or something that actually benefited the wearer?

Thanks for any information!

Ed

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Playtex "Breath-Ease" Plastic Pants are perhaps what you are remembering.

The vent holes were there to promote better ventilation and thus reduce the likely hood of diaper rash from trapped heat.

Playtex's jingle from that era was: "How dry I am. How dry I am. Nobody knows, how dry I am....in Playtex Pants."

Thanks for stimulating the memories.

HAPPINESS IS WEARING COTTON DIAPERS

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Thanks for the info.

I have spent some time looking for a picture of these pants, and haven't had any success.

So, do you think they were a marketing gimmick, or something that actually worked.

I wonder how often they leaked from the vents, did the flap actually prevent leaks?

Ed

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There are still companies that "vent" plastic pants. But I don't recall if I have seen any that use the flap design recently. The old playtex ones did indeed work and were made that way for the purpose of allowing some circulation of air to reduce heat and somewhat body perspiration build up. Wearing a cloth diaper there was little chance of actual leaking through the holes. If the diaper did indeed get saturated enough up to the waistband where the holes were, the flap was their to prevent wicking out to your clothing. You would have to have a pretty wet and soggy diaper to press out any wetness through the vent system. So there for it was indeed a very useful and more comfortable design. I still have a pair of them "vented pants" not the playtex ones from Protex medical. See link below :)

For the most part vented plastic pants are for day wear when the person is upright to keep them cool and comfortable. There for there is little chance of any leaks through the holes in the top. Hope this helps you out.

http://myprotex.com/...uct.asp?pid=115

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BabyMate from the 1970's/80's had holesin the side.These would not accomplish their intended goals as any worthwile diapers would be so thick as to retain heat if they are close-fitting. That was one of the complaints about prefolds when they came out (I had an aunt who was a nurse and she desvribed them as "brutal"), contour/hourglass diapers and Pampers. The secret is to have diapers that are close-fitting only at the waist and very full cut rubber panties. It helps if you have a way of keeping the wetness away from the wearer. I have never heard of the Playtex panties mentioned here, I have heard of Playtx Dryper and Dress-eez and "Living". The "How dry I am" commercial seemed to be for Playtex baby panties in general

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PlayTex introduced their stretchy latex baby pants in late 1937 without vent holes. Before the summer of 1939 PlayTex advertised a version with vent holes. The ad text suggested the vents would reduce diaper rash on babies who were moving around. The implication was that when babies were sleeping the vents were not necessary. The version with the vent holes was slightly more expensive.

Of course the latex baby pants were out of production from early 1942 until late 1945 because of rationing of rubber and latex. Meanwhile plastic baby pants were invented. Some of those worked better than did others.

None of the post-WWII PlayTex ads mention or show the un-vented versions. The vents were near the waist at the baby's sides. PlayTex stopped production of their stretchy latex baby pants in 1954. By the time I was born in 1964 my family was only using Gerber soft vinyl pull-on pants. At least the ones Mom bought had no vent holes.

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The object should be to get the wet away from the body as fast as possible. Anything tight or close-fitting impedes that. Another impediement is "soakers" or "stuffers" by putting more material between the legs, it makes the exit of urine take longer. Rather than folding a second diaper and stuffing it between the legs, the practice used to be to double or triple diaper. It is more conducive to moving the liquid out of the area to have 3 layers of material throught the area of the diaper than to hve 2 with 3 or 4 between the legs unless those extra layers are thin and not to absorbent so that they pass the liquid through very raqpidly and dry quickly from body heat. Now, I fit perfectly well into Comco Medium but I use Large so that there is plenty of room and my diapers are close fitting only at the waist to keep them up. But then, I am not diapered as a baby, but as a "little"

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I recall some of the larger plastic pants, designed for older, over 40lb, children had vent holes with a little flap of plastic on the inside. I think the size was listed as "super" and they came in a variety of pastel colors. I recall seeing them as I got a little older. At that time, my mom was buying Klienerts plastic pants which had a covered elastic at the waist and legs which was one of the earliest versions of the non-wicking plastic pants. (Excluding, of course, the Bittner rubber pants.)

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I remember when I was a teen, I found some that were "Dr. Dentin" or something like that. They had holes on the sides, with a flap like descirbed. I loved those pants! I wore them until they were literally falling apart.

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  • 3 months later...

There were a number of manufacturers that eventually started putting vent holes in their plastic panties. One or two put flaps over them, but others just created the holes, usually 3 holes per side. Two manufacturers that I knew about that made the holes in their pants were Empire and of course Playtex. I think even Gerber did it for a while. Warner may have, I don't remember. I do remember that's where they would start ripping first. There were a lot of things manufacturers did back then that they don't do anymore. The one that I really miss is some of the pants were scented with different perfumes such as rose oil, lanolin (which I think is that soft baby oil/powder scent), and a couple of other scents. Even the plastic itself had a particular scent to it. Very aluring.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I remember the ones I had came in a brown box that had a picture of a large kid wearing them, climbing on a chair. This was in the mis 70's. I think they were size "super toddler" and I got them at Walgreen's. I loved those panties!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I saved a lot stuff from when my kids were growing up. I also have some of baby things my mother had put away. I have a 3 pack of plastic baby pants with the vent holes that came from Kmart. I use to use cloth diapers on my own kids as well as Pampers. I always liked using flat diapers because I could make them as thin or thick as I needed. My son who wet the the bed till he was 8yrs I used flat fold diapers on. They worked very well. I use to use Gerber baby prefold cloth as an insert. I now use the same fold with the baby diaper insert on my boyfriend. He loves watching me fold the diaper into the right shape. I am very good at diapering with cloth it is kind of an art form. I never would have imagined that I would still be folding cloth diapers at this time in my life.

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