Cloth-covered Baby/adult Diapers

[Diaperling]

Greetings fellow diaperlovers!

The other day I started thinking about why Pampers, Huggies, etc. started to make cloth covered disposables. I mean, there is still a plastic sheet

inside to which the cloth is attached to. Also, babies don't care what their diapers look like.

At the time that new look was introduced, a lot of parents complained about their little ones getting rashes and other reactions to this new

cover. I heard of this first hand in my own greater family circle.

I heard that there were a lot of complaints made to the diaper manufacturers, but it apparently had no effect.

Now, I can understand that adult diapers got the cloth covering because it made them quieter and more like real underwear.

But even adults complained, and still no changes.

It seems to me that it is most prevalent in the US diaper market. Diapers from Europe and Asia still have plastic backing. At least most

brands from there do.

Sorry about this long post. All input appreciated.

D.

[Repaid1]

Wow You have been a member for a year and about a half and this is your first post!!!???? Welcome from the Delurker status!

You came out with a zinger too! I often pondered the same question. I think it came about as a comfort factor. That's both for the wearer and the care giver. That plastic gets hot and doesn't breath to well. Thinking that a baby has to endure that for the better part of three years, I believe this is what aimed them towards a more breathable diaper.

I remember holding my little ones on my hip by their bums and my hand sticking to the plastic cover. Your hand would get sweaty and then you would do the "switch the hip" maneuver to go to the other hand. Even though they had a inner liner the plastic leg bands always ended up sticking to their little thighs. So I think it was a comfort thing. Granted they were better at leaks, but the cloth isn't all that bad.

I think Adult diapers just followed suit, I mean you would think that adult diapers would have been first if it was for discretion. Course that's just my take on it.

[babylin]

I doubt if there is any practical value to a cloth cover on a disposable diaper. I think it was blantently a marketing ploy. Why?

Because CLOTH IS BETTER !! All diapers were cloth in the beginning. Then crappy, thin disposables were invented as a "convenience".

Over many millions of TV commercials it was pushed that disposables were better. Eventually disposables became the diaper norm. What? 96% of all American mothers use paper and plastic trash on their babies butts. They were marketed by pink or blue, in sizes, perfumed then scent free, with leg gatherers and elastic waist bands, and on and on. What was left to "Improve" a disposable? Only to make them more like cloth diapers. Give the illusion that this mother actually cares enough to diaper her baby in cloth diapers. More than 18 billion diapers are dumped into American landfills each year-----five million tons of yucky waste. As far as we know those diapers will still be there in 100 years. Even wet wipes are now marketed as "cloth like". More garbage! Practical value to a cloth like cover on a disposable? Doubtful.

HAPPINESS IS WEARING COTTON DIAPERS

[PArms]

Clothlike covering plastic. . . probably to reduce chafing.

And if you're gonna post, might as well make it a good one.

[Diaperling]

Wow You have been a member for a year and about a half and this is your first post!!!???? Welcome from the Delurker status!

You came out with a zinger too! I often pondered the same question. I think it came about as a comfort factor. That's both for the wearer and the care giver. That plastic gets hot and doesn't breath to well. Thinking that a baby has to endure that for the better part of three years, I believe this is what aimed them towards a more breathable diaper.

I remember holding my little ones on my hip by their bums and my hand sticking to the plastic cover. Your hand would get sweaty and then you would do the "switch the hip" maneuver to go to the other hand. Even though they had a inner liner the plastic leg bands always ended up sticking to their little thighs. So I think it was a comfort thing. Granted they were better at leaks, but the cloth isn't all that bad.

I think Adult diapers just followed suit, I mean you would think that adult diapers would have been first if it was for discretion. Course that's just my take on it.

Hi, Repaid1.

I am more of a reader then a poster. But there comes a time when there is something to say.

D.

[Bettypooh]

Warning to the readers: This is a long reply and something of a venting!

"I think it was blatently a marketing ploy."

I mostly agree. The cloth backing does 'breathe' better but that is the only benefit I can see. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a hidden reason or two like "more profitable" or "easier to make" There is something to be said for those reasons but a really good company knows that your longest success is in giving the customer what they are asking for. One word makes this apparent: Bambino's

The days when a manufacturer's visionary leadership dared to give the customer what they really wanted or needed are mostly gone. They've been replaced by greedy worry-warts who only try to produce a quarterly dividend for the stockholders, knowing their tenure will last only until the next stockholder's meeting if they don't. They don't have the courage like the older corporate leaders had, they only seek to have enough excuses to cover their butts and keep their jobs if it doesn't go as well as they hoped for. They hire expensive "experts" to do market research and manufacturing technology studies and put the money that could have gone into the long-term stockholders pockets somewhere else. So long as the books show a short-term profit everyone but the consumer wins. We've been forgotten completely. They play a game of "catch-up", emulating each other's products with very little difference between them, worrying that someone else got it right and that they didn't. In the end we, the consumers, lose viable product choices and the jobs we had that allowed us to buy those products in the first place So if a diaper maker wants to be 'different' and produce cloth covers, the others will follow suit. Then when every diaper maker has cloth covers, the first one will spend exhorbitant sums again trying something else to stay 'ahead of the game' so the CEO can keep his overpaid job another year The others follow suit again and it becomes a vicious circle of continious losing. In the end we pay more and get less, and we never get what we want since they've completely forgotten that we are their reason for job even existing, not the stockholders!

Trivia time Everyone knows that RCA was one of the biggest radio makers since the 20's and 30's, then TV came along and they were again a leader. Sarnoff ran the company with an eye toward long-term gains even if it didn't make a dividend this quarter. When color TV came along many companies vied to have their system standardized, and none of these systems were compatible. Sarnoff put millions into the project knowing it would take awhile for the profits to catch up, but certain that they would be there by the carload eventually. To ensure that they lasted that long he continued the profitable lines and a few popular but not profitable ones. He knew the value of brand loyalty depended on that. And they succeeded, making RCA the biggest and strongest electronics firm in the world. BTW, that took 20 years, not 20 months. Sarnoff retired and was replaced by sycophants seeking only stockholder approval, to he!! with what the customers really wanted or needed. In less than 20 years, RCA fell so low that they ended up being bought out by a French conglomerate called Thompson, and most of their American jobs went overseas

Diaper makers have fallen into that trap too, as have most corporations worldwide, and this is why we have the economic woes we are facing now. If Sarnoff were making diapers today, you would be able to get whatever you wanted, along with the best diaper it is possible to make. Instead we get whatever they give us; the corporations know that we have to buy something so they will then make something off of us anyway. I hate that Bambinos cost so much and there are a few changes I'd like to see them make in a product made just for me, but even with that I am going to buy them from time to time anyway. Why? Because I like the way they think, and the way they give us what we want Nobody cares as much about the AB/DL market as they do so the more they succeed, the better they will be able to make the different lines we want to buy, and in the end everybody will win and be happy. That won't happen if Bambinos doesn't make it through this worldwide economic rough spot, so now more than ever we need to support them. Think about it and then buy with your own best long-term interests as your guide for who to buy from. And no, I don't make a dime off of Bambino's I just like the way they think so they're my friend

Bettypooh

[Repaid1]

Well Said BettyPooh, any chance you would like to run the Big Three? From there you could head over to the Stock Market. That's the problem with this country anymore. People that want to work can't find a job, people that have them don't want to work. Management just cares about the almighty dollar and nothing about what is going out through the door.

The younger generation sees the houses and cars that their grandparents and parents struggled and slaved to buy and want it all right now. They don't want a job and work their way up like everyone before, they want to start at the top. Credit this and Credit that...and look where we are now as a country.

Work ethic and pride were the American way, what is it called today? I don't want to say...so sad.

[Bettypooh]

"Well Said BettyPooh, any chance you would like to run the Big Three?"

Only if they gave me complete control of everything, Carte Blanche But really, I wouldn't want to get my hands dirty in that way, and then the ones in power wouldn't let me live very long afterwards. I'll just sit here resting wet and crinkly until I go back to cleaning my house

"Work ethic and pride were the American way, what is it called today? I don't want to say...so sad. "

It's called a rarity and usually found only among us older buggers who understand it's real value I know a few 'youngsters' under 35 who've learned this and knowing them is a pleasure indeed All hope isn't lost my friend, just most of it. Don't give up the ship just yet, we may be able to bail her out and get back on course(with some hard work and pride that is!)

Bettypooh

[Dill_Pickle]

(snip)

I mostly agree. The cloth backing does 'breathe' better but that is the only benefit I can see. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a hidden reason or two like "more profitable" or "easier to make" There is something to be said for those reasons but a really good company knows that your longest success is in giving the customer what they are asking for. One word makes this apparent: Bambino's

The days when a manufacturer's visionary leadership dared to give the customer what they really wanted or needed are mostly gone.

(snip)

Diaper makers have fallen into that trap too, as have most corporations worldwide, and this is why we have the economic woes we are facing now. If Sarnoff were making diapers today, you would be able to get whatever you wanted, along with the best diaper it is possible to make.

(snip)

everybody will win and be happy. That won't happen if Bambinos doesn't make it through this worldwide economic rough spot, so now more than ever we need to support them. Think about it and then buy with your own best long-term interests as your guide for who to buy from. And no, I don't make a dime off of Bambino's I just like the way they think so they're my friend

Bettypooh

There is a significant technical advantage to cloth-like diapers...the plastic outer layer of the diapers can be much thinner because it only needs to be waterproof, it doesn't need to hold the system together.

This is not new...almost no vacuum tube companies made it into the age of chips, and almost no (IBM being the exception) computer companies made it into the age of the PC...

"Good Enough" is always the enemy of "Best"...

It takes genius to see the future, and desperation to force real changes...I've seen this in the organization of about 30 people I work for.

So the real need is to reduce the barriers to market entry...so that players like "The bottom Half Group" (Makers of Bambinos) can enter the market and better satisfy the needs.

I suspect that the adult diaper market is dominated by institutions, which have to cope with people who won't wear a diaper if they can hear it under their clothes since it will be clear to others what they are wearing. What's to say little kids (and their mothers) aren't influenced by the same factors?

[Floaty_Boy]

When the pink and blue "gender-specific" disposables came out in the late '80s-early '90s, I said to my wife, "Just wait, after a few years of this, some genius will come out with a white diaper and call it 'unisex' and all the dumbass morons out there who don't remember past last year will think it's just the greatest idea ever!"

I'm willing to bet that after all the commonly-available adult diapers have turned into stupid, "cloth-like" (yeah, right, paper towelling over plastic is "cloth-like") -- with their leaky "breathable zones" that are useless for nighttime wear -- diapers, we'll only have to wait a few years before some genius releases an all-plastic-cover diaper and calls it "overnight" (instead of "Maximum Protection" which is the newest idiot marketing term) and "new and improved" and all those losers with no memory of what happens in the world will go "Wow! What a great idea!".

And that's what it all boils down to. NEW AND IMPROVED! Because the average person doesn't remember what was on the market two years ago much less five or ten.

--Floaty

PS. Yeah, I'm a little ticked right now. Just found out that Wal-Mart Assurance (one of my cheapie favorites) is going to effed-up "cloth-like" covers.