Duct tape on a diaper

[Elbs]

Fact checking something for a story I'm working on.

Let's say you put on a diaper, and then you duct tape the tabs so the wearer has more trouble removing it.

Firstly, what's needed to remove it? Do you need scissors? What happens if you try to just pull the tape off?

Secondly, if you remove the tape (either pulling it off or cutting it) but don't take the diaper off, will it stay on OK?

[Little Sherri]

So this has happened to me - I've had diapers where I damaged the tab, for example, or the tab ripped off, and I've used duct tape to repair them. The answer to your question is, it depends on how it is done. I have fashioned new tabs out of duct tape, and folded one edge over onto itself to great a "grip point", and then applied the tab to the "landing zone" on my diaper, and the result was that you could generally open and close the tab at will, except with diapers like BetterDry or Depends, that don't have a reinforced landing zone. 

However, one time in our washroom, I was struggling to create a tab with one hand, while holding my diaper up with the other, and my wife saw me and asked if I needed help, so I said "sure", and she took the tape from me, pulled out about an 20-inch strip, and applied it from hip to hip on me, then told me I was "over-complicating things" with my attempt to create a factory-looking tab. 

There was no way to take that diaper off without either cutting the tape, or, shredding the cover. The tape would have peeled up off of the landing zone, probably, but, at where it went over the wings from the back portion, there is no landing zone, and peeling the tape back would have ripped the wings to shreds. When it was time for me to take that diaper off, I used scissors. 

[ValentinesStuff]

Part of it depends upon how much duct tape is used.

A single short strip to replace one tape can be torn where the back and front panels meet. It can be difficult to start, but duct tape tears easily.

A strip wrapped multiple times around the wearers waist will have to be cut off.

It might be possible to peel it off a landing panel, but trying to peel it off the regular plastic isn't going to work.

 

I'm not sure what you are asking in the second part. If all the tapes are cut nothing is holding the diaper on. 

[Dubious]

I have no problem tearing 2 layers of duct-tape, but the diaper gets ruined in the process.

Now I only use tape on badly fit diapers, that I will never buy anymore as I have found better options.

[barnburner]

Speaking of tape, In the days of me using cheap diapers(tapes that you know would fail after 10 minutes), I would use clear packing tape wrapped around the whole thing in a single layer, It looked a lot better even though I wasnt wearing for anyone else but myself.

[rusty pins]

I have used Duct tape before when needed, but I also have rolls of colored plastic tape like you get in a hardware store.  If I use light blue tape when I have a failure, it reminds me of the old Attends diaper tapes when they used to be blue, as well as some premium diaper tapes.  Usually if I have a tape failure I'll just use a diaper pin but I have been known to use a stapler and just staple my diaper on if a tape tears off or comes loose.

If I were to wrap the duct tape all the way around my diaper, I'm sure I'd have to use some type of scissors to cut through it to remove my diaper, but I don't like the look of a diaper that has duct tape wound all the way around it.  It kind of ruins the image in my mind of a diaper taped on each side and how that should look.  With a piece of duct tape or colored tape over just the diaper tapes, it's easy enough to pull it off.  You will end up tearing the diaper, but that usually happened when you remove  or change a diaper anyway.  I'd not remove duct tape from a diaper, especially if it's wrapped all the way around unless you intend to change it or remove it.  The diaper will be torn where the tape was used on it rendering it basically useless unless you very carefully cut through the duct tape right along the sides where the front and back panels overlap and come together.  Then you might be able to put additional duct tape over where you had cut though to reuse the diaper.  You wouldn't be tearing off all the duct tape wound around the diaper, just cutting the duct tape along the seam where the diaper is attached.

With staples or diaper pins on a disposable diaper, the diaper can be reused or attached tighter with very little damage.  You might have a small tear where you removed the staples but that isn't bad.  Removing a diaper pin and then pinning it back leaves very little damage as well.  I actually fold the side panels over onto each other to form a double layer to pin through making it a stronger attachment.  To me it looks better to have a disposable diaper on with colored baby diaper pins showing than grey duct tape wrapped around it.

[AComputerGuy]

If you are after something that will be hard too remove for your story you are looking for standard clear sticky tape but as wide as duck tape and packaging tape

 

Duck tape is very sticky but people are right it tears extremely easy 

Standard tape is not so easy too tear a few wraps of that around the waist and its going too be harder too remove than duck tape

[~Brian~]

On 6/18/2021 at 10:27 AM, Elbs said:

Fact checking something for a story I'm working on.

Let's say you put on a diaper, and then you duct tape the tabs so the wearer has more trouble removing it.

Firstly, what's needed to remove it? Do you need scissors? What happens if you try to just pull the tape off?

Secondly, if you remove the tape (either pulling it off or cutting it) but don't take the diaper off, will it stay on OK?

@Elbs

I would believe that if the person who is diapering you wants to be SURE that you will keep your diapers ON, they could use duct tape.  This can be used to secure the diaper so it can't be removed by the wearer.  However, Duct Tape is sticky, and sometimes even when you tape something down, it does not stick well.  It may be due to the age of the roll, the weather (Humidity can make it hard to stick), and how sticky the tape is.  @AComputerGuy suggests using mailing tape or what I have at work:  a roll with Clear Tape that is on a red roll.  If you put someone IN a diaper, and you then you tape it up using the tabs, your best bet is to run a strip around the person a couple times:  Then, because the tape is clear, and because you wrap it around the waist a couple times, there is NO WAY that your diaper wearer will be able to TRY to remove the diaper, because you denied him access to the diaper's tapes, by encasing them in the clear box tape, and this stuff is STICKY.  Scissors are needed to remove taped on diapers in this case.

The downside of this is, whether you use Duct Tape or Mailing Tape/Box Tape to entrap them in a diaper, you would NEED scissors. Just as I wear a diaper, When changing, you CAN rip the diaper, and I have even damaged the clear landing zone on my megamax diapers.  If you try to pull the tape off, you will rip the diaper:  I don't think a diaper could be used again once you take the tape off.  You just have to be careful using the mailing tape because you don't want the tape to irritate the skin:  The idea is that you want to TRAP the subject in the diaper, for whatever reason, denying him/her the opportunity to remove it.  You could also encase the hands in mittens, and that way you can make sure that the subject stays diapered until you are ready to change him/her.  You could also cut the subjects fingernails short, so they cant fiddle with the tapes.

I agree that Clear Mailing or Box Tape (one Brand is 3M) is what you should use.  Duct tape may not hold the diaper on, and the diaper would be compromised when you remove the tape, so you may not be able to use the same diaper again.

Brian