Working in cloth diapers

[Christian UK DL]

Do any of you wear cloth diapers to work?  I'm increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of disposables and, although I sometimes wear a cloth diaper and waterproof pants to bed or just at the weekends, I wear disposables for work or going out somewhere for the evening.  I've never really worn cloth to work - partly because of the practicalities and partly because of the much increased bulk and the increased risk of leaking.  If you wear cloth diapers for work, how do you deal with these issues?

Thanks

Christian

[rusty pins]

I think it depends on your own personal situation.  You are incontinent.  Are you pretty privet about it or do family, friends and coworkers know?  If so, do you ever talk about it or is it a taboo subject?  How would you feel openly talking about the fact that you wear diapers with friends or coworkers?  Lastly, how do you think you would feel if wearing your diapers to work would be very obvious to others due to the bulk.  Would you rather keep a low and discreet profile among others?  As you mentioned, cloth diapers have increased bulk and would be a lot more obvious.  Would you be comfortable in that situation knowing just how bulky you looked?  That's pretty much what one area of it comes down to, how comfortable you would be if coworkers all knew you were wearing bulky diaper.  

Next, even though you would probably still need to take a change or two of diapers with you to work, how do you dispose of your disposable diapers now when you need to change?  In the restroom trash can, openly or bagged up and buried discreetly deep in the bin, or do you pack them back home with you to dispose of them in your own trash cans?  With cloth diapers you would either have to bring your days worth of wet (or messed) diapers back home with you every single day, or throw them away leading to big money and filling the landfills.  Another thought, you would need plastic, PUL or some type of waterproof cover over cloth diapers adding even more to the bulk.  Cloth diapers don't often last quite as long as a premium disposable diaper before needing to be changed unless you wear them pretty thick to last longer, again making them much bulkier and more noticeable.  Cloth diapers also feel a lot wetter than a disposable that has SAP and padding designed to lock away the wetness.  You might get to feeling uncomfortable in a wet cloth diaper after a while, same as babies who wear cloth diapers do.

Just things to consider when you make your choice.  Only you know the ins and outs of your incontinence and how you feel around other people and coworkers about your incontinence and need to wear diapers.  If you are more open about it and really don't care if others know and notice, and if it's not a problem to change cloth several times at work and carry the wet ones back home at the end of the day, try it for a few days and see how you are able to manage.  Give some thought on how you may have to do things differently to bring your cloth diapers in to work with you (brief case, back pack, tote bag, etc,) and how you will bring home the used ones safely without them leaking out (big plastic bags you can put them in).  It very well may be you will have to bring more cloth diapers in for multiple daily changes than fewer disposables that can do the same job, and cloth might be thicker and take up more room in whatever you use to bring them in to your work with you.  Can you bring your backpack, tote bag, whatever into the restroom at work when you have to change diapers without drawing unwanted attention to yourself?  Last, what about any odor from wet cloth diapers by the end of the day?  Whatever you use to bring them home with you has to be water tight and air tight so no one smells a urine soaked cloth diaper.  If that means big plastic zip lock bags, remember that is one more bit of plastic going into the landfill at the end of the day, so would that even things out in the long run?  Disposable diaper in the landfill or plastic zip lock bags to put your cloth diapers in every day when you change?  That's not even factoring in the water and detergents used each and every time you have to wash a load of cloth diapers. 

I'm not sure what you do right now at your workplace.  If you wear a disposable diaper, how many a day do you use while at work?  Maybe one premium disposable would last all day until you get home.  If so, try cloth diapers at home first and see how long one will last before you need to change.  If you try multiple layers or thicknesses of cloth diapers until you get it to last for as long as the disposables you normally wear, how much thicker is the cloth diaper combo?  About the same, thicker, or so massivley thick as to make them impractical to the point you waddle or can't get your pants up over them.  That can give you a clue as to how many cloth diapers you will need each day or how many times you will be changing them compared to a good premium disposable diaper.  We all want a green planet, but sometimes maybe we need to compromise a little in some situations.  Conserve and recycle all that we can to help make up a little for the disposable diapers we may have to wear at work if it comes down to it.

[Diapered Dave]

I wear cloth diapers at night for my bedwetting, and disposable diapers in the daytime.  I DID wear cloth diapers during the day a few times when I was on vacation, and I noticed I could smell the urine much faster than I could with disposable diapers. 

[oznl]

For the last 15 months that I held an office job (before COVID took it) I was diapered at all times.

Although I used cloth, I avoided it at the office for two reasons.  Firstly, my cloth diapers were considerably more bulky and so less discreet.  Secondly, cloth have no odour control.  Plastic pants will slow down air exchange but ultimately, I would end up smelling slightly of pee in cloth whereas disposables seemed undetectable (by humans anyway).

If your work involves manual labor, my experience is also that cloth diapers can limit mobility (I do have a slight "waddle" in cloth) and once wet, they can easily chafe.

On the odd occasion where I was working from home, I had to duck into the office to collect something or drop something off.  If I was in cloth for those scenarios, I'd remain in cloth because I was just in and out.  I did get caught up there once for a few hours in a wet terry nappy when a short visit got longer.  I wasn't very happy about that but I was largely on my own so it probably didn't matter.

With highly limited exceptions, I used a high quality disposable (usually BetterDry) under plastic pants and compression pants during the office day.  This meant that I didn't have to change at the office anyway.  I still carried a couple of emergency diapers and a fresh pair of pants in the boot of my car.

[ValentinesStuff]

I have one or two times, but the odor is much more noticeable with cloth diapers.

[Ferix]

I wear cloth regularly to work. I work from home so it makes it easy to manage wearing cloth to work.

[oznl]

2 hours ago, Ferix said:

I wear cloth regularly to work. I work from home so it makes it easy to manage wearing cloth to work.

No fair that's cheating!!   ?

[Christian UK DL]

4 hours ago, Ferix said:

I wear cloth regularly to work. I work from home so it makes it easy to manage wearing cloth to work.

LOL.  Maybe I need a new job!

4 hours ago, ValentinesStuff said:

I have one or two times, but the odor is much more noticeable with cloth diapers.

Yes, that's a concern.   I man i chatted to the chat room who wears cloth most of the time said he dealt with this by using an additional pair of very large plastic pants that seemed to reduce the problem.  Of course then you have extra bulk, though marginal, so I guess, as with all things, there's a positive and negative.

9 hours ago, oznl said:

For the last 15 months that I held an office job (before COVID took it) I was diapered at all times.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply  oznl.  That's useful info.

Christian

11 hours ago, Diapered Dave said:

I wear cloth diapers at night for my bedwetting, and disposable diapers in the daytime.  I DID wear cloth diapers during the day a few times when I was on vacation, and I noticed I could smell the urine much faster than I could with disposable diapers. 

That's like me.  Generally cloth and night, disposable in the day.  But I sometimes wonder if, when you're incontinent, you're much more aware of the smell, in the same way your much more aware of the bulk, and nobody else actually notices.  

[Christian UK DL]

12 hours ago, rusty pins said:

I think it depends on your own personal situation.  You are incontinent.  Are you pretty privet about it or do family, friends and coworkers know?  If so, do you ever talk about it or is it a taboo subject?  How would you feel openly talking about the fact that you wear diapers with friends or coworkers?  Lastly, how do you think you would feel if wearing your diapers to work would be very obvious to others due to the bulk.  Would you rather keep a low and discreet profile among others?  As you mentioned, cloth diapers have increased bulk and would be a lot more obvious.  Would you be comfortable in that situation knowing just how bulky you looked?  That's pretty much what one area of it comes down to, how comfortable you would be if coworkers all knew you were wearing bulky diaper.  

Next, even though you would probably still need to take a change or two of diapers with you to work, how do you dispose of your disposable diapers now when you need to change?  In the restroom trash can, openly or bagged up and buried discreetly deep in the bin, or do you pack them back home with you to dispose of them in your own trash cans?  With cloth diapers you would either have to bring your days worth of wet (or messed) diapers back home with you every single day, or throw them away leading to big money and filling the landfills.  Another thought, you would need plastic, PUL or some type of waterproof cover over cloth diapers adding even more to the bulk.  Cloth diapers don't often last quite as long as a premium disposable diaper before needing to be changed unless you wear them pretty thick to last longer, again making them much bulkier and more noticeable.  Cloth diapers also feel a lot wetter than a disposable that has SAP and padding designed to lock away the wetness.  You might get to feeling uncomfortable in a wet cloth diaper after a while, same as babies who wear cloth diapers do.

Just things to consider when you make your choice.  Only you know the ins and outs of your incontinence and how you feel around other people and coworkers about your incontinence and need to wear diapers.  If you are more open about it and really don't care if others know and notice, and if it's not a problem to change cloth several times at work and carry the wet ones back home at the end of the day, try it for a few days and see how you are able to manage.  Give some thought on how you may have to do things differently to bring your cloth diapers in to work with you (brief case, back pack, tote bag, etc,) and how you will bring home the used ones safely without them leaking out (big plastic bags you can put them in).  It very well may be you will have to bring more cloth diapers in for multiple daily changes than fewer disposables that can do the same job, and cloth might be thicker and take up more room in whatever you use to bring them in to your work with you.  Can you bring your backpack, tote bag, whatever into the restroom at work when you have to change diapers without drawing unwanted attention to yourself?  Last, what about any odor from wet cloth diapers by the end of the day?  Whatever you use to bring them home with you has to be water tight and air tight so no one smells a urine soaked cloth diaper.  If that means big plastic zip lock bags, remember that is one more bit of plastic going into the landfill at the end of the day, so would that even things out in the long run?  Disposable diaper in the landfill or plastic zip lock bags to put your cloth diapers in every day when you change?  That's not even factoring in the water and detergents used each and every time you have to wash a load of cloth diapers. 

I'm not sure what you do right now at your workplace.  If you wear a disposable diaper, how many a day do you use while at work?  Maybe one premium disposable would last all day until you get home.  If so, try cloth diapers at home first and see how long one will last before you need to change.  If you try multiple layers or thicknesses of cloth diapers until you get it to last for as long as the disposables you normally wear, how much thicker is the cloth diaper combo?  About the same, thicker, or so massivley thick as to make them impractical to the point you waddle or can't get your pants up over them.  That can give you a clue as to how many cloth diapers you will need each day or how many times you will be changing them compared to a good premium disposable diaper.  We all want a green planet, but sometimes maybe we need to compromise a little in some situations.  Conserve and recycle all that we can to help make up a little for the disposable diapers we may have to wear at work if it comes down to it.

Thanks for taking time time to write such a detailed response Rusty Pins. 

Some people who know me know that I'm diapered.  After an initial surge of interest on finding this out, it's not an ongoing conversation.  I had a pretty bad experience at work in a previous job when my boss found out I was incontinent and want to avoid that happening again of course, but at that time I was using disposables anyway so I guess that, even if you're trying to keep it hidden, some people will try and make something of it if they find out.  Having been through that experience I'm rather more resilient now so coworkers knowing wouldn't be such a big deal as it was. 

You raise significant issues regarding the practicalities and I think that may well prove to be the biggest stumbling block and the environmental impact of using cloth may, as you point out, not be as significant as I'd hope. 

I tend to use one diaper a day at work but use disposable pads which I change a couple of times a day and have spare diapers in case I need them.  It's a good plan to try and work out how thick the cloth diaper would need to be to match the disposable although, in typing this, I think that perhaps the way forward is for a cloth diaper with cloth pads, but as you point out, that means more bulk.  There's not an easy answer!

Thanks again. 

Christian

[Dubious]

Cloth is worse than disposable diapers in areas where there is little water, like California. 

Cloth might be cheaper, but its rarely better for the environment. 

[rusty pins]

3 hours ago, Christian UK DL said:

I had a pretty bad experience at work in a previous job when my boss found out I was incontinent and want to avoid that happening again of course, but at that time I was using disposables anyway so I guess that, even if you're trying to keep it hidden, some people will try and make something of it if they find out.  Having been through that experience I'm rather more resilient now so coworkers knowing wouldn't be such a big deal as it was. 

First, if you had a boss giving you trouble or issues of any kind you could report him for violating disability laws.  I'm not sure how that works in the UK but in the USA you can't be harassed by your employer for having a disability as long as you do your job.  It's nothing but a bigoted response from an ignorant bully who shouldn't be in that position.  That doesn't mean a boss won't get in your face and harass you about other things in order to get around the fact that he doesn't like that you wear diapers.

I urge anyone who is incontinent and wears diapers to talk with the HR department where you work if your company or workplace has one.  They are supposed to have your back, they also are much more aware of all the laws and regulations including for people with disability and laws regarding harassment.  You needn't tell your boss or coworkers (unless you feel you want to), but giving the HR department a heads up on your situation can really head off problems as soon as they start.  They will keep it quiet but HR can put an immediate stop to any problems with your boss or coworkers as far as your incontinence and they are worried about lawsuits that you could file for harassment related to your medical issues.  Should it happen and they do put a stop to it, they will also have a good idea that any further harassment for any "other reasons" are probably related to your incontinence, especially if there were no issues with you prior to the boss finding out you wear diapers.   I work with people in wheelchairs, current and past jobs.  Harassment of any kind won't be tolerated by the company.

[Christian UK DL]

18 hours ago, rusty pins said:

First, if you had a boss giving you trouble or issues of any kind you could report him for violating disability laws.  I'm not sure how that works in the UK but in the USA you can't be harassed by your employer for having a disability as long as you do your job.  It's nothing but a bigoted response from an ignorant bully who shouldn't be in that position.  That doesn't mean a boss won't get in your face and harass you about other things in order to get around the fact that he doesn't like that you wear diapers.

I urge anyone who is incontinent and wears diapers to talk with the HR department where you work if your company or workplace has one.  They are supposed to have your back, they also are much more aware of all the laws and regulations including for people with disability and laws regarding harassment.  You needn't tell your boss or coworkers (unless you feel you want to), but giving the HR department a heads up on your situation can really head off problems as soon as they start.  They will keep it quiet but HR can put an immediate stop to any problems with your boss or coworkers as far as your incontinence and they are worried about lawsuits that you could file for harassment related to your medical issues.  Should it happen and they do put a stop to it, they will also have a good idea that any further harassment for any "other reasons" are probably related to your incontinence, especially if there were no issues with you prior to the boss finding out you wear diapers.   I work with people in wheelchairs, current and past jobs.  Harassment of any kind won't be tolerated by the company.

It was a small business with dodgy dealings, and I needed the money.  So no HR, no real internal process or governance so really quite difficult to deal with that sort of situation.  In summary, my boss found out I was incontinent, thought I might piss all over one of his office chairs, so replaced it with a hard plastic one.  When I complained, I got the old one back and the seat had a plastic cover taped over it.  I had to put up with alot of 'banter' and pranks and in a way, was sort of complicit in that, by laughing along with it.  However, my current situation is different and I don't see that sort of thing happening again fortunately.

 

[Dubious]

My office chair at home has pee stains, cause I sit in just the diaper, and often don't change until it leaks.
Same with my comfy chair, for same reason.

But, if you wear pants, the chair should stay dry, unless diaper get proper flooded and leaks heavily. 

[rusty pins]

My computer chair has been wet so often from leaking diapers I don't worry too much about it, only if a family member looks at it and sees the wet spots on the fabric.  I've gotten to the point I put a waterproof pad on my chair.  If I leak, at least no one will see wet spots all over my chair!

[le Hollandais]

I know what you guys mean. I've been known to put a plastic bag underneath a towel to minimize soiling a chair.

[darkravendl]

I won't wear cloth diapers during my working hours because they lack any kind of odor control.   At least with a megamax and the garywear active pul pants, I don't have to worry about unpleasant diaper odor.

[dlnoir]

I prefer to wear cloth and I would do so to work as well if it wasn't so incovenient if you have to change it.