A Diaper Is a Diaper Is a Diaper.....NOT

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I have come to think that not all diapers are created equal. Based on my observations over 40 years. First, for most of that time AB was by far, in the majority and set the framework, with DL being sort of an add-on by DPF. Next, for me and anyone near my age, the disposable is not really a diaper. When they hit the market in large scale, our parents called them all "pampers" regardless of brand. Then came "paper diapers" due to what they were made of, like "Handi-wipe" and experimental clothes that were to be worn once and thrown away and of which some were made and sold, or "throw-aways". Even the then rare adult versions were called "pampers" in 1972. The medical industry calls them "briefs". Beyond all of that, the experience of having them put on or putting them on is ditally different from cloth diapering and, to me, radically alien and I would think to anyone near my age

Now we come to the world of AB:/AK. I notice some things. As near as I can see, the biggest attraction for DL is using. Now, there is a big difference between Bambino's, ABU and Attends, Tena and medical grade. I have seen and had experience with one such, and, while I did not use it, it was mildly unpleasant. For the play age 3 to 5 set. Pullups were the thing. I would think that a toddler/AK pullup would be very different from amedical grade one, which I have also used and did not like at all. So it would seem that the AB throw-away would be and feel very different from a "brief", reflectin an infantil or regression narrative that is not in the medical or DL world

Now in the world of AK/Bedewtter. The "night diaper" would be different from a baby diaper and the cloth different from the disposable. They "BabyDoll" is an upsizing of what was made for a bedwetter girl byher mother in 1951 and were called by her "Linda's Diaper". However it also had another use. Linda was 5 year old girl in that year. At that time. diapering a girl up to the time she turned 8 was common for long trips (of 2 hours or more). This was before the Interstate  (i-xx) with its mile-a-minute speed over long distances shortend trips by about half. For example in 1954 a trip from Tiverton RI to Roxbury or Dorchest in Boston MA down 138 took 2 hours+. In 1959 Dorchester to Tiverton took an hour. Another difference was that, unlike little boys, girls tended to stay in groups of 3 to 5 at one of their houses for an afternoon: about 12:30 to 4:30. Their parents had lived through the Depression and toilets were of the old type. If 2 or more of that group were under 8 and could not be trusted to go two or more hours without needing to pee, those girls would be diapered since that would save 3 or 4 "extra" flushes. And since this was a little girl, who would be in a dress or nightgown, which could accommodate much thicker diapers. In my area, since most working women, who did so out of economic need, workded in "dress shops" where they made clothes, and in general women were pretty handy with sweing machines, the majority of bedwetter diapers were homemade. Linda's mother got the idea that, while single prefolds, then new, could be used to make a bedwetter girl's diaper that she could use for several years. Now, such diapers could be made from scratch and really should be. but the upsized version of 'Linda's diaper" aka BabyDoll" uses heavyweight baby prefolds. Another difference between baby and little diapering was that, even into the 1960's and, I think, in the '70's some 20 years after baby panties stopped being made of rubber, a company called "Bitner" was making childrens panties out of rubber and these were used alongside of super size baby panties up to the age of 10

What I have come to believe is that
1. the experience of cloth and disposable diapering are totally alien to each other so defintiely for me, and, one would think, for any AB/AK/LG, disposables would be inauthentic enough to be a deal-breaker. The difference mught lessen if you are born in '63 as you would start to be fully conscious of diapers in '67 unless you were precocious
2. for a DL the diaper is more about wearing and use with no further meaning, so a Depends would not be any different than a high-end Bambino or ABU
3. For a Little/AK, diapering is different, First you know what is being done to you and what it means and for a girl of my time, it is more extensive and the diaper is much thicker. Also paper pullups are different from cloth ones. Here is the story of what would be the "BabyDoll" diaper

Also, because cloth diapers were reusable, they stayed around and were often not hidden. A key element of this was the "rubber pantiy" which would often be air-dried, hence pretty out in the open and because of the shape, look and material were the focus of being "made a baby" or "baby girl". In fact, before throw-aways became predominant, there were more jokes about rubber panties than about diapers referencing being a baby or incontinent. The timeframe being form the 1950's to the mid 1970's

[Babypants]

Do you remember the old saying "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down?"  This was the reality in my neighborhood, which was in east Los Angeles, not the universe of the Dukes of Hazard.  People had chicken coops in their yards.  Bread and desserts came on the bakery truck, and milk and other dairy products in the milk van.  In the summertime, there were at least a half dozen ice cream trucks going up and down the streets seven days a week.  And kids wore cloth diapers and baby pants, the top choice being the latex pant from Playtex.  There were three different diaper services with their trucks doing weekly deliveries in my neighborhood as well.

If you were old enough to be out of diapers but they were still drying on the clothes line or being delivered by the diaper service, the neighborhood bullies would make your life a living Hell.  In my universe, you either stood up for yourself or you got crushed.  For this reason, all the stories that pop up here about school aged children meekly submitting to being diapered by a parent only make sense to me because the story is unfolding in the far more invisible world of the disposable. 

There is a transitional period between cloth and disposables in the early 80's, but only in urban environments.  It would be interesting to hear from members of our community old enough to have started out in cloth, but finishing up in disposables.  I vividly remember thinking that Attends were a waste of time and money; I chose to carry on with my diaper service.  To this day, I use cloth diapers and vinyl pants at home, and set the disposables aside for road trips-- but always with a vinyl or PUL pant for added protection.  I simply do not trust the wicking action in disposables, in contrast to gauze and flannel diapers, which wick beautifully.  I know when it's time to change a cloth diaper, but with disposable it's something of a guessing game. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I note by your screen name, and that you are at most a year older than me, that rubber pants played a significan role in your life

 I first hear "If it's yellow..." from Howie Carr I who also used "rubber pantis" as a generic for baby panties) back in the noughts. That was usually not an option since the bathroom was taken care of by the lady of the house and if Hubby practiced that slogan, he could count on a meal of hot tongue and cold shoulder

Playtex latex panties seem to have ceased production in the mid '50's

It was rare to see children running around in uncovered diapers and rubber panties in the '50's since the practice was considered slovenly and the parents who did it could expect to be the subject of unfavorable discussion, which had considerable weight in the neighborhoods since the proctice of moving every few years was not the going thing and you lived in the same place a good long time; so reputation mattered. Also, if your mthere's parents may have some unking remarks if they saw it

As I understand, throw-away diapers became the norm in the '70's in the suburbs but were still worn with rubber panties. I had seen such in 1980

[Babypants]

Ironically, where we live the water pressure is so bad that my significant other continues to observe the "let it mellow" rule.  We keep a bucket next to the bathtub to help the toilet do its job.  I have great memories of those old Playtex latex panties.  My last pair gave up the ghost around 1963.  As I recall, they were well nigh indestructible-- at least if properly taken care of.  In my neighborhood, kids often ran around in diapers and baby pants, typically with a shirt of some kind, and sometimes with and sometimes without shoes.  But east LA was a mix of Okies and Arkies who had come west during the dust bowl years, along with people like my parents, who came out from Kentucky and Florida during the Depression.  A lot of people came out to SoCal from the border and southern states in those years, and like the Okies and Arkies before them, they were overwhelmingly from the farms, not the cities.  This was a poor community, and clothing was too dear to have toddlers ruining it when out playing in the dirt.  In large families, the kids' clothing was always handed down from child to child until it was so threadbare that it went into the rag bin.  

[ValentinesStuff]

I have a photo of a cousin, around age two wearing a pin on disposable diaper. This is 1970. She was living in a very rural setting. The picture is the farmhouse kitchen, and a manual water pump over the kitchen sink is visible in the background.

I remember in the mid 70s that disposable diapers were becoming common a young girl that lived across from us would wear one and a top, the more I think about she likely should have been potty trained as she was certainly four or so years old. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Hand-em-downs were a staple everywhere. The baby pant I was in were put on my 2-year-younger sister when I was four I rmemeber both thepeach rubber ones and a pair that were translucent sort of ecru. Those I last saw at age about 9 in one of my girl cousin's "dolly box"

As to toddlers running round in their diapers in the '70's, that appears to have been a product of the late '60's in the more settled East. Whether is was coiincidental with or a product of the 'New Morality/Sexual Revolution" when standards of decency fell into disuse, I do not know. I do know that grandparents had a lot to say involving the words "pig" and "reprobate"

Given the ubiquity of hand-me-downs, I wonder what would have happened if my sister were OLDER than me?

 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

1 hour ago, ValentinesStuff said:

I have a photo of a cousin, around age two wearing a pin on disposable diaper. This is 1970. She was living in a very rural setting. The picture is the farmhouse kitchen, and a manual water pump over the kitchen sink is visible in the background.

I remember in the mid 70s that disposable diapers were becoming common a young girl that lived across from us would wear one and a top, the more I think about she likely should have been potty trained as she was certainly four or so years old. 

The original pampers used to be pin-on with just two pins. Then, not knowing when to quit, the companies made them more and more complicated, Do you think they would have gone anywhere back then if they were are complicated then as they are now? Not only that, but the quality goes down. Just look at Comfidry's fate or some of the others. One or two of them started out like they could hold Lake superior and now it's two pee's and change please. Having reduced people to lazy Sybarites in the name of "convenience" they know they got you hooked and you'll put up with anything because you do not know how to use cloth diapers efficaciously, once common knowledge by the time a girl was 8, and you are as addicted as a 4-psvk-a-day smoker

[ValentinesStuff]

15 minutes ago, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

The original pampers used to be pin-on with just two pins. Then, not knowing when to quit, the companies made them more and more complicated, Do you think they would have gone anywhere back then if they were are complicated then as they are now? Not only that, but the quality goes down. Just look at Comfidry's fate or some of the others. One or two of them started out like they could hold Lake superior and now it's two pee's and change please. Having reduced people to lazy Sybarites in the name of "convenience" they know they got you hooked and you'll put up with anything because you do not know how to use cloth diapers efficaciously, once common knowledge by the time a girl was 8, and you are as addicted as a 4-psvk-a-day smoker

I'm not sure what you mean by complicated. If anything the current cloth AIO and pocket diapers with their weird snap patters and inserts are way over complicated.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

7 hours ago, ValentinesStuff said:

I'm not sure what you mean by complicated. If anything the current cloth AIO and pocket diapers with their weird snap patters and inserts are way over complicated.

Comparing pampers then to pamperss now: The first throw aways were mostly absorbant material with a plastic back and gathers and two pinning spots, and were used with rubber panties. Now, it''s.SAP, fluff, gathers, waterproof backing, leak guards (that do not work) sticky tapes and landing zones. You have tape them in four or eve six places and fuss with said leak guards and dispite what they say, you STILL better use rubber panties. So yes, it is far mor complicated -- and failure prone than the originals and much more than cloth as well as costly

As to AIO's and pocket diapers. did you ever see me recommending them? Those are a trap about which I have commented elsewhere. If you read RUBBER PANTIES'R'US you would have seen me comment at length. Also, "folding" flats can be complicated but in my early years, that was common knowledge for a girl by the time she was 9 and the process was considered an art with each method having its nearly fanatical supporters. Now, this was alien to boys who were raised fully as such. I was not one of those and was exposed to learning that process using prefolds along with Linda by her older sister Anne, by the time I was 8. However, the "bedwetter" diapers that we were in needed no folding and were quite easy to use, but they were not baby diapers and, in the context with which this thread started, would be Bedwetter/AKLG, and they had a single-person origin rather than being in common use

[Dubious]

Most people don't remember what they wore as babies. 

I only know what I wore from what I have been told, and pictures.
As a baby I wore cloth diapers, but when I started potty training, I got put in disposables.
I know that my brother and I both wore cloth, from pictures, but I'm not sure about my younger brother and sister.
So possibly 4 kids used the same cloth diapers, and my sister used the cloth to clean up after her babies. 

I wear diapers for safety, and stress reliever. 
But what I like the most about plastic diapers, other than the above, is the plastic feel, something I haven't found in plastic pants.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

1 hour ago, Dubious said:

Most people don't remember what they wore as babies. 

I only know what I wore from what I have been told, and pictures.
As a baby I wore cloth diapers, but when I started potty training, I got put in disposables.
I know that my brother and I both wore cloth, from pictures, but I'm not sure about my younger brother and sister.
So possibly 4 kids used the same cloth diapers, and my sister used the cloth to clean up after her babies. 

I wear diapers for safety, and stress reliever. 
But what I like the most about plastic diapers, other than the above, is the plastic feel, something I haven't found in plastic pants.

Your first point: Absolutely! I only remember the rubber panties, not the diaper, from when I was a toddler under 3-1/4

Your second point; looking at your real age, I am surprised that you had any experience with cloth at all. Why they switched I do not know. They already had a system in place so why go through the added expense and not using what they already had up and running is beyond me

To your last point; that is because the diaper backing is a different material than the panties. The same material would have been Saran Wrap, which still feels a bit different from the panty material. The diaper backing material feels like a trash bag to me

Referencing my previous post. While I was comparing early throw-aways to those of latter times, There were others. In 1939 they came out with a pad and panty arrangement under the name of Softex. In the very early 1950's there was Dryper wigh was a disposable diaper that fitted inside a rubber  cover that was then put on like a pamper. I do not know how it was attached at the sides

Also, when we talk about the economics of pampers, what does not get in the convo is the expense of "post-consumer storage". The widespread use of these shortens the useful life of landfills requiring new ones to be made much sooner than would be otherwise, which is made more expensive due to NIMBY. It  is borne by the taxpayer at large and is therefore invisible. If the users had to pay for SAFE storage of them, people would see the FULL cost and disposables would disappear in a few years. It should also be known that baby diapers make up the overwhelmingly vast majority of diaper usage

[Stanley_19802]

I got quite the history lesson on this post. But to chime in, for me a diaper isn't a diaper unless it's plastic backed. And no pull ups for me, they have to have tape tabs. Otherwise it just isn't a diaper to me. But then I come from the 90's when diapers were thicker and plastic backed. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

It is called a diaper out of lazienss. The makers call them "brierfs" and all paper diapers used to be called "pampers" from the lat '60's to the mid '70-'s. At best they were called "paper diapers" and sometimes "throw-aways". Most persons who give cloth diapers and rubber panties a fair trial stay with them. Though I tried throw-aways, I never rteally stopped using the real thing

[ValentinesStuff]

2 hours ago, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

It is called a diaper out of lazienss. The makers call them "brierfs" and all paper diapers used to be called "pampers" from the lat '60's to the mid '70-'s. At best they were called "paper diapers" and sometimes "throw-aways". Most persons who give cloth diapers and rubber panties a fair trial stay with them. Though I tried throw-aways, I never rteally stopped using the real thing

You are the only person I've ever seen refer to them as "throw-aways."

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

2 hours ago, ValentinesStuff said:

You are the only person I've ever seen refer to them as "throw-aways."

That is what you do with them and what "disposable" means. it was what my parents' generation generation "regular folks" called them along with "paper diapers" and "pampers", with the full-size once sometimes called "adult pampers". Even in the mid '80's, they were viewed as inferior. An example of this was in an article in an Ifantae Press that babies who were kept in these were missing a wonderfu part of wearing diapers with which I agree, having actually tried the things

I would bet nobody here ever hearde PVC call "rosette", Flower petal", "taffeteen" or "French satin". Yet, that is what happened fairly locally in the late '40's/early '50's. This was done as names by companies who made items from it. The names were written differenltly "RoseEtte", "FlowerPetal", TaffeTeen" and "French Satin [when it had an iridescent finish]
 That was obviously don to make them sound mor "natrual" and pleasant and like real fabrics. It was also called "rubber" quite a lot, I suspect that this goes back to the war when rubber was not really available on the civilian market and this was substituted and may plastic panties were homemade, which tells me that many rubber panties were also homemade, which is not far-fetched at all since many diapers were homemade. In 1952, it was expected that PVC would join the other fabrics in common use