The smelly baby problem

Posted by dionysou 2 days ago

The smelly baby problem(www.worksinprogress.news)

160 points | 104 commentspage 2

schnitzelstoat 9 hours ago|

This was really interesting! I’d never considered how challenging it is to manufacture and mass produce them.

The books it mentions of business/corporate histories look worth a read too.

dllu 9 hours ago||

Nowadays some parents went back to opting for cloth diapers. Apart from the obvious environmental aspect, there's the idea that ultra absorbent and comfy diapers disincentivize babies from signalling that they are about to poop. Apparently, babies can communicate when they need to go even quite early on, in what's called "elimination communication". This also makes them a lot easier to potty train later on.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication

mikestorrent 9 hours ago||

I used cloth diapers to great effect with my two kids. We'd use disposable ones when going out, but for around the house (and at daycare, bless them!) we were able to use cloth. I think we saved a pile of money, and yes, they were both trained pretty early.

Nobody wants them, even free... I guess I'll just throw them all out eventually, I've offered to new parents and they're all horrified by the concept

shawn_w 5 hours ago|||

My parents used cloth diapers for me, and then later reused them for years around the house as rags.

yen223 7 hours ago|||

Haha, we got second-hand cloth diapers. Figured it can't be worse than what our little one is going to do to them!

samch 5 hours ago|||

Agreed - like the sibling comment, we also used cloth diapers with our two kids. They were actually great. The ones we had were basically two-part construction: there was an outer shell with adjustable snaps for appropriate sizing, and an inner liner that absorbed the moisture. Both were easily washable. Like other parents we knew who did this, we added a small hand-held sprayer / bidet wand to one of our toilets and used it to hose off the diaper and liners. We would then toss them in the washing machine. I think these also provided more cushion for the kids’ bottoms and they both ended up sitting and scooting on them pretty fast. Also like the others here, we used disposables on the go / on vacation. Just my two cents, but we loved our cloth diapers.

hermanb 7 hours ago|||

Our baby was capable of sending these signals when she was a few weeks. So most pees she does hanging above the sink. This saves so many diapers, crazy. And much more comfortable for her to never have a wet butt, not even a minute. Would recommend!

I think within the next few months we can actually get her to go to the potty by herself. She’s 15 months now.

This industry wasn’t just good. It did destroy babies sensitivity to soiling.

danielodievich 8 hours ago|||

We had cloth diaper service for our two children, where they'd deliver a huge stack of nice soft thick cotton squares, and take away the dirty ones, once a week. They barely smelled, especially in the beginning before solid foods start. They were excellent as burpy cloths on the shoulder too. Disposable diapers were more excellent for outside, and at later times for sleeping through the night when we realized that the absorbency was better for sleep. We definitely felt better about the environment with the reusable cloth ones.

DonHopkins 7 hours ago||

I thought "Elimination Communication" was the technical term for Trump tweeting from the toilet.

Markoff 3 hours ago||

Do people claiming cloth diapers have lower environmental impact just ignore the vast amounts of water and chemicals you use to wash and reuse them? I'm not so convinced they are that much better than disposable ones.

Same goes for financial aspect, washing (water/electricity)+washing gel vs picking them up in the store where I'm going anyway. Daily expenses on disposable ones are negligible to outweigh the convenience.

I can see only good reason for cloth being health reasons since there were cases when materials inside irritated babies skin sometimes, even famous brands had this issue and you have to figure out which brand works best for your kid.

I would make same argument about murdered Christmas trees vs artificial ones, I'm using my artificial Christmas trees for 9th year, meanwhile neighbors have their murdered trees transported by trucks to shop, then they transport them by car to their homes, then they throw them away after 2-3 weeks at home making mess on street expecting waste collection service collecting them (from everyone's money) with trucks and dispose them.

deaux 1 hour ago|

> I can see only good reason for cloth being health reasons since there were cases when materials inside irritated babies skin sometimes, even famous brands had this issue and you have to figure out which brand works best for your kid.

The large amount of plastic in disposable ones seems like another mark against them health-wise.

wodenokoto 7 hours ago||

I’ve seen the cotton diapers my parents used for me and I don’t see how they could have competed with any lackluster version of the disposable diaper mentioned in the article.

yen223 7 hours ago|

I use cloth diapers, but modern disposable diapers can hold a lot, a lot of pee. Significantly more than any cloth diapers can. This means a lot less blowouts with disposables.

cogogo 9 hours ago||

Our kids have been out of diapers for a couple of years. We loved these bamboo diapers[0] Nearly as good as pampers. Much softer and much better for the environment. I have no relationship to the company.

And disposables dropping at 10cents a pair. Holy crap! I thought they were expensive now.

Finally we had a crazy trustee in our condo assoc that wanted us to scrape the poop off before we threw diapers away in our community barrels (in sealed bags of course). We just smiled and nodded.

[0]https://dyper.com/

philwebster 5 hours ago||

That site is worth visiting just for the wavy scrolling marquee text that's actually selectable. Very satisfying!

crmd 6 hours ago||

As an American, I’m embarrassed because it’s a thought-terminating cliché, but I hear great “modern marvels”-type stories about innovation like this and think, “we used to be a country…”

greekrich92 8 hours ago||

Great read. Being an engineer in the mid 20th century must have been fun and satisfying.

We pay for a diaper service. The price is comparable to disposables. The population density where I live helps with the price I'm sure.

fsckboy 8 hours ago|

it is recommended (search, you'll see) that at home you don't wash your underwear with your other clothes because there is a nonnegligible amount of fecal matter and associated bacteria remaining after washing.

extending that notion to nappies being community washed in large vats (separated by mesh bags and kept separable?) is horrifying. I suppose they put in some chlorine bleach to sterilize? Still, chlorine bleach might whiten the masticated corn kernels but...

xyzzy_plugh 7 hours ago|||

I think your imagination is much worse than reality. While your home laundry is arguably questionable (a lot of the sterilization occurs in the drier!) industrial laundry is a different ballgame altogether. How do you think hospital bedding gets cleaned? Most if not all industrial laundromats do regular testing of cleaned items to test for bacteria, organic matter, etc.

A nappy service is very likely to do a much better job than you'd do at home.

nmbrskeptix 4 hours ago|||

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IncreasePosts 9 hours ago||

Is this the first written reference to having a poop knife?

evulhotdog 9 hours ago||

Asking the hard hitting questions.

speed_spread 8 hours ago|||

It was always implied in the expression "cut the crap"

dekhn 8 hours ago||

Hmm, I thought the other poop knife apocryphal story was older, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X1... but the oldest reference I could find there was 1953, while the Spock book is older.

AbcCartCurt 8 hours ago|