Day Eight: An Early End
For reasons I don't wish to divulge here, I have decided to end the experiment a little early. Still, a week and a day in diapers has been more than enough time to learn what I wanted to know. All told, I can boil my discoveries down to a few salient points:
1) While diapers provide for some physical discomfort, their most debilitating aspect is still psychological. I can only speak for myself, but from the (greater) fear of public leaks to the (somewhat lesser) fear of obvious sounds and/or smells, it seems that a diaper's protection--while necessary--is not without its costs.
2) And speaking of costs... diapers are EXPENSIVE! I won't re-hash the figures here, but between the actual purchase price of the diapers and supplies to the space they take up in landfills, I can't believe no one's found a better (cheaper, less wasteful) solution yet. There ARE cloth diapers, I suppose, but even I would question the amount of labor involved in keeping them clean, usable, and on-hand...
3) On a more personal note, I also discovered something about myself--while I'm pretty brave in public, I'm much more worried about people I know finding out that I wear/wore diapers.
4) Finally, I just want to say something to all the parents out there: if your kid gets diaper rash, please be understanding if they're more than a little cranky. That stuff hurts like you wouldn't believe! ;-)
That's it for me and this blog. Further questions can be directed to the e-mail address listed in my profile.
Goodnight, good luck, and thanks for reading.
--TenDaysInDiapers
posted by TenDaysInDiapers @ 1:27 AM
1 Comments:
I'm glad you made the effort to try it out. It's a pretty true (I would guess) overview of the issues involved.
To answer a few questions for you:
- Disposible diapers are notoriously bad about leaking at night. As you likely noticed, if sleeping on your back it tends to flow according to the "landscape" as well as where the diaper is wet already and that can mean it flows around to the sides where there is no material to absorb it.
- Abenas have a lot of material in the front because some of us sleep on our stomach so it all goes in the front.
- Abenas and other diapers with high gel content have a problem with wicking. Gel tends to grab liquid and hold it tight. Problem is, additional liquid can't be absorbed there and has to find some other place. On its way to a dry section of diaper it may find a way out of the diaper instead. Molicare Super Plus diapers have a mix of gel and fiber material and the fiber tends to help wick the wetness into other parts of the diaper which frees the front to absorb again.
- There are different kinds of incontinence. Some have damaged nerves or sphincters which causes them to retain no urine. As such it dribbles out slowly. At this rate, Abenas can hold a ton because there is plenty of time to find a dry spot. Others have urge or overflow incontinence which results in a sudden rush all at once which in gel diapers is especially bad for reasons already covered.
- Rashes form from a combination of concentration of urea in the urine, length of time in the wet diaper and areas for bacterial growth to occur. You can nearly eliminate rashes by trimming the hair off down there and drinking more liquids. Without the hair it's easier to keep the area clean between changes and it reduces areas for things to grow.
- Drinking more liquids tends to run contrary to what most incontinent people would think to do, but it decreases the concentration of urea in the urine. Urea can be an irritant and it is also salty. The gels don't absorb salty solutions as well. And highly concentrated urea is more likely to smell. Interestingly, covering the diaper with plastic pants or otherwise reducing the ability for them to breathe a bit, adds to the smell. It seems that the smell will naturally disapate at a rate that is not noticable. But if you use something that reduces diaper movement or breathability, it traps the air in there until cases where you sit down and it pushes air out and then you really notice it. Also, Vitamin-B, asparagus and some other foods can cause urine to smell more strongly than normal.
- Oh, and Talc based powder is actually an irritant (it's ground rock) and has no absorbent qualities. Corn starch is fine, but I find it only useful for the time while the diaper is dry especially when the weather is hot.
- Comfort is largely a matter of proper size and the right fit. The fit can be influenced by how you put them on. Sometimes the front needs to be higher or lower to make the leg openings fit you correctly. Also, different diaper brands have different cuts and elastic so some people will prefer one over the other simply for fit reasons.
- Cost aside, high capacity diapers mean fewer changes and therefore less interferance with your life. Typically you can wear three per day, one all day at work, one evening until bedtime, one all night and that's it.
- Most places in public have plenty of ambient noise to mask the sound. Honestly, if you're confident and don't act embarassed by something, others will not notice. I've only had one person I knew figure it out and it was the result of a leak and apparently looking embarassed about something that wasn't apparent. Even in the case of a leak, it might feel huge to you, but it's usually not. Unless it's kacki pants, and especially if it's jeans, you'll be hard pressed to tell in a mirror. Just act normal and go change. It's easier said than done, but you get it in time. You get your jeans a size larger and Abenas fit fine. It's hard to tell when a person is wearing a diaper even for those of us who are experienced at it. And frankly, it's only those that are experienced with it who stand a chance. The standard test is to go out in public wearing a diaper and count the number of people that you know have noticed you are wearing a diaper. Also count the number of people you see who are wearing a diaper. It's pretty common... chances are, those numbers will be zero in both cases.
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