Parent Time

Page 3: Rise of the Disposable
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Rise of the disposable
Pampers, the first disposable diaper, was launched in 1961. In 1968, Kimberly-Clark brought out the contoured Kimbies, and in 1976, Luvs introduced revolutionary leak-proof, elasticized legs. But paper didn’t do a great job of absorbing, and leaking and diaper rash were common complaints. Finally, in the mid-’80s, paper was replaced by a superabsorbent polymer. Companies are still improving the polymer’s efficiency and dream of disposables as “thin as underwear.” As it is, today’s disposable is one-third the size of the diaper of 20 years ago and features Velcro-like fasteners and cartoon decorations to win baby’s heart.

Johnny-come-lately
The past decade has seen the disposable market explode, with the introduction of Pull-Ups and Little Swimmers, and the launch of disposables in wealthier parts of the developing world. Disposables now dominate the Canadian market, with about 85 percent of parents buying them. And children are wearing them longer too. The trend to later toilet training grew out of research done in the 1960s by paediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, who warned parents that toilet training too early could be psychologically damaging.

Better to train kids at 2½ than at one, he said, which was the norm in the 1950s. Today, Brazelton, who is, coincidentally, chairman of the Pampers Parenting Institute, advises parents to put their children in a “bigger diaper” if they don’t show signs of wanting to use the potty. But many early childhood educators and caregivers say that’s why children are still wearing Pull-Ups in preschool: If they can pee their pants without feeling wet and uncomfortable, there’s no incentive to ditch the diapers.

The great diaper debate
Although they were supposed to do away with mess, diapers have created a whole new pile of garbage. The average baby in disposables will contribute more than two tons of non-biodegradable waste to landfills by the time she’s trained. It takes one cup of crude oil to make each disposable and about 500 years for a disposable to break down. To help minimize environmental damage, many environmentally concerned parents are turning to diapers made of cloth, hemp and organic cotton and to “biodegradable” disposables; however, these have their drawbacks too, since it takes enormous resources to manufacture and wash them.

A return to our roots
While diapers are the norm in the Western world, many of the world’s parents — especially in the warm climates of Asia and Africa — have never used them. From the start, they read baby’s cues, holding her out to pee and teaching her to squat. Infants wear loose clothing; in China, pants are crotchless. Babies are often laid to sleep on layers of cloth, though usually parents will wake to their needs and hold them over a vessel by the bed. As a result, in many cultures babies are generally toilet trained (day and night, bladder and bowel) before their first birthday. A growing number of Canadian parents believe that toilet training is really a process of untraining children from diapers and are following the advice in Ingrid Bauer’s book Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene. The Salt Spring Island mother recommends “elimination communication” — reading baby’s signals (grunting, grimacing, a look of inner concentration) and helping her squat, gently, on her own schedule. Like those parents who revived the sling and the family bed, they’re paying homage to parents of the past — and throughout the world.

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Originally published in Today's Parent, February 2004