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Diaper History and Etiquette · Privycast

0:01
>> Speaker A: If. If you describe something to me as a
0:03
diaper and in the description of the
0:06
function of that item, you have anything that
0:09
says that the waste will pass through.
0:13
I don't want that. I don't want that as a
0:16
diaper.
0:22
Welcome back to privy. Privy
0:25
is a podcast about bathrooms
0:28
recorded from my home
0:30
bathroom. I'm your host, hunter
0:33
Hoover, and I love bathrooms.
0:36
Thank you for being here with us. Um,
0:40
I appreciate you joining
0:42
me on this journey through
0:45
bathrooms. It's really a rich history.
0:48
Um, and we're going to be diving into a
0:51
historical bathroom, um, adjacent
0:54
topic this week, but I
0:57
want to say
1:02
it's allergy season. And so
1:09
if you hear in my voice what sounds like,
1:12
um, somebody choking on gravel,
1:15
that's probably just the presence of allergies.
1:18
Uh, the air is toxic, and
1:21
I know it's just like nature's way of
1:24
weeding out those who can't snuff it.
1:26
But genuinely, when your face is
1:29
just, like, eyes swollen shut
1:33
from just the sheer allergic
1:35
force of every tree and
1:38
bush nearby you,
1:40
it makes for just kind of an interesting afternoon.
1:43
Um, I played
1:47
about 30 minutes of foursquare outside
1:50
today, and the result was just a full on
1:52
allergy attack with my eyes just watering
1:55
and just complete disaster
1:58
as far as my eyes could see, which was not very far because they
2:01
were bleary. Um, but,
2:04
yeah, I live here in the Pacific
2:07
Northwest, the, uh, Willamete Valley, specifically.
2:10
And I once had someone explain to me
2:13
that living in the Willamete valley, uh, first
2:16
of all, just about anything can grow here.
2:19
Uh, it's like the
2:22
fertile crescent. Um, I think
2:25
that's a history thing, but everything
2:28
grows here. But as a result, every allergy
2:30
exists here, too. It's
2:33
a blessing and a curse, really. And,
2:37
um, yeah, if you have allergies, it's just
2:40
a rough world. It makes me
2:43
wonder if there is a
2:46
correlation between allergies and what we do in the
2:48
bathroom. I put my eyedrops in, in the
2:51
bathroom, so that's kind
2:54
of correlated. Uh,
2:57
but, yeah, tis the season. Um,
3:02
and you know what else?
3:05
People don't care about my rants here. We're going to get
3:08
into it. So, as I
3:10
teased, uh,
3:14
this week, we are talking about a bathroom
3:17
adjacent topic. And I say bathroom
3:19
adjacent because every now and then, we get one of these
3:22
topics where it doesn't
3:25
necessarily have to do with
3:27
the bathroom specifically, but
3:30
it is so intricately and,
3:33
um, so deeply
3:36
related to what we do in this space
3:39
that it does well to talk about it
3:42
here. Um,
3:45
and I got to note
3:47
that it's been some time since I'ventured into
3:50
this world, and
3:53
I kind of put my whole gut
3:56
situation on the line for the dragon
3:58
fruit test.
4:00
Uh, and I'm not sure
4:03
if I want to. I don't think I'm going to be testing this one.
4:06
I think I know what I'm going to find there.
4:09
But this week on privy, we need to
4:12
talk about diapers,
4:15
and specifically the history of
4:18
diapers. Where did these guys come from?
4:20
And, ah, having established the history of
4:23
these butt coverings, um, we need to
4:26
talk a little bit of etiquette.
4:34
When my wife. I won't do the
4:37
thing. I will resist the urge to go full
4:40
Borat on that saying, but just
4:43
imagine that I did do it. But when we
4:46
found out that we were going to have our first child,
4:50
we were ecstatic. And
4:53
one of the things that began to happen is we began
4:56
to accumulate the goods that we would need
4:59
to have a child living in our, at
5:02
the time apartment. And
5:07
as we get the crib, and we get the crib built, and we're,
5:10
like, stocking supplies, and
5:13
at one point, my wife has just, like, uh,
5:15
woofie boxes of diapers,
5:19
and I'm sitting here, huh
5:22
know, I feel like we're not going to need this many
5:25
diapers. Like, the little guy is going
5:28
to grow out of this size before we even
5:31
use them.
5:34
Anna kind of just turns around and stares at
5:37
me.
5:40
I don't remember all the details, but
5:43
she asked me, like, well, how many diapers do you
5:46
think you need? Just, uh, how many
5:49
do you think you need? And
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it was of my opinion,
5:57
having helped raise and
5:59
having, at that point in my life, not
6:02
changed a diaper, I'm pretty out of
6:05
practice. Um, I haven't had to change a diaper
6:07
in over two years. Our children are, praise
6:10
God, um, potty trained
6:13
and well on their way. Uh,
6:17
but I told her, I was like, I
6:20
can't imagine one of these little things. Uses more
6:23
than two or three diapers a day. Like, a couple of diapers a
6:26
day, two diapers, three max. I use
6:29
three sheets of toilet paper when I
6:32
wipe my butt two to three times per
6:35
job. So
6:37
logic serves that
6:40
I would only need to change the diaper two or three times a
6:43
day. The box comes with, like, 100 diapers. I mean, you
6:46
do the math, that should last me about two to three months.
6:49
Two months ish.
6:52
And little did I
6:55
know that I would be changing the diaper two or three
6:57
times before we even left the hospital, like,
7:01
that first day. And I'm sitting here
7:03
going, oh, no.
7:06
And I will be the first in line to admit,
7:09
and I have admitted it, too, Anna. I was
7:12
terribly, terribly wrong. Uh, I
7:14
very underestimated how many diapers a
7:17
baby is going to be using. The
7:20
other thing, while we're on the topic of changing baby
7:23
diapers, something they don't tell you
7:27
about those newborn baby poops.
7:30
They have all these parenting books written for all sorts
7:33
of things. They got how to
7:36
videos on how to swaddle a baby and how to change
7:38
the baby's diaper and give a baby a bath and do all these
7:41
things with a baby. And
7:44
I will admit, I did read and I did look
7:47
up, and I had Anna show me a number of those things.
7:52
But you know what? Nobody ever told me about
7:55
flipping newborn baby poops? They are
7:58
wild. It's like black tar.
8:02
I've never seen black tar heroin,
8:04
but I imagine that it looks like
8:07
newborn baby poop. It's
8:09
insane.
8:14
Uh uh. I'm in the hospital,
8:16
and he
8:19
needs to be changed, and I pop the diaper open. As
8:22
I stare down at this real life
8:25
miniatured version of the Pokemon muck that had
8:28
emerged from my beautiful son child, all I could think
8:31
was like, man, I am so thankful for
8:34
diapers. Could you imagine if he
8:36
had just sullied this straight
8:39
into his blankie? Good night.
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From that point on, we proceeded to use way more than two
8:48
or three diapers a day for the next two or so
8:50
years. Um, really, it was four years because we had the two
8:53
children. But whatever. I digress.
8:56
I'm forever thankful to my wife, uh, because one of the things
8:59
I had told her, I was like, I really don't want to have two kids in diapers at
9:02
one time. And, man, my son
9:05
and my wife, they locked down the potty training, like,
9:08
almost in perfect timing.
9:15
As we begin to talk about diapers, I
9:18
have some interesting diaper facts for you
9:21
to get your head and perhaps your behind
9:24
in the correct space here.
9:27
First, the largest diaper brand in
9:29
2022, the year 2022,
9:32
was Huggies. Um, Huggies, to me,
9:35
is known for the big red box at
9:37
Costco. Uh, and Huggies
9:40
made about 20 billion with a
9:43
b. That's billion, as in boring,
9:45
holio. Uh, $20
9:48
billion in the year 2022. That's
9:51
wild. That's a lot of billion of dollars.
9:54
And the global diaper
9:56
market, which is a thing that people
9:59
measure and pay attention to, is about
10:02
$82 billion. So if you want
10:05
to make a trainload of money,
10:09
if you want to market something and make some
10:12
money. Quit trying to sell
10:14
cutco or
10:16
flipping.
10:21
I don't know what people sell. I see these plexus
10:24
moms and I kind of don't get it.
10:28
If you're a plexus mom and you're listening to this, I'm sorry, I'm not
10:31
trying to dunk on you. I just don't understand
10:34
this. They're like, oh, buy my pink drink.
10:37
It made me feel better and it's like,
10:40
did it? I guarantee
10:42
you just drinking a lot more water and a lot
10:45
less of everything else, if you cut the sugar out
10:48
of your coffee, you're going to be better.
10:51
I did away with sugar in my coffee,
10:54
uh, about two years ago. And man, I'll tell you
10:56
what, first of all, the effects of the coffee
10:59
are greatly enhanced. Um, and the flavor, I
11:02
genuinely like the flavor of black coffee. Side
11:05
tangent on the side tangent.
11:07
Um, black, like
11:10
poorly brewed black coffee.
11:13
It tastes
11:15
like, uh, my desire for that
11:18
taste in my mouth is similar to what I
11:21
think has been described to me as people who smoke
11:24
tobacco cigarettes. They got to get that first
11:27
tobacco cigarette of the morning. I don't
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know. I don't even know what I'm saying at this
11:32
point. But yeah, in 2022,
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huggies made $20 billion and pampers was right behind
11:38
it at 19 billion and the
11:40
entire globe
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like $82 billion industry in
11:46
2022. That's a lot.
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The average baby, um, which first of all,
11:53
how dare you. Do you call in my.
11:55
No, but the
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average baby goes through 2200
12:01
diapers in a year. Staggering
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numbers. Almost four to five times what
12:06
I originally perceived. Uh, if you would have told
12:09
me before we had our
12:12
children, hey, they're going to go through
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about 2000 to 2500
12:18
diapers in a year.
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I absolutely still would have
12:23
pursued my children, but I would
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have really taken my wife's advice at
12:29
stocking up more diapers earlier on.
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That's staggering numbers.
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And it's really,
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as with most things in capitalism,
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it's a lot of money being made off a person's
12:44
necessity to catch pee and poop. That's
12:47
essentially what this is. It's coming to grips with the
12:49
fact that we have got to catch this.
12:52
Otherwise it's going to be spread hither and yawn
12:55
and, uh, we're going to have to deal with it then.
12:59
But before diapers were a
13:01
multibillion dollar, billion dollar
13:04
industry, apparently they
13:07
were pretty much free.
13:12
It turns out these historical
13:15
diapers were also not really technically diapers.
13:18
So we need to first look at the history
13:21
of diapers. If we want to know how
13:24
we got to these. I mean, they're
13:27
fairly technological. I think it's only a matter
13:30
of years before we have, like, scent odorizing
13:33
or scent neutralizing. I'm sure they have scent neutralizing
13:36
diapers. We never had these,
13:38
but I was always baffled at how much urine
13:41
a diaper can hold. It's insane. Like, they get heavy,
13:44
and, um, if you ever had just a wet, open
13:47
diaper and you have an enemy, just cash
13:50
that right at the back of their head. Like, oof, no,
13:53
don't do that. That's mean.
13:57
We got to grip and rip this bad boy.
14:00
Oh, yes,
14:02
queen
14:08
that, uh, brings the pepper. Um,
14:10
polar seltzer is coming at it again here.
14:15
But our journey into
14:17
diaper history begins
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in ancient times.
14:23
Primitive parents Babar and
14:25
bumbor had to rely on
14:28
pretty primitive methods to keep their kids from,
14:31
like, totally splatter canning
14:34
the cave wall.
14:35
Um, a parent
14:38
then desperate for something to cover their child's
14:41
butt with, they
14:44
reach for something, and they begin
14:47
fashioning, like, things made out of tree
14:50
leaves. And
14:53
I think of, like, Angela in the office, where she's, like,
14:56
dressing, uh, babies up in
15:00
food. I imagine seeing a baby just, like,
15:02
got loincloth diaper going on with these tree
15:05
leaves. And I can't imagine
15:08
that leaves do much, if
15:10
anything, to catch poop. Like,
15:13
yes, they provide a barrier with the
15:16
outside world, but
15:20
how much are leaves catching? Do you know what I'm saying?
15:23
Really? How much? Others who
15:26
would, I don't know. Uh, to me, leaves is just
15:28
scratchy. The others would opt for moss, which I think is
15:31
fairly more logical,
15:33
um, other ways. So instead
15:36
of just simply wiping the leaves or wrapping the
15:39
leaves and moss around the baby's
15:43
nethers, um, another
15:45
option would to be to take a gourd
15:48
and carve it and fill it with moss for
15:51
absorbency. I think it's kind of like a
15:54
jacko lantern,
15:57
but it's a jacko lantern that you slide onto your
15:59
babies, but it's like a
16:02
diaper lantern. Like a jacko diaper.
16:06
Jacko diaper.
16:09
Poor
16:13
di. Pumpkin. Pumpkin. There's a
16:16
joke in there somewhere. It's buried somewhere very,
16:18
very deep. But they would hollow out these gourds, and
16:21
then they would fill the gourds with, like, leaves and
16:24
moss for added absorbency.
16:27
And I feel like there's some sort of real
16:30
nursery rhyme here. I think there's got
16:33
to be something about a kid who was wearing some sort of
16:36
pumpkin or gourd or something. Other
16:38
ancient civilizations, this time, Egypt,
16:42
um, there's evidence that suggests that they were
16:45
using linen fabrics and animal
16:48
skins as makeshift diapers. You essentially just wrap it around
16:51
the downstairs. And
16:54
here's my thing. I don't know if you've ever interacted with
16:57
animal skins,
16:59
um, but
17:01
they aren't the most cushiony situation.
17:05
And I can't imagine an animal skin is going to do a lot
17:07
by way of absorbing liquids or
17:10
sometimes solids. I mean, ask yourself this
17:13
question, would you wear leather
17:16
underwear? And if the answer is no, ask yourself, well,
17:18
why not? And I think if
17:21
we're being honest with ourselves, if we're telling ourselves the
17:24
truth, the reason we're declining
17:27
leather underwear is because of the chafing. Like, we're going to chafe,
17:30
we're going to have some real chafed hog, you know what I'm saying?
17:35
The options weren't bad. Um,
17:37
the Greeks
17:40
kind of took the Egyptians thing
17:43
and other people's ideas about the pumpkins, and they said,
17:46
okay, but what if it had a little bit more
17:49
of a reusable take? Like, instead
17:52
of slapping a pumpkin on the baby's butt and calling it an
17:55
afternoon, what if we take
17:57
terracotta pots? Yes, pots, as
18:00
in clay pottery pots,
18:03
and we form them with holes in the bottom
18:07
that were used now as early forms of diapers.
18:10
Now, uh, I have got to tell
18:12
you, the description of these pots is
18:15
that they, quote, would allow the waste to pass
18:18
through while keeping the baby relatively
18:21
clean. And, um, as I
18:24
sat here and thought about this, I was like,
18:27
how in the heck is a
18:30
baby going to wear a clay pot
18:33
and poop in the clay pot?
18:37
And somehow it travels through the clay pot
18:40
and it does not get them dirty. And I'm going to tell
18:43
you the number of things that came to my brain, I
18:46
could not suss this out. But
18:49
thankfully, we live in the world of Google
18:52
image search. And I want to
18:54
note here, I think this is not technically
18:57
a diaper. Uh, I don't really know
19:00
how to describe it,
19:03
but I do know that if you
19:06
describe something to me as a diaper and
19:09
in the description of the function of that item,
19:12
you have anything that says that the waste will
19:15
pass through. I don't want
19:18
that. Uh, I don't want that as a diaper. Like,
19:21
imagine we don't go to target right
19:24
now. Imagine you go to Walmart
19:26
and you look at the huggies
19:29
and the huggies, diapers, say,
19:32
allows the turd to pass through. Keeping
19:35
your child's buttocks clean.
19:37
I'm not going to buy it. Like, it's not that I don't want my child
19:40
to have a clean buttocks, but
19:44
get it. But
19:47
how is this possible? Well,
19:51
I had to go look this up because, um,
19:55
I could not figure it out.
19:57
And after I saw
20:00
it, my instantly thought to myself was, well, I don't think
20:03
this counts as a diaper. Um,
20:07
this terracotta pot air quotes
20:10
diaper here, um, essentially looks kind
20:13
of like a high chair. And
20:16
the child's legs do go through holes, and they're
20:19
sitting in it. But the rest of it
20:22
is kind of like a toilet. Like, it's kind of like a baby
20:25
toilet that you strap the baby into the clay pot
20:28
and they would poop, and it would drop into
20:31
the chamber below where it would then be
20:33
emptied when you take the baby out.
20:36
Um, again, I think this is a gray area. I'm not
20:39
convinced this is a quote, diaper. I think there needs to be
20:42
some sort of a
20:45
maneuverability or portability
20:48
to the infant or child when
20:51
wearing the diaper for it to fully count as a
20:53
diaper. That's just my opinion.
21:01
The ancient Chinese
21:04
developed, good lord.
21:08
Sometimes I read a sentence and
21:11
I remember typing it. Like, I use my notes. I have
21:14
notes. Uh, you caught me. I have notes.
21:17
Forgive me. Um, but, I
21:20
mean, at the end of the day, is this kind of just research? Like, I'm researching
21:22
some things. I'm throwing in some
21:26
jokes about taking a dump here and there, but I'm
21:29
not talking about my stuff. I will update. I did eat
21:32
Applebee's this week, and
21:35
I'll tell you right now, I thought while I was
21:38
eating it, I didn't even eat it all. I had to take some of it
21:41
home. But I had, like, chicken
21:43
wings and waffle fries, like woofie. And I
21:46
thought for sure, I was like, I'm going to get so dunked on, and I
21:49
didn't aok.
21:52
There is no rhyme or reason to what part of Applebee's
21:55
is going to do you south,
21:58
but the ancient Chinese
22:01
developed and still use today. I should
22:03
note that that's important. A
22:06
technology called the crotchless
22:09
trouser. Now,
22:11
jeez, the pictures of
22:14
these are just ridiculous.
22:18
I, uh, understand how they came to be. I do.
22:21
I get it. If you're trying to teach the
22:24
baby, you don't have to deal with the pants. You just bend over and
22:27
the pants, like, break away.
22:29
But they're essentially buttless chaps. But
22:32
for, like, little kids who are learning to use the
22:35
bathroom, they just
22:38
squat. Or the child is held in a
22:40
squat by their parent, and they go
22:43
into a pot or a bowl or a toilet, and it's
22:46
kind of like a tear away.
22:51
You know, those people that I feel like they're always getting
22:53
ready to dance and they just like,
22:56
reach down and bam. They just got like, the breakaway
22:59
pants. I feel like this is one step
23:02
removed from that, but it only breaks away in the
23:04
butthole area to expose the
23:07
butthole.
23:10
Mhm. Yeah. I don't know.
23:14
I wonder if they make these for adults.
23:17
I want to see some breakaway diaper pants
23:20
for adults. That'd be wild,
23:23
man. There would be some awful moon jobs going
23:26
on there.
23:30
Never mooned anybody. Never really got the
23:32
thrill. I don't really understand the.
23:36
Yeah, I don't understand the hype on that. Never mooned
23:39
anybody. Um,
23:41
maybe one day. If we
23:44
fast forward to the middle ages. It was a time
23:47
of great discovery and worse
23:50
smells. Diapers
23:53
here took a leap into the future.
23:57
Parents realized that,
23:59
man, we've been using these animal skins
24:02
as diapers, and some of these animals are a little
24:05
fluffier than the others. They began
24:08
using sheep's wool and lamb's wool as
24:11
diaper material. Padding and, uh,
24:14
absorption, absorption. I don't know if that's a
24:17
word. Lambs wool.
24:20
Imagine
24:23
just a diaper, just stuffed, uh,
24:26
just butt covering, stuffed to the brim
24:29
with lamps.
24:35
Moving into the Renaissance era, it was a time of
24:38
exploration, and the
24:40
diaper choices in fashion kind of
24:44
took a downslope. The
24:46
wealthy, uh, of society kind of
24:49
embraced a fashion forward, and they
24:52
begin using fine linens as diaper material.
24:55
Now, here's why you want
24:57
to not use fine linen as diaper
25:00
material. It
25:02
categorically will be covered in human
25:05
turds, but it should be. Note,
25:08
a change in the word diaper occurred during this
25:11
time. Diapers were used as
25:13
the term diaper was used as
25:16
a decorative patterned fabric.
25:19
So you would say, oh,
25:22
those pants are made of diaper.
25:25
Kind of like how? Like
25:27
denim.
25:30
Jean. It's a jean jacket. Well, jeans are
25:33
pants, but they're jean jacket. Like the material
25:36
is jean. Um, it's
25:39
kind of like that for diaper. But
25:45
they began taking this fine layer because
25:48
it was nice and soft. And, um, they
25:50
began sewing it into the
25:53
parts of clothing that needed an extra layer,
25:56
particularly the ones that are associating with your
25:58
downstairs. Think of, like,
26:01
early underwear, but it's sewn into the pants.
26:04
It's called diaper fabric.
26:07
This softer material began to be used
26:10
by parents to the point where the idea of
26:13
a diaper was associated with children and not adults anymore. It's
26:16
like they were saying, oh, look at my
26:19
child's butt covering. It's all the
26:21
rage. I, uh, use only the fanciest linens
26:24
for their booty covering.
26:27
In more recent history, the modern
26:30
diaper as we know it today began to take
26:32
shape in the 19th century. In
26:35
1834, a woman named Maria Allen.
26:37
Invented the first Us patent for a
26:40
diaper. Her design
26:43
featured an absorbent
26:46
pad that was secured with a safety
26:49
pin. This
26:51
invention, the absorbent pad pants,
26:55
laid the foundation for the development of modern
26:57
diapers. For a long
27:00
time, these were referred to as nappies.
27:04
If you watch Bluey, you know all about
27:07
them. Nappies. As
27:10
we move into the industrial revolution, things
27:13
began to boom. Industry was
27:16
being revolved, revolutionized.
27:19
I think that's the
27:21
verbiage on that.
27:24
Things were improving, technology was
27:27
getting better, and with it, uh,
27:30
machines to do work.
27:33
Now there are machines to produce
27:36
diapers. Mass production leads
27:38
to mass
27:41
confusion here, as during
27:44
this time, I argue, we took a step
27:46
backwards as we introduced
27:49
rubber pants. Now,
27:51
rubber pants
27:54
served kind of the similar purpose as diapers.
27:57
They caught the material. Now, the problem is,
28:00
until you would have to put some sort of an
28:03
absorbent material, usually a nappy,
28:06
inside the rubber pants to help the
28:09
leakage. They
28:12
wanted them to be
28:15
encased in this impenetrable
28:18
rubber barrier. The problem is, the
28:20
rubber pants often
28:23
leaked, even when lined with the absorbent
28:26
cloth diaper nappy.
28:30
The 19 hundreds saw an
28:33
even different boom.
28:35
We entered the era of disposable diapers
28:38
because up until this point, with the exception of the
28:41
leafs and moss and pumpkins, people of the past,
28:44
we were reusing these. We were washing them
28:47
and reusing them. And with the
28:49
disposable diaper, I would argue, came a
28:52
fortune by way of
28:55
80 plus billion dollars per year.
29:00
Mothers and their infants
29:02
clad at the time.
29:05
And at the beginning of these disposable
29:07
diapers, they look like just glorified
29:10
paper bags. Like
29:15
convenience was at an all time high.
29:18
But wearing these made your kid
29:21
look like a, uh, ding dong. Like
29:24
landfills. Saw more and more of
29:27
these diapers pile up.
29:29
Imagine,
29:32
we've talked of the trouble of the early
29:35
sewers during this time. Imagine just the
29:38
bedlam that these diapers
29:40
waged against those sewers.
29:46
In the 1940s, a
29:49
swedish paper company called Paulstrom
29:52
introduced the first mass produced
29:55
disposable diaper. The
29:58
diaper consisted of a tissue paper
30:00
lining and an outer plastic cover.
30:03
Now, here's the thing.
30:06
Tissue paper does nothing
30:09
when wet. Like if you spill
30:12
something, next time you spill something, go get yourself a
30:15
Kleenex and try to clean it up, it fades away.
30:18
Like most of these government officials morals in the side
30:21
of anything that they want and they know they shouldn't have.
30:26
But it consisted of a tissue paper lining and an
30:29
outer plastic cover. It wasn't until the
30:31
1960s and 70s that disposable diapers
30:34
gained the significant popularity and
30:37
became a staple in households around the world. But
30:40
before then, we have to jump back,
30:43
because we have been speaking
30:45
primarily of baby diapers,
30:48
saying nothing of the adult diaper
30:50
industry.
30:53
The use of adult diapers can be traced back to World
30:56
War II, when, um,
30:59
the military developed absorbent
31:02
products for injured and bedridden soldiers.
31:06
These products were designed to manage bladder and bowel
31:09
incontinence, providing a practical solution
31:12
for individuals who had difficulty using conventional
31:15
bathroom facilities. The adult
31:17
diaper was a medical
31:20
invention to assist in wartime
31:23
to those who fought and were
31:26
injured.
31:29
Marion Donovan invented the
31:32
first leak proof diaper cover.
31:35
And with this,
31:38
we arrive at, uh, what is
31:40
essentially present day diaper technology.
31:44
Modern day diaper technology has reached
31:47
staggering heights. Moisture
31:50
wicking fabrics, absorbency like never
31:52
before. Diapers that send messages to your
31:55
smartphones. Yes, uh,
31:58
electronic diapers.
32:01
Diapers have come a long way,
32:04
but there was some deals that needed to be made.
32:07
Marion Donovan, as I stated,
32:10
invented the first leak proof diaper
32:13
cover. She sold her
32:16
patent for the waterproof diaper for
32:19
$1 million back in 1950.
32:22
Adjusted for inflation, that's a flip jillion dollars
32:25
today. But still,
32:28
disposable diapers were a luxury at the
32:30
time. Lined with tissue paper,
32:36
Johnson and Johnson came on the scene.
32:38
Another popular brands began to emerge and
32:41
produce diapers themselves. In the
32:44
60s, they introduced cellulose fibers to help
32:47
catch and hold more liquid. In the 70s, they
32:49
ditched the pins to hold the diaper on for the
32:52
adhesive straps. Man, you could get some stretch on
32:55
those adhesive straps. I was always impressed when I was diapering
32:58
my children, like, just how far you can
33:01
wrap those adhesive straps around
33:04
your child.
33:08
By the 1970s, Procter
33:11
and gamble released
33:12
pampers made by
33:15
a chemical engineer who wanted to make a better
33:18
diaper for his grandson.
33:22
Like later, the formerly owned
33:25
Kimberly Clark brand released their
33:28
Huggies diapers. These
33:31
added elastic straps to help them fasten,
33:33
made the cut of the diaper to better fit the anatomy
33:36
of a baby. Unless you get one of those thick walrus
33:39
children, and then you're going to have to get those chubby boy
33:42
diapers. We have hardly even
33:45
discussed adult diapers, but, uh,
33:48
essentially, imagine all this. But for a big baby called
33:51
an adult person. I think you have to increase the
33:54
absorbency on those, too, because
33:56
if I'm wearing a diaper, man, I'll tell you what, I can
33:59
produce some pee. When pressed,
34:02
there can be some pee.
34:06
I don't know if you're listening to this, and you are
34:09
currently in charge of diapering children.
34:12
Hats. Uh, off to you. Um, I hope that
34:15
learning a little bit about what those who
34:18
have had to diaper kids did before you has
34:20
helped. Um, in short, we're living in the golden age
34:23
of catching infant
34:25
leavings. The
34:28
struggle would be
34:30
between, in these modern day brands
34:36
would be between P. G. Procter gamble and the
34:39
Kimberly Clark parent corporations over diaper
34:41
supremacy. This war
34:44
is now being fought by attaching Disney characters,
34:47
making them waterproof on the outside, and
34:50
making them sized for adults. Who
34:53
knows what the future holds? Perhaps we'll
34:55
witness the rise of levitating diaper drones
34:58
or self cleaning diapers. I don't know
35:01
what that looks like, but
35:05
the fact is, as long as there
35:08
are babies, we will need
35:11
diapers. Now that
35:13
we've looked at where diapers came
35:16
from, we all know what the
35:19
stuff in them comes from. We need to
35:21
talk briefly here. A little diaper
35:24
etiquette
35:28
and diaper etiquette can essentially
35:31
be summed up as this.
35:33
The diaper, change the diaper
35:36
frequently and change it in a place
35:39
where it won't be disruptive. Now,
35:42
I must admit, early on, my
35:45
thought was, well, if they pee, you can just
35:48
let that sit, and they can
35:50
wait until they poopy in it. Now,
35:53
again, Anna, uh, quickly corrected
35:56
my error in this and said, no, you cannot
35:59
just let them sit in the urine. Like, you
36:02
need to change it as quick as you possibly can.
36:05
To which I said, well, what if they instantly sully the next
36:07
diaper? And she said, you change it too.
36:11
But she's right. Kids
36:14
need their comfort, too. I wouldn't want to sit in my
36:17
wet.
36:20
You may need to wipe down the surface you're changing your
36:23
baby on. I would recommend wiping it down both before
36:26
and after the changing process. That's etiquette
36:28
there. If you are changing a baby
36:31
and it is not in a bathroom, you may need to dispose of the
36:34
diaper in a more rigorous means,
36:37
um, than simply just tossing in the
36:39
trash.
36:43
If you're changing at somebody's house, you don't want to leave
36:46
just that. Just little turd
36:49
grenade wrapped up so just so
36:51
precious, you don't want to leave that in their
36:54
kitchen trash or, like, their bedroom trash can, like, you don't
36:57
want to do that. Deal with it. Take it out to the
37:00
dumpster, figure it out.
37:03
Much like Zelda
37:06
and, well, I guess it's link.
37:09
Much like Link and his very good sword. When you go to
37:12
change a diaper, you want to go prepared.
37:15
Diaper cream, check. Changing pad,
37:17
check. Wipes, check. Make
37:20
sure you have everything you need and that it's
37:23
all accounted for before you go bursting open the
37:26
seams of that diaper, because once you break the seam of that diaper,
37:29
those legs are going hog wild.
37:32
There's no control. Then that is not the time to
37:35
get your life in order.
37:38
You get your crap organized before you get the
37:41
diaper unleashed. You got to order
37:44
your life better. At that point,
37:47
you do not want to expose the
37:50
babe before you're ready to service the babe.
37:55
The Internet says you should always get permission before
37:58
changing someone else's baby. And, uh, that's good
38:00
advice. But in my opinion,
38:03
unless you are related to
38:06
babysitting or a medical health
38:08
professional providing support,
38:11
you should not change another person's
38:14
kid. Like,
38:16
I, as a parent,
38:20
did my very best to never ask
38:22
anybody but my parents,
38:25
the kids'relatives, to ever change the
38:28
diaper. If I was there, I would change it, or my wife would
38:31
change it. That said, I don't want to
38:34
change your kid's diaper. Like,
38:37
no thanks.
38:40
Diapers are much more absorbent than you'd expect.
38:44
This brings me
38:47
to a brief
38:49
hunter's anecdotes
38:52
to keep you afloat.
39:02
This hunter's anecdotes is back in the
39:05
days of being a janitor.
39:09
I've been not a janitor for going on two years
39:12
now. I miss the profession. Um, they're
39:15
heroes, really. And
39:18
one day, I rolled up to do my
39:21
janitorial duties. And
39:24
one of the things that would happen frequently, partially because
39:27
of septic, but also partially because of
39:29
knuckleheadedry, is
39:32
there would frequently be just
39:35
a sign affixed to the outside of the bathroom
39:38
door that says out of order. Now, as a
39:41
janitor, when you see the sign that says out of order,
39:44
at least I thought two things. Number
39:46
one, did they try?
39:50
And what I mean by that is, did the person,
39:53
or whoever, the person who made the decision to
39:56
deem this
39:58
toilet as out of order, did they do
40:01
anything to make it out of order? Or
40:04
did they at, ah, the first sign of terror and
40:07
peril, slap a sign on the
40:09
door,
40:12
wash their hands, quite literally, of the
40:15
situation, and leave it for
40:18
someone? In this case, the janitor
40:21
that we, quote, pay to do this.
40:24
Now, that is my job. I'm gladly, we'll do
40:26
it. But so often,
40:30
I would pop this door open, and I would look, and
40:33
it's a classic case of, if we could just locate
40:36
a plunger and really give this
40:39
toilet a good plunge job, we would do
40:42
a world of service to everybody. Like, you
40:44
would have your bathroom and your toilet back within the
40:47
hour. You wouldn't have to wait for me to come in once or twice a
40:50
week. So this
40:53
would happen frequently. In this day, I rolled up
40:56
and I was regularly getting in to start cleaning about
40:59
05:00 p.m., um, which means I
41:02
was usually finishing my cleaning duties on those days between
41:05
nine and 10:00 p.m.
41:08
And as I roll up, I see the
41:11
sign and I go, okay, and
41:17
I pop the door open and
41:21
I see the toilet. And normally when you
41:24
do this, you're met with just, like, the lake of
41:27
mixed brown and toilet paper. And it's very clearly what you
41:30
got to deal with. You got a clog. But this one,
41:33
there is no water. I mean, there's water in the bowl. And
41:36
I can see, like, what looks kind of like toilet paper
41:39
or something. I'm thinking it's paper
41:41
towel. And I'm like, uh, you know
41:44
what?
41:46
I'm going to do this.
41:49
It's going to be quick. So I'm going to do this. And so I go to
41:52
plunge it, and I'm, like,
41:55
working on the plunger, really giving it a good once for.
41:58
And this is not budging.
42:01
Normally, you can plunge it and you hit the flush and it starts.
42:04
No, the water is coming up to the top. So
42:06
I actually had to scoop some of the water out in order to
42:09
continue this process. And I look and
42:12
I'm trying to figure out what this thing is, and I
42:15
see what is one of the elastic
42:18
straps of a baby diaper.
42:21
Someone had flushed a diaper. Now,
42:25
inside this hunter's anecdote lives this public
42:27
service announcement. And
42:31
I know it should go without saying,
42:33
but obviously it does not.
42:37
Do not flush diapers.
42:40
Do not do it, because
42:43
I am now caught on a Friday afternoon,
42:46
Friday evening, with a
42:49
pair of scissors and
42:53
these tweezer type things that I
42:55
found in the kitchen drawer. I know
42:58
I used them on the toilet, but I
43:01
swear, I'm sitting here like, I've got to get this
43:04
done, and I do not have the equipment to get this done.
43:06
And I'm, like, simultaneously cutting the
43:09
diaper and tweezing out chunks of the diaper
43:12
at a time to get the diaper loose to get it up out of the
43:15
s bend. It took me, like, 1520 minutes
43:18
in this process of cutting and pulling to get
43:21
this diaper free. And one of the things that I learned about
43:24
diapers in this process is the
43:26
absorbent material on the inside is essentially this.
43:30
It's hard to describe it, but it's kind of like little jelly,
43:33
like, almost balls. They remind me of, like,
43:36
orbees, um, but they are
43:39
just, like, they're in there, and they just kind of swell up. They're also
43:42
the color changing agent in the diapers
43:45
that change color. And so many of these
43:48
just are in this just totally swollen
43:50
up.
43:53
And the worst part is, after you, like, you
43:56
have the sense of accomplishment, you're like, yes, I have
43:59
conquered the toilet diaper. And then you
44:02
turn around and you remember after you just killed
44:05
15 minutes to a half hour getting some
44:08
person's nonsense, and thank God in
44:10
heaven it was just a pea diaper. I can't
44:13
imagine having to cut through someone's
44:16
poopy baby diaper. It was a pea diaper. So
44:19
it's gross, but it's less gross. Do you know what I'm saying?
44:23
Um, but then you turn around and you remember, I still have to clean this
44:26
entire place.
44:29
Don't do that to your janitors.
44:30
Um, if you have a
44:33
diaper, let the trash stink before you flush
44:36
it. It's fine. Every janitor
44:39
on the planet would rather take out stinky trash
44:42
than have to remove a diaper from an S
44:44
band. This has been
44:48
hunter's anecdotes to
44:51
keep you afloat.
44:57
And this brings us to the end of another episode of
45:00
Privy. Thank you again for joining us. I hope you
45:03
enjoyed the discussion on diapers. Um, if you want to
45:06
shout at us, if you have thoughts, feelings,
45:08
concerns, tips, tricks, feedback, any
45:11
of that about diapers, send us an email,
45:14
privycast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you.
45:16
Follow us on social. We're at privycast. Leave us a rating or
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45:22
every review left, we will donate a dollar to the wounded warriors
45:25
project, reminding you that the free world
45:28
was not always free, but we should keep pooping in the free
45:31
world. We want to thank Kevin
45:34
McLeod and Pottington Bear for the use of their music this
45:36
week. Thanks, Kevin and Pottington. This has
45:39
been another episode of Privy. Thanks again for
45:42
joining us. Own your stank, wash
45:45
your butthole. And as
45:48
always, don't forget to flush.