THE MORNING MIX HOSTS SUCCESSFUL DIAPER DRIVE 2026

Here's the story.

Wow! Half of Chicago families (I assume overall) can't afford diapers!

WNEW-FM LITTLE ESSENTIALS INITIATIVE COLLECTS 30 THOUSAND DIAPERS

Wow, they got three times more than the goal they'd set. 

PLASTIC VERSUS CLOTH-BACKED ADULT DIAPERS: WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU USE

This article provides good information on this topic as well as a bit of the history of adult incontinence products. 

DONATING CLOTH DIAPERS IN CANADA

ONE DIAPER CANADA-OTTAWA AND SURROUNDING AREA

THE ABOVE'S WEBSITE

CLOTH DIAPER LIBRARY-GTA

CLOTH FOR A CAUSE-COUNTRYWIDE

THE CLOTH DIAPER BANK-COUNTRYWIDE

 

CLOTH DIAPER DRIVES OF THE PAST

OVER 800 DOLLARS DONATED TO CLOTH DIAPER CHARITIES

CLOTH DIAPERS FOR MUSTARD SEED HOUSE, KENYA

DAIRYLAND DIAPER DRIVE 2016

BABYLOVE CLOTH DIAPER DRIVE 2013

REAL DIAPER WEEK 2012 DRIVE PHILIPENES

CLOTH DIAPER DRIVE FOR ETHIOPIA 2011

MORE DIAPER OBSERVATIONS

I didn't know Pampers Swaddlers and Huggies Little Snugglers went up to size 6. That is so cute. Also, Cruisers and Little Movers are meant to aid in mobility, but I guess the babies who still use Swaddlers and Snugglers can walk just fine, too.

Another cool thing is Pampers Swaddlers come in 360, going on like pants.

Luvs 360 appear to exist, but only in foreign markets, such as Poland. 

YOU DON'T NEED TO ASK YOUR BABY FOR CONSENT WHEN CHANGING THEIR DIAPER

A video from down under.

A video from across the pond.

As usual, these videos, while good, miss several important points which I am thus forced to address.

First, these so-called experts are confusing two separate things: consent, as properly defined, and respectful parenting. 

Of course it's a good idea, depending on your child, to let them know in a considerate way it's time for a diaper change. With the same qualifier in place, it's also a good idea to talk to them about what's happening on the changing table as well as, when they're older, get them involved in their care. However, as was rightly pointed out in the above videos, a baby, by its very nature, can't consent to anything. A baby doesn't even know what's good for it, which is why it requires mom and dad for every single need.

Besides, most parents, if not all these days, wouldn't just grab the child up and throw them on the changing table, with the possible exception of an extreme blowout emergency. Rather, they would do exactly as I outlined above.

I also assume, despite the modern disposable diapers that work really too well, that most babies still fuss or cry when wet or poopy and/or communicate in some other way, including verbally when they attain that skill, that it's time for a fresh dipe.

 

In the grand scheme of things, babies quickly come to trust their parents and other primary caregivers (relatives, friends, etc.) to take care of this and all their other needs. If a baby isn't communicating it's mandatory desire for a new wearable toilet, it may very well be that the little one has gotten to know the older folks in its life will take care of this in a timely manner, no "consent" communication needed.

LIFE OF THE LAW: THE DIAPER WARS

Companies always try to make us think they've now got the next best thing as part of their product, and this seems especially noticeable when it comes to disposable diapers. This podcast looks at the patent wars of the eighties and nineties between Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clark over Pampers and Huggies. It would have been nice had the episode explained why the court ruled the way it did, but it's still an interesting listen.

Indeed, nothing provokes the earnestness or the, I think, fascination of diapers. We all wore them and they force us to confront an aspect of being human most of us (though, granted, society's attitudes have changed a lot in the last couple decades) don't want to talk about. There's a reason they didn't do "The Instant Camera Wars" or "The Sewing Machine Wars." 

HOW TO CLOTH DIAPER SIMPLY, FOR DIRT CHEAP

This video dispels the notion cloth diapering must be expensive. 

DUNK AND SWISH

Though there are lots of modern innovations that mostly prevent the need for this, apparently there are cloth diapering parents out there who still choose to use the dunk and swish method for cleaning cloth diapers. Here are two videos instructing one on how to do this: one with poop and one without actual poo. 

NEW COUNTRY 96.3 COLLECTS OVER 28 THOUSAND DIAPERS

NICUs in a town as rich as Dallas can't afford diapers? 

THE DIAPER CHANGE: TV TROPES

Here's a pretty spot-on summary of the way the use of diapers by babies and the subsequent task of changing them is often handled in popular culture.

I would like to add two more:

Nobody ever shuts up the person whining about diapers by pointing out that someone had to change them.

Second, even when a newborn or infant has a dirty diaper, it still stinks, even though diapers don't begin to smell that way till the child starts eating solid foods, or so I am told.

At any rate, the examples stated below the main content in the link should invoke some feelings of nostalgia, if not also disgust and a sudden desire to cut the cord. 

TINKYPOO DIAPERS: BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY HOLD

Like Every Life, one of TinkyPoo's main features is that this company has a cause, namely the empowerment of black people. TinkyPoo, however, doesn't stop there but does the most important work of explaining why their product is the best, namely because it's both made from natural materials as well as being superabsorbent and providing blowout protection.

DISANA: THE CLOTH DIAPER YOU TIE ON

First of all, I had no idea there were tie-on cloth diapers.

Second, it's neat how Disana is the oldest surviving cloth diaper brand, going back to the time when old school flannel reusables with safety pins and rubber pants were the norm for catching baby's poops and pees.

It's also so cool how the daughters of the founders are now running Disana, and that they actually wore their product way back when.

Here's a history of the company.

THE HISTORY OF TOILETING

This history of teaching children to use the toilet contains lots of interesting things I didn't know and hadn't heard about. I question the accuracy of some of the items, but nonetheless this document clearly shows how and why the toilet training age has gone up and up and up, now to the insane point of one month after the child's third birthday. 

DISPOSABLE DIAPER EVOLUTION TIMELINE

Here's a history of the disposable diaper, at least up to the end of the 00s. Sure interesting to look back at all these old diaper brands and to find out about those of which I had never heard.

Came across this in PDF form years ago and glad I found it again. 

Here's an updated version, tracing disposable diapers all the way to 2019.

WHERE DISPOSABLE DIAPERS ARE HEADED

In addition to correctly predicting Huggies would bring back a pants-style diaper, I had some other predictions about disposable diapers a few years ago that I still stand by.

First, the logical thing for these companies to do is to keep making baby and youth diapers in bigger and bigger sizes, which is already happening. Using Huggies as our template, make Huggies diapers that are just smaller than the smallest Good Nites and make Good Nites that are just smaller than the smallest Depends.

Speaking of Depends, make graduated Depends as Tena does with their Ultra line, where you have greater absorbancy the higher the numbers go.

Also, possibly meld at least the bigger size of Good Nites into their adult diaper brand so older kids who wet the bed or who need protection during the day are not wearing a brand associated with little kids. Alternatively, make a bigger brand of Huggies Overnight or a more absorbant night-time Pull-up and re-market Good Nites as a brand for preteens and teens.

Finally, make all sub-brands of baby diapers, from Little Snugglers to Snug and Dry to Overnight to Skin Essentials, pants-style and dispense with the tape-on method altogether.

EVERY LIFE DIAPERS

More than just being prolife, this company's product actually has to be better than the hundred billion brands of disposable baby diaper out these days. The commercials say Every Life are soft, nontoxic and offer twelve hour leak protection, but all brands claim that these days.

The thing about them I can truly get behind is how they offer sponsorships for clients of crisis pregnancy centres. Rather than depend on enough of a certain size diaper to have been donated, thanks to Every Life, a woman in a crisis pregnancy situation can now be sure she will have diapers from baby's birth to their second birthday. 

Update: OK, here's a short about how Every Life prevent blowouts.

HUGGIES LITTLE MOVERS HUGGFIT 360

So Huggies has brought back its pants-style diaper after discontinuing Slip-ons a few years ago. 

That's what I thought they were going to do. With Pampers Cruisers 360 doing well, they didn't really have a choice.

Besides, due to the growing population of immigrants from countries where diapers haven't traditionally been used or where children are in them a lot shorter, it just made sense to continue manufacturing a diaper that could be pulled up and down. 

Better to retail it in the style of the brand they already marketed for mobile babies as Pampers does than to sell them as a separate diaper like before. 

LISTENERS HUG THE MIX DURING DIAPER DRIVE

Half the applicable parents in Chicago struggle to afford diapers?! Holey moley!