Are diapers harmful?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

However, before giving these answers, let's understand the terms.

A diaper is a triangle of fabric that is placed under the bottom (i.e., under the tail) of the baby. It has been known as a hygiene item since ancient times. They were worn on kids, going with them for a walk or on a long journey. There are disposable and reusable diapers. The first ones appeared relatively recently.

The world owes the appearance of the first disposable diapers to a certain Victor Mills, a leading chemical technologist at Procter & Gamble. At one point, Mr. Mills got tired of pulling out wet diapers from under his own grandchildren, and then washing and drying them. And he came up with: no need to wash. We must throw it away! In other words, diapers, without which almost no young mother can imagine her life now, appeared not because the grandfather wanted to improve the life of his grandchildren, showed concern, but because he wanted to make life easier for himself in the process of caring for children.

Despite some difficulties at the very beginning, diapers have conquered the entire civilized world: about 95% of Americans and 98% of Europeans today use disposable diapers. On average, a child uses about 4,000 diapers per life. There are about 28 billion baby diapers in use in the United States every year. Meanwhile, the decomposition of a disposable diaper in landfills and burials can last from 300 to 500 (!!!) years. This suggests that disposable diapers have an extremely negative impact on the environment.

And how do they affect the baby?

Mothers all over the world have been using diapers for over half a century. Unfortunately, large-scale studies on the effect of disposable diapers on children's health have not been conducted anywhere. Therefore, it is believed that the use of diapers does not harm the baby.

However, there are several nuances here. First, the use of diapers is not suitable for all newborns. For children with hypersensitivity or allergic diathesis, traditional gauze diapers are better suited. Secondly, if you do put diapers on your baby, keep in mind that it is better to wear them no more than 3-4 hours, despite all the statements of the manufacturers.

Another reason why it is extremely undesirable for a child to constantly wear diapers, unfortunately, is unknown even to most of our doctors, but is well known to doctors in the West. The fact is that at the age of several months, Leydig cells are laid in boys, which will produce the male sex hormone - testosterone. However, this process can be prevented by overheating of the testicles, which can occur if diapers are used around the clock. Modern diapers keep the skin dry and prevent diaper rash, but acting as a heat compress can cause the testicles to overheat.

The consequences of such overheating can appear in twenty years in the form of infertility. A small number of sperm, their poor motility - all this can be a consequence of the constant wearing of diapers in childhood. Australian farmers have an interesting way to sterilize rams: they put warm fur bags on the testicles of the ram, and after a while the ram turns into a eunuch. Many mothers, in the process of dressing boys, use the same method, when they put pantyhose on the diaper, then pants, then more pants …

Using diapers and potty training

Do not forget about another danger of constantly wearing disposable diapers by a child. The fact is that the lack of discomfort in the child as a result of the good absorbency of diapers leads to the fact that the child cannot control urination (in the process of wearing diapers, this need atrophies, since he is already dry and comfortable). As a result, your baby can wear diapers until almost 5 years old.

Before the advent of disposable diapers in our country, mothers taught their children to ask to use the toilet almost from birth. Don't believe me? Ask your parents when you stopped peeing and pooping in your pants and started posting your needs on the potty. Now a three-year-old baby in diapers has become so commonplace that very few people think that this is not normal when a child at that age is not yet potty trained.

Curiously, the name "Pampers" comes from the English word "pamper", which means "to pamper". It turns out that putting on diapers on the baby all the time, you just spoil him. A child spoiled with diapers then hardly learns to potty!

Ingrid Bauer's Natural Hygiene Method - An Alternative to Endless Diapers

A wonderful mother of three children, Ingrid Bauer, lives in Canada, who was convinced from her own experience that there is an alternative to diapers and created her own method, which she called "Natural Hygiene of the Little Ones". However, this technique has been known at all times of the existence of mankind. For thousands of years, parents have raised babies without diapers and diapers. And until now, throughout the world, in many cultures, this tradition is preserved, when a mother knows how to listen to her baby's signals, understand his physiological needs and respond to them quickly and accurately - so that the children remain clean, dry and happy. Ingrid Bauer simply reminded the civilized world of her, which, in the process of the scientific and technological revolution, was so far removed from nature.

The Natural Hygiene method is common in Asia, Africa, partly in South America and among the Native American Indians. For all these mothers, understanding the baby's cues and planting on time is as natural as breathing.

Nowadays, there are fans of this method among modern parents, both in Europe and in North America. Their number is constantly growing.

The Natural Hygiene Method can help you eliminate diapers and gauze pads - if not completely, then at least significantly reduce their number.

But the most important and main advantage of the Natural Hygiene method is the creation of a strong and deep bond between the baby and the parents. You will see that you understand your baby and that he understands you. Your reward will be constant mutual contact, deep understanding and the creation of strong and strong relationships based on trust

In other words, when using diapers, the child does not receive part of the mother's attention - this is another harm of disposable diapers.

How to use the Natural Hygiene Method?

Very simple. When the mother sees that the child needs to "get the job done," she takes off his pants and puts him in a comfortable position in a suitable place. There are several ways to negotiate this with a toddler who is not yet talking.

1. Observation of the child's behavior patterns at the moment when he pees, poops, or just asks

By closely and attentively observing, the mother will be able to find the basic "patterns of behavior" of her baby - how he usually behaves when pissing, pooping or cooking. You can also find relationships with other aspects of your baby's life, such as sleeping, walking, or feeding. For example, many babies "walk" immediately after waking up and at a certain interval after feeding.

2. "Signals" of the child or his body language

As soon as parents begin to observe, they are amazed at the fact that their child really asks and honks when he wants to "go". Parents can see it with their own eyes. Although all children are different, they have common patterns of behavior: squirming, bending the body, grimacing on the face, crying or displeased grunting, freezing in the midst of normal activity, or, conversely, an explosion of activity, awakening from sleep, etc.

3. Intuition

After using Natural Hygiene for a while, many mothers find that they just feel when they need to help their baby “do the little thing”.

4. Hinting sound

The Natural Hygiene Method for the Little Ones is a two-way communication path. Your child is not the only one who can beep. You can also talk. All over the world, parents use certain "hinting sounds" such as "ah" or "ps-ps". (In some cultures, "sh-shsh" or gentle "s-ss"). Use this sound every time the child "walks". Children quickly learn to associate sound with the ability to "get things done." And then the parent can make this sound as an invitation, and the baby decides for himself whether he needs such an opportunity now or not. It turns out a kind of "primary conversation" between an adult and a newborn. Some children even begin to make this sound themselves - but already as a signal for an adult.

Natural Hygiene and traditional potty training are DIFFERENT! Potty training is a compulsion, and the Natural Hygiene method is based on the fact that the baby himself recognizes his need to "go", gives the adult a signal, and then relaxes comfortably in loving adult arms. The kid confidently controls his body, the adult only provides help and support. As a consequence, the child may delay excretion while waiting for favorable conditions. This behavior is instinctive and therefore completely natural. The main thing here is not to drop the child off on time. Due to the fact that children do not learn to ignore natural feelings and needs, they will not have to be retrained to recognize them again. There will be no need to teach your toddler to NOT use their clothes as a toilet later.

Babies are able to be aware of their need to pee / poop from the moment they are born and can control these muscles from birth. The myth that a child needs to be "taught" to manage them has developed due to a global misunderstanding of the abilities of babies.

Millions of mothers around the world can attest to the fact that babies can independently regulate their excretory functions. There is no compulsion or negative consequences here.

Children who are accustomed to the Natural Hygiene method become completely self-reliant and independent in "toilet matters" between the ages of 10 and 20 months

That is why every mother should read Ingrid Bauer's wonderful book, Life Without Diapers.

Excerpts from the book can be read here.

And here is what experience the Nikitin family shares, whose books are also very useful for future and present parents.

Then we did not yet know about the customs of the peoples of "non-industrial cultures" and did not realize that it was necessary to reinforce the conditioned reflex with a reward, but still by two or three months we not only felt great relief from the decrease in the number of wet diapers, but were also amazed that a three-month-old baby just afraid of being wet, it is clearly unpleasant for him. He even woke up and cried loudly from the fact that he got a little wet. You bring it from the street in winter, unfold it, and there is a small wet spot on the diaper, and only above the basin does it calmly release all the moisture accumulated during a long sleep.

One of my friends grandmothers had to stay with her newborn granddaughter for a whole month without her mother (my mother was in the hospital and sent bottles with her milk from there). She knew about our experience, and relatives were very skeptical about such "tricks" and prepared a mountain of diapers and diapers. However, the grandmother decided to try, and her attention to the baby's signals was so great that by the ninth day, grandmother and granddaughter already understood each other perfectly, so the pile of diapers turned out to be unnecessary: one could do with five times less.

But saving time and effort on washing is not the main thing. The main thing is that the baby begins to consider the norm only being in dry and clean, and dirt and wet cause his protest. Then he already gives signs before getting wet, that is, the adult needs to understand what he is asking for. The kid is able to endure a little until he is picked up and carried to the basin, pot or sink, which means that the bladder grows normally. If the child urinates at the first urge and does it often, then the growth of the bladder may even be delayed. It is with the underdevelopment of the bladder that doctors often face when treating enuresis (urinary incontinence).

Of course, not always and not with all the children everything went as smoothly as I describe, there were breakdowns and temporary failures, but we learned not to blame the kids (they could just play too much, especially when they started to crawl or walk) and got along without spanking or punishment - helping to prevent trouble. And everything returned to normal. And we learned about enuresis only from books and were amazed at what misfortune we managed to avoid, and again so simply.

It is a pity that nowhere we have found materials on the history of this issue and we have an idea of the state of the problem today only in some countries. The Japanese, for example, put on trousers for the baby, inside which they put a soft hygroscopic diaper folded in several layers. It absorbs all moisture so well that not a single drop falls on the floor and does not flow down the legs. I brought a sample of these pants and a bag of five diapers rolled into rollers from Tokyo. The impression is that the diaper can withstand not one, but several soaks. But what are the long-term consequences of this method of solving the problem of hygienic skills, how many children suffer from enures, I did not know.

It is interesting (and instructive!) That peoples of "non-industrial cultures" start and finish their children's education much earlier than we do. "Digo mothers in East Africa begin to train babies to empty their bowels and bladders from the first weeks of life and hope that the baby will be mostly dry day and night by the age of 4-6 months." For this, they have developed their own methods. There are no pots, the baby is kept under the knees, and if it is necessary to do "pee-pee", then they turn their face away from themselves, as is customary with us, and if "ah", then turn their faces to themselves and sit on the feet, making them look like a stool with a hole.

Where mothers carry the baby with them all day long (on their backs or on their breasts), the issue of its cleanliness is especially important: a woman, of course, is very unpleasant to be wet or dirty. But, since there is a spiritual and sensual reunification of a mother with a child unknown to Europeans, she early begins to feel, and the baby from the very first weeks of life to give signals about all his natural needs. And both are happy with this understanding. If the mother does not know how to understand the child, those around her consider her simply stupid.

Usually, all training takes several weeks and by the time they reach their age, most children are finished.

A completely different approach to all this in the civilized world - from Europeans and Americans. Their "conventional wisdom is that all forms of early learning are ineffective or compulsory." The French believe: “… for the learning to be successful, the child's ability to sit, endure, and understand is necessary. He will be able to fulfill these three conditions only after a year. Nor should you be too rushed to learn. It will take several months to teach a child to be clean.”Even later, Americans start teaching and believe that “… teaching a child to urinate on a potty is a much more difficult or at least a long job … and observations of children show that even at 2, 5 years old they often wet their pants. Many children are not able to bear full responsibility even by the age of 3”.

The relationship is clearly traced that the later the training in hygiene skills begins, the, firstly, it goes slower, that is, it requires more time, work and patience from the parents, and, secondly, it goes much more difficult, turning into direct resistance to this learning from American children. And most importantly: apparently, only the peoples of “non-industrial cultures” do not have children suffering from enuresis, all civilized ones have them, and it is quite possible that their number depends on the time when toilet training starts.

In the Soviet Union, over 5 million children in the Soviet Union alone suffer from enuresis. Is it time to think that the reasonable custom adopted in the "backward" countries should be adopted by us, the "advanced"? Otherwise we have mastered atomic energy and went into space, but we are solving the "pot problem" badly: we force millions of mothers to spend colossal time washing and preparing a new shift - millions of preschool children suffering from enuresis, this disease of civilization, which gives rise to a feeling of inferiority from constant painful humiliation …

Dad and mom! You can prevent this trouble. It takes not so much work and attention to remember in time what you have just read about enuresis, and to prevent its occurrence.

By the way, the rejection of two prejudices still encountered in adults can be preventive measures. The first is that it is harmful for a child to endure. Those who think so do not allow the child to wait even a little, rush to put it on the pot. But you have to be able to be patient, and kids learn this themselves, if adults do not interfere. In the middle of the game, they will suddenly squeeze their knees together or start dancing, marking time. The urge will pass, and they play quietly for a while, until the next one forces them to run to the pot. This is useful for children: the bladder expands, grows, and its capacity is sufficient for an ever-increasing time. After all, doctors ask: "Be patient as much as you can" - in the treatment of enuresis precisely in order to increase the patient's bladder volume.

The second prejudice is close to the first: if the child has already begun to do "pee-pee", then it is harmful to interrupt this process. And there is no harm from this, and the child can and should be able to stop if he starts urinating in the crib, in his pants, on the knees of his mother or father. And when you stop, get out of the crib, get the pot, take off your panties and run to the toilet or call your mom and wait until they hold him.