News for and About Big Babies
(added 1/6/2018) Rearz, a Canadian-based supplier of adult diapers with cutesy patterns and other adult baby accessories, like pacifiers, told BuzzFeed News, “we had no malicious or strange intentions in trying to register it, but obviously it struck a nerve with people. This is a community we love and serve, and we don't want to make people feel less valuable.” Adult babies/diaper lovers are, as their name suggests, adults who enjoy role-playing as babies or simply wearing diapers. For some people, this is sexual; for others, it’s not. There’s a wide spectrum of ABDLs — some people want to role-play as babies; some are only interested in the diapers and not the rest of the age-play. Some want to wear the diapers, some want to just see others wearing them. There are teen ABDLs and older ones, and the community includes people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. Rearz filed to trademark “ABDL” in October 2017, but it was only this week that someone in the community noticed. At this discovery, the /r/ABDL subreddit filled with angry threads about Rearz’s trademark filings. “This is scummy. Period,” wrote one user. In another thread, angry ABDL redditors planned to ruin Rearz’s standing on Facebook by rating it one star on its business page. On a forum for adult babies called ADISC.org, one adult baby said, “Rearz is now off my shopping list.” People even made memes about the scandal. The owner of Rearz, a woman named Laurie who asked to use her first name only to protect her family’s privacy, says this is all a misunderstanding. After learning of the community outrage, Rearz wrote a now-deleted blog post on its website explaining that it filed for the trademark to help the company’s online sales: “Over the last several years we have faced many challenges using the term ABDL in major online marketplaces. We have ads and accounts permanently blocked on Facebook, eBay, Kijiji, Google ads with payment processors and more simply from using the term.” Laurie said that, starting about two years ago, eBay, which had previously accounted for about 20% of her company’s business, started taking down items because it classified them as “adult content.” Sometimes Rearz’s listings for items like adult diapers and adult-size baby clothes would be allowed to stay up, but certain keywords would get the stuff delisted. eBay does allow adult items to be sold, but its policy isn’t specific about ABDL items. In the past, Rearz’s credit card processor for its website, as well as PayPal, blacklisted Rearz. Credit card processors have varying policies about whether they will take on clients that sell adult items or pornography. Facebook has also removed Rearz’s ads. Currently, Rearz sells directly from its website, and people can visit its brick-and-mortar location outside Toronto. Laurie believes that if she trademarked the term “ABDL,” it would help keep her ads and eBay listings online. “In order to be able to push back to some of these larger corporations that are blacklisting it, we can say, ‘hey, this isn’t just a term; this is a trademark term we have,’” Laurie told BuzzFeed News. “Because it becomes your brand name, and they don’t blacklist brand names. If we don’t have it as a brand name, then we have nothing to stand on.” Rearz also claims that it had no plans to enforce the trademark in a way that would hurt the community. Its blog post says, “we promise to always be good stewards of the mark and to use it to build and improve the community.” Joshua Jarvis, a trademark lawyer at the firm Foley Hoag, points out that “[Rearz’s] purported willingness ‘to allow others to have free use of the ABDL trademark’ doesn’t seem consistent with trademark ownership, which as you may know requires that a trademark owner diligently police and enforce its trademark rights so as to avoid consumer confusion.” Rearz also pointed out they’re not the first to trademark the term — another seller, TheABDLShop.com had already trademarked the term “The ABDL Shop” for the use of selling apparel. But that trademark has some legal quirks. In their filing, TheABDLShop.com’s lawyer says that “ABDL” has no significance or meaning, even though it is a somewhat well-known term in a community of people. It’s possible that Rearz’s trademark application would have been rejected since the term is well known for a community of people interested in the world of diapers. Several hours after BuzzFeed News spoke with Laurie about the ABDL community wrath, she told us that she had read through the message boards and decided to drop the trademark. “These are customers we care deeply about, and we don’t want to make them feel like we’re trying to take something away from them that they value.” Disposable Diapers Linked to Inferility "Disposable diapers linked to infertility" proclaimed USA Today earlier this week. "Diapers may harm testes: study" headlined the Chicago Sun-Times. "Do disposable diapers harm boys?" asked the Deseret News. Is it time to dispose of disposables? Should we dispose of disposable diapers, or the scientific study critical of them?No - unless you plan to substitute the diapers with the flawed scientific study underlying those news reports. German researchers monitored the scrotal temperatures of 48 boys, ages birth to 4 years and 7 months, using a non-invasive thermal probe. They reported that scrotal temperatures of boys wearing plastic-lined, disposable diapers were about 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than scrotal temperatures among boys who wore cotton diapers. Because 2- to 6-degree increases in scrotal temperatures affect sperm development and motility in adults, the researchers hypothesize that infant boys who wear disposable diapers might have fertility problems later in life. And to give their findings currency, the researchers assert that "Male reproductive health has deteriorated in recent decades," coinciding with the use of disposable diapers. The study appears in the October issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Serious questions exist about the study's methodology. But the truly flaky claims are the assertion that male fertility is on the decline and that disposable diapers have played a role in the decline. As to the study, even assuming the temperature measurements are correct, the researchers acknowledge that no one knows what scrotal temperatures in children normally are; much less do they know how infant scrotal temperatures affect adult fertility, if at all. These data gaps alone should have prevented the researchers from jumping to any conclusions. The researchers inexplicably passed up the opportunity to explore "normal" scrotal temperature as they only measured temperatures in children wearing disposable diapers and cotton diapers. There were no "buck-naked" controls. The test also didn't reflect real-world use of cotton diapers that are typically worn with plastic pants to prevent leakage, according to the Personal Absorbent Products Council, a business group. The temperature probes were designed for adults, not babies. Infant testicles are small in comparison with the scrotum. So the probes may not have measured testicular temperatures, according to Professor Eberhard Nieschlag of Muenster University in Germany. Temperature data were measured over two 24-hour periods for each infant. But the measurements were not made under controlled settings. Each infant was under the care of his mother in his own home. Temperature data was collected from the 48 infants over a period of one year, excluding July and August. There was no consideration of variability due to indoor or outdoor environment, or infant handling. Finally with respect to the study, though higher temperatures are known to reduce sperm count in adults, the effect is reversible. And infants won't be making sperm until puberty starts anyway - probably 10 years after the diaper-wearing phase. "This poorly done study raises a question based on information that is irrelevant, uses techniques that are not adapted to infants and children and reaches conclusions that are unfounded, " says pediatrician and UCLA clinical professor Dr. Lorraine Stern. The real mess in this diaper study, though, is the exploitation of the unproven claims that sperm counts have declined over the last several decades. "Study Points to Global Sperm Count Reduction," proclaimed the Associated Press in September 1992. Danish researcher Neils Skakkebaek claimed to have identified a 42 percent decline in mean sperm density and a 19 percent decline in seminal volume among 14,947 men studied in 61 papers published from 1938 to 1991. Skakkebaek's study started a furious debate over male fertility. The most publicized allegation is that exposures to manmade chemicals in the environment caused the supposed decline in sperm counts. In the diaper study and the related media reports, the German researchers cite claims over male infertility as if the controversy itself constituted some sort of proof. They cite studies that seem to support their contention without any balancing information. The opening sentence of the study reads, "It has been suggested that male reproductive health has deteriorated during the last two to three decades." This sentence is followed by a presumptuous non sequitur: "several studies have shown that the quality of human semen has declined." Texas A&M University research Stephen Safe says, "Results of recent studies show that there are large demographic variations in sperm counts within countries or regions, and analyses of North American data show that sperm counts have not decreased over the last 60 years." Fertility experts recently stated in the International Journal of Andrology, "To show that male fertility is declining is not simple. Few men volunteer and recruitment bias may lead to over-representation of the subfertile. Semen analysis has errors arising from counting and poorly standardized criteria." In other words, conclusions may be hastily drawn from data of questionable quality. Sperm count claims cannot be easily disproved because of a lack of data and subtlety of effect. Perhaps that why they make the perfect allegation for opportunistic alarmists. Diaper wars are going on even as we speak. The persuading of customers to believe that their diaper can hold the most liquids can be a scam. The real truth to see which diaper can hold the most liquid is to test certain brands of diapers.
Swam
Moss Diapers May
Knight-Ridder News Service dispatch reported that Chile
has covered for its lagging copper business with such
dynamic exports as disposable diapers made from swamp
moss and aftershave lotion made from snail slime Multiple uses
have been discovered for Sphagnum Moss. So many in fact,
that it has come to be called the new "green
gold." The moss grows in marshes and its most
significant quality is that it absorbs 20 times its
weight in water. In addition, it neutralizes strong odors
such as ammonia, it is antiseptic and 20 tons of the moss
can be produced in one hectare. The latest
innovation is its use in the manufacture of disposable
diapers, a project that meant an investment of 50 million
dollars. It is also used in the cultivation of fine
flowers, especially bromeliads and orchids, in hydroponic
crops, as mushroom cover and in the mining industry for
the decanting and purifying of calcified water. Currently
in Chile there are 205,000 acres devoted to the
cultivation of Sphagnum Moss and it is being exported to
Asia, Europe and the United States. http://www.segegob.cl/secc/dpi/rev1-99/exports.html (Added 9/7) Hazardous
Huggies In May, a toxic spill team
from the Washington state Department of Ecology
determined that a mysterious mound of greenish goo near
the town of Toutle -- which had baffled, alarmed and
sickened investigators for three months -- was merely a
rotting pile of disposable diapers. Fire-resistant In April, Jupiter, Fla.,
firefighter John Bartlett began selling a gel (basically,
absorbent polymers) whose fire-resistant properties he
first noticed in disposable diapers that he found intact
in the midst of charred rubble. He sells all he can make,
at $85 a gallon. (Added 8/31) 'Big
Bonnet' NORTH PLATTE, Neb. -
Police have arrested a 50-year-old man they believe to be
"The Big Bonnet" - a serial exhibitionist who
dresses in a big baby bonnet and exposes himself to
residents. Sweet
Aby?? Maryland State Police were
on the lookout for a man wearing a disposable diaper and
a T-shirt and reportedly driving a sports car with a
back-seat filled with cans of whipped cream after reports
that he had been seen crossing over the state line from
Pennsylvania. It was his third reported excursion into
Maryland that year. Diaper
Pail Friend A Wisconsin man is under
investigation for enticing two teenage girls to wear
diapers. Pampers
Rash Guard In another change to its
"Pampers" line, P&G launched "Pampers
Rash Guard." The new diaper-which is now available
nationally in stores-is designed to promote healthy skin
through the treatment and prevention of diaper rash. The
diaper's formulation, which includes a hypoallergenic
skin protectant that transfers lotion to the wearer's
skin, was patented by P&G last year. The protectant
is applied to the topsheet and leg cuff areas, is
continuously transferred to the skin with each diaper
change and is activated by body heat and movement.
According to P&G, approximately two thirds of all
babies experience some form of diaper rash on a monthly
basis and one third of all parents consider their infants
to be frequent rash sufferers. Concurrent with the
introduction of Pampers Rash Guard baby diapers, P&G
launched reformulated "Pampers Rash Care"
wipes, which are also designed to treat and prevent
diaper rash. Baby
Binki In November, Lance A.
Binkowski, 20, was charged with reckless endangering in
Brookfield, Wis., when he ran from police. Officers had
been called after Binkowski had pounded on the back door
of a day-care center while dressed in a large sleeper
with built-in feet, with a pacifier in his mouth and
clutching a teddy bear and a diaper bag. According to the
police chief, Binkowski intended no harm to the children
but "had his own personal reasons" for being
there. Hush-a-Bye
Baby Club 1994 -- The London
Independent's weekly magazine reported in November on the
Hush-a-Bye Baby Club in southern England, whose adult
male members dress as female infants and refer to
themselves as "Baby Michelle," "Baby
Cathy," etc. "Mummy Clare" runs the club,
charging about $110 a night ($140 for non-members), which
includes baby food, bottled milk and diaper service.
Spanking is about $7 more. Fake
poop? 1995 -- In October, The
New York Times reported that Kimberly-Clark Corp. had
received a patent for chemically realistic, synthetic
feces that it regards as crucial for testing diapers and
incontinence garments. Technicians had concluded that
makeshift substances, such as mashed potatoes, peanut
butter and canned pumpkin pie mix were inadequate because
they separated into liquids and solids more quickly than
feces does. |
(added 7/7/03) The competition to sell diapers (in the United States and around the world) pits the Procter and Gamble Company of Cincinnati, who entered the diaper market in 1960, against the Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark Corporation. As of May 25th of this year, Kimberly- Clark's, Huggies is the leading US brand with a 41.4 percent market share. Proctor and Gamble is number 2 in the category with a 37.2 percent share for its Pampers and Luvs brands. Pampers has a 24.8 percent share and Luvs a 12.4 percent share. Luvs has been repositioned and is now Proctor and Gamble's fastest growing brand in North America. Other brands have a 5.2 percent share while private labels have a 16.2 percent share. Ninety-five percent of parents with young kids who buy disposable diapers may have noticed that the features of the leading brands seem to change as often as they stock up on a new supply. A few years back a particular brand might be "tweaked" every 18 months. Today because of flat consumer demand and fierce competition in this $3.6 billion industry, it's every six to eight months. In "his" and "her" diapers, testing showed there really was no difference and now unisex diapers are back. Biodegradability has also been discovered to be just hype. Other changes appear to be a way to justify price hikes. For example, why would Kimberly-Clark plan to add 15% more special absorbent material to their top of the line Huggies Supreme and a 5% increase in price when the tests show that the old Huggies Supreme already absorbed far more liquid than would likely be necessary. The most important measure of a diaper's performance is how well it prevents leaks. "You don't want to have babies leaking on their clothes, blankets, and sheets," says Pat Jackson, a teacher at a day care center. Like her and many others they want an excellent diaper that must be able to absorb lots of liquid and quickly "lock it up." After performance, a diaper's features are also a consideration. According to Consumer Reports, you have three choices: Basic diapers are thicker and bulkier than other types and the least preferred by parents. Ultrathins, ( or Ultratrims) the most popular type, are made with a material that provides the same or better absorbency as other diapers. Huggies Ultratrim and Dri-bottoms Ultrathin did a better job of stopping leaks. Supreme (or premium) diapers are generally more expensive than ultrathins and more likely to have clothlike covers and Velcro or similar fasteners. One of the aids in making a better disposable diaper comes in the form of crystals and gels. These form a superabsorbent material that assists in drawing wetness away from the baby's skin. This superabsorbent material is also known as polyacrylate absorbent. This belongs to a family of polymers that have extraordinary absorbency. Safety tests have shown that even if the gel gets in touch with the skin or perhaps eaten by a child out of curiosity, safety standards are maintained by the product in that no harm comes to the child. (added 11/9/00) ROANOKE, VA. (added 11/9/00) Attends diapers are changing for the worst this year (Smaller and thinner), and several other diaper brands are expected to do the same.
Attends have developed a new lining using some chemical crystal that absorbs liquid really well. The material appears like fine sand until wet when each particle expands to about 5-8mm. This material will be used for everything from diapers to oil spills. It is expected to reduce the thickness of things like diapers and womens pads to about one third of what they currently are.
(added 11/9/00) During a recent photography shoot for a cosmetics advertisement on the Caribbean island of St Bartholomew, actress and model Liz Hurley was caught by paparazzi sunbathing topless--and sucking on a baby's pink dummy.
(added 11/9/00) Playtex
Pacifier Recall WASHINGTON, D.C. - In
cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC), Playtex Products Inc., of Westport,
Conn., is voluntarily recalling about 1.8 million Classic
Patterns "Cherubs" and Soft Comfort
latex pacifiers. Because the latex is aging faster than
normal, the nipple can detach from the shield, presenting
a choking hazard to babies. Stores nationwide sold the
pacifiers before June 2000 for about $2 to $4, depending
on whether it was a single or double pack. Urinary
Collection Devices In Chicago in
October, Richard Pergler, 41, was sentenced to 40 months
in federal prison for bilking nursing homes and the
government out of $4.8 million in Medicare payments for
ordinary adult diapers that were passed off as medically
sophisticated "external urinary collection
devices." Sweet
dreams Sweet dreams
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce recently lauded the
waste-management practice of the Crib Diaper Service of
Plymouth, Minn., in capturing and donating the lint
gathered from laundering 250,000 diapers per week to a
casket manufacturer to use in stuffing casket pillows,
which saves the diaper service $3,000 a year Team
Logo Diapers STILLWATER,
Okla. (AP) -- Showing your school spirit is a practice
that's going down the toilet -- literally. Dirty
Diaper Theif In November,
the St. Thomas Day Nursery in St. Thomas, Ontario, was
burglarized for at least the fourth time in five months
by someone stealing only dirty disposable diapers. The
culprit broke a lock in an outside garbage bin and took
only garbage bags containing the diapers. [Sault
Star-CP-AP, 7-22-93] Personalized
Orthodontic Pacifier The
Sweet Memories personalized orthodontic pacifier. Its
unique design carries the child's name permanently
engraved. The Sweet Memories pacifier will become a
treasured keepsake of those precious first years. It even
helps prevent accidental exchange with other children "What
a wonderful gift! A Personalized Pacifier with the
child's name on it !" Information about Sweet Memories
Personaized Pacifiers Diaper
Saves Live? In April in Houston, Tex., Robert Perry
Russell, Jr., 44, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for
sexual assault and diapering of a 14-year-old boy, but
police say the number of victims may have been as many as
10. According to police, Russell liked to take boys out
in a boat, tell them a tale about a headless killer
seeking to rescue a toddler from the dangerous lake and
who kills all other people, and suggest that putting on
the diapers he happens to have with him would be a good
way, should the killer appear, of convincing him of his
toddler status. (Added 9/7) Diaper
Duty In New Mexico, it was a
different kind of diaper duty at the Navajo Dam last
week. A clean-up crew used throwaway diapers to soak up a
50-gallon spill of hydraulic fluid, thereby preventing
much of it from flowing into the San Juan River. Shocking
Diaper Jill Furlough, 31, of
Lakenheath, England, told the London Daily Telegraph in
April that she had been frightened by the green sparks
flying out of her year-old son Joshua's Kimberly Clark
disposable diaper. Scientists contacted by the newspaper
said it was triboluminescence, a buildup of energy
similar to static electricity. (Added 8/31) Depend's
have Changed their Diapers! Depend
diapers have been modified to meet the needs of their
adult market. They have changed their traditional
"hospital green" to a baby diaper white and are
offering an overnight diaper in the large size. In
addition, internal barriers have been added to help
prevent leaks and "accidents". They have
retained their high back and comfortable elastic waist
and leg bands, making this diaper one of the best diapers
for the AB market. The overnight version, while only
twenty percent thicker, does offer marginally more
absorbency than their regular diaper. The aroma has a
pleasing mild powder scent to it, but is not as aromatic
and full of vanilla as regular baby powder. In tests by
an AB with moderate wetting, they didn't leak, nor did a
heavy flow of diarrhea leak. Our resident diaper tester
gives this product five out of six stars. Spontaneous
Combustion Diaper A soiled diaper, in a
plastic bag left in a 100-degree sun for three days,
combusted, Buffaloed
Babysitter A man in Buffalo, NY was
arrested after a complaint by a women who had answered
the man's baby-sitting ad. When she arrived, the man told
her that the baby was...himself. The man handed the woman
a typewritten sheet of instructions on how to change his
diaper. Police say they found other copies of the
instructions in the man's car, along with a large diaper.
The suspect told investigators he thought the
baby-sitting ad was "a great way to meet
women." Army
Baby A 22-year-old man,
discharged from the U.S. Army on Aug. 3, showed up at a
day-care Dr.
Diaper A 31 year old man turned
himself in to Anchorage, Alaska, police in January
claiming to Smart
Diaper One recent highlight at
Etech, Norwalk, CT, is the debut of a wireless version of
its "Smart Diaper" technology. Designed for
newborns and adult incontinence applications, the
additional feature will allow the monitoring of diaper
wetness through a remote receiver, similar to a one-way
intercom. The Smart Diaper technology is designed to
offer a functional, commercially viable and user-friendly
means of using sensing technology in diapers. Etech
currently offers Smart Diaper products in the following
categories: "WeeTell" for newborns and infants,
"WeeTrain" for potty training,
"WeeStop" for bed wetting and
"WetSense" for adult incontinence applications. Babies,
Babies Everywhere 1993 -- Recently, there
have been several reports of grown men appearing in
public wearing diapers and little else. Richard L. Beay,
26, was arrested in January in West Allis, Wis., after he
asked a female high school student if she would change
him. Danny R. Owens, 44, was released by police in
Williamsburg, Ky., in February and told to scram back
home to Knoxville, Tenn. after reports in three states
identified him as a recidivist. And a 52-year-old man was
stopped by police in Contoocook, N.H., in March after
being found in a parking lot wearing only a T-shirt and a
disposable diaper (with duck designs on it). Diaper
Bandit 1993 -- In July, a Jackson
Center, Pa., woman reported that someone used a ladder to
climb into the second story of her home and that
apparently all that was missing was $10 worth of diapers,
despite the presence of jewelry and antiques in the same
room as the diapers. |
