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I've been working long days this week from 7am until 7pm. Thw business owner is on vacation so I am delegated to be the one who has to be here. Needless to say a 12 hour day is much longer than an 8 hour day. On normal 8 hour days I am usually able to make it through the day without needing a diaper change. I'm usually dry right up until 11am to noon. I try to use the toilet but don't always have success. What I am not able to voluntarily void ends up dribbling out during the course of the day and by the end of the day I am in need of a diaper change. This can usually wait until I get home.

Now that I've been working 12 hour days I'm forced to change at work. When I was travelling for work this was not a problem as I was able to change in my vehicle. Now I have to change in the restroom which is a nice restroom but not really set up for changing diapers. I'm fine until I have somewhere around 7 to 8 hours in. Once I change I am just as wet when I get home as I am when working 8 hour days but only after 4 more hours. The only thing I can think of as to why is that I'm tired. I changed here about an hour and a half ago (luckily no customers came in as I am here alone) and it feels as if I could use another change already. Any tips for changing diapers in the workplace are appreciated. Next week I'll be back to a more normal schedule but it sounds as if I'll be working at least one 12 hour day each week so I'll have to get used to changing at work.

DDS,
I've been changing my diaper at work for many years. I have to change atleast twice a day. We have a uni-sex bathroom so it's not too private. I would not be surprised if most of my co-workers know I'm in diapers during the day. I have to store my spare diapers in the sink cabinet along with my wet wipes and lotion. I try to be discreet, but it's hard to.
My suggestion to you is to have your spare diaper wrapped in one of those diaper disposal bags with a wet wipe in a zip lock for cleaning yourself. You can wrap your soiled diaper in the disposable bag and throw it in the trash. We do not have a daily cleaning service so I have to carry my soiled diaper out of the restroom and throw it in the trash can in our shop.
It's tough, but I don't think much of it anymore since I've been doing this for 10 years now. Let me know if you need any other suggestions. ............Paul Martin

Paul,

Thank you for the reply. It has been a long week. When I leave work today at noon I'll have over 50 hours in this week. I'm certainly not complaining about the hours. With the economy in shambles I'll take all the hours at work that I can get. I started this new position a few weeks ago and I really like it. I'm getting used to the longer days (than I'm used to) and I'm certain that I'll get the hang of changing my diaper in the restroom. There are not too-many people that are usually around so I should be able to maintain some sort of privacy. Like I mentioned in my original post I can usually make it an 8 hour day without a change however this does not always hold true. Yesterday I worked an 8 hour day and needed a change about 5 hours into the workday. When my workday was over I was again in need of a fresh diaper. Some days are better than others and yesterday wasn't one of the better days. I used to be able to get by with a lesser amount of daytime protection but I have been dribbling/wetting with greater frequency the past few months to the point where I have to wear better daytime protection. I prefer cloth diapers but they just are a little too inconvenient while at work. I use disposables with a pair of white cotton briefs over the diaper all covered with a pair of plastic pants. The cotton briefs absorb most leaks from the disposable. I still use cloth diapers at night and when around home. I'm having a problem of sorts with the tapes coming undone on my disposables. It doesn't seem to matter which brand I happen to be using (I've been trying 3 brands the past coupple weeks). If I am out in the warehouse working I perspire and the tapes have been popping off while I'm bending and/or lifting. I've considered wraping a packing tape or some strong tape around the top of the diaper after I put it on. Has anyone tried this or something similar? It would keep the tapes from coming undone and the diaper slipping.

Changing diapers out in the public is a pain....I try to avoid it!

An idea you may want to try is wearing a baby diaper! A package of size 6 diapers...cheap store brand....won't be expensive. Use it as a soaker without slitting its waterproof protection. Your primary diaper will hold it in place right in your crotch where you need the absorbancy.

I've found a baby diaper will hold about 4 hrs for me. Changing it is realatively easy and quick....pull out the wet diaper and slide in a new dry one without disturbing your primary diaper. Some wetness will leak over into your primary diaper but your primary (and expensive) diaper should easily last all day...even the 12 hour days....with help from the baby diapers....sounds like you might go thru two baby diapers per day.

Baby diapers usually don't attract attention in the trash, but it depends on access to that trash....in your shop environment, mothers are not likely to be changing babys so any diaper in the trash won't be "discrete". Still, the baby diaper is a smaller package to bring with you and even take home if necessary. They roll up easily and can be secured with their own tapes...most all are hook and loop now a days.

Your primary diaper and tapes....first off try a hook and loop fastening...yes it means a cloth like outer covering (which I don't favor as it can chaffe my skin) but the hook and loop I've used is the Tena diaper and it is strong and reliable. Abena also offers it on their cloth like backed offering....I do believe....the Comfort Aire I think they call it.

If you wish to boost the holding power of the tapes on your current diaper you can certainly use the packing tape idea you mention...only there is no need to wrap it around your waist. I think that might be uncomfortable and a waste of tape. Duct tape will work, ofcourse, but usually it's not offered in a dispenser roll. Filement tape for packing is offered in a handy dispenser roll with a cutter and you can pull off 8 inch long pieces of tape and apply the tape over the diaper tapes. That will work just fine as long as the diaper plastic backing material can stand up to the stress....most of them seem to do OK for me.

And if you don't need to change that primary diaper, the packing tape over the diaper tapes will be just fine and withstand the stress of pulling that baby diaper out and sliding a dry baby diaper in.

Then, when you get home to change you can undress and slide the diaper down and step out of it without having to deal with the tapes.

However, if you have to change the primary diaper....the packing tape won't rip off....trying to undo it takes major effort and really distroys the diaper....slows down your change and adds aggrevation. When I was doing this and needed to change, a pair of blunt nose "school" scissors were in my change pack to cut down thru diaper and packing tape to facilitate a change out in the work place rest room.

Finally, you like cloth....if you can tolerate the bulk, why not cloth diaper for 12 plus hours without a change? I could always manage more than 12 hours with cloth. I used a diaper deodorant and I use suspender briefs to hold the heavy bulk up....so necessary for comfort. That was a better trade off for me than changing in the work place.

Hope these ideas are of some help, DDS, good luck!

Thanks for the tips Joe. I would prefer to use cloth at work but it is just that much more of a hassle to change should I need a work time change. My regular daytime cloth diapers are not very bulky but then when I wear them I am usually at home or close to home where I can readily change when needed. Much of the time at work I am in air conditioning either dealing with customers or doing work on the computer. It is when I am in the warehouse that I am subject to bending and lifting and sweating none of which bode well for disposable diapers. I don't spend a great deal of time in the warehouse but I am out there an hour or so every day either unloading incoming shipments or loading materials for subcontractors. Just this morning I loaded several thousand pounds of materials to go out to a job site and I have a truck coming in with a shipment inside of the next hour. Most of the heavy lifting I do with a fork truck but there is still plenty of lifting and bending to do on the stuff not on pallets. I had a tape come loose already this morning when I bent over to pick up something. Bending and lifting not only causes the tapes to pop off but it also tends to make me pee so on a day when I do alot of bending and lifting I am more apt to need a change sooner.

Maybe I will try wearing cloth diapers to work just to see how that goes. Most normal 8 hour work days I can make it with one disposable. When at home I can make it 8 hours with one cloth diaper but I rarely do as I usually change much sooner that I would have to. A few years ago I tried pull-on cloth diapers at work but they were a little too-bulky and they tended to sag to the point of falling down when wet. The reason I prefer pin-on cloth diapers is they stay in place. Isn't all of this so much fun?

Well I came to work today wearing a cloth diaper. Nothing heavy but enough to get me through what was supposed to be a shorter day. I was supposed to be finished working going on 2 hours ago now. Actually I should be OK if I get out of here in the next hour. I'm not real wet but if it takes much longer I'll need to change. I keep a few disposables in my vehicle at all times just for occasions such as this.

Actually I believe the cloth diaper is less-bulky than the disposables. Part of why is I am able to pin them on much tighter and snugger than I can ever get a disposable diaper. One huge advantage of disposable diapers over cloth is odor control. Disposables are noisier, hotter to wear and the tapes tend to come undone for me but they never smell like a cloth diaper does when wet. I'm glad it is late in the day because I smell like a wet diaper.

Hi DDS, I know just what you mean....I was in and around and under machinery in my daily grind before retirement and I was much happier with the perfomance of my cloth diapers than any disposable.

Odor can be controlled pretty well with a deodorant...Fresh Again is one that has done well for me.

And let me mention bleach in the wash. When I stopped using it (as most say it damages diapers), I found I developed objectionable odor once my dry "clean" diapers got wet. I went back to bleaching (just a quarter cup per wash load) and that solved that mystery odor problem.

Keeping cloth diapers up is paramount to comfort....hence my invention of the support briefs....simply elastic straps added to cotton briefs...detailed in a Primer Addendum. That made a big difference in my day to day comfort wearing a cloth diaper that got me from home in the morning thru a long day....sometimes 12 hrs or more....and back home to get in that refreshing shower.

Hi JoeK,

Well, it has been a couple days now that I have been wearing cloth to work instead of disposables. So far, so good. I'll try the bleach thing to see if that helps with the odor. My diapers always smell fresh and clean after I wash and dry them but seem to get a stonger than normal odor when they are wet. My urine doesn't have a particularilly strong smell and is normally pretty clear looking. Since I have no real control over my bladder functions my urine never gets a chance to concentrate in the bladder as it tends to pretty much leak out whenever it sees fit to do so. In any case I'll try adding a little bleach to see if that helps. I never seemed to have an odor problem with disposables as they have deodorants built into the diaper.

I'm doing OK with the cloth diapers at work. They are more comfortable and stay up better than disposables plus they are silent. I'm used to changing my cloth diapers every 4 to 6 hours (or less) when at home but at work I need to go 8+ hours on one diaper if I don't change at work. I was, most of the time, able to do an 8 hour shift without changing my disposable. It isn't a problem of the cloth diaper getting over saturated. It is the wetness I feel against the skin. I seem to feel more wet when wearing cloth diapers than I do when wearing disposable diapers. I know many disposables have wetness barriers built in to keep wetness away from your skin. I'm lucky though that I never get diaper rash. At home when the wet feeling starts to bother me I simply do a diaper change. I wear a pair of no-fly stretch cotton bikini briefs over the top of my plastic pants. The briefs help support the diaper and they keep the plastic pants in place. I also believe the briefs actually pull everything together (for lack of a better term) and make it less obvious that I am wearing a diaper.

I've had problems with the skunky smell in the past. When my diapers begin to have odor problems I do something called striping.

This site talks about methods:
http://www.litegreenliving.com/stripping-cloth-diapers

I tried using bleach in each wash and found that it was not nessary and shortened the life of my diapers. The bleach seemed to cause premature deteriation of the inner soaker layers of prefolds.

Good luck with the cloth diapers. There is a lot of good experience and advice regarding them in this forum and in the diaper primer.

Thanks for the article Steve M. I try to do a 2nd rinse when washing diapers but lately I have been lazy and have only been doing a single rinse. I'll definately try "stripping" my diapers and then if that doesn't do the trick I'll try adding a little bleach. Several years back I was using bleach when washing my diapers and I agree that using bleach shortens the life of the diaper. Maybe a small amount used every so many washes would'nt hurt. If anything it would be a sanitary additive.