What type of sports are you involved in?

[Catherine]

Great Feedback everyone!

I really appreciate your comments. It feels me with excitement as many of the points you mentioned, have been our focus in the design phase. Very reassuring we are on the right track.

I completely agree with you about the need to "walk the walk". Although I have not actually peed in a prototype yet, I have been testing them to assess their "range" of absorbency, and after each wetting I have reapplied the diaper to myself and walked, jumped, carried my 9 month old on my hip, cleaned an entire room & the diaper stay on without pins, velcro, or an elastic waist. I will actually use one ... but I am also working with a small group of testers who will be giving me their feed-back in a few weeks when their prototypes arrive.

The reason I have not worn one 24/7 yet, is due to not having an adequate cover. I just received a suprima vinyl pant this week ... whoa! are those things hot! anywhere that it came higher than my cloth diaper on I felt a band of sweat. It is slightly too small in the legs so I can't wear it for long periods ... I hope that together with my design team we can get a cover that will be complementary to the diaper.

QUESTION: For those of you who like to change a few times throughout the day, would you prefer a easy change diaper ... coupled with a pull-up style cover or if you change you like a brand new set-up including a fresh cover ... therefore a side-snap cover is better so you don't have to undress completely.

I also received samples of your beloved abena! I have the abena wing and the abena X-plus. I love the concept of the abena wing and hope to incorporate that idea into our cover ... my goal is that you can change in an airport bathroom stall easily!

Why am I doing this? even though I am not incontinent? Because in my opinion no one has done this well for the cloth diaper users ... they just have super-sized baby diapers ... yet these two target groups have such different needs.

Although I don't wear diapers, I know first hand from modern washable feminine pads HOW COMFORTABLE they are compared to their throw-away comparisons ... if I can notice the extreme difference on such a small piece of real-estate ... I can only imagine on a 24/7 basis what a difference a well designed modern cloth diaper would make.

[Paul Martin]

Catherine,
When I'm wearing a cloth diaper, I do not change out my plastic pants during a diaper change. I do wipe the inside out with a baby wipe. If some one does want to change the outer cover at a diaper change, then the snap open type would be beneficial(you don't have to take your pants off to change the plastic pants).
I'm impressed you're really taking this seriously by wearing the diaper yourself. I can't wait to see what you have to offer. Good luck and keep us posted! .............Paul Martin

[DDS]

Catherine,

I hope your prototype diapers work out. In regards to the Suprima plastic pants causing you to sweat did the pants have vinyl covered elastics? I have a few pair of plastic pants with the elastics covered with vinyl. The industry calls these "no wick" plastic pants because with the elastics covered there is no way the elastics can get wet. However this puts the vinyl right next to your skin at the waist and leg bands. Some people prefer these type of plastic pants. I do not. I've found that uncovered elastics on plastic pants are more comfortable and a little less hot to wear. In the warmer weather months I wear more snap-on plastic pants as they allow for air to vent. I'll admit that wearng plastic pants was difficult to get used to at first but after a while I got used to it and the heat seldom bothers me any longer.

[JoeK]

Catherine,
You mention in your new thread, Stealth vs Absorbency, the 90% rule, which makes sense....no diaper is going to suit everyone or even one's various "needs".

For what it's worth....just my opinion....I wore the same amount of diapering every day when I worked. The days were a mix of activity and sitting down tasks, but pretty much the same all the time. Hence I could use the same diapering without variation.

But now, I find my tasks differing substantially and the same diapering is not the best....I lighten up as much as possible when I can for a particular task and change schedule....they go hand in hand and I tend to NOT want to be bothered with mid day diaper changing.

It seems to me you are on the right path with adjustable absorbency. I feel I would certainly want / need that feature in an "easy on" diaper.

You mentioned covers and your experience with Suprima plastic pants. Don't let the lack of offering covers slow you down. Most cloth wearers have their preferences established...whether it be plastic pants, nylon pants or even rubber pants in some cases, and we would tend to stick with what we know and like for covers. I happen to like vinyl plastic pants during the colder part of the year and urethane coated nylon pants for the warmer part of the year....so I don't have any great interest in other covers, I like what I have as they work well for me.

Oh, one more "just my opinion" thing....no "all in ones"! At least not for me! I've never been the least bit interested in "all in ones" for cloth.