Why plastic or cloth backed

When you go to a store and go down the baby diaper isle all baby diapers are cloth packed including training and overnight pants but with the bigger i guess "adult" diapers we have cloth or plastic backed "plastic is my favorite" i just didnt know if there was a reason baby diapers dont get offered in plastic back


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I imagine cloth is slightly cheaper on a large scale, and baby diapers get produced on a far larger scale than adult diapers.

I think plastic has two perceived problems: they're ecologically disastrous and they don't "breathe," which can contribute to diaper rash and general discomfort. Now, whether these these are actually true or not isn't for me to decide, but that's the rap. I've talked to a number of resellers about why the "cloth" diapers are so common now and most point to the breathability issue.

In terms of adult diapers, remember that, outside of our little community here, the world of incontinence products is run by hospitals, nursing facilities, and medical professionals who believe anything written on a pen.

I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I do think there are benefits to "cloth" but I also believe the change has been driven forward by cost.

-RMS

Back in the 90s there was a big marketing push to make baby diapers "cloth like" the marketing worked it sold the idea the the cloth diapers were more comfortable than wrapping their baby in a plastic backed diaper. Luvs was the lone holdout they even ran a commercial how the other expensive diapers used fuzzy covers but focus on what works. But then a few years later they joined the train and all baby diapers have the cloth like cover and it would be a hard sell to go back.

Yeah, I remember my mom saying that she only used cloth diapers on my brothers and me because the plastic didn't breathe well enough and it was bad for the environment (hippie mama was right about a lot of things, lol). If she absolutely had to use disposable, she'd hunt for the cloth-backed ones. I don't think diaper companies are gonna go back anytime soon. I imagine a lot of adult diapers will probably be exclusively cloth-backed before long.

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Kaliborio said:

I imagine cloth is slightly cheaper on a large scale, and baby diapers get produced on a far larger scale than adult diapers.

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I don't know. I'd suspect that cloth-like backing is more expensive as, instead of just having a single layer of PE in the backsheet, it also has a non-woven layer of fine plastic strands, requiring an additional manufacturing process.

RMS401 said:

I think plastic has two perceived problems: they're ecologically disastrous and they don't "breathe," which can contribute to diaper rash and general discomfort.

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But... both PE-backed and cloth-like-backed diapers are made with plastic. While there are diapers that are supposed to be "breathable", I think they're quite rare. The only ones I've seen are the Abena Air diapers.

The only reason that I think that cloth-like diapers are ubiquitous for babies is that it is the parent who chooses them. Cloth-like backing feels softer and more comfortable, and the outer layer means that the waterproof layer can be thinner, making the diapers feel more flexible/comfortable.

Basically, I don't think that the move to cloth-like diapers has anything to do with production costs or the environment.

BrandenDL4ever said:

When you go to a store and go down the baby diaper isle all baby diapers are cloth packed including training and overnight pants but with the bigger i guess "adult" diapers we have cloth or plastic backed "plastic is my favorite" i just didnt know if there was a reason baby diapers dont get offered in plastic back


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Click to expand...

Because it makes no sense from a manufacturer's standpoint to offer said product, babies don't care whats on their butt (I remember being two, one thing you don't think about is what you have on under your clothes unless it's uncomfortable my only real memory of diapers from then was one time when I was being changed by my mom, I pushed the tape to my skin, I remember it sticking pretty good, think it was a pampers, adhesive was alot better in the 80's) and parents aren't showing demand for it so why would they waste the money on creating a new product people aren't demanding?

I mean this might come as a shock to you but they are targeting parents, not someone with a username like BrandenDL4ever as most (all) baby diaper companies don't want any connection whatsoever to possible fetish use.

Most baby diapers are still made with a plastic cover, the plastic cover is just covered with a cloth sheet, the idea is that you can be fooled to thinking that your wrapping you little bundle of joy in a breathable product (when you cradle your baby your hand doesn't sweat), the problem is that all breathable product leech odor and moisture after a while.
I believe when pampers made the switch the cloth like they ran a product that was all cloth like and had complaints about the odor, they switched back to a plastic core with a cloth like cover.
There was a small diaper company just a few years back ( I think they were called Cool Diapers) that made a printed all plastic back baby diaper, they were picked up my Babies are Us, they only lasted a year or so.
Today's baby diapers that are all cloth like are Huggies (have been for a while) and now the pampers swaddler line up.

The backing of 'fabric-like' nappies is a synthetic non-woven sheet, typically made of the same plastic (polyethylene) as the smooth film of a traditional plastic-backed product. However as it is a non-woven rather than a film it is porous and has to be sealed or partially sealed with a barrier layer. This can be made either as impervious as the traditional plastic film, or it can genuinely be made breathable, e.g. by including calcium carbonate that forms tiny pores in the plastic, too small for bulk liquid to flow through. This was being done as early as the 1980s and I suspect that most high-end baby diapers still have this microporous liquid barrier.

Whether there is a genuine advantage in this is another matter. If babies could choose their own diapers, would they opt for the suppleness and breathability of the nonwoven, or the security and reliability of the traditional plastic film? Presumably market research has shown that parents think the non-woven is better for their little ones, although most parents don't have direct experience of the pros and cons of each, not being in diapers themselves. If they were, they might be less keen on the non-wovens and more willing to purchase a traditional plastic-backed alternative for their offspring, in which case they would still be available as they are for those of us who can vouch for its advantages through experience.

The exact same stands for adult cloth-like diapers too. Look closely and they all have a thin layer of plastic membrane under the cloth-like exterior. Well, only at the center of the diaper anyways, this is why they are not fully waterproof. Something you'd think would be paramount in a diaper.

I prefer cloth backed I would wear plastic backed if I had to but they feel better, plus I sweat a bit. (I have no experience with adult diapers so yeh)

I think as Tiny mentioned earlier, it is the parents who like the feel of the cloth like backing when holding their child. It feels more comfortable and softer, so it is preferred. The breathability factor is only on the sides. This may help with less diaper rash in some cases, further helping the cause.
I prefer plastic and only buy that for myself. Besides the feel, it contains odor better in my opinion, but is hot in the summer.