Interesting hypothesis on why some people like nappies/diapers.

Drifter said:

Nobody fully understands the neurological details of how our specific sexual attractions are formed in the brain, but researchers are aware that all of us go through a natural process very early in our lives that assigns many (all?) of these attractions to us. The process produces mainly attractions to heterosexual objects, but the process is flexible and sometimes results in perplexing and hilarious desires in humans and animals. (You gotta admit, "loving" a diaper is pretty funny!)

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Well, I guess diapers and urination etc. are linked to the same parts of the body as regular sexual functions... so the connection isn't that surprising. For some of us the two can be connected, e.g. liking to see women in nappies/wetting themselves, which for me is as important as wearing them myself.

I was both abused and neglected. Changing and feeding were about the only human contact for the first few years. Later I was punished for wetting the bed, but put back in diapers and the punishment went away. It all fit together for me.

I don't know.
This wasn't the case for me. Neither I was neglected nor abused.

I'm a DL consciously since about four and a half. Potty trained for the day with two, nightime with two and a half. I have pretty vivid memories from these two years between and I believe I became a DL in what I'd call a somewhat liquid transition period there and then.
Thinking about it, a part of me becoming a DL might have been neglection, even if really tiny.
When I look back my family never neglected me, but two year old me could very well have felt this way when my younger brother was born and developed neurodermatitis in his early baby days.
This is a question of perspective in terms of neglection, that is. Mum did her very best with us two, often up to her own limits, which just a few years later would become the name multiple sclerosis. And dad, as a truck driver, was more on the run than at home anyway.
As I say, two year old me could have felt neglected by the shift of attention to my baby brother and his health. But there are much more memories from this liquid transition in regards to diapers, so that the feel of neglection could only be a very small piece of the puzzle.

I was just thinking about this today. But it pretty much lines up with my childhood too. Interesting.

I just realized something. Around the age of four years old I had an interest in diapers and it only lasted about a week. I don't really remember most of my childhood and that's one of my most early and vivid memories I have.

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That was a good read. Just weighing it against my own experience and anxieties, I found it really comforting. As much as I'll happily discuss the nature of my fetish (albeit a bit shyly) theres always a hint of ingrained self directed negativity. My last relationship was affected in a fairly substantial way because of a lack of reciprocated affirmation of acceptance that I felt I needed when the black dog of depressive anxt scratched at the door.
This purely scientific, non-judgemental approach is a good boost towards that neutral acceptance.

Thanks for posting!

I pretty much know what it is for me. After I was a "kid" and not longer a toddler my parents had put all my baby stuff in a bag and had it on the top shelf of the closet in my bedroom. It was too high for me to reach but I could always see it up there and wondering what was actually all in it, but ending up getting curiosity mainly as to if there were diapers in there still etcetera, and that just kind of kept being there. Although not sure why that didn't lead me to being AB (just DL, although also needed due to recently onset incontinence).

For the curious I did eventually get big enough that I could get to it by climbing on top of some stuff, all that ended up being in there were some alphabet blocks and some like plush dice.

Oml! I can relate to this so much. My mom was never there for me as a child and I have had the fascination with diapers since I was 5. I was adopted at age 8 and never have lost intrest in diapers. I am now 18 and in diapers every night and haven't lost interest in them

My mom kept my diapers for a while and even threatened to put me back in diapers when I was acting babyish. She told me she still had them and I guessed they were in their bedroom, on a shelf. I wrote about the experience in my story, "Coffee Stop" which is on this site.

As for me, I was adopted at the age of 2 and I think I spent some time in a sort of adoption orphanage. I'm not sure how potty training went before I was adopted, especially if I was in an institution. I'm more of a fan of imprinting rather than abuse or neglect. My parents were very loving but my cousins abused me when I was very young. Whatever the cause, I knew by the age of four that I wanted to wear diapers again, the very moment my mom had threatened to diaper me.

ClickyKeys said:

For the curious I did eventually get big enough that I could get to it by climbing on top of some stuff, all that ended up being in there were some alphabet blocks and some like plush dice.

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I'd imagine most parents are counting the days till they can throw the diapers away, and have no desire to see them after the kid is toilet-trained.

I didn't have a hard childhood compared to most at the time in 70's & 80's when spankings were allowed. I preferred them to restrictions and groundings because they were over quick. Pain lasts a few minutes; restrictions and groundings lasted up to months.
I don't think this affected my adulthood either way. Other than a few sexuall encounters with boys and girls, did I consider wearing diapers regularly. It wasn't until I was bedridden because of military injuries and caused daily urge incontinence and night enuresis, that I started wearing regularly. Over time my urge incontinence and night enuresis has faded and I can control my bladder with psychotherapy, limiting fluid intake and kegel exercises. But, I guess I just got used to diapers like any one else gets used to boxers, briefs, bikinis, or thongs. Now I wear them and use them because it is more comfortable than waking in the middle of
night, holding it until it hurts or rushing out to finding a restroom.

Mickeymic said:

I didn't have a hard childhood compared to most at the time in 70's & 80's when spankings were allowed. I preferred them to restrictions and groundings because they were over quick. Pain lasts a few minutes; restrictions and groundings lasted up to months.
I don't think this affected my adulthood either way. Other than a few sexuall encounters with boys and girls, did I consider wearing diapers regularly. It wasn't until I was bedridden because of military injuries and caused daily urge incontinence and night enuresis, that I started wearing regularly. Over time my urge incontinence and night enuresis has faded and I can control my bladder with psychotherapy, limiting fluid intake and kegel exercises. But, I guess I just got used to diapers like any one else gets used to boxers, briefs, bikinis, or thongs. Now I wear them and use them because it is more comfortable than waking in the middle of night, holding it until it hurts or rushing out to finding a restroom.

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You too? I wasn't ever abused, but was spanked on the apropriate rare occasion. I believe my DL'ism is more linked to the middle child syndrome. I also only started wearing regularly when I was discharged out of the navy hospital and back into the barracks. I had a long leg cast on, and two big knee braces as well. It would take me a literal 5-10 just to get up and go to the head. And with my newly developed urge incontinence that pain of holding it just didn't work out. Though my urinary issues only got worse after that.

Yup. Dad was an alcoholic & my mum was absent emotionally too. School was hell on earth.

I didn't have a bad childhood but I am a product of a teen mother that married a much older man who abandoned us before I was born. Because of this my developmental years were spent with babysitters and extended family so my mother could work. I was affected by her absence when it was excessive at times due to said job or social activities. My mother remarried when I was 7. Home life was not emotional or cuddly/physically affectionate growing up but I knew my parents loved me. I was aware of my diapering desires as early as kindergarten and it grew over time with acting out as early as 9-10 years old. I was a loner/shy child, bullied in school and mostly kept to myself. Friendships were mostly one on one, groups made me nervous and insecure.

Prairie said:

Although fetishists as a group could perhaps have some particular common personality traits, these would not necessarily be of pathological nature.

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I have an anal personality. Also known as anal retentive, an anal personality means I have an extreme need to control my environment. For example, I have an obsessive attention to detail (even non-essential details) to the point that I may annoy others. In addition, I am anxious and have difficulty managing the impulse to control situations. As a result, my behavior may go beyond being helpful. For example, I research a product endlessly before buying it. The origins of the term anal personality are from the theory of the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, who was the first to propose the existence of this personality type as part of the psychoanalytic theory. Freud wrote about the anal-retentive personality in his early works on psycho-sexual development. There were three psycho-sexual stages during my early childhood development:

• (1) Oral: From birth to one year
• (2) Anal: From Age 1 to Age 3
• (3) Phallic: From Age 3 to Age 6
• 
  
• During the anal stage and toilet training, my anal-retentive personality had developed. In addition, I realized that I could manage and restrict my bowel movements. Therefore, I decided whether to comply with my parent or not. For example, my parent was too strict or tried to toilet train me too early, or punished me for toilet training accidents leading to developing an anal-retentive personality. Restricting my bowel movements was a much more significant concern for me than it is today. The anal personality includes being overly orderly, meticulous, suspicious and reserved. Other traits include being stubborn, rigid, stingy with money and time, and obsessed with being neat or clean.
• 
  
• Other adjectives used to describe my personality are perfectionistic, detail-oriented, overly self-reliant, and having a passion for organizing, classifying, or collecting objects. The closest mental disorder currently described in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is the OCPD (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder). This psychiatric diagnosis refers to a person with a compulsive and inflexible need for mental and interpersonal control. Like the anal personality, a person with OCPD will also show strong attention to detail, a need for orderliness in their environment, problems with perfectionism, and a tendency to make lists and rules to follow. This person may also have trouble delegating tasks and will be obstinate and rigid in their interpersonal dealings. They may have trouble getting rid of old things or spending money. In common usage, I have an anal personality generally considered to be a personality quirk.
• 
  
• On the other hand, a person with OCPD would have a mental disorder that interferes with daily life. For example, I performed worse on a task that required placing my hand into the water with an odor suggestive of poop than others without an anal personality. That reflected my ineffective defenses against "anal impulses." Thus, the anal personality appears as a cluster of traits rather than a defined type defined as a disorder. In general, the term is rarely used and colloquially describes a specific personality "style." Signs I have an anal personality are:
• 
  
• (1) I buy multiple quantities of an item so that I will not run out.
• (2) I organize the bills in my wallet by how worn they are to spend the dirty ones first.
• (3) I look up words before I type them on social media to see whether I need to add a hyphen for proper grammar.
• (4) I categorize my list so that it is in the exact order of the items I will be buying.
• (5) When I set clocks in my house, I need to ensure that they are all set to the exact minute and second.
• (6) It bothers me greatly if I see minor errors or details.
• (7) Others refer to me as overly neurotic (constantly worried) about having things perfect around me.
• (8) I find it difficult to relax on the weekend or vacation when I know it should be a time to unwind and recharge.
• (9) I am stingy in consuming things such as using only one square of toilet paper or not spending any of my money.
• 
  
• While these are just some examples of what it is like for me to have an anal personality, they show a common theme of needing to control my environment or behave in a way that involves withholding (refraining from giving) or being very careful about what I do. What I do with an anal personality depends on whether it bothers me or the people around me. I am living with just a personality quirk. My behavior is not excessive or out of my control. I have no trouble delegating tasks and can handle them when things do not work out perfectly, which does not interfere with my daily life or ability to function at school. I am functioning well and am not bothered by my quirks, and hopefully, the people around me accept my personality, so it may simply be something with which I live.
• 
  
• It is important to remember that there is a substantial distinction between having an anal personality and having a diagnosable mental health disorder. If I am living with someone showing signs of needing to control their environment to an extreme, it may be hard to know if this is just a personality quirk or something more profound. My behavior does not appear to interfere with my daily life, does not cause me distress, and hopefully does not cause distress to others in my life, and I can control my impulses and do not feel great anxiety when unable to carry out compulsions; there are no signs of something more profound than an anal personality. I appear to happily clean, organize, and manage my money in a way that I enjoy and hopefully does not seem odd to others; it could be that I simply am showing signs of the translation of some unmet need or conflict during childhood into an adult manifestation that is less likely to cause trouble and appear more socially acceptable.

From https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-an-anal-personality-5073867

ABDLsean said:

I was neither abused nor neglected. We didnt have masses of money but growing up was fine. School life was pretty average too. Anomaly?

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You would be surprised if you saw a therapist and really dug deep into what you experienced and think about how you felt as a child, not an adult looking bad.

i had my dad die from suicide when I was 4 1/2 - I thought mom dealt with it prefect, we talk about him all the time, everything was open, the worse she did was yell a lot and the odd Mild spanking.

But looking at life as a young child i Felt abandoned when dad left (hence my anxiety about my forcing my mom to eat healthy and exercise so she doesn’t abandon me, Im terrified about being a senior and the only one left with no support - I’m only 33 but on disability). I also had to mediate lots of fights between my brother and my mom because they don’t get along - I would have said this is just the way it is but that caused me to not learn how to express emotion because I had to be the “good kid” and not cause trouble. This is a HUGE part of my issues now - I can’t name emotions, I dont know how to express them properly, I bottle them up and then explode at night crying).

but i had no abuse, Or severe neglect, most of time mom was super loving, our church was very supporting. But diapers definitely came from my dad dying. I latched on to them and wouldn’t let go, even though I was never put back into them, 100% day trained from 18 months - I did it myself, night trained by 20 months.

I was a bedwetting until my mid to late teens., along with occasional daytime accidents. I'm also developmentally behind. I even went to a special needs school when I was a toddler & preschool. My mom was a Special Ed para-pro, and a very good one too. Because of that, I think she had a good reason not to have me wear diapers during the day, plus the fact that we probably couldn't afford them, most of the time. So even though I wasn't able to wear diapers, I respected those who did, and still do for incontinence reasons. While many people would laugh at someone for having an accident, my heart would be with that person instead. This is the biggest reason I'm a DL.

Although Goodnites were introduced a couple years after I stopped wetting the bed, it was good to see a pull-up in the national market aim for older kids & teens, at least in the United States. Other countries like in Europe and Asia seemed to cater to older kids as well, but not so much in North America. I would love for Goodnites to come up with a tape-on diaper for older kids and teens, because I know there's a need and market for them too. Why should they have to suffer with lame youth medical diapers?