Confessions of a British DL

[Sidewinder]

When the voice continued “...but you can’t wait to be out of them” I used to think “I can’t wait to get back into them!”

I can relate.

A short time after I was potty trained I yearned to be back in diapers again and have kept this yearning to myself for a long time, until I was 22, when I finally had the opportunity to purchase some.

 

[PCS]

These were the first adverts for Huggies Pull-Ups that we saw in the UK.

Boys version:

Girls version:

At one point they seemed to be on every CITV ad break.

I would be transfixed by them and longed to wear them.

I remember thinking how convenient it would be to wear them all the time and could sometimes go to the toilet and could sometimes wet myself without worrying if I needed a wee but wasn’t near a toilet.

Apart from the tingly thrill, I think a part of the attraction was the safety that they offered.

I loved the idea of wearing them to bed.

Possibly because most nappy ads of the time included tests with water to prove that they worked, at the time I thought at the time that the shots of the children getting out of bed with their Pull-Ups on were real and that the Pull-Ups would have been soaked after a night’s real bedwetting.

The fact that the bed was shown to be dry emphasised to my mind just how well they must have worked.

I did not have many accidents myself after toilet training but seeing how upset other boys got when they wet themselves gave me something of a fear of it happening to me. I imagined that wearing a Pull-Up would keep me safe from these feelings.

To this day I always have a feeling of safety and security when wearing a nappy and I think part of it stems from this childhood fear.

 

[PCS]

Another one of the (now) vintage ads that really stuck in my mind. Peaudouce Up & Go.

PEAUDOUCE UP & GO : COUCHE-CULOTTE | INA

m.ina.fr

The one I remember was a much longer version of this with English narration from the point of view of the little girl.

At one point she gets herself a glass of orange juice from a jug or bottle, which she knocks over and it spills all over the place before giggling about having accidents.

I used to imaging that she was weeing in them as the orange juice gushed everywhere, and got the usual jealous tingly feeling.

 

[PCS]

More nostalgia!

These two adverts give an idea of just how thick and cosy Peaudouce were in the 1980s.

I don’t think that those shown here are the “Child Size” variety which were virtually identical but absolutely huge.

I remember wearing these and they were very cosy indeed.

Does anyone else remember wearing Peaudouce Child Size nappies? They came in a purple or very dark blue pack.

Were they really as big as I remember? (ie came well above the belly button on a tall three and a half year old)?

 

[TyphaHare]

I have not seen those diapers before, but wow, I want a diaper with that tape panel motif on it! So cute!

 

[PCS]

They were popular in the 80s in the UK and Europe.

I don’t know if they ever made it to the US.

They introduced a size called “Child Size” which went up to 55lb but was advertised as being suitable for children up to five years old. See my earlier post on this thread for a link to a magazine ad for them.

 

[PCS]

Found the first UK DryNites TV advert!

It’s in this compilation:

It came quite a long time after DryNites we’re actually launched in the UK. I fact, I think the 7-10+ size were already available by then!

The packaging shown in the ad is already the second incarnation of UK DryNites for kids aged 4-7.

 

[PCS]

That DryNites ad really used to get the jealousy tingling.

I used to think that the boy in it looked so happy when he woke up having so obviously wet himself in the night but had stayed dry because because he was effectively wearing a nappy to bed.

Were there any earlier DryNites adverts in the UK? I don’t remember seeing any, though DryNites has been available in the UK for a good few years by then.

 

[PCS]

With many thanks to Ade, here is an image of the very first type of DryNites that we’re available in the UK

https://www.adisc.org/forum/media/scan0206-1996-large-e-mail-view-jpg.587/

 

[PCS]

And also with many thanks to Ade, the DryNites packaging that really got my heart racing...

https://www.adisc.org/forum/media/dscf7355-2002-large-e-mail-view-jpg.591/

 

[Eclectic]

Boys would usually get very upset if they wet themselves. I remember one boy howling and crying his eyes out as he stood there with wee gushing out of his shorts. ...It was rarer for girls to have accidents but they seemed less traumatised by the experience when it did happen.

Appreciate your story. I found it to be interesting. I've had urgency and frequency issues (bladder and bowel) for as long as I can remember. I have also always had the personality of a toddler.

I was one of those boys who was traumatized by accidents at an early age though I became quite good at hiding the evidence. I started wearing diapers again around age 5 largely because of the stress of accidents. But it was also because I discovered a neighbor of mine, who was close to my age, got to wear diapers full time (my mom always said "only babies wear diapers" and I found this was not true). From then on I wore diapers as much as I could despite the scolding I received from my mom.

Your observation that there may be differences between boys and girls in how they handle accidents makes me wonder whether this could be another factor in males developing an interest in diapers.

 

[PCS]

I wonder whether it is the risk of teasing that was likely to follow in the case of a boy?

I never saw any of the girls I saw have an accident at school get teased by other girls or boys, whereas I witnessed boys being teased by both girls and boys for having accidents.

Maybe girls are more empathetic in that way? (Risk of me generalising/ causing offence here- none intended, just based on own recollections!)

I also remember that there wasn’t a hint of embarrassment in the girls I knew who wore nappies at nursery but the boys sometimes tried to pretend they weren’t wearing a nappy or were embarrassed when nappies were mentioned (eg refusing a change and claiming not to be wearing).

Even the girl I met in the park wasn’t embarrassed when I mentioned her nappy to her and just shrugged it off when I asked why she was wearing one. The very fact that she told me she needed a wee (and then stopped to do it in her nappy) suggested not a hint of embarrassment at the situation.

Perhaps parents were harder on boys about that sort of thing?

 

[Eclectic]

Perhaps parents were harder on boys about that sort of thing?

I absolutely think parents and peers were harder on boys to "man up" and not show signs of weakness. Not being able to control your bladder or bowels would be seen as weak. As an undergrad at my university I knew many girls, who at the time were 19-22 yrs old, that had stuffed animals and other babyish things in their dorm rooms and apartments. One of my girlfriends had a teddy bear who wore Gerber plastic pants. Can you imagine the teasing a guy would get for having stuff like that lying around?

 

[Sidewinder]

I absolutely think parents and peers were harder on boys to "man up" and not show signs of weakness. Not being able to control your bladder or bowels would be seen as weak. As an undergrad at my university I knew many girls, who at the time were 19-22 yrs old, that had stuffed animals and other babyish things in their dorm rooms and apartments. One of my girlfriends had a teddy bear who wore Gerber plastic pants. Can you imagine the teasing a guy would get for having stuff like that lying around?

Quite possibly.

 

[ChocChip]

I wonder whether it is the risk of teasing that was likely to follow in the case of a boy?

I never saw any of the girls I saw have an accident at school get teased by other girls or boys, whereas I witnessed boys being teased by both girls and boys for having accidents.

Maybe girls are more empathetic in that way? (Risk of me generalising/ causing offence here- none intended, just based on own recollections!)

I also remember that there wasn’t a hint of embarrassment in the girls I knew who wore nappies at nursery but the boys sometimes tried to pretend they weren’t wearing a nappy or were embarrassed when nappies were mentioned (eg refusing a change and claiming not to be wearing).

Even the girl I met in the park wasn’t embarrassed when I mentioned her nappy to her and just shrugged it off when I asked why she was wearing one. The very fact that she told me she needed a wee (and then stopped to do it in her nappy) suggested not a hint of embarrassment at the situation.

Perhaps parents were harder on boys about that sort of thing?

I wish girls retained that lack of embarrassment as they grew up, to the extent that most women were generally relaxed about wearing nappies as adults!

 

[CookieMonstah]

This story reminds me a lot about myself growing up.

My first memory is before going to nursery in the morning (I was 3 at the time) I would go into the spare bedroom in our house and there'd be nappies leftover from when I was still wearing them. I'd wear one each morning before my mum woke up and took it off me. She wasn't happy I did this and she took them off me. I never really thought about anyone at nursery wearing nappies themselves so I didn't think about it much.

It wasn't until school that I had a friend who's sister was a bedwetter, she was a year or two younger. I really wanted to become friends with her at the time after hearing this. Never really spoke to her that much and a few years later they moved away.

Around age 6 or 7 I became friends with someone who lived a few doors down from my house and he had a younger brother who was maybe 2 or 3 at the time and still sometimes wore nappies, I saw a pack of Huggies Super Dry and so wanted to steal some out of the packet but I was too scared.

Age 7 when I went to Wales, we went often as my family, cousin's family and my grandparents would all share a large caravan (at different times throughout the year). In the bedroom I was staying in my brother found some nappies that were my cousin's. One morning I woke up early before anyone was awake and put one on, they were quite small on me. I remember watching LazyTown on TV, even though it was for children younger than me. I really enjoyed it and even did a wee in the nappy.

Throughout the years whenever an advert came on tv that included nappies or pull ups I'd be fixated on watching the whole thing. I specifically remember seeing an advert for Pampers Easy Ups where there's a toddler being a superhero. I was so jealous and wish I could play superhero wearing a pull up.

It wasn't until around age 12 that I started to search for images of nappies and older children in nappies, as at the time I thought I was the only one in the world who had this desire to wear nappies. That's when I stumbled across a website called Topix and found a bedwetting section. There were genuine people who were bedwetters and also ABDLs there too. That's when I finally discovered other people who liked to wear nappies. About a year or two later I stopped using that site as it became pretty sketchy. I then found ADISC and, at the time, you could sign up at age 13.

Finally I felt accepted into a community and felt welcomed and felt at home. Then shortly after ADISC changed their policy and you had to be 18+. I was so upset about it. I occasionally came back to the site and lurked but obviously couldn't post. I waited 5 years which seemed like forever to come back to the site.

In that time I told my mum my desires to wear and started to buy nappies from supermarkets, my dad found out and wasn't happy and I also wore a nappy to school one time which was pretty thrilling.

Now I'm 22 and will buy nappies from NappiesRUs whenever I can. That's pretty much my story. There's other little bits here and there I omitted to keep it relatively short.

 

[PCS]

I just remembered something from my past that I completely forgot- a cartoon called “Fantastic Max” which was American (a Hanna Barbera cartoon) which featured a nappy-wearing talking super-hero baby/toddler called Max.

This was something of a catalyst to my DL-ism in the early days. It was aired on CBBC in... you guessed it... the late 1980s.

The lyrics to the theme tune were something like this:

“Well along came Max, and the fun times started, I’d laugh until I cried...

He’s dynamite, in those four-ply diapers, he’s my kinda guy...

Well there goes Max, on a big-time mission, will he lose or win?

It all depends on those four-ply diapers, and that safety pin!”

In the series, Max had an older sister (I think she was called Zoë?) who must have been aged about 4-6.

In the opening credits there is a scene where Max is surfing a massive wave on a rubber ring. Zoë is standing on the shore as the waves come in and she jumps up in surprise before getting soaked.

As she does so, her white underwear is visible momentarily. My childhood brain thought that it looked exactly like the nappies that Max wore and so I got it into my head that Zoë also wore nappies. I found this very exciting at the time.

With hindsight, given this was American, I wonder whether the emphasis on the word “depends” in the theme tune was an in-joke?

I also remember originally thinking that the words “four-ply diaper” were “four-pint diaper”.

A four pint capacity diaper would have been amazing at that time.

Funnily enough, and totally OT, as a UK DL I would best be able to visualise nappy capacities if they were quoted in pints, rather than ml.

In the UK we use pints for milk and beer, litres and mls for soft-drinks and Fl.oz. for coffee-shop drinks. Although we buy petrol in litres now, car fuel efficiency is officially measured in Miles Per Gallon.

How oddball are we Brits?

 

[Aquasailor]

I have always been fascinated by Pull-Ups more so than standard baby diapers. To this day, I prefer pull-up style diapers over the taped kind. Here are some 1997 UK Girls Pull-Ups for you viewing pleasure. I honestly had no idea these existed until a couple of years ago! I had always thought that Europe had the same Pull-Ups designs as the US did.

 

[OfficialPastelPoppet]

I just remembered something from my past that I completely forgot- a cartoon called “Fantastic Max” which was American (a Hanna Barbera cartoon) which featured a nappy-wearing talking super-hero baby/toddler called Max.

This was something of a catalyst to my DL-ism in the early days. It was aired on CBBC in... you guessed it... the late 1980s.

The lyrics to the theme tune were something like this:

“Well along came Max, and the fun times started, I’d laugh until I cried...

He’s dynamite, in those four-ply diapers, he’s my kinda guy...

Well there goes Max, on a big-time mission, will he lose or win?

It all depends on those four-ply diapers, and that safety pin!”

In the series, Max had an older sister (I think she was called Zoë?) who must have been aged about 4-6.

In the opening credits there is a scene where Max is surfing a massive wave on a rubber ring. Zoë is standing on the shore as the waves come in and she jumps up in surprise before getting soaked.

As she does so, her white underwear is visible momentarily. My childhood brain thought that it looked exactly like the nappies that Max wore and so I got it into my head that Zoë also wore nappies. I found this very exciting at the time.

With hindsight, given this was American, I wonder whether the emphasis on the word “depends” in the theme tune was an in-joke?

I also remember originally thinking that the words “four-ply diaper” were “four-pint diaper”.

A four pint capacity diaper would have been amazing at that time.

Funnily enough, and totally OT, as a UK DL I would best be able to visualise nappy capacities if they were quoted in pints, rather than ml.

In the UK we use pints for milk and beer, litres and mls for soft-drinks and Fl.oz. for coffee-shop drinks. Although we buy petrol in litres now, car fuel efficiency is officially measured in Miles Per Gallon.

How oddball are we Brits?

Sounds kinda like Max and Ruby but at the same time it doesn't

 

[PCS]

I have always been fascinated by Pull-Ups more so than standard baby diapers. To this day, I prefer pull-up style diapers over the taped kind. Here are some 1997 UK Girls Pull-Ups for you viewing pleasure. I honestly had no idea these existed until a couple of years ago! I had always thought that Europe had the same Pull-Ups designs as the US did.

I remember seeing those!

I seem to remember that they were available in an XL size and the top of the pack was transparent so you could see the entire front of the pants inside. I remember that they looked huge and longed to wear them (both boy and girl versions) but could not buy any as there would be no excuse I could muster if they were found.

Thank you for posting the picture.

I would love it if anyone else has any pictures of UK nappies or packaging from the late 80s and early 90s to share here.