Llayden said:
And what you're implying sounds frightening familiar to the argument of those looking for a "gay gene".
They'll find it!
Anyway.
I lean somewhat toward the "imprinting" explanation myself, except that it still feels inadequate as an explanation for a diaper fetish. After all, when it comes to diapers, our first years of life are rather scripted. We come straight out of the womb into diapers, and are in diapers 24/7 for several years, being changed by our parents or caretakers every few hours. Either the window of opportunity to become "imprinted" with a diaper fetish is impossibly brief, needing to coincide with a rare and extremely diapery event of some kind, or else there is some additional predisposition, whether nature or nurture, in play.
But I don't know for certain, and neither do any of you, so
there!
I have many fond memories of diapers from when I was a young child, but none of these really stand out as "triggers". Rather, they all seem to me to be mundane things that were made special to me by my already-present fascination with diapers. I can remember watching my mom diaper my sister, my friend's mom diaper his sister, and a bazillion other diaper changes, diaper ads, chance encounters with diapers and the sudden urge to put them on, etc., etc., etc.--loads of that stuff. But it's hard to see any of that stuff as
causal. Sure, I was a curious kid, but I knew that diapers were for babies, and my curiosity alone wasn't going to send me down that path. There had to be something stronger.
That said, I'm willing to acknowledge the importance of "triggers" for some people. I was fortunate to have access to diapers throughout my youth. Like dogboy's parents, my parents kept all of the cloth diapers my sister and I had worn. I found them at an early age, and wore them regularly for many years--and I still have a few of them! For those who didn't have than kind of access to diapers, however, I suppose there must have been a "first time"--a moment of opportunity, made known by some observation--that would then be easily enshrined as the origin for one's diaper fetish. Although perhaps, for lack of opportunity to indulge it, the interest had truly gone dormant, and was simply awakened at the proper time? I find that more believable than the idea that seeing a child in Pull-Ups
caused the desire to wear one.
But again... :shrug: