Diapers That Make You Use More Diapers?

Posted by: Joy Katz on May 03

On a recent business trip, I ran out of disposable diapers and had to switch from our usual scentless, Elmo-less, recycled-paper brand to a perfumey bright-white kind, there being a fairly limited selection of nappies in the middle of Alabama.

(Warning: Vivid images. The squeamish may want to skip to an article on college savings plans.)

I noticed a strange thing: When the diaper was even slightly wet, it gave off a crisp, stirringly strong smell — a real corner-of-the-public-parking garage odor. A smell I never smell on the baby. What was going on? The plain-brown diapers don’t smell like anything, even soaked. Was it the barbecue and grits we’d been giving him? My husband and I both noticed this fraternity-cellar effect.

I found one last Seventh Generation in the suitcase. I put it on him. Waited.

No smell.

But upon switching back to the Huggies, there was again that stinging odor. It was like a little alarm. It thwapped you on the nose; it urged you to Change His Diaper. And so I did. And did. More often than usual.

Could there be teams of scientists who have devised chemicals that react to baby pee? Is there a diaper-company employee who is pleased to have gotten the most minute amount of compound necessary to create the effect to adhere as fully as possible to the entire interior surface of a diaper? Are there figures comparing sales of diapers with and without this secret chemistry? Could I turn up a conversation about this among parents if I scoured the Net? (I’m working on it. In the meantime, it costs approximately $1,200 a year to diaper a baby using disposables. If you could get parents to change those diapers even 1% more often…well, think how many wet bottoms are out there. )

These may seem like the ravings of a sleepless new parent, but consider the fact that it is someone’s job to come up with longer-lasting flavor crystals in chewing gum.

The more remarkable story, perhaps, is that the business trip was my husband’s. He was giving a lecture at a university, and the department knew we had a small baby, so they flew all of us out. It was a generous and rare gesture, and this working parent was very grateful for it.

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