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Fun Post...How taking care of babies has changed
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 33757" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>It's amazing how far we've come. I remember getting "the talk" at school and being shown how to use sanitary napkins. Each pack of 12 was big and bulky, like having a pillow packed in your schoolbag. And you had to wear a belt with them which snagged on other clothes and sometimes came undone. The elastic in the belt would perish and I'd be tying knots in it to make it stay up.</p><p>My mother told me to be grateful - when she had been my age she had to use rags - cloth strips which they then had to wash out, boil and bleach at the end of their week and hang on the line. Like, the whole neighbourhood could look at your washing and know your cycle.</p><p></p><p>Our pads - I went to an all-girls school and you got teased every time you were seen carrying ANYTHING into the toilet block. But you couldn't even stuff these pads into a pocket (assuming you managed a private moment in the corridor to get the thing out of your bag discreetly). They were just too bulky. I got into the habit of wearing them to school in layers - I'd simply remove one and the clean one would be underneath. Mind you, it felt like I was riding horseback all day.</p><p></p><p>Nappies - I went back to work when each of my first three babies was 12 weeks old. easy child was very tiny and we used threadbare cloth nappies for the first two months, triangle folded one more time. Threadbare ones were the only ones you could do this with, being so thin, and she was too small for the next larger fold. But the child care centres all used disposable nappies. I got the hang of putting them on so they didn't leak too much. I also carried a roll of duct tape to put them back on if I goofed and didn't put the nappy on right.</p><p>Then nappies improved and it was harder to tell if they needed changing. Elastic round the leg came in, which was easier on the baby. The child care centre bought bulk boxes of nappies - we did when we could and the boxes were huge! Then as technology improved, we got more nappies, in smaller packets.</p><p></p><p>Now sanitary pads and nappies use the same brilliant technology. I'm fairly certain that the gel uses to absorb wet stuff is very similar to the stuff they use to analyse DNA. We used to make acrylamide gels in the labs where I worked, these were used for running nucleic acid analyses. But dried and ground to a powder, these things are amazing when it comes to absorbing water. They're also fairly inert, chemically. They use the same things as wetting crystals used to make soil more water-holding. So now, one more thing we're told you can do to re-use disposable nappies - remove the water crystals and use them in the garden. Any paper that you put in the garden with the rest of the nappy contents will break down. Just don't bury the plastic parts. I no longer have babies in nappies at home, so I can't use this trick myself. I think I'm glad about that, frankly.</p><p></p><p>But how's that for going full circle?</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 33757, member: 1991"] It's amazing how far we've come. I remember getting "the talk" at school and being shown how to use sanitary napkins. Each pack of 12 was big and bulky, like having a pillow packed in your schoolbag. And you had to wear a belt with them which snagged on other clothes and sometimes came undone. The elastic in the belt would perish and I'd be tying knots in it to make it stay up. My mother told me to be grateful - when she had been my age she had to use rags - cloth strips which they then had to wash out, boil and bleach at the end of their week and hang on the line. Like, the whole neighbourhood could look at your washing and know your cycle. Our pads - I went to an all-girls school and you got teased every time you were seen carrying ANYTHING into the toilet block. But you couldn't even stuff these pads into a pocket (assuming you managed a private moment in the corridor to get the thing out of your bag discreetly). They were just too bulky. I got into the habit of wearing them to school in layers - I'd simply remove one and the clean one would be underneath. Mind you, it felt like I was riding horseback all day. Nappies - I went back to work when each of my first three babies was 12 weeks old. easy child was very tiny and we used threadbare cloth nappies for the first two months, triangle folded one more time. Threadbare ones were the only ones you could do this with, being so thin, and she was too small for the next larger fold. But the child care centres all used disposable nappies. I got the hang of putting them on so they didn't leak too much. I also carried a roll of duct tape to put them back on if I goofed and didn't put the nappy on right. Then nappies improved and it was harder to tell if they needed changing. Elastic round the leg came in, which was easier on the baby. The child care centre bought bulk boxes of nappies - we did when we could and the boxes were huge! Then as technology improved, we got more nappies, in smaller packets. Now sanitary pads and nappies use the same brilliant technology. I'm fairly certain that the gel uses to absorb wet stuff is very similar to the stuff they use to analyse DNA. We used to make acrylamide gels in the labs where I worked, these were used for running nucleic acid analyses. But dried and ground to a powder, these things are amazing when it comes to absorbing water. They're also fairly inert, chemically. They use the same things as wetting crystals used to make soil more water-holding. So now, one more thing we're told you can do to re-use disposable nappies - remove the water crystals and use them in the garden. Any paper that you put in the garden with the rest of the nappy contents will break down. Just don't bury the plastic parts. I no longer have babies in nappies at home, so I can't use this trick myself. I think I'm glad about that, frankly. But how's that for going full circle? Marg [/QUOTE]
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