I must admit I didn't read the entire thread. If this has already been posted, it won't hurt to post it again.
I suggest to parents of infants and toddlers still in diapers, you better prepare. For what? Weeks, possibly months with no Pampers.
While you can, buy some flannel sheets, and cut them up in squares. Tuck them in the hundreds of plastic Walmart bags I know everyone collects. While you're at it, pick up a few roles of the best duct tape money can buy.
Flannel sheets - diapers. The plastic bags will serve as water proof pants, and the tape will hold the bags in place.
No jokes, okay. Not unless you think a shitty diaper is funny in the middle of no where, and Mommie is out of Huggies and Pampers.
Better pick plenty of diaper wipes as well. They come in handy.
Wake up !
Quoting: Meadow 1560850 Meadow,
Thanks for participating, and especially for MacGuyvering and thinking about this issue. Well done.
The main-most issues with diapers are three fold:
1) Not just babies use diapers, but many elderly people and special-need children. In a collapse, many people will be living with you as you'll have aging parents coming to stay, relatives, friends, etc.
When elderly people are relocated, it becomes obvious that they've been dealing with issues that you're not aware of. When an elderly person moves out of their normal environment, then their routine is disrupted, and a result can be incontinence. It's common.
Not only that, but the transitional membranes that makes up the bladder weakens as people age. It's a stretchy form of cellular tissue, and like a ballon that gets stretched too often with strain or age, it weakens.
This often happens to healthy women upon exercise and strain. You might be as young as your 20's and notice it. If you're carrying a lot of firewood or a backpack, and female or elderly, then you might notice minute (or more) amounts of leakage. This will surprise a lot of you.
2)How to sanitize in the absence of lots of hot water, washing machine agitation, dryers, etc? Get a diaper pail now. You can make one in a bucket, but a pail is larger normally. Get some pool shock, not bleach. Bleach goes bad after a set period of time. Pool shock is condensed and made upon demand. Let the diaper material (flannel in this case) plus diaper pants (the covering) if you have them, then sanitie BOTH as a pre-wash.
3)While mostly the issue is urinary, it could be fecal. Stress causes changes in bowel movements. You must carefully treat all fecal matter for diapering because there's a great potential for anaerobic bacterial infections which are DEADLY in a collapse. We're not just worried about diaper rash. This means a lot of soap and hot-water, and the latter takes a lot of time. This means a rocket-stove for certain to save firewood and time, plus a large kettle to make boiling water quickly.
Expect things like accidental bedwetting by older children from nervousness and FEAR. Very unusual violence could be happening.
Note: on the flipside, there's a high potential for constipation and greatly reduced urine output from dehydration and lack of proteins.
1) Constipation is probably the most common thing I've seen in children and adults while camping. It's messy to use the bathroom when not using toilets. This means most people will go less often, and could result in impactions and simply poor health or a lot of discomfort on long hikes.
2)Less drinking water means concentrated urine. Higher chances of bladder infections. Less protein means reduces amines for the body to scavange to transform into ammonia, so reduced output.
