Saturday
Oct082011
Disposable Diaper Sales are Down: What is the Real Reason?
Saturday, October 8, 2011
The Wall Street Journal printed an article last week about how sales of disposable diapers are decreasing and sales of diaper rash ointment are increasing.
In the article, they raise a number of different issues, but ultimately blame the economy and suggest that parents are having to make tough financial decisions, one of which is leaving their baby in a wet or dirty diaper for a longer period of time in order to cut back on costs.
The good news is that I don't think the issue is as cut and dry as the Wall Street Journal makes it sound. Certainly, the economy could be one of the issues that is impacting diaper sales (and I'll discuss that below), but I do think there could be other contributing factors too. One of these is raised briefly in the WSJ article and then quickly dismissed, whereas the others didn't even seem to be on their radar at all.
So, what are the possible reasons for a decrease in sales of disposable diapers?
If you are planning to have a baby yourself, then saving up for diapers and putting money aside is one good option. You can also register for cloth diapers instead of registering for all the baby products people think they need and then never use. In our case, we purchased all the cloth diapers that we needed before our babies were born, so as long as we could afford to buy the small amount of laundry detergent that they required, we were fine. It was tough making ends meet while I was on maternity leave (especially the first time), so it was really nice to not have to spend money on diapers.
If you have friends who are planning to have babies, you can tell them how much money they can save by cloth diapering. You can also pass along your cloth diapers to them when you are finished with them, thereby making it that much cheaper for them to cloth diaper.
If you want to give to families in need, you can certainly contribute to programs that provide disposable diapers to low income families or take disposable diapers to your local food bank. Although I am a huge supporter of cloth diapers, I do recognize that it is challenging for families that have to lug the diapers to a laundromat or that have their children in a daycare that doesn't accept cloth diapers.When I donate disposable diapers, I lean toward the green brands to at least minimize the impact they are having on the environment as much as possible.
However, in addition to or instead of donating disposable diapers, you can also donate used or new cloth diapers. There are a number of organizations, ranging from food banks to cloth diapering non-profits that are reaching out to low income families, teaching them about cloth diapering, and helping them access cloth diapers. As my friend Kim from Dirty Diaper Laundry once wrote, "give a family a pack of disposables, diaper a baby for a week. Give a family a cloth diaper kit, diaper a baby(s) for a lifetime." Ultimately, it would be less expensive in the long run to buy a family a washer, dryer and enough cloth diapers for their baby than to provide them with a fully supply of disposable diapers. Plus they would be able to use the washer and dryer for other purposes too and use the diapers for more than one baby.
Ultimately, like with infant feeding and so many other parenting issues, there are a variety of different factors that go into the choices that parents make. I would love to see a situation whereby parents are educated about the options for diapering (benefits and drawbacks of different diapering methods) and are supported by society in the choices that they make. I do think that should include making it possible for low income parents to keep their babies bums dry, whether in cloth diapers or disposable diapers. I do support long-term solutions to help make cloth diapering accessible to more families (training, washers and dryers, diapering kits) as well as short-term stop gaps (i.e. donations of disposables) to help families using disposables to get through tough times.
The volume of diapers sold in the U.S. slipped 1% in the four weeks ended Sept. 4 from a year earlier, extending a string of similar or steeper declines stretching back to August 2010, according to Consumer Edge Research, whose retail-sales tracking doesn't include Costco Wholesale Corp. or Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Dollar sales fell nearly 3%, indicating parents are both cutting back and trading down to cheaper private labels.
...
Meantime, sales of diaper-rash ointment have increased 8% over the past year, according to market-research firm SymphonyIRI. Analysts and pediatricians say the higher sales likely reflect either less frequent changes or a shift to lower quality diapers.
In the article, they raise a number of different issues, but ultimately blame the economy and suggest that parents are having to make tough financial decisions, one of which is leaving their baby in a wet or dirty diaper for a longer period of time in order to cut back on costs.
Why might sales of disposable diapers be decreasing?
The good news is that I don't think the issue is as cut and dry as the Wall Street Journal makes it sound. Certainly, the economy could be one of the issues that is impacting diaper sales (and I'll discuss that below), but I do think there could be other contributing factors too. One of these is raised briefly in the WSJ article and then quickly dismissed, whereas the others didn't even seem to be on their radar at all.
So, what are the possible reasons for a decrease in sales of disposable diapers?
- Parents Cannot Afford to Buy Diapers: Certainly, as WSJ suggested, one reason for the decline in sales of disposable diapers could be that people cannot afford them. Unfortunately, low income parents do not appear to be able to access diapers through programs like WIC in the United States in the same way that they can access food. Some families have apparently been trying to re-use disposable diapers and there has been an increase in cases of diaper rash in low income areas (according to doctors interviewed by the WSJ).
- Parents are Buying Diapers in Bulk at Discount Retailers: Interestingly, the data in the WSJ article doesn't include data from sales at Costco and WalMart. So there may not be a decrease in diaper sales at all. Parents may just be buying them in bulk at discount retailers in order to save money.
- Parents May Be Giving Cloth Diapers a Try: There are no good statistics on the use of cloth diapers, although most reports on the issue put the use of cloth diapers in North America at between 5% and 10%. It wouldn't take a significant increase in the use of cloth diapers to have an impact on the sales of disposable diapers. It is entirely possible that the 1% decrease in the sales of disposable diapers comes from increased use of cloth diapers, both new and used. While there is no concrete data on increases in cloth diaper sales in the past year, there has certainly been an increase in online searches for cloth diapers (source: Google Trends).
- Parents May Be Trying Elimination Communication: There is also a trend toward increased use of elimination communication, whereby parents skip diapers altogether and start pottying their babies right from birth. While this hasn't caught on as much as cloth diapering, it may be having a small impact on diaper sales.
- Parents are Having Fewer Babies: The WSJ article mentions that the US birth rate has declined. That may also be contributing to a decrease in infant diaper sales (although the increasing aging population is probably contributing to an increase in adult diapers, so it should balance out).
- More Absorbent Diapers = Fewer Diaper Changes: Another factor mentioned in the WSJ article is that more absorbent diapers may mean that parents do not feel the need to change diapers as often as they did before.
What can you do?
If you are planning to have a baby yourself, then saving up for diapers and putting money aside is one good option. You can also register for cloth diapers instead of registering for all the baby products people think they need and then never use. In our case, we purchased all the cloth diapers that we needed before our babies were born, so as long as we could afford to buy the small amount of laundry detergent that they required, we were fine. It was tough making ends meet while I was on maternity leave (especially the first time), so it was really nice to not have to spend money on diapers.If you have friends who are planning to have babies, you can tell them how much money they can save by cloth diapering. You can also pass along your cloth diapers to them when you are finished with them, thereby making it that much cheaper for them to cloth diaper.
If you want to give to families in need, you can certainly contribute to programs that provide disposable diapers to low income families or take disposable diapers to your local food bank. Although I am a huge supporter of cloth diapers, I do recognize that it is challenging for families that have to lug the diapers to a laundromat or that have their children in a daycare that doesn't accept cloth diapers.When I donate disposable diapers, I lean toward the green brands to at least minimize the impact they are having on the environment as much as possible.
However, in addition to or instead of donating disposable diapers, you can also donate used or new cloth diapers. There are a number of organizations, ranging from food banks to cloth diapering non-profits that are reaching out to low income families, teaching them about cloth diapering, and helping them access cloth diapers. As my friend Kim from Dirty Diaper Laundry once wrote, "give a family a pack of disposables, diaper a baby for a week. Give a family a cloth diaper kit, diaper a baby(s) for a lifetime." Ultimately, it would be less expensive in the long run to buy a family a washer, dryer and enough cloth diapers for their baby than to provide them with a fully supply of disposable diapers. Plus they would be able to use the washer and dryer for other purposes too and use the diapers for more than one baby.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, like with infant feeding and so many other parenting issues, there are a variety of different factors that go into the choices that parents make. I would love to see a situation whereby parents are educated about the options for diapering (benefits and drawbacks of different diapering methods) and are supported by society in the choices that they make. I do think that should include making it possible for low income parents to keep their babies bums dry, whether in cloth diapers or disposable diapers. I do support long-term solutions to help make cloth diapering accessible to more families (training, washers and dryers, diapering kits) as well as short-term stop gaps (i.e. donations of disposables) to help families using disposables to get through tough times.
Reader Comments (52)
nice post, babies are need to be care properly and diaper has to be checked. i think ecological diaper is also a good option.
חיתולים אקולוגיים
nice post, ecological diaper is best solution for the treatment of diaper rash
חיתולים אקולוגיים