Adult diaper

People with medical conditions which cause them to experience urinary or fecal incontinence often require diapers or similar products because they are unable to control their bladders or bowels.

People who are bedridden or in wheelchairs, including those with good bowel and bladder control, may also wear diapers because they are unable to access the toilet independently.

Absorbent incontinence products come in a wide range of types (drip collectors, pads, underwear and adult diapers), each with varying capacities and sizes.

This is not because people choose to use the cheapest and least absorbent brands, but rather because medical facilities are the largest consumer of adult diapers, and they have requirements to change patients as often as every two hours.

[11] The super-absorbent fabric used in disposable diapers, which can hold up to 400 times its weight, was developed so Apollo astronauts could stay on spacewalks and extra-vehicular activity for at least six hours.

[13] The diapers became fodder for many television comedians, as well as being included in an adaptation of the story in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, despite Nowak's denial that she wore them.

[15] Increasingly, some companies that make or sell adult diapers have begun to supply products that specifically target and appeal to the kink community, often with higher absorbency or vibrant, cute or playful designs.

According to Dr Dipak Chatterjee of Mumbai newspaper Daily News and Analysis, public toilet facilities are so unhygienic that it is actually safer for people—especially women—who are vulnerable to infections to wear adult diapers instead.

He writes, "Make the elderly finally feel embraced instead of ridiculed and remove the teasing from the adolescent equation that affects so many children in a negative way.

In 2006, seventeen students taking a geriatrics pharmacotherapy course participated in a voluntary "diaper experience" exercise to help them understand the impact incontinence has on older adults.

Smitherman's proposal earned him criticism from unions who argued that the priority was not the capacity of the diapers but rather staff shortages affecting how often they were changed, and he later apologized.