Reply from john, Child's Age 17 - 3/18/02 - IP#: 203.149.43.16Maggie - as father to a boy who at 17 needs to wear protection full-time, and is at a stage where he is getting interested in girls, you can understand how anxious I might be feeling. As a child M had accidents so often I don't think he was out of diapers for very long, if ever; certainly he would never leave home without protection. In the last few days I have read posts about diaper dependency and fetishism which I have found rather shocking. However, I don't think M has an abnormal interest. I am worried that M might be emotionally dependent on protection, certainly; but this might have as much to do with anxiety on this part that he stays dry rather than some sexual interest. He cannot control his urine flow, but he can gain a measure of control through diapers, and self-control, to him is important. M also suffers from depression, badly at times, and I am sure this has not helped. When he is upset he just switches off from the world and is not interested in anybody, least of all caring for himself ie seeing it to that you get to the toilet on time and so on. It is hard to look back on 17 years and say with respect to M's protection regime that we would not have done X or Y, but I would like to emphasise the point brought up in previous points that - subject to a medical diagnosis or other ameliorating factors - children should not be allowed to get accustomed to the idea of wearing diapers, because they do encourage dependency. I read in a mother's post above, for example, that when her children wore disposable diapers the kids did not notice they had wet. Surely that is a bad sign! |