Reply from Bob, Child's Age 14,15 - 8/14/02 - IP#: 65.235.58.127Is your son's behavior abnormal? Certainly most teens do not wear diapers if they are not compelled to do so for medical reasons, although an unknown number may have hidden desires to do so, or may wear diapers secretly. Also, an unknown percentage of bedwetters and incontinent teens may wet the bed or become totally incontinent in order to justify wearing diapers. Many such teens have posted on this site. Is this behavior unhealthy? Could this behavior do harm to your son? If you search on "infantilism" or "diaper fetish" using the National Library of Medicine search engine on this site, the search produces no real articles. So it appears that the medical profession does not know much about this problem. The long-term effects are, therefore, mostly unknown. But there are obvious potential social problems. Even kids who need to wear diapers for medical reasons are teased and even humiliated if their peers discover their diapers. Therefore, if your son's friends discover his desire (compulsion?) to wear diapers, he will probably be socially ostracized. Adults who have a compulsion to wear diapers have posted on this board and say that it has destroyed their relationships, particularly intimate relationships. Some of these adults indicate that they have sought psychiatric help for this problem. Perhaps someday this behavior may be accepted openly in the same manner as other previously closet behaviors, like cross-dressing or homosexuality, are now accepted. Nevertheless, there may be underlying psychological problems that bring about this desire to leap back into infancy. It may help for you to talk with a child psychologist. |