THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200369
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
Christine Poole, 18 months old and raring to splash in the cool water of the pool at the Mount Trashmore YMCA, lay on her back on a chaise longue, kicking her feet impatiently while her diaper was removed.
Christine wouldn't be wearing her plastic-lined, polymer-filled diaper in this pool. The Virginia Beach YMCA, like many other swim spots around the country, has banned disposable diapers from its waters.
For all their convenience on dry land, disposables can be perilous in the pool. An inner layer of moisture-capturing gel can become saturated with water, swelling, sagging, weighing down an already unsteady baby. Sometimes weighty diapers snap open, spilling their contents into the pool.
``We prefer to call it splitting, rather than exploding,'' said Stewart Scott, public affairs manager for Procter & Gamble, which makes Luvs and Pampers diapers.
P&G has received no reports of safety problems with the diapers, but it does recommend parents use plastic pants when babies go swimming with disposables. The pants help prevent incidents like one that occurred at the Virginia Beach YMCA earlier this summer, before the ban.
Then, fecal matter escaped from a child's diaper, and staff members had to close the pool, vacuum it, super-chlorinate it and filter the water - keeping people out for about six hours, said Jay Crawford, associate executive director. Afterward, the Y decided to go beyond simply requiring plastic pants and banned disposables entirely.
Now, trendy toddlers at the Y - like Christine - are wearing brightly colored swim diapers, which parents fondly call ``baby Speedos'' because of their resemblance to men's racing briefs.
Toddling around the Y's baby pool on a steaming day last week, Robert Finch, 2, was wearing a vivid red swim diaper.
``Personally, I think it's a good idea to ban disposables,'' said his mother, Marie Finch, of Virginia Beach. ``They fill with water; they explode; they get gel all over the place.''
Parents have generally complied with the disposables ban, Crawford said. And the YMCA provides plastic pants to go over children's bathing suits for parents who forget.
``We're trying to be proactive,'' he said. ``Because with the heat, a lot of people want to use the pool, and we don't want to close it down.''
Other pools have not taken such a drastic step. At Mallory Country Club in Norfolk, a spokeswoman said there were no problems with disintegrating diapers.
At the Chesapeake YMCA in Greenbrier, aquatics director Michelle Hibler said that although the diapers hadn't been banned, parents were ``strongly encouraged'' to have their children wear plastic pants over disposables.
``They explode,'' she said of the disposables. ``We know that.''
Her staff cleans up several disintegrated diapers each day from the decking around the pools, she said. The diapers fall apart after the children leave the pool. cool water of the pool at the Mount Trashmore YMCA, lay on her back on a chaise longue, kicking her feet impatiently while her diaper was removed.
Christine wouldn't be wearing her plastic-lined, polymer-filled diaper in this pool. The Virginia Beach YMCA, like many other swim spots around the country, has banned disposable diapers from its waters.
For all their convenience on dry land, disposables can be perilous in the pool. An inner layer of moisture-capturing gel can become saturated with water, swelling, sagging, weighing down an already unsteady baby. Sometimes weighty diapers snap open, spilling their contents into the pool.
``We prefer to call it splitting, rather than exploding,'' said Stewart Scott, public affairs manager for Procter & Gamble, which makes Luvs and Pampers diapers.
P&G has received no reports of safety problems with the diapers, but it does recommend parents use plastic pants when babies go swimming with disposables. The pants help prevent incidents like one that occurred at the Virginia Beach YMCA earlier this summer, before the ban.
Then, fecal matter escaped from a child's diaper, and staff members had to close the pool, vacuum it, super-chlorinate it and filter the water - keeping people out for about six hours, said Jay Crawford, associate executive director. Afterward, the Y decided to go beyond simply requiring plastic pants and banned disposables entirely.
Now, trendy toddlers at the Y - like Christine - are wearing brightly colored swim diapers, which parents fondly call ``baby Speedos'' because of their resemblance to men's racing briefs.
Toddling around the Y's baby pool on a steaming day last week, Robert Finch, 2, was wearing a vivid red swim diaper.
``Personally, I think it's a good idea to ban disposables,'' said his mother, Marie Finch, of Virginia Beach. ``They fill with water; they explode; they get gel all over the place.''
Parents have generally complied with the disposables ban, Crawford said. And the YMCA provides plastic pants to go over children's bathing suits for parents who forget.
``We're trying to be proactive,'' he said. ``Because with the heat, a lot of people want to use the pool,and we don't want to close it down.''
Other pools have not taken such a drastic step. At Mallory Country Club in Norfolk, a spokeswoman said there were no problems with disintegrating diapers.
At the Chesapeake YMCA in Greenbrier, aquatics director Michelle Hibler said that although the diapers hadn't been banned, parents were ``strongly encouraged'' to have their children wear plastic pants over disposables.
``They explode,'' she said of the disposables. ``We know that.''
Her staff cleans up several disintegrated diapers each day from the decking around the pools, she said. The diapers fall apart after the children leave the pool.
The four pools run by the Norfolk Parks and Recreation Department have had no ``baby bathroom'' problems since officials began requiring diapered youths to wear plastic pants over disposables several years ago.
Although the Indian River YMCA in Virginia Beach recently had a ``poop'' accident in its indoor pool, it hasn't banned the diapers, said Laurie Watts, executive director. She doesn't think the problem is as severe for indoor pools, since children don't usually spend as much time in them as outdoor pools.
The exploding-disposables problem has been a boon for the Baby Superstore in Virginia Beach, which stocks two brands of infant swim-diapers. This is the second year the store has stocked them, said manager Glenda Warren, and ``sales are terrific.''
The swim diapers cost about $8 apiece. They're machine washable, composed of a polyurethane-coated polyester shell and a polyester lining. Because they fit snugly around a child's thighs and waist, they hold in any fecal matter that might otherwise slip into the pool.
Ann Poole, Christine's mother, ordered hers from a baby catalog months ago. ``I wanted to be ready,'' she said as she finished changing Christine and led her into the water.
Do they work?
``They catch what they have to.''
KEYWORDS: COLOR STAFF PHOTO BY D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
MARIE FINCH OF VIRGINIA BEACH PLAYS WITH HER SON, ROBERT, IN THE
MOUNT TRASHMORE YMCA POOL.
by CNB