Hi all,
I've never been dry due to a neurological developmental issue. That was at least the conclusion after many test I've been through as a girl. When I feel really good (energetic, rested) I can sometimes manage to stay dry during daytime. But it's a continual conscious mental effort.
Other than that, I've always needed diapers and plastic pants. My mother disliked disposables and raised all of us in 'old-fashioned' cloth diapers and plastic pants and I have followed that for the most part. When I am away from home I do use disposables though, but I try to minimise the amount of waste I produce.
But I also like plastic pants & cloth diapers way better. During a couple of years in my teens we couldn't find plastic pants that would fit me, so I had to use whatever the pharmacy had in store: the usual Tena and Molicare diapers. I hated them with a vengeance because they screamed "Incontinent patient!" with their discrete and euphemistically-worded slogans: "protective briefs". Ugh. I also hated their clinical smell and the barren, bone-dry crackling sound they made.
I never felt I was a patient, or that I needed to be ashamed for my wetting. Some need glasses, some need a wheelchair and some need diapers. Of course wearing diapers can be cumbersome and a hassle. And when it's hot I often wished I could sleep in regular undies. But overall I was quite happy wearing diapers and plastic pants. They made me feel snug and cozy, and I have always loved the smell of plastic panties: I associate it with summer evenings, the laundrybasket full of clean clothes, talcum powder and - girls' stuff like soap and sweet-scented deodorants.
I can't say that I ever had the same sort of feelings about diapers and plastic pants as what I read about (here, for instance) that many others have. Maybe that's because most are guys? Still, I do have strong feelings about diapers and plastic pants and I've only recently realised how deep they go. It's kind of hard though, because I've never yet met another girl who grew up in a similar situation and having a similar condition.
The first thing is that for me, diapers and plastic pants are about feeling good, safe, comfortable and cared about. But there's also something like 'feeling special' and something halfway between proud and shy (I don't know if there's a word for that?). As both the youngest child in the family *and* a child with some special needs I was maybe a tiny bit spoiled but, according to my mother, "too scatterbrained to exploit it". I merely enjoyed the attention. For some reason I also came to associate the plastic snap-button panties I wore with 'being girlish'. This was heaven-sent, because I had been introverted and withdrawn before it was found what the problem was - but my next-older sister was a real little lady. I could never be like her. But afterwards, those plastic panties were my particular way of being girlish. And without ruffles 😃
I noticed how many people here say they love the feelin of plastic pants against their skin and wear them without diapers. Of course I tried that, a long time ago even. But I couldn't care less: the wet plastic clinging to my skin just feels awkward. No, I definitely like how plastic pants feel - but that's for the outside! Even as a toddler I was fascinated by the many folds and creases in my plastic pants and loved the feeling when the plastic touches my legs or my hand brushes over the plastic. I often used to run my fingers through those follds in the plastic, producing a most recognisable plastic-pant-like swishing or wheezing sound. That's because of the plastic's taffeta texture (I could write it out as "whee-oow" maybe) and I find that sound still absolutely mesmerising. It feels as if it symbolises everything that's good about plastic panties: the luxurious softness, the feeling of being protected - it's like a cloud of sweet tenderness. I've read many people talking about how plastic pants "rustle" - but what sound do you mean by that? Plastic foil also makes this typical sound when you manipulate it - a kind of folding-and-creasing-sound if you understand what I mean - and though I sort of like that as well, it's not the not the same as that illegally cute and babyish "wheeeooow" 😃
That's why I dislike tight-fitting plastic pants or pants made from smooth or shiny (yuck!) foil. It's unfortunate that many brands use texture-less foil (like Suprima) and the brands we used to have here in the Netherlands (SGA, Easyplast) have slowly deteriorated to the point that they're now producing pants made from pressed cardboard. But not all is lost, because Fabimonti in Germany makes pants from a lovely soft textured pvc, though the pants aren't very well made and the texture is way too fine to my taste (it's hardly visible - though it is audible).
That's more than enough for now ... I'm curious if there is anyone here who likes plastic pants in a similar way, or who at least recognises the textured-plastic-panties-sound that I've tried to describe?