TMI? Smart diapers recording, tweeting parents on baby bottom activity

Diapers used to just be for catching your baby’s waste, but apparently even the diaper is getting a “smart” makeover.

After seeing a video touting the benefits of a new smart diaper that gives parents a report on baby’s health from their – er, movements – KIRO Radio talk host John Curley thought it was a joke.

“This is not a parody,” said John. “I’ve checked in on two or three websites.”

The video John found was an ad for a fundraising campaign for a new diaper that features a QR code allowing parents to scan a patch on the diaper and see health indicators from baby’s pee.

The makers of Smart Diapers say the product can alert parents to medical conditions like urinary tract infections, dehydration, or kidney problems. Results are supposed to be so useful you could actually use them to consult with your doctor.

“You can actually send the results to the doctor and he can make a diagnosis off of the results,” says the video.

John can’t imagine how doctors will react to getting an email from baby’s Smart Diaper.

“I think most parents would not do this. Any pediatrician that would get this email ‘I’m concerned about my child’s urine?’ Oh will you relax.”

These Smart Diapers aren’t the only product notifying parents of their child’s elimination habits. KIRO Radio’s Andrew Walsh tells John about another new product called TweetPee from Huggies Brazil. It’s a diaper sensor that actually tweets diaper messages to parents.

“Once your baby soils itself, you get a tweet. It lets you know. It lets parents monitor diaper moisture, inventory, and keeps count of the average amount of diapers the baby uses.”

When John had kids in diapers years ago, he was just impressed with how well they performed their primary function. He says they really put their diapers to the test once, just for fun.

“With Charlie, our first one, we wanted to see how much urine we could fill in the one diaper. We put her in it around seven in the morning and I don’t think we changed it until nine at night.”

“There was no rashing. There was no discomfort […] It was super heavy and hard, you could punch at it if you wanted to,” said John. “The thing is amazing. It can fill right up.”

Do you want or expect all these new-fangled reports from our diapers, or should we just be satisfied that they continue to serve well in the purpose they were designed for?