So, I have a theory on how ABDL came to be: Society allowed it. A century or more ago, children didn’t have the luxury of being “a child.” Children were put to work as soon as they were able, whether in the house or out the house as child labor. Orphaned children were sent to work in poorhouses or were on the street as beggars. If they were lucky, they got to be in an orphanage. Children weren’t allowed to “children.” They basically had to be “little adults.”
As we all know, our experiences are what makes us, “us.” Children back then didn’t have much experience as babies. Babies were potty trained as soon as they were able, usually by 12 months. There weren’t training pants or many baby items that would make it into our conscious memory. Most of the baby items that we know today simply didn’t exist or were taken away at a much younger age. As they say, out of sight, out of mind.
Based on my observation of the community (which I could be wrong), the majority of us had certain “trigger points” that brought ABDL feelings to the surface, but a lot of these trigger points simply wouldn’t have existed if we had been born centuries earlier.
I have to disagree a lot of things that trigger us today existed much earlier than you think and that included slavery and just about every type ofr abuse you can think of. Also potty training cannot be achieved at 12 months due to both physiology and brain developement, earliest would be 24 months and is usually closer to 3 years especially for boys.
I personally think the abdl we have today, that encourages self regression, is about as old as the internet BUT abdl has existed for a verrrrrryyyyyyyyy long time. Like, the idea of reversing your age was probably one of the afterlife scenarios for those ancient tribal religions lost when the the roman empire conquered and purged the land.
The fountain of youth story involves reversing age and it’s ancient., So getting younger is old as old I think. But disposable diapers with super absorbent polymer (which is my favorite thing about abdl) are maybe 70 years old idk exactly but plastic isn’t a very old material, and self diapering was probably something that could get you lynched not longer that 100 years ago.
Sorry I dragged this one out but in conclusion I believe our abdl is very young in terms of our history
We also have to consider how much we struggle with ABDL identity in the age of the internet where we have access to knowing about others like us. Imagine in an age like Victorian England where your image is everything and you don’t dare Express this nor go looking for it. People may very well have had these desires but never wanted to Express them publicly, nor share them with other people at all.
Incontinence is a natural occurrence throughout history whether due to medical issues or age. One would imagine people would be able to connect being babied with wearing cloth diapers and vice versa. Or an attraction to Wet Nurses. Maybe it was more the SM style where people liked being spanked, paddled or caned like a young child being punished. And, as was brought up by MabelPines, the desire to feel younger has ALWAYS been prevalent.
Perhaps there are radically different idealized notions of feeling younger and in that regard I can see your point where being a child was NOT idealized like it is today. But those secret desires would still loom for certain people no matter the period of time.
70 years ago your only choice were cloth nappies and rubber waterproof pants. and I doubt you would have got lynched for putting on aand using a nappy but it would have got you committed to a local asylum probably for the rest of your natural life.
As an interesting side note to this I looked at the history of diapers and it actually wasn’t “nice” until the realization that you needed to wash them. In the past they usually weren’t changed for days. And the dirty ones were just shook out and hanged to dry. They did not realize the connection between being around human waste and poor health. (Remember the Black Plague?) All I can say is I’m glad to be an ABDL in the time we live. I love my disposables and cloth nappies. Nothing is better than a nice clean white nappy wrapped around you and using it. Not to mention the squishy feeling from disposables.
in Rural communiyes in china when potty training starts the children are given pants that have a slit in the back, if they need to go once they stoop the split opens so they can evacuate with soiling their clothes.
I’m pre internet. So I didn’t really change with the internet. The only difference the internet made is now we know others exist. There are so many variables involved in our make up, it would be impossible to pinpoint one sort of childhood that starts it in all of us. The idea that childhood ended too early or late is a factor in some of us for sure but, mostly it’s the chemical balance in our brains. In other words, genetics. For instance I’ve pinpointed several people in my own family, aunt’s uncles and cousins included, that have distinct traits of infantilism. They hide from them behind adulthood but, they have them. Psychiatry has come a long way from measuring mental illness by the level of shame you have ( how different you act). Let’s face it fetishes have been around since the the first acts of masterbation.
It’s so hard to tell what triggers ABDL. Child abuse might be a number one answer, and for those that were that are reading this that were, my hart breaks for you. You deserve to be “little” for the rest of your life, don’t ever be ashamed of it. I had a GREAT childhood, but have also been disabled all my life contracting cerebral palsy at birth and I think that’s my reason for being an abdl. The care that I need every day is like a 6 to 10 month old. Ironicly, my little side is that age too. Who knows.
