YOU Magazine (South Africa) Circa 1995 and 2013

Up today I have a few contributions sent in by WindmanSA, a contest sponsor and blog reader from South Africa. You'll recall that, back in January, I wrote about an upcoming ABDL article in YOU Magazine. Windman was nice enough to dig through his archives and find some articles that that same magazine published on the subject back in 1995 - a full eighteen years ago. It seems that YOU has been interested in our community for quite some time. Anyway, the screenshots are below; if you want a copy of the actual PDF files please email me or just hit up Windman directly at dadda@outlook.com. And scroll below for the text...

Beneath them is the text from the newest article, published this month. Check it! Interesting stuff.

Thanks for sharing!!

CLICK ON THE PICS TO MAKE THEM BIGGER

And, below, also courtesy of WindmanSA,
is the text from the most recent YOU magazine article,
published last month:

He dresses in nappies, sucks a dummy - and offers support for other South Africans like him

By JACO HOUGH-COETZEE

He’s a boerseun ( a typical South African Afrikaans boy ) from the Northern Cape and a factory foreman who oversees 80 people. At - weekends he braais (barbeques) with the guys, drinks brandy and Coke and talks rugby. In between he teaches karate.

Bur Johan Prinsloo * (not his real name ~ 40) has a secret: every day He wears a disposable nappy under his jeans. And at night he puts on an extra-large nappy before he goes to bed. Sometimes he even sucks a dummy

Johan is an adult baby and the fact that he wears nappies has nothing to do with health problems - he's just a grown-up who chooses to escape to a baby world where he feels emotionally secure.

It’s a worldwide phenomenon (see box on opposite page) and was recently m the news again in the UK when Channel 4 broadcast the documentary the 15 Stone Babies.

Johan is married with two children, which is why he prefers not to reveal his true iden­tity But he isn’t ashamed to be an infantilist - the name for adults who sometimes live like babies.

He readily poses for photographs and even puts on his oversized nappy He laughs when he's addressed as meneer (mister). A man who still wears nappies is definitely not a meneer, he says. "Rather call me meneertjie ?(meneertjie = little man)

He says without all the baby parapherna­lia he feels defenceless and afraid. If it weren't for that l don’t know if I’d be able to face the challenges of every day.

The first time he read about adults who, like him* choose to live in a baby world was in YOU in 1996 (29 February), When he put on a nappy for the first time in his early twenties but thought he was the only man la the world to do so.

But after reading the article he began to

search the internet for the keywords infantilism* and "adult baby syndrome" - and suddenly he was no longer alone.

"There are hundreds of websites overseas with thousands of members who practise infantilism," he says. *But here in South Africa there was nothing.”

That’s why he recently started his website, adultbabies.co.za “

"The message I want to get across it’s okay to be this way — you're not alone

The ashtray on the stoep (veranda) is soon full because Johan puts out one cigarette after another. He's nervous because this it’s first time he's telling his story to stranger he admits. An hour ago he took a headache powder to steady his nerves,

But if you hide all the time and deny that you are an infantilist you end up major psychological problems.

He hid it for 18 years but now accepts himself, he says after his fourth cup of coffee. “It was a hell of a long road towards acceptance. You go through phases when you wear a nappy and are okay with it, but then the feelings of guilt return. Then you throw everything away, only to go out and buy the next batch a month later.”

A psychologist he consulted in 2003 said he thought Johan hadn’t received enough love from his mother as child.

“Could be, I don’t know. I remember how my father assaulted my mother every time she was unfaithful. After their divorce she often left us alone when she went out.”

To grow up in such circumstances makes you feel powerless. You think it’s your fault. Later your poor self-image gets the better of you.”

But he doesn’t blame his parents. “Still, after everything, I couldn’t have asked for better parents. All parents do the best they can for their child at that particular moment in their lives.”

What he did learn from his psychological counselling sessions was to talk about his fears and emotions. I can’t change myself: no one can. Communication, that‘s the key. After i learnt to communicate, my marriage’s the strongest it’s been in 10 years.

But he doesn't want his two primary school-age kids to know about his infanti­lism yet. "One day when they're older I’ll xplain it to them.”

At night, when the children are asleep, he puts on one of his large, brightly coloured nappies. If he's had a bad day at work his wife holds him while he spends a long time sucking at her breast. She comforts him and strokes his forehead. If he’s away from home he can't sleep without a dummy in his mouth.

He refills his cup again. "All people have their issues. Some reach for alcohol and oth­ers take drugs. I reach for my dummy and nappies.

He has 13 of these nappies in his ward­robe at home. And one of these days, when his website is up and running, he wants to sell the homemade nappies on the site. He knows 10 other infantilists and among them they know or about 100 in country.

”But I estimate there could be as a thousand of us. Because you to register on the discussion forum on site, we'll soon know the correct estimate”

On the morning of our visit 17 people had already registered on the forum.

His wife doesn’t want to say much about her husband s habits. “Ag, whatever ….” was her only reaction when Johan told her about the interview.

After another cup of coffee he feels better, i t was good to talk about it, he says.

And his message to other infantilists "Accept yourself, warts and all. Having a disorder doesn‘t make you a bad person.”

 * Not his real name

THE WORLD OF ADULT BABIES

The documentary The 15-Stone Babies sheds light on the secret fives of adults Who wear disposable nappies, suck dummies and drink from baby's bottles.

A couple on the south coast off England, introduced only as Maxine and Derek, have had a nursery in their house for 10 years where adults are treated like babies. It's one of about a dozen in England.

Maxine plays mom to Derek and other adults who pay £50 (about R700) an hour to be pacified, fed baby food and given bottles, and to have their nappies changed.

“As soon as you mention adult baby, they all think it's something to do with children, you know paedophiles,” explains Derek, who’s been married for 27 years.m“We don’t want to be with children. We want to be the child.”

Charlie Arnold (31) has been going to a day-care centre at the University of Ne­braska at Omaha (UNO) since 2011.

 "A lot of people think we're doing something sick but adult babies just want to be like a baby," he says.

Adult babies are well monitored and investigated before they're allowed to attend day-care centres.

"Some of these adult babies' obsession can be rooted to certain childhood events, while others evolve their lifestyle later life," says Femi Cootie, a professor of psychology at UNO.

“Regardless of how they got this psychological obsession, they're Just trying to escape the realities, stresses and burdens of adult life"

The kids at the centre no longer see Charlie as an adult, says Martha Hubbard, an employee there. “They associate him as being the head kid in charge and also the kids who needs the most diaper changes. Besides his size, that separates him from the other children.” Martha says, “Well, expect that he also drives two of our kids’ home at the end of the day.”