Infantilism is a condition wherein a person feels the desire to wear diapers or wear other baby accessories as a way of somewhat regressing back to their infantile days, without any medical reasons at all. Some of them do it occasionally, while others do it 24/7, wearing diapers under their clothing all the time. Some also get pleasure out of urinating in their diapers, while some (about 10%) even defecate on it. However, according to some surveys, most infantilists just enjoy wearing the diapers without feeling the need to relieve themselves on it.

Infantilism can also refer to diaper lovers (DL) or those who get sexually aroused by role playing using diapers. These people do not necessarily take the infant role playing outside of the sexual context. Another classification of is an adult baby (AB) where the role playing rather than the diapers is the main source of arousal. AB/DL’s are those who get aroused by both.

Infantilism is not pedophilia. Infantilism in the sexual sense does not involve having sex with children, but rather consenting adults who dress and play infants and toddlers. There are no medical explanations yet as to why people engage in this kind of behavior, but experts agree that there is no harm in this type of fetish, whether in a non-sexual or sexual way.