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The term paraphilia was coined by psychologists in the early 1900s, to refer to the sexual variations that were just starting to be researched. Because of a lack of understanding, it included transvestism and other non-sexual variations as well. Previously, these were called "perversions," a word with an intolerant and hateful connotation. The Paraphilics that the psychologists saw were seeking help for a behavior that they could not control. The work retained this meaning, and did not change to include those who were sexually curious or trying out a new kink. A paraphilia is a persistent drive toward an unusual sexual practice or social role. Common examples include fetishism, masochism, and transvestism.
One particular psychotherapist, Sigmund Freud, held that human sexuality advanced through stages. He held that individuals would progress toward 'normal' heterosexuality unless prevented. He saw all paraphilias as infantile, that is, not mature. Because the paraphilias that involved diapers fit well into this theory, they were well documented. Wilhelm Stekel's Patterns of Psychosexual Infantilism came from this age. Homosexuality, sadism, zoophilia, and many others were included in his examples.
As research advanced, Freud's notion of psychosexual infantilism was replaced with newer views. These newer views dealt individually with the major paraphilias, such as fetishism, masochism, and transvestism. The diaper paraphilias were generally lumped into one of these major categories to as a result of the author's viewpoints. The only change in this lumping came with the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IIIR) in 1987. It used "infantilism" to refer to those who had a "desire to be treated as a helpless infant and clothed in diapers." DSM lumped infantilism under sexual masochism.
This is the modern meaning of paraphilic infantilism, or less formally, infantilism.
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