Huggies vs. Pampers

I'm a single mum, who was interested in making the best decision for my baby. For what it's worth, here is what I found out:

I got tired of listening to all the advertising rhetoric, so I asked a paediatrician what I should do; cloth with anti-wetness insert, huggies, pampers, luvs, generic... He said that cloth diapers, no matter what they are made of, and what barrier you use, are MUCH more likely to cause skin irritation. Of the commercial brands of disposables, he didn't express a preference.

So... I conducted my own scientific test, using diapers from Pampers, Luvs, Huggies, and some generic brands. I poured 500 ml of water into each diaper, then tested at 1, 2 and 5 minutes to see which brand held water away from the 'bum' surface of the diaper.

Results:

1)Pampers and Luvs performed equally well at holding the large quantity of water, and at keeping the inner surface of the diaper dry. After 2 minutes, very little moisture was detectable, and after 5 minutes, there was no moisture at all. They didn't leak, even under 10 kg of constant pressure.

2) Huggies were a distant second. They contained the water very efficiently, but the bum side of the diaper remained moist for 16 minutes. Also, putting pressure (10 kg) on the diapers caused the Huggies diaper to split on the inside surface.

3) Superstore Brand (Canadian) generic diapers were better than Huggies, but not as good as Pampers or Luvs. They didn't hold as much water without leaking, and tended to let water out of the absorptive layer when the weight was applied. Also, the bum side layer was moist until almost 8 minutes.

4) Safeway, Co-op, Walmart: Ick. Wet. They didn't hold the full 500 ml of water no matter how slowly I poured. The bum side surface was not dry on most of these, even after 30 minutes, so I couldn't do the 10 kg weight test. It seems that generic diapers are like the big brand name diapers, but without as much absorptive properties. "Diapers Lite", if you will.

5) Cloth with disposable 'stay dry' lining: Even the modern, fitted, well-padded cloth diapers cannot hold 500 ml. I couldn't get them to hold much more than 300 ml. The stay dry linings do not keep moisture away from baby's bum, because the cloth wicks moisture throughout the entire diaper. No wonder we were cranky when we were babies!!

"Bottom" line: (Sorry, terrible pun...) If you want to give your child a complex, not to mention diaper rash, urinary tract infections, and nasty smell, use cloth diapers. If you want to give your child the most in comfort and avoidance of infections, use Pampers or Luvs if possible. I found that many diapers size differently, and some adjusting was necessary to get the most out of each stage or size of diaper.

I hope this helps.

Stephanie

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