Why Do Huggies Baby-Shaped Diapers Not Fit My Baby?
Written: May 04 '06 (Updated May 31 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: coupons and sales abound, easy to find
Cons: leaks, leaks, and more leaks, tabs break, and oh yeah they don't fit right
The Bottom Line: Do not buy these diapers. If you really have to try these, buy a small package and see for yourself.
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| jeavinl's Full Review: Huggies Diapers |
A diaper is a diaper is a diaper. Right? Wrong. My 17-month-old has used many brands in her short life, from grocery store brands to Pampers. Despite the coupons and the cute Disney characters, Huggies has been a disappointment. We bought the size 3 diapers on two occasions from Costco, once when she was at the low end of the weight requirement and once, more recently, when she was at the high end. They came in giant boxes of 174 diapers. I can’t remember exactly how much the box cost but I remember we had a coupon and the per diaper cost came out to be about .20, a good price but not as low as some store brands. Both times I kicked myself for buying Huggies. They were bad experiences, the worst I’ve had with any diaper.
THE BASICS
Huggies are disposable diapers made for newborns through toddlers. They are “baby shaped” with a flexible waist band and contain internal particles that form a gel when wet. The box touts “triple protection leak barriers” that supposedly prevent mishaps. Each diaper has a cute Mickey Mouse character on the front of the waistband. The diapers are widely available in many package sizes in a slew of discount, grocery, and drug stores.
SIZES
Size 1: up to 14 lbs
Size 2: 12 – 18 lbs
Size 3: 16 – 28 lbs
Size 4: 22 – 37 lbs
Size 5: over 27 lbs
Size 6: over 35 lbs
ABSORBENCY
These are the worst diapers I’ve used. The only times I’ve had to strip my baby and the crib in the middle of the night (actually in the daytime, too) were when she was wearing Huggies diapers. I believe it happened on three or four occasions. We also had some poopy leakage on the carpet once or twice, something we never experienced with other brands. And no, she didn’t have diarrhea at the time.
The inside of the diaper does a decent job of whisking away the fluids that land on it, though the lining does still stay damp. Perhaps the actual gel-forming particles work, but the waste that comes into contact with the diaper often never makes contact with it because of the poor elastic design.
There are two points of leakage that I see with this brand. The first is the leg elastic. The material is thin and the elastic tends to shift, creating an open space for leaks to escape. I tried my hardest to adjust the leg elastic so that it fit more snugly around my daughter’s tush, but it still tended to bunch up when she sat, crawled, or walked.
The other point is the back of the diaper. The absorbent material ends right at the butt crack and the rest of it is a paper-thin material. As soon as my daughter would sit down, everything inside the diaper would get squooshed and rise up. Often that was her position for pooping so I had lots of messy laundry to wash. What a yucky mess! The other problem with the back of the diaper is that it isn’t very stretchy, so it didn’t conform to my daughter’s body and the leaks poured out.
COMFORT AND FIT
Unlike some cheaper brands the elastic leg openings didn’t scratch or irritate my daughter’s skin and neither did the bottom of the waistband. That said, the sizes of these diapers are way off. When my daughter was about 18 pounds the size 3’s seemed too baggy. The leg openings fit alright and the waist could be pulled tight, but the rest of the diaper ballooned around her. When she was about 23 pounds, the waistband on the 3’s was too tight. Since we only used size 3’s, I can’t speak for the other sizes.
The diapers themselves are made of a cheap-feeling thin material that seems kind of scratchy. Although they didn’t irritate my daughter, I could see them irritating a baby with more sensitive skin.
DURABILITY
Although these diapers claim to have the “flexiest” (not a word in my dictionary) waistband, the tabs break off very easily. I wouldn’t have a problem if one or two diapers in the bunch were duds, but I would estimate about 10-15 out of the 174 diaper boxes were useless because the Velcro tabs broke off while I was changing my daughter. In my book, that’s a lot of diapers to throw out without ever using.
OVERALL
You can often find coupons and/or Huggies diapers on sale. This is because they are awful, not because the company is giving you a good deal. I have heard others say they like the Huggies Overnites, but I was so disgusted with these that I couldn’t buy another diaper from them. I am tempted to use their potty-training Pull-Ups this summer since I’ve heard those are good.
FROM THE MANUFACTURER
HUGGIES® Diapers are shaped to fit your unique baby for unbeatable leak protection. That’s the Baby-shaped difference!
Only Baby-Shaped® HUGGIES® Diapers have a waistband with unbeatable, all-the-way-around leak protection. It's the flexiest fit ever!
www.huggies.com
Here are some other diapers I’ve reviewed:
Kirkland Signature
Pampers Swaddlers
Pampers Baby-Dry
Recommended:
No
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