The Nappy Showdown


Ok, so call me weird, cheap, whatever. Ever since Audrey was born, I've been wondering whether or not the more expensive diapers are 'worth it.' I mean hey--the first three months of life they use about 12 per day (from there it slowly decreases to about 6-8). And just in case you haven't been in the market for diapers lately, let me tell you: they ain't cheap. Assuming you don't buy the smallest pack, which is obviously most expensive per diaper, they can still easily run $0.20 to $0.35 per unit on average. That's on average. There are always cheap, cheap diapers like Luvs, Cloud, Target brand, etc. But for the sake of this laboratory experiment, we stayed with the two most well-known brands: Huggies and Pampers. When Audrey was born, we tried all varieties of these brands and the hands-down best were Pampers Swaddlers. Soft like cloth diapers, absorbent, not bulky, etc. No contest. But these don't come in the larger sizes.

So for the past few months I've been bouncing back and forth between the regular old-fashioned regular Huggies Baby-Shaped Fit (Mega-box at CostCo, about $0.20 each), Huggies Supreme Natural Fit (their premium brand), Pampers Baby Dry and Pampers Cruisers (all of the aforementioned cost around $0.30 each) Pampers Baby Dry seemed to leak, so they were 'out'. The others seemed about the same, but then again what do I know? I'm not the one wearing them.

So I've been wondering how they would hold up in a test at the Coachella Lab Kitchen.

Three diapers Huggies Baby-Shaped, Huggies Supreme Natural Fit, and Pampers Cruisers



Each diaper was filled with 2ooml liquid



The pre-verbal jury watches intently, waiting for her parents to discover what she knew long ago.



Each diaper was then tested for wetness & leakage....




....as well as comfort (defined and measured by how bulky & lumpy the nappy felt when wet)



And the winner is: Diaper C--Pampers Cruisers. Not only was there zero wetness when a paper towel was pressed onto the diaper for 5 seconds, but it stayed remarkably soft, smooth and thin, whereas both other diapers bulked up considerably. With that being said, both Huggies performed only slightly worse than the Pampers. Further both Huggies measured the same in wetness, although the Huggies Supreme is made of slightly softer material.

In the end, our verdict is that because of the significant cost-savings ($0.10 each) we will probably continue using the regular Huggies for regular day-to-day nappies, which are frequently changed anyways. For nighttime and traveling however, Pampers Cruisers are our absolute new fave.



Audrey celebrates the results with a Newcastle.