Beginning in 1960, and continuing to present day, a high-tech, top secret, expensive, yet lucrative, war has waged daily over the most innocent bystanders on the planet – babies.
Disposable diapers are a 7 billion dollar market, complete with extensive diaper labs and development centers, scientists, chemical engineers, seamstresses, and thousands of testers. Makes the cloth diaper industry seem a bit of an underdog, doesn’t it? Gotta love the underdog.
According to ABC News Nighline reporter, Sharyn Alfonsi, there is a battle for baby’s bottom.
Pampers and Huggies Duke-it-out!
As the U.S. birth rate has declined in the last decade, Pampers and Huggies, the two disposable diaper industry giants, have duked-it-out – each one wanting to grab that market and hang on tight. With the increasing “GREEN” consciousness raging across the nation, there are smaller contenders riding the wave as well; take for instance, gDiapers, and hybrid diapers like GroVia and bumGenius!.
Alfonsi reports from within Pamper’s Top Secret Research and Development Center where over 500 scientists, chemical engineers and seamstresses work to improve the look, feel, absorbency, and trimness of today’s disposable diapers. They go so far as to x-ray diapers – even creating 3-dimensional models.
All in the name of science.
Would you believe they have tester moms who take home the diapers, test them, and then return the soiled diapers to Pampers to be picked apart and sniffed? Yep, one entire unit is dedicated to bowel movements – as Alfonsi said, “…all in the name of science.”
Why would Pampers let down their guard, allowing Alfonsi to be the first to enter this top secret developmental center? A clue is given in the last portion of this report when the friendly Pampers’ representative took time to openly refute complaints about their Dry Max Diapers. The Pampers Dry Max Diapers were reported as giving extreme diaper rash and chemical burns – a Facebook Group was even created for moms to come together, post photos, make reports, and inform parents.
What was Pampers’ response?
“There’s been no data being able to link the Dry Max product to any kind of skin irritation. Dry Max was tested on over 20,000 babies.”
What about the photos on Facebook? What about the complaints? Does that not constitute as data?
With the millions of diapers spent on research, and the billions of diapers to be had in the industry, disposable diaper companies are positioning to be the favorite in households. It is satisfying that in the midst of all this a literal cloth diaper revival seems to be occurring; don’t doubt for a second Pampers and Huggies aren’t aware.
Research indicates consumers are brand loyal, and the game is on to get them to switch, whether it be for a limited edition, jean diaper, or for designer diapers.
Of course, you could always ditch those two choices altogether and go for a more natural, eco-friendly, cozy-for-baby solution – cloth diapers.
Bryana is the owner of 
Becca is a part-time Spanish Teacher and part-time Stay-At-Home-Mom. She's a cloth diaper expert who enjoys spending time with her family, crafting and selling her wares in her very own
Julie is a mom to three kids including a set of identical twins. Through cloth diapering her twins she developed a passion for the industry and is an avid cloth diaper advocate. You can also find her on her blog
To be honest I don’t care what they do anymore. After thinking of doing cloth with my oldest and circumstances making it beyond my control so we used the disposables I’m switching now. As soon as I can find an overnight solution that works for my almost potty trained 4 year old we will be completely off the disposable diaper buying list. Cloth for the new one due soon from the beginning.
I use only cloth diapers. I wish I hadn’t used disposables during the first 6ish weeks of my daughter’s life, but I was brand new to cloth (modern cloth) and had NO CLUE. Now, I will NEVER put a disposable diaper on my child again.
I am also in the process of coming back to disposable wipes. I tried them briefly, found them to be really inconvenient, and gave up. I’ve been using Pampers sensitive wipes. I know my husband will not use cloth wipes, so I recently had to buy more wipes. I bought Huggies. I won’t buy anything from Pampers ever again because I think the way they handled the Dry Max issue is sickening. They basically just told all those moms they were nuts and to just stop whining. So Pampers has lost one little customer, and as soon as I get myself ready to try a new method with the cloth wipes, Huggies won’t be getting much of our money either, since I do most of the diapering!
Chemical Burns!?!? After seeing all those disposables on those little bottoms it made me sad! It shouldn’t take teams of chemists to diaper a child!!! I love cloth and have never been so glad that we use it!
Kathy, I’m curious about your struggles with cloth wipes. I’ve found them to be just as easy as disposable wipes, maybe even easier, because I don’t have to have a diaper pail for dipes and a trash can for wipes–it all goes in the same place now. My husband doens’t really care one way or the other about wipes.
Watching this spot on ABC just made me glad that I’m no longer participating in this 7 billion dollar industry. I think the “designer” diapers are the best way possible for sposies to be almost as cute as cloth. But they’ve still got nothing on my BumGenius and Snap-Ezs.
My daughter was one of the unfortunate ones that got a burn. After investigating a little I immediately switched to cloth. I was horrified to find out about all the chemicals in diapers. I figured if my brother in law can cloth diaper his son as a single dad then I could surely do it! It has been a wonderful experience and will also cloth diaper any of our future children!
I too am glad I am no longer giving in to the 7 billion dollar industry. I wish I had known about Modern cloth for my oldest. My youngest is in cloth 100% now and so will any other babies we may have in the future!
I only wish I had known about cloth for my first born. Wrap my baby in burn causing chemicals? No, thank you!
When I watch a friend’s child and I have to change his/her disposible, I am always thankful that I use cloth. Wrapping my child in paper and chemicals does not sound like a good idea.
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