The Making of Pamper’s Dry Max Diapers:
You may recall that I mentioned in my part 1 post that Pampers dry max diapers were a work in progress for approximately the past decade. And while that may sound like a large exaggeration, it's not. I learned on my recent visit to P&G Pampers Baby Care HQ that Pampers diapers are currently used in approximately 95% of all U.S. hospitals. This makes Pampers the first piece of clothing to touch most newborns including all 5 of my own. Pampers stressed in our meeting that they do not take this honor lightly. This new Dry Max diaper design included a pair of rather lofty goals. It sought to both improve the lives of families and to be kinder to the planet, a tall order for a disposable diaper.
Dry Max is a diaper designed to give oodles of parents surveyed by Pampers what they wanted. Those wishes included a diaper that would take up less room in their diaper bag, create less bulk on their child while worn, and take up considerably less space when it arrived at their local landfills. The inspiration for the Dry Max design came from the high performance sports apparel all the top athletes wear. If you’ve ever worn that type of clothing you’ve likely noticed how quickly it wicks away moisture from your skin. Though, in the case of a diaper we are talking about lot more moisture and some other “bonus items” that also need containment.
Ultimately, after many many prototypes Pampers created what they deemed to be a drier, thinner, and just plain better diaper. In the diaper industry, Dry Max in concept is a revolutionary design that successfully completed it’s intended goals. But, let’s be real in the mommy industry, this amounts to ummm … oh that’s neat. Moving on ...
Removing the Mesh Liner from Pampers Cruisers:
I’ve heard a lot of grumbling about the removal of the mesh liner from the Pamper’s cruisers dry max diaper. Clearly some of you loved it and are sad to see it gone. There seems to be a lot of theorizing as to why it's gone including Pampers is just being cheap. I read a post somewhere that implied it “had” to be removed in order for the new diapers to work properly. Not so. In fact, the mesh liner remains in the dry max swaddler, however it was removed from the dry max cruiser due to indicated preference from surveyed parents. Simply put, this large group of Moms and Dads liked the diaper better without it. Ironically, when the mesh liner was first introduced by Pampers many years ago, it was the source of countless complaints and now Pampers finds parents are bemoaning that it is gone.
The Pampers Safety Process:
The first portion is the area most people think of when they think safety testing. It is a lengthy complicated process that tests for thousands of potential issues including skin reactions towards the ingredients used. In fact, while at Pampers, we saw some employees who had volunteered to be part of an ongoing skin test. The one employee had material taped to her arm, while another had some behind her knee. A diaper must complete this first stage successfully before moving on to the next stage, safety in usage. Dry Max successfully completed this stage.
The second portion of safety testing is when local parents and babies are able to get involved. Parents in the Cincinnati area practically call to beg P&G Pampers to be added in the database used for selecting children for these programs. This too is an extensive process that includes many aspects. One being that some parents are given free diapers to test with their babies in exchange for keeping extensive logs, at times keeping even the diapers themselves, and for providing their overall feedback. Bet they really fight over who gets to study those used diapers eh? Dry Max successfully completed this stage as well.
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| Pampers Safety ID |
We spent a lot of time discussing this third area. Here are some facts I jotted down that might be of interest. To date, there have not been any correlations between reported rash complaints and a certain “lot” of diapers. It has also been confirmed that there has not been any bacterial contamination found on returned Dry Max diapers. Also worth noting is the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has not received a single call from it's over 60,000 pediatrician members in regards to Pampers Dry Max rashes or burns.
After the safety process is completed, and only after the safety process completes, is a diaper released for production. It’s my understanding that this production process takes a lengthy time to ramp up enough diapers in order to get them all to the stores on the release date. And in the meantime, a product being replaced has already had production halted. Thus there comes a point when stores need more product, but Pampers has only the new diaper left to give them. It is at this time when these new diapers begin to trickle out into the market in the old diaper’s box. Despite speculation, this is not Pampers way of secretly testing out diapers on your baby. Additionally, this not meant to be a way to trick the consumer or commit a deceitful act. This is an industry wide practice (Yes, the other diaper companies have done it too.) done while ramping up production of a new diaper product.
Suggested Changes:
For the record, I told Pampers that I think this practice of putting new diapers in the previous diaper’s packaging during the pre-launch stage needs to be changed. My mommy friends and I want to know exactly what is in that box we are buying, even if the item is designed to be significantly better. We’d like to decide if we want to try out the new diaper, we don’t want to be surprised with it.
While I was at, I went a step further and suggested an ingredients list to be placed directly on the box, as opposed to it’s current location on the Pampers' website. Mommy does not consult the website for ingredients info mid Target trip, especially when mommy has a set of 23 month old twins with her.
Let’s take a closer look at the Pampers Dry Max Ingredients:
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| Size 4: New vs Old, pulp & gel quantity changes |
Polyacrylates are actually kind of nifty. Each tiny crystal can absorb a huge amount of fluid. It is at this point that they more resemble the gel I had initially pictured.
Sparked by a question from one of my readers about the safety of her child while chewing on a sibling’s diaper, we also learned that the “super absorbent gel” is safe even when ingested. Don’t get me wrong, Pampers is not going around suggesting you try this, but one employee actually ate some of it during our discussion.
I went a step further and checked out what Huggies and gDiapers had to say about the safety of these super absorber polyacrylates used in their own diapers. Huggies website states, “The safety of superabsorbent material has been proven in over 450 consumer safety tests studying every which way a person could come in contact with it - through skin contact, or perhaps a baby's eating it out of normal curiosity. Each study has consistently demonstrated the safety of this material.” gDiapers site says, “The scientific name for super absorber is sodium polyacrylate (SAP). SAP has been rigorously tested both in the US and it has been concluded that it is completely safe and non-toxic. In fact, MBDC, which is the leading US-based design chemistry firm, has assessed SAP as GREEN, which is the safest assessment a chemical or material can receive. Safe for your baby, safe for the planet. We wouldn't settle for anything less.”
I’ve read numerous accounts about how this “gel” is being applied directly on to the liner that touches our baby’s skin. I’ll remind you that I saw one of these diapers be made, and that is simply not the case. In fact, this gel crystal stuff I saw is actually placed inside the core layer, positioned and pressed very precisely into exact coordinates as designated by some high tech system (after countless studies as to where moisture and other “stuff” goes as it exits your child). It’s not just loose in there, but rather it is placed in very precise little groupings. I want to point out that this gel is the same stuff that was in the old Pampers diapers many of you loved.
This is an important point, and I admit the coverage of it has been rather confusing. From a marketing stand point, this diaper was touted as having a hugely superior design which to most people implies big changes to the materials. However, that is not the actual case. The ingredients list remains the same. The “big change” here is in the way the gel is placed.
Wood pulp is our second ingredient. The complete removal of the wood pulp is another source of misinformation I’ve seen on the web. Numerous reports say the wood pulp was removed entirely from Dry Max diapers and fully replaced by the gel. In actuality, Pampers took out a lot of wood pulp but not all of it. As for the huge increase in gel usage, that is also incorrect. It was increased by around 5% give or take your child’s diaper size.
Next we have, fragrance. I spoke with Liza Sanchez about the scent questions. She told me that in the U.S. a touch of “baby powder fresh” fragrance is added to help mask the smell of whatever comes out of your child. This is what you smell when you open the package. This is the same fragrance that was used in the old cruisers and swaddlers. While some have speculated that the scent was increased to mask the “chemicals” used, I am told that is untrue. In fact the scent used varies by region based on surveyed preference. In some countries people actually prefer to just smell the urine, so they have unscented diapers in those areas. The scent is not part of some conspiracy cover up.
Additionally, dry max diapers include lotion to help maintain the baby's skin health and again I remind you that this is the same lotion previously used in Pampers diapers.
The remaining ingredients are Polypropylene (PP) and Polyethylene (PE). Polypropylene is a BPA Free plastic. It’s being used as a safe plastic by a lot of baby product manufactures including Dr. Brown’s, Gerber, and EvenFlo just to name a few. Polyethylene is used in items we use every day such as grocery sacks, food wrap, cosmetic bottles, and beverage containers. It’s even used for medical devices that end up inserted inside peoples bodies such as in an artificial knee and hip replacement part. For the record, I checked and Huggies uses both PP and PE as well.
Are Pampers Dry Max Swaddler and Cruiser Diapers safe? What Diaper is best for your child? You Decide:
I should also mention that I do have some additional information including what some outside experts had to say about these diapers. As well as some information on what I know about how Pampers has been responding to all of this. Perhaps I'll make a third posting at a later date if the additional interest seems to still be there.
Regardless, if you have any concerns you want to discuss with Pampers about the safety of their Dry Max Diapers I would highly suggest you call them (1-800-Pampers).
See Also: