Jan 11 2009
My Continuing Quest for Good Quality Nappies
I wrote in a previous post about my experiences with nappies (diapers) here in Australia. Well, since then, things have got worse….
My son graduated to a larger sized nappy, so I bought a packet of Woolworths Select nappies in the larger size. I was surprised that the first one I used started to disintegrate after a couple of hours. The side seams came apart and the gel filling started to come out, spilling onto the floor. I thought that it was perhaps because he had done a lot of crawling, but on the next day, the same thing happened and he hadn’t done anything more energetic than have a nap. At least half of the nappies in the pack have disintegrated in this way.
In the meantime, I received a letter from Woolworths apologising for the poor quality of the previous pack (as written about in my previous post) and offering me a refund or replacement. As I was so annoyed with the quality of the current pack, I decided to go for a refund.
I am wondering if I should complain to Woolworths again about the quality of this most recent pack of nappies. Will they brand me as a moaner? Will they think that I just want another refund? On the other hand, if I protest by not buying their nappies again, they will have lost a customer and won’t know why. What does everyone else think?
Anyway, after this experience, I decided to give the nappies from Aldi a go, as another mother had recommended them. As I put the first nappy on, I pulled the tab open and it came off in my hand! Great! They appear to be quite flimsily made but the first few have performed well. I have just taken great care not to pull the tabs too hard when I’m putting them on.
I still miss Pampers. I think I will try a few more brands of nappies to see if there is anything out there on the Australian market that comes even close to Pampers!
I’ve had problems with quite a few disposable nappies, leaking etc - but nothing quite so drastic as this! I would probably complain again. We use a brand called ‘Nature’ now which are ‘eco’ nappies, at night, and re-usable cotton ones during the day. I’d recommend giving reusables a try if you’re open to that, they’re easier than they look and save a lot of money - and of course are better for the environment.
Thanks for the suggestions. I saw cotton re-usable nappies being demonstrated in the UK a while ago but didn’t get chance to give them a go as I didn’t have a baby at the time. I haven’t seen them in Australia but it might be worth finding out if they are on sale here - what puts me off a little is the extra work involved but I guess you could always use a disposable nappy if you didn’t manage to wash and dry the reusables in time! They do have ‘eco’ nappies here - I’m not sure if the brand is the same - but they cost almost twice as much as normal disposable nappies!
I know this is a late reply but Huggies are really the best nappies. I know they are the most expensive but they are the best. I have also heard that the Aldi Nappies (the one you buy at Aldi) are quite good too and much cheaper, I just haven’t tried them myself yet.
Don’t use Woolworths nappies and BabyLove nappies are no good either, at least not the Newborn size. It leaks everywhere.
Hi Olga - Thank you for visiting my blog and for your comments. Personally, I do not find Huggies to be good quality nappies - they leak more often than not and are not suitable for overnight use. I’m not prepared to a pay a premium price for such a nappy - in Europe, I used to pay a premium price for Pampers and they were worth it.
I’ve tried Aldi nappies are they are reasonably good value for money. They are a little flimsy and occasionally leak but are not too bad (better than Huggies).
At the moment, I’m using Sorbies (a new brand) - they are a little more expensive but perform better than the other brands I have used. Having said that, they still start to disintegrate if the nappy is very full (i.e. after overnight use) and they occasionally leak if my son has been crawling a lot.
I agree with you about BabyLove and Woolworths - I had a good experience with Woolworths for a while but have not bought them since I bought 2 packets that were very badly manufactured.
I’m going to blog about the subject again soon!