If you’ve opted to spoil the planet like many other parents (including myself) then the big question is Huggie or Pampers, which is the best disposable nappy?
Huggies and pampers are the leading disposable nappy brands regularly going head to head in marketing campaigns selling the virtues of their own and generally dissing the opposing camp. Enough is enough, I intend on outing the best nappy once and for all, I’m a real mum, with a real kid and I’ve done a ‘real’ wetness test, read on to find out the results…
But first a bit of background, I’m a pampers fan, ever since I worked in a nursery I’ve been solidly for pampers, Erin has always used pampers. I was recently approached by a representative of Huggies and asked to test their pull ups, I agreed, but I warned the rep that I was a big pampers fan and that the review was unlikely to favour Huggies. I wanted to give them a fair go though and decided that some rigorous tesing out to take place, divided into two categories, the fit, and the fluid test.
The Fit
Pampers
I like the fit of pampers. They are fitted around the top of the thigh with an elasticated strip which stops leakage. They are high waisted which keeps it fitting when the nappy is ‘heavy’. On the negative side they can become quite bulky when wet.
Huggies
Huggies pull ups have large elasticated bands at the side which look very comfortable. The sides are velcro-like which makes them easy to take on and off. The negative point with huggies is definitely the fit around the leg which isn’t nearly close enough.
The Fluid Test
You’ve seen this test before, at one point and another both ‘camps’ have produced the astounding result of their own nappy being the dryest. Well now we are going to find out once and for all, and I promise I have been completely unbiased, my husband even acted as adjudicator!
I used my usual size 5 pampers economy and tested against my free sample of size 5 huggies pull ups. I used warm, but not hot water to test. In hindsight I should have coloured the water so it showed up easier, I’ll do this next time (yes, I’m planning a similar test - premium vs shop brand).
To ensure the same liquid was added to each nappy I used a shot glass.
We set a timer for five minutes and then pressed some card against each nappy with equal pressure to check for wetness. This was when we realised that coloured water would have been sensible! However, I think you can see from the first photo who came out on top. We were very surprised we were sure that pampers would be revealed as the outright winner.
I’m not sure how much you can make out from the photos but I can tell you there was a noticeable difference and it was in Huggies favour.
In the pampers photo you can see the wetness,mostly in the bottom left hand corner. I picked up both nappies to see how heavy they felt when wet, they were both about equal. On closer inspection I noticed that the pampers keeps the ‘water’ in a very central position wheras the huggies spreads the ‘water’ over a larger space which I think explains why pampers were coming out more wet.
We repeated the process, adding a couple more shots of water, and testing after ten minutes. The results were even more obvious, huggies were clearly drier!
You can see that the huggies test card was practically dry, I think there was one small spot. Pampers after the extra water and ten minutes were significantly wetter.
I should say that I was really impressed with the dryness of both nappies though, I was putting my full pressure on to the nappies to get these results, which means that our kids are experiencing even less wetness than this, which is pretty good. It would be interesting to see how a ‘natural’ nappy compares.
As I was clearing up this experiment I did notice one interesting fact which redeemed pampers a little. I noticed a small puddle on the table, at first I thought I had spilled some water but on further inspection I noticed that the huggies nappy was leaking from the side. The nappy had taken on a lot of water by this point, but the pampers version wasn’t leaking at all, so that’s an extra point to consider when choosing Huggies or Pampers
13 Responses to “Huggies vs Pampers: A ‘Real’ Mum Tests”
We are a Pampers family. Huggies always leak for us.
Go Huggies!
Personally I hated Pampers, so I never tried them. I don’t really know why, either. Weird.
We always used pampers, i never liked huggies. But we tended to use luvs, which i hear is made by pampers.
Heck, I don’t use either of those diapers. I use store brand and they are cheaper, and work great for my family!
I’ve always preferred Target’s store brand. I always had more trouble with Huggies or Pampers leaking. My sister and I seem to be unique in that experience with our kids judging by the people we’ve talked to.
Huggies always work the best for me. The only time Pampers worked was when my son was a newborn. I also don’t care for Luvs because they don’t stretch at all so I end up pulling too hard and they break.
compare the wood colors of the last two pictures of huggies vs pampers. it seems like the ones with purple paper’s been photoshopped.
No photoshopping here Tobey, the photo was taken next to a window and there must have been a change of light, that can happen if the sun emerges from the clouds, the whole room brightens up.
Plus I have no reason to want to photoshop the results this was an unpaid and mostly impartial comparison ( I would have liked to see pampers win out as that is my favoured brand).
I’ve not got any cloth naps left now (well, okay, so I have a stack of terry squares but they are worn out as they get used for every sort of clean up under the sun…) so I can’t do a direct comparison for you however, I know it’s been done and they come out comparable for dryness so long as a fleece liner is used to keep the fabric off baby’s bum.
From experience, however, my milk monster would flood out (to the point of me having to wash gel off her every morning and hose down the cot where the nappy had leaked) any brand of disp available at the time overnight and to be honest, I was never one for night nappy changing, it woke her up, it woke me up and we both like our sleep
whereas just hauling her out of the cot and latching her on didn’t require much effort from either of us! However, a good quality clothie with either a bamboo or hemp booster inside covered with a wool or fleece wrap (the waterproof bit) would keep her dry and save me a lot of work every morning.
Incidentally, both Pampers AND Huggies leaked for us when we used them on holidays but Huggies fitted Aprilia much better and there were less disgusting exploding incidents with them (you know, the sort where you hose the baby down, then yourself then get fresh clothes for you both….)
We haven’t had any exploding incidents yet, touch wood
At one time we had 3 in diapers and had 270 cloth diapers delivered a week. Used them for everything. I would never do that again.
ok well im 14 years old and me and my friend are doing a science fair project . so we were wondering that umm which diapers is best huggies or pampers so yeah im really confused