On to the incredibly interesting subject of diapers… The fact is that diapers are not perfect, and as a matter of fact, I am pretty sure they are intentionally making them less useful and effective. It would make sense to reduce the effectiveness of a disposable product, since it will cause more false disposals, and as such, increasing sales of the product.
Pampers Swaddlers have overlapping closure tabs which are for the supposed comfort of the baby, though I actually find they get a little in the way. They have a mesh liner which is to help keep baby dry, though the effectiveness of this is close to zero from what I have seen.
They have Sesame Street characters on the front “tab stick” panel which I really don’t get. Swaddlers are for newborns, and as a result, there is no way in hell the newborn is seeing those characters. Any parent who thinks that their kid can see, or is attracted to the characters, is dumb and should give the baby back. Really what they should put on the panel is encouraging messages to mom and dad like, “don’t give up”, “i love you mommy and daddy”, “please don’t kill me”, etc.
The big thing of course is the absorbent material in the diaper. It works as you would expect, absorbing urine and locking it away. Thats not the issue. The issue is that the hydro-locking material is YELLOW… Um, did no one at Pampers pay attention? URINE IS YELLOW. How the hell are you supposed to tell if the diaper is wet?!?! A wet diaper looks exactly the same as a dry one once it is on the baby. I know for a fact they could make the material any color they want, and they could make it change color when wet, so why the hell don’t they? Is it intentionally done this way to make you question if the diaper is wet, and as a result throwing out a bunch of dry diapers, make more profit? I know it would be hard to believe that a company would intentionally make their product less effective in order to sell more product… Right… It’s done all the time. But it is an extremely shortsighted way of thinking. A better product will sell more, and as such be more profitable.
In case a Pampers chemist reads this, and has no idea at all how to do color changes under moisture exposure, there are quite a few ways and I would assume even some specific to one of the chemicals in urine. However, a really interesting one is the method used in Zubbles and is the same found in many of the new “disappearing color” kids stuff that is on the market now.
