I just sent them the following letter...
Dear Attends:
I am an active person who uses a wheelchair to get around due to a spinal cord injury. I have used Attends fitted briefs for over 10 years. I currently use the newest equivalent, the Attends 10 waistband style large size diapers (with six tapes). For the majority of those years they were nearly top notch. They fit great, had good absorbency, and guarded against leaks quite nicely. Attends was way better in quality when compared to Depend and other department store brands, and it was just a few improvements away from being the perfect diaper on the market. When I heard that PaperPak products took over the name Attends, I patiently awaited a new an improved diaper that would protect me any time of the day or night. When a person with incontinence or/and a disability has an excellent product they can rely upon, it helps increase the comfort, independence, and ultimately the confidence of that individual. Quality incontinence products also make the job of caregivers of people who need a personal care attendant, home health aid, as well as caregivers who work in nursing homes and hospitals easier and cleaner for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, instead of seeing improvements to Attends 10 Briefs, the quality has declined to a disturbing degree. I noticed the following:
1. Reduced length.
2. Reduced wing area and wing length.
3. Decrease in elastics quality, particularly the waistband.
4. Reduced padding in wing area.
5. Thinner overall padding.
6. Thinner plastic covering.
Since this is an Attends 10 large size maximum absorbency product, I would expect it to have the greatest leak protection in the Attends line, but this is no longer the case.
One quality that Attends had in the past was that they fit very well in key areas and on many body types. Attends had a high waist fit, which has several benefits. For one, a high waist fit helps keep the diaper from slipping down when turning in bed. People that have paralysis have to slide over in bed since they can’t use their legs. The friction of sliding over in a bed causes a poor fitting diaper to shift, which creates a looser fit. This causes leaks. Additionally, for anyone who has involuntary leg movements or is an active sleeper, the high waist fit helps keep the diaper snug and in place. People who have a larger midsection benefit from a high fit waistband as well, because it allows the wearer to pull the waistband above the thickest part of their midsection. This keeps a tighter fit in the leg gathers. The current lower waist design causes the diaper to eventually move below the belly, which creates a looseness all around. Again, this leads to leaks overnight and embarrassing odor to escape in public during the day. Also an important benefit of the high waist in the front and back in the previous Attends 10 was hat it simply gave more area for liquid to be absorbed to during heavy overnight voids! Unfortunately though, the reduced length of the latest Attends has eliminated all these qualities.
The original Attends also had longer wings on both the front and back panel. This made putting the diaper on a much easier task because the wings were long enough to fit further around a persons belly. Longer wings make it so a person with limited dexterity in their hands, perhaps due to arthritis or disability, will have an easier time putting on their own diaper with a good fit. Additionally, longer wings create a greater overlap that helps prevent leaks on the sides. The shorter wings in the latest Attends make it much more difficult to get a snug fit, and less overlap has created more leaks, especially when laying on ones side. The combination of the shorter length/lower waist fit has also reduced the distance between the tapes along the back panel. Since the tapes are now closer, there is less adjustability in fit. As mentioned before, these factors often leave the wearer with a diaper that ends up falling well below their belly button, creating the gaps that cause leaks, and as mentioned before, odor escapes, which is embarrassing for the wearer.
Another good quality of the larger sized Attends of the past was its better quality waistband and leg gathers. The quality of the elastic is what allows the diaper to remain very snug in numerous body positions. This allows a person to be active, yet remain confident that the diaper won’t come loose. Reduction in recent Attends elasticity, particularly on the waistband, has made this diaper one that easily becomes loose and sags downward. Again, gaps.
Obviously preventing leaks is the purpose of any diaper. Restoring the things mentioned so far would help bring back the quality that Attends was known for. However, some additional improvements would make this diaper the best on the market. Today it seems as though many manufacturers try to minimize the thickness of the padding. While a thin diaper might be desirable for someone who needs lighter protection in a more discrete brief, a maximum absorbency diaper should be designed to prevent leaks over being discrete. Yes, increases in technology may allow thinner padding that absorbs what thick padding did in the past, but too thin a diaper causes a problem, particularly for overnight wearers. Today’s thinner Attends often creates gaps between the padding and genitals. This is even more apparent when lying in bed after turning over a few times throughout the night. Any time there is a gap between the padding and skin, urine will flow freely across the skin and not be absorbed until it hits padding. However, all too often it travels to an area like a leg gather or towards the wings, quickly causing leaks. Some people use diaper doublers, but these products do not stay in place as well as a diaper that has thickness in the proper areas to begin with, and they also become saturated quickly.
Ideally, the diapers thickest area should start from a few inches behind the anus, and come forward all the way to the top of the front panel of the diaper. This will allow continuous contact of the wearer’s genitals against the padding, regardless of gender. For women, the vulva would be up against the padding, allowing fluid to directly flow onto the padding and be absorbed before it has a chance to run across the skin and leak out the sides. For men, the same would be true, but the increased padding in the top panel will ensure wicking regardless of whether the wearer is flaccid or having an involuntary erection. Some diaper manufacturers recommend the wearer’s penis be pointed downward, but this is very uncomfortable when involuntary erections occur. The ideal heavy protection/overnight brief should have a thick surface layer of deeper padding for the purpose of molding to the wearers shape and keeping contact with the wearer’s genitals, while the second layer underneath will absorb and hold the liquids away from the skin. Attends current padding creates gaps very easily. Again, leaks.
In the event that a small gap does occur, the addition of leak barriers within the leg gathers would help prevent leaks as a backup to the increased padding. Prevail briefs have excellent leak barriers in regards to size, elasticity, and effectiveness. Another area leaks often occur is from the wing areas, especially when laying on ones side. Increasing the area of padding coverage in the wing areas both front and back will essentially create an absorbent barrier all the way around the wearers waist, further preventing leaks during heavy overnight voids. The padding should go all the way to the edges of the front wings, and any urine traveling to that area will be caught by the overlapping in padding within the back wings. An evenly distributed increase in the density of padding in the back panel will help prevent leaks when wearer is laying on their back. These improvements will greatly increase the effectiveness of Attends diapers, making them truly a “10