Changes to diapers?

[id0ntknow]

I bought some Kroger comforts last year when I was a little bit thinner, and they had enough stretch that I could get one on. Now they have changed the packaging on them to a new look, and apparently also changed the diaper itself to be smaller. I put a new one on top of an old one, and the old one was about an inch or so longer, and also wider opened up as well. The tapes don't seem to stretch near as far as on the older version. This reminds me of Pampers cruisers size 7, since they appear to have done the same thing as far as the lack of stretch goes. Has anyone else noticed changes being made to their favorite diapers?

[~Brian~]

11 hours ago, id0ntknow said:

I bought some Kroger comforts last year when I was a little bit thinner, and they had enough stretch that I could get one on. Now they have changed the packaging on them to a new look, and apparently also changed the diaper itself to be smaller. I put a new one on top of an old one, and the old one was about an inch or so longer, and also wider opened up as well. The tapes don't seem to stretch near as far as on the older version. This reminds me of Pampers cruisers size 7, since they appear to have done the same thing as far as the lack of stretch goes. Has anyone else noticed changes being made to their favorite diapers?

@id0ntknow

with all the changes that have been happening over the last few years, I wouldn't be surprised in least if diaper companies have decided to go cheaper, or make things smaller, or make them lower/lesser quality then before. I've said this once and I'll say it again: diaper companies are making cheaper diapers because to make diapers that are quality diapers, it costs money, time, resources, and also take someone that knows what they're doing. With all the diapers that are coming out now, and they're all cloth backed, the reason they want to do it this way is because no one pays these companies for the plastic back ones. So therefore, they make them cheaper, and that means less quality, that also means that the person who is wearing them is more uncomfortable, and is being changed every two hours, which equates to every five minutes. The problem with this philosophy is that there are people who work all day, or do things every day, and they want to be active, and they don't care to be changed every two hours, they want to be able to be safe, and they want to be able to live their life. Just because a diaper is plastic backed does not mean that it is bad: it means that it is used by someone who is not going to be served well by using cloth backed diapers.If you are totally incontinent both directions , and you are severely incontinent, you don't want to be letting everything out in a cheap diaper that doesn't last five seconds, or doesn't allow for you to empty your bladder into it. This is why I am considered severely incontinent both directions and I have my medical diagnosis on my chart so I will never ever have to use cloth back diapers again.

yes, I think they changed some of the diapers around: they can get away with making them cheaper and cheaper because no one wants to pay for the premium ones anymore: in my case, premium means that I don't have to change every two minutes, and that I can trust what I'm wearing will hold more than once, diapers used to be a lot better 25 years ago, or at least they were made plastic back then. It kinda sucks that diapers change sometimes, because they go from being quality to garbage.

Good Luck!

Brian

[2sail2]

Amazon Solimo overnight pull up for 48 use to go for $32 and now it's $49 ($0.97 each).  They did reduce size of pad some and seems thinner.  Various other reviews complained about it.  I'm looking at switching to something of lower unit cost like Prevail or drug store brand diapers. 

[IminWetPampers]

Diapers don’t always go from being good to being crappy though. I remember wearing Attends about 25 years ago and when I was lying in bed and I started to pee I’d have to let half of my urine out and then roll onto my stomach and finish peeing or my diaper would leak every time. A couple of years later and I could almost empty my bladder while on my back and not leak but those diapers pale in comparison with today’s ABDL diapers…I can completely empty my bladder while on my back in say a Megamax and not even come close to leaking during my first wetting. 

[WoolyDL]

I would like to see a size between medium and large....

 

One company did makde something of the like and called it 'regular'

The fit of Northshore medium is perfect for me but most are too tight.

The 24/7 were the best but expensive. Now sadly unavailible in Europe never mine UK

[heartwood]

I'm willing to spend a small fortune on purple molicare super briefs. Nothing will ever compare to the way they fit. It's a shame although now they are viewed in the same respect as that of a fine wine. 

 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

This is the good thing about traditional cloth diapers. they have reached their ultimate form. The 3 most prominent "models" are the 21x14 prefold, the 40x21 flat and the 27x27 flat. There is also the contour and various "homebrew" types (what I wear is drivied from one such that was made for a betwetter when she was 5 by her mother). Also, rubber panties have pretty much reached their final form So the system was stable by the middle '60's With throw-aways the process is never complete since they are being cheapened all the time. This is because the are throw-aways and therefore singole-use and the saim is to make them less costly per unit, or any good ones will go up sharply in price until the market will not support them and then they will go away. That is an unstable system and, given the atitudes towared single-use items, they may go away or become severely restricted in use, such as limited to medical facilities, which can implement special disposal procedures that could not be done efficiently on an indiviual bases, or else subject to prescriptions with special disposal procedures. However the overwhelming bulk of diapers are in the baby market at this time and may make that market the first target of change I have recently heard two things: 1. In Japan, mor adult diapers are sold than baby diapers, with all that implies about demographics 2. In landfills, used diapers linger for 500 years, outputting toxic gases and other materials. Any measures to deal with that will add to the cost of use and maybe cause changes that makes their use less, or unattractive

[Moochie]

As far as I am concerned whenever any product says "new and Improved" what it really means is "Cheaper and more profit margin." Of course there are exceptions.

[~Brian~]

1 hour ago, Moochie said:

As far as I am concerned whenever any product says "new and Improved" what it really means is "Cheaper and more profit margin." Of course there are exceptions.

@Moochie

I would AGREE with that:  Companies don't want to do anything that is "quality" product anymore:  The market is driven by Medicaid Agencies, and State Mandates, and all the jazz, because medicaid would rather you use the "cloth backed" JUNK they call diapers, and a DIAPER = a MEGAMAX, because it is:

1.  Disposable

2.  Plastic Backed

3.  Made for people who CAN'T use the Cloth backed stuff

4.  Built so that you CAN RELEASE everything in one shot, because Incontinent people that are SEVERELY Incontinent NEED the quality stuff, and it NEEDS to be able to handle what you can release.  a "diaper" is not a Prevail, or ANY cloth backed covered Incontinence brief - a DIAPER is Plastic Backed, and able to handle several releases or one big one:  Cloth Diapers have their place, but I will take a Plastic backed Megamax any day:  @NorthShoreAdamKNOWS how to make diapers that are quality products, and I am impressed with them.

Northshore IS the exception, and I am glad for that, because you are probably gonna see the market get worse ;(

Brian

[2sail2]

On 5/19/2022 at 7:30 AM, 2sail2 said:

Amazon Solimo overnight pull up for 48 use to go for $32 and now it's $49 ($0.97 each).  They did reduce size of pad some and seems thinner.  Various other reviews complained about it.  I'm looking at switching to something of lower unit cost like Prevail or drug store brand diapers. 

Oddly, price down to $41.75 now.

[2sail2]

Every year companies may or may not change their products with their expectations (or lack of) (predictions) of how much it will cost to make the product.  The last couple of years, I've seen a lot of shrinkflation: smaller quantities for the same price.  

[Crinklz Kat]

What galls me most are companies that change products, then deny the fact when consumers complain! 

[Mindylou]

I can guarantee that Abenas have done just that.. reduced in quality and thickness! They were my usual diaper for night wear, and then Amazon went for a bit out of stock .. the next time I got to order them and got them in I noticed right away they were thinner and less absorbent. They used to not get fully soaked at night but now they easily get soaked, and leak some nights. I have NS Supreme now and I'm happy with them. More expensive, but also more reliable! 

[~Brian~]

39 minutes ago, Mindylou said:

I can guarantee that Abenas have done just that.. reduced in quality and thickness! They were my usual diaper for night wear, and then Amazon went for a bit out of stock .. the next time I got to order them and got them in I noticed right away they were thinner and less absorbent. They used to not get fully soaked at night but now they easily get soaked, and leak some nights. I have NS Supreme now and I'm happy with them. More expensive, but also more reliable! 

@Mindylou

I also agree.  Most diapers that were made three years or more ago are probably better quality than anything that is out there today with very limited exception.The first diaper I ever used was the abena M4 . Then I went to the North Shore supreme , and then to the mega Max.  The abena M4 was almost similar to what Molly care used to do , and then they started getting cheaper and cheaper . When I first started checking out diapers, I would order two or three packages of the Molly care, and they would be so soft and crinkly that it was amazing, and now, you have to end up looking for diapers that have the same quality as what they dropped , so that you can be assured that you can trust the diaper that you're wearing .

I use the North Shore supreme myself for a while. I still had three or four bags for the supreme, but when I went to the mega Max I looked at both diapers, and realized that the mega Max was the better one of the two. I hope like crazy that mega maxes do not take a dive into the toilet, because these are the better diapers, and they are the best diapers that you can buy, and I need the assurance that whatever I release into them, the diaper will take care of it and hold it, until I'm able to get to a place where I can change. It's also very apparent that unless you are interested in making better products, that every diaper manufacturer out there has taken a steep dive off a Cliff, because they can get away with that. Hard times abound all over the place, and I understand that our economy isn't in the best of condition, and jobs are hard to find sometimes, and things are more expensive, especially gas, which is why some people don't go to work every day like they used to, and that's why some people telecommute, but when you have to have incontinence supplies, it's not like you can choose when you wear diapers and when you don't. If you're totally incontinent, you wear a diaper when you get up, you change the diaper maybe several times a day, you wear diapers at night, so you wear diapers all day long 24/7. The best diaper is a diaper that works for the individual, and the best diaper company is the one that makes a diaper that does not decide to take a dive off a Cliff and quality or construction or thickness because it's cheaper that way.

@NorthShoreAdam still, in my opinion, knows exactly how to build a diaper:they also know how to do proper research to determine the better diaper or how these are used , especially if we're talking about people that live in nursing homes, or group homes, or places where incontinence supplies are used daily . It is also important to state that not only do adult babies and incontinent people use these , but people that are disabled do as well , so that he should be the best quality diaper that you can get , without paying through the nose. Northshore knows how to make those diapers, and I am happy with them, because they work for me. I've tried several different types of diapers, and I dare say that I probably tried every single cloth backed diaper that is available to the public, and I don't like any of them . The closest cloth back diaper that I would probably try would be a mega Max air, but even after asking about the mega Max air, I was told that somebody in my condition with my total incontinence, that it would not work the best for me, and that the plastic back mega Max is the better diaper for me , because it has the order control and other things that might not be as good as the mega Max air would be.

I would probably stick with the North Shore supreme for now. Especially, if you're going to be wearing 24/7 again. If for some reason, you need a better diaper, then you may have to go to the mega Max. I am very fortunate that I was able to get mega Max's, and I'm so glad that I did, because when I really have to use them, it is very very comforting to be able to do it, and not have to worry too much.

Brian

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by ~Brian~
Word edit

[Mindylou]

@Brian

Yes I agree that my next step would be Megamax.. I like their pink ones. They are also the most expensive diapers out there so I'm not quite willing to make that leap yet if I don't have to. I see on Amazon a product called Sunkiss Masterpiece pink that reviews compare to Megamax. I am ordering a pack of them just to see. They are $10 cheaper. 

[~Brian~]

9 minutes ago, Mindylou said:

@Brian

Yes I agree that my next step would be Megamax.. I like their pink ones. They are also the most expensive diapers out there so I'm not quite willing to make that leap yet if I don't have to. I see on Amazon a product called Sunkiss Masterpiece pink that reviews compare to Megamax. I am ordering a pack of them just to see. They are $10 cheaper. 

@Mindylou

I've always liked the colored ones. I don't mind the white one so much, but when you end up wearing diapers as much as we do, a plain white diaper it's almost like looking at plain white or cream colored walls all day long, and there's no degradation or change in color, unless of course you're talking about someone who has dirty walls, or dirty floors, or ones that smoke, because when you smoke cigarettes the walls turned yellow and has this funny smell throughout the units. I am very fortunate that I don't smoke, so I don't have to deal with that, however if your walls are not maintained or your floors are not maintained, they don't stay white for long, and that is part of the reason why all of the time that I was growing up, I never had a white pair of anything other than socks or underwear, or a T-shirt. Everything else was either dark color, or black, because they don't pick up the dirt as badly as a white pair of pants .

when mega Max came out with the colors, one of the things that I made sure that happened was that regardless of what color that they come out with, that I could get any color I wanted. When I talked to my supplier in New Hampshire, she told me that as long as the diapers themselves are about the same cost, regardless of what color you get, and they are, color change wouldn't be a problem, you just tell her what color you want, and she'll say she'll order it, and it'll be here in four days. Once I got rid of 13 bags of the old style white mega Max, which were the ones from 2020, when they had some sort of manufacturing problem, where every single one of them felt like there was a piece of cardboard between your legs, everything was fine. The only white diapers that I still have in stock are the ones that I carry behind me, and I only have like three of those left. Once the white ones are gone, then I will continually purchase the colored ones: my favorite is the pink, followed by the black, then the tie dye, then the blue. So long as the quality does not go downhill, these will be the diapers I use, because they are approved through Vermont State Medicaid, and I've already proven medical necessity, so I won't have to worry about ever having to test out diapers that are low quality ever again.

I can understand why you are hesitant to make the leap to mega Max now: those things are expensive: however they do work for me the best: I just hope that someday diaper manufacturers will understand that if they make a diaper very cheaply, then they will end up getting hit in the pocketbook where it belongs. If a company does not make quality product, how can they expect guys and girls like us to be able to make a decision as to what we want to use, and whether we think their products are good. For example you just said something about the abena M4: they were really good diapers about five years ago, and now they are thinner and they're not as absorbent, and they probably won't hold about an eighth of what they normally would hold if they were quality diapers. People have to realize that somewhere people have to make the diapers that are high quality, because somebody may need them, and insurance companies are always after making sure that they can give us as much as we want for as little as they can get away with. When they kill that mentality, and they worry about getting me the most quality product they can make, and then they see that it works, price should not be an object, but it's always about price, and most likely the problem is that the insurance companies aren't the ones that have to wear the diapers use the diapers change the diapers or deal with the aftermath because somebody has made some sort of medical decision about how diapers are made.  I really wish companies would go back to the drawing board and make the high quality stuff, or make better quality stuff in either cloth or plastic backed, that would give everybody a choice as to what they would want to use, rather than having an HMO or an insurance company dictate what you can get: we already know that 99% of the people that work in the insurance industry, don't even use or even know about how good products are, because they don't use them and they don't have any experience with them. I wish there was a law that said that what they would do is make sure that we had the best quality, and not the most quantity.

Hey, when you end up ordering these sunkiss masterpiece diapers, let me know how they work for you! Every once in awhile, I will splurge and get different diapers from places like little for big or 10 at night, or another manufacturer just to try them out. I probably won't change from mega Max because they are covered by my insurance and they work the best, but every once in a while it's always a good idea to test out new diapers: and who knows they might even have different colors.

now if mega Max would come out in baby blue, like the trifectas they have, or maybe yellow or red? That would be pretty cool!

Brian

[~Brian~]

On 6/11/2022 at 8:06 AM, 2sail2 said:

Every year companies may or may not change their products with their expectations (or lack of) (predictions) of how much it will cost to make the product.  The last couple of years, I've seen a lot of shrinkflation: smaller quantities for the same price.  

@2sail2

you are right: this is very evident when it comes to food! Food used to cost a certain amount of money, and I do understand that food does go up, gas goes up, electricity and all of the things that you need to make food go up, and also the delivery karma shipping and all of that stuff: it's gonna go up that's a given!

The problem is when you end up paying the same amount of money or more for less product! In my opinion, it doesn't really cost that much more to put in 8 pieces of chicken or 10 pieces of chicken, instead of like five pieces of chicken. Most things are sold by weight and not volume, so when you see a big bag of something, you're expecting to see the thing at least 3/4 full, but now it's getting to the point where you see it 1/4 full, and you see all this white space or air! What are we paying for! Are we paying for somebody to put in 3/4 of a bag of air and a quarter of a bag of food, or are we paying more because it takes less time to put less into a bag? It doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense to me: regardless of how much food is, or where we have to get it , we're all gonna eat food, and hopefully enjoy it, it's just a matter of the fact that we have to pay three times what it costs two years ago in order to enjoy it . During the pandemic for example , there are a lot of people that probably didn't get a chance to go out , because of the pandemic, or because they're elderly, or because they didn't feel like doing it, or because of disability : for whatever reason, they didn't go out as much , So what did they do a lot of while they were inside during the pandemic?

answer capital E capital A capital T:  yes I said eat: when you want to get out, and you can't get out, or your mobility limited, what is one thing that you can do every day? Eat of course! So that means that we all probably put on about 50 pounds during the last three years that we have to get rid of, and during that. The food that we used to eat went up significantly from the end of 2019 until now. We also get less food in the packaging that we get: we might get eight pieces of chicken when we used to get 14, or we might get smaller portion sizes of chips or cookies or popcorn- this is what really sucks about sewing things by weight and not by volume: I used to get in trouble for example when I was a kid, because my mom would buy a bag of chips for example. 30 years ago or more, the bag used to be pretty close to full. This meant that you actually had a full bag of chips to eat carry it

20 years ago, this changed, and more of the volume of the container was less and less, and there was more air and less product. I would eat a bag of chips for example, and there wasn't that many in the bag in the first place, but mom would get after me because I would eat the whole bag. One day when I bought a bag of chips karma I bought a big one: I then went downstairs and I said mom I want to show you something, and then I opened a bag of chips: I then grabbed the chips and put my hand on about 3/4 of the upper part of the bag: all of this area was air, while the other quarter was full of chips! The reason I did that was because I wanted to prove to my mom that I was not eating the entire bag of chips, because 3/4 of the bag was air, and there's less volume for me to eat, so I didn't really eat a whole bag of chips if 3/4 of the bag is air!

I can understand that some products probably will shrink down, but I don't understand why diapers for example or durable medical equipment has to be made cheaply! The reason I say that is because wouldn't it make sense to make the product the best you can, so that you don't have to for example fix a broken product or a broken part that was made incorrectly or made so cheaply that it is low quality?Of course it would, but companies don't think that way : they want to make the money, so the consumer has to pay the penalty because they're paying for what they consider to be exactly what they had in the past, when in actuality they don't get half of what they used to get .

incontinence product companies are knowing exception: because Medicare and Medicaid will only pay for certain items, they pay for diapers for example, but they only pay for certain ones. These companies that are insurance companies know what these are, and those are the only ones that are covered, unless you're willing to do what I did and go through the prior authorization process, prove medical necessity and spend about three weeks messing around with the state. The insurance companies know what they will cover, so then insurance companies are the ones in the driver's seat. Meanwhile, companies that make incontinence products can't compete with anybody else, and because they can't sell the quality stuff, and because Medicare and Medicaid won't pay for those without prior authorizations and authorization, these companies end up throwing away the quality, and all of the good work they do, and they produce something that is no better than a bounty paper towel and then they throw that on a shelf in a bag and call it depends or whatever they call it, and charge us the same amount of money we would pay three years ago for stuff that isn't even quality. I don't know how these insurance companies or these manufacturers can get away with this, but I would hope that if someone does some research to find out how some of these products are used and why they're used, maybe they'll find out why people do not like certain products or certain types of products. For example, I won't wear anything that is not plastic backed: I just know from experience that they're not built for a full on release - they are built for somebody that is going to be able to dribble all day, and not empty a full bladder into them, and not be able to do a BM in them. This is why good products need to be made, because if they're not, people like me will just throw 90% of the diaper companies under the bus, because they cannot provide the good stuff that everybody deserves

I've said this before and I'll say it again: I have no problem with cloth back diapers I have no problem with the plastic backed diapers- however the problem is that everybody should have a choice as to what type of products they can get from a supplier. It shouldn't just be all one type, all one brand, or all one way of manufacturer. If somebody wants plastic backed diapers, then Medicaid covers them, Medicare covers them, and they are quality products. If somebody needs megamixes for example, then they go through the process I did, the state covers it, and that's what they get. No one should be denied the type of diaper that they want simply because of what Medicare decides to cover, because all nursing homes and hospitals are required to change people every two hours. If people would actually make halfway decent diapers in the first place, it wouldn't be necessary for someone to be changed every two hours, because they could actually be in a mega Max, and believe it or not if a mega Max is not totally drenched it can be comfortable to wear until it reaches its capacity level.

Sometimes I wonder if there are oversight or oversight panels that take care of the insurance industry, and make them play fair. If that was the truth, people would have more of a choice in what they get, and then it wouldn't be up to some bigwig in Washington what they cover: if somebody needed $1000 a month for a special medicine, and it costs $12,000 a year, and that helped them live longer, then something would be done so that it would be covered period to not do that, would be stupid. People need choices, choices for care, and they also need the ability to make choices as to what they want. If all of the diapers made are all cloth backed, then there is no choice, because all of them with limited exception are bounty paper towels just wrapped up in bags and put on shelves.

Just my opinion you understand, and partially because the insurance companies decide what they will cover, companies won't make the product good anymore, it just barely makes the minimum and not a bit more. A mega Max is better than any diaper made so far, and I can be sure that it is good quality. Anything else is just a paper towel

Brian