Pampers Swaddlers size 8 in Canada

[Little Sherri]

I stumbled upon Pampers Swaddlers Size 8 in a supermarket this week, and did a doubletake - we don't get a lot of size 8 diapers up here in Canada. I've never seen them on a shelf before, despite reading of their mythical existence in these pages. SO, stupidly, impulsively, I bought them, of course. There was no logical reason for doing this - when it comes to Pampers, I'm like a comic book collector, or someone who just has to try every version of Coca Cola - sure, Orange Chocolate Coke Zero sounds like a terrible idea, but, you have to know, right?  

So it goes with anything Pampers, because I was raised in them. Even though I have absolutely zero real use for a diaper rated to 46+ lbs. My youngest weighs more than twice that, and I'm beyond 4X that weight. They'd theoretically fit a 7 - 9-year-old, so I understand their rarity on the market here - they dramatically overlap the EasyUps and Pull-Ups and Goodnights that offer a "do-it-yourself" option to anyone over 2, basically. My thought, when my kids were young, used to be, "Oh, but real diapers are superior, and they cost less, so they're better than pull-ups." Well, these diapers are likely still better, in terms of performance, than an equivalent pull-up, but in terms of cost, not so much: these things set me back nearly a buck a diaper. They cost 50% more than a size 5 or 6 - the 7's and 8's are markedly more expensive, I guess because they realize that they are cannibalizing their own s/m and 4-5T pull-up sales by offering a tabbed diaper option for school-aged children, and, presumably, seriously obese toddlers. 

The packaging features a kid who looks about 5, but says "For Active Babies" - so hopefully that kid can't read yet. 

What vexed me, though - and I'm not mad at Pampers, only mad at myself, they're just doing their jobs - is that I fell hook, line and sinker for marketing puffery, a crime I'd also accused Rearz of, when they "Mega'ed" some of their brands, before I actually tried them, and realized that they had definitely added some SAP. 

I opened these new Pampers, enjoyed the scent-induced trip down memory lane, and then got scientific about comparing them to the size 7 Baby Dry diapers I already have in inventory, rated to 41 lbs+. So, these 46 lbs+ size 8's would be at least a bit larger, right?

No. 

The same size. Exactly. 

But, the weight would tell the tale, right? 

Er, no. I weighed a few of the 7's and 8's to account for manufacturing tolerances. The 8's weight less on average. The difference was less than a gram, but, still. 

Now, maybe they're putting more SAP and less stuffing in there, or something like that, but when you hold the two products in your hand, they feel identical. I only know a couple of humans that these could fit on, and who can also express themselves articulately, but I don't know that either of them would be interested in participating in my market research on comparing and contrasting oversized baby diapers. So, I'm stuck with $1 stuffers, it would seem, although I rarely use stuffers - most of the products I wear give me as much range as I can reasonably use, before I have to change them for social or skin integrity reasons, anyway. Maybe I'll hang on to a few of these, and donate the rest somewhere. 

I'm offering this as a PSA - if you're in Canada, and you come across a box of size 8 Pampers, be aware that they are not any larger than size 7's, and save your money. Unless you just have to have them, which I entirely understand. 

[ppdude]

I think someone famous said "there's a sucker born every minute". And boy are we suckers (more ways than not).

 

[Little Sherri]

One further development: a friend of mine who works in supply chain for one of the big grocery stores chains up here in Canada said that the sales of size 8 diapers have surprised them since they were launched - a lot of stores had decided not to stock them, thinking they were a specialized product that people could get at drug stores, but the ones that did saw them sell briskly.

[Brown Owl]

I can tell you about the market segment that's probably the target here.. They're going after the disability youth market i think. For whom self service options don't work for various reasons. There more expensive because this type of consumer typically can buy with Medicaid discounts in the USA, it's not just to avoid cannibalizing their own market. I don't think that's much of a concern because honestly who wants to change the diaper of a 7-9 year old if you don't have too...

[Little Sherri]

 

On 4/10/2024 at 11:57 AM, Brown Owl said:

For whom self service options don't work for various reasons.

I have a further note on this, actually:  I was looking at the varying prints on my stash of Pampers size 8's when I realized that the diapers actually said "Back" on the top of them, at the back (of course), in funky writing - just like some pull-ups do. I compared them with some size 7's I have, and those do not say "back" on them. The size 8's also had a picture of two buttons on the front, in the center of the waistband... then, it occurred to me: they might be acknowledging that people who wear diapers that big could be putting them on themselves, and, might even be able to read, ergo the helpful cues, versus the smaller sizes, which would pretty much universally be handled by someone who didn't need to be told which side was the back. 

[LGGrace]

I decided to bite on the size 8s today. I only ever bought size 5 and 6 huggies and pampers in the past. As much as I knew I was going to be disappointed, I bought a pack of 38 at Walmart for 25 (US) dollars at around 75 cent per diaper.

 I read on a different forum that if you have a 28" waist you should be able to fit in them. I have a 27" to 28" waist but I also have 34" to 35" hips, so I think everyone who posted about them fitting much have roughly the same or smaller hips. I was able to actually tape the diaper on, but it was definitely at its max. Honestly, it felt like I was wearing a pair of padded panties, but they stayed in place. 

Deciding not to waste a good abdl diaper, I wore a XL goodnites over it like @Little Sherri has done in a different post for this experiment. Luckily, goodnites do fit me perfectly.  I voided about 16oz and found that the pampers held it all with only a few drops in the goodnites.  It still felt relatively dry and could probably handle some more. 

I don't really regret buying them, because they are better and a lot more softer than the ABU boosters I tried in the past. I'm currently wearing a pampers with a LFB potty pants diaper over it.

Even though Little Kings are my favorite diaper, I wish a diaper company could make a diaper that is as soft and have the stretchy side with hook and loop that goes directly on the cloth back landing zone like baby diapers do.

[Little Sherri]

On 6/3/2024 at 11:35 PM, LGGrace said:

because they are better and a lot more softer than the ABU boosters I tried in the past.

I've never tried the ABU boosters, so I can't comment on those. But, since I have a big box of size 8 Pampers to get through, and all the kids I know who wear diapers are either too small, or too large for them, the only use I've had for them are as boosters. I had some dismal Depends pull-ups from ages ago that I've had no use for, so I decided to put the size 8's in them and see if they could be made into short errand diapers, and, perhaps not surprisingly, the size 8's hold more than the size L man pull-ups do. The pairing was actually safe to wear for a couple of hours. 

[Pampertimmy]

I use Pampers full-time as boosters. By that I mean every Rearz diaper I wear has Pampers in them. I’m still in Pampers I guess. I too live in Canada and was surprised when I saw them or the shelf and had to try them. While I was not as scientific as you, I found that the Pampers size 8 was the same as the Pampers size 7 I am in all the time. 

[LGGrace]

6 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

perhaps not surprisingly, the size 8's hold more than the size L man pull-ups do. The pairing was actually safe to wear for a couple of hours. 

I think that since baby diapers are getting too good at their job is the reason the average age of toilet training is getting later and later for children.  I remember reading an article that said that when cloth diapers were the norm, the average age was between 18 months and 24 months.  It is now between 30 months and 36 months, which is understandable if the child cannot even feel if they wet themselves or not.  Having 8 nieces and nephews, I can confirm that based on my small sample group.  My goddaughter/niece is just now starting to get reliably daytime trained at 32 months. I think mega diapers are just now starting to reach the body size to diaper capacity ratio that an average baby diaper has.

If I had to guess what would be a max waist/hip size that would fit these diapers, it would be 26", and 24" is a good true fit max.  In theory, a small, petite adult could wear them.

[Little Sherri]

39 minutes ago, LGGrace said:

In theory, a small, petite adult could wear them.

There are a couple of folks here who can fit into them, although I'm sure they're at the ragged edge of the tabs. There was a lady here I used to chat with who was very petite, and she wore Pampers size 7 during the day and then an adult diaper to bed. I have also loaned a Pampers Cruiser size 7 to one of my daughters friends when she slept over and forget her pull-ups, and she was 9. It fit her, although the tabs were on the edges of the front panel. Kids waist sizes don't expand as rapidly as their height increases - I once overlaid a Pampers size 7 over a pair of kid's size 8 underpants and the waist size was comparable, with both still having some stretch. 

[LGGrace]

33 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

There are a couple of folks here who can fit into them, although I'm sure they're at the ragged edge of the tabs. There was a lady here I used to chat with who was very petite, and she wore Pampers size 7 during the day and then an adult diaper to bed. I have also loaned a Pampers Cruiser size 7 to one of my daughters friends when she slept over and forget her pull-ups, and she was 9. It fit her, although the tabs were on the edges of the front panel. Kids waist sizes don't expand as rapidly as their height increases - I once overlaid a Pampers size 7 over a pair of kid's size 8 underpants and the waist size was comparable, with both still having some stretch. 

I agree,  I was short and skinny up until the second half of high school and would have had no problem wearing a size 7 at the time.  I didn't break 70lbs until I was halfway through 10th grade at 5'2".

[Little Sherri]

1 minute ago, LGGrace said:

I was short and skinny up until the second half of high school and would have had no problem wearing a size 7 at the time. 

I wish they had made size 7's when I was in middle school - once I outgrew XL Pampers, I had to make my own diapers out of towels and such. 

[LGGrace]

6 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

I wish they had made size 7's when I was in middle school - once I outgrew XL Pampers, I had to make my own diapers out of towels and such. 

I am not a 100% sure if size 7s were widely available yet when I started highschool in 07, but I know size 6 would have fit me until I started highschool.  I had way too many siblings to even attempt to try and buy and wear in secret until I started college.

[Pelusban]

Isn't it strange to call a bigger kid diaper "swaddlers"? "you swaddler" (a newborn baby) is surely a degrading term here...

[Little Sherri]

18 hours ago, Pelusban said:

Isn't it strange to call a bigger kid diaper "swaddlers"? "you swaddler" (a newborn baby) is surely a degrading term here...

In the UK they market Pampers Baby Dry diapers in size 8, which, again, is an interesting pairing - size 8 diapers can fit kids of reading age, who might not appreciate that the box in their closet says "Baby Dry"...

[Little Sherri]

Follow-up - I have further feedback from my friend who works in retail management, for one of the largest grocery chains in Canada: the size 8 diapers repeatedly sell out, and they are increasing their forecast and safety stock for them. They don't sell more of them than size 7's or 6's, but they were stocking a quarter of the amount, because they saw them as a specialty product, and it turns out that they sell in close to equal volume, perhaps stealing some sales from the 7's, just as the 7's apparently did when the 6's came out. I'm surprised by this, because the 8's, at least in Pampers, are really not much bigger. I have heard that the Parent's Choice size 8's are actually notably bigger than either the Pampers or Huggies size 8's, but I haven't seen them in Canada yet so that test will have to await the next time I go to the US in a car. 

This tells me that sooner or later, one of the companies will bring out a size 9 diaper. 

[SpiderBaby]

4 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Follow-up - I have further feedback from my friend who works in retail management, for one of the largest grocery chains in Canada: the size 8 diapers repeatedly sell out, and they are increasing their forecast and safety stock for them. They don't sell more of them than size 7's or 6's, but they were stocking a quarter of the amount, because they saw them as a specialty product, and it turns out that they sell in close to equal volume, perhaps stealing some sales from the 7's, just as the 7's apparently did when the 6's came out. I'm surprised by this, because the 8's, at least in Pampers, are really not much bigger. I have heard that the Parent's Choice size 8's are actually notably bigger than either the Pampers or Huggies size 8's, but I haven't seen them in Canada yet so that test will have to await the next time I go to the US in a car. 

This tells me that sooner or later, one of the companies will bring out a size 9 diaper. 

I really hope so. I hope they make size 8's a much bigger diaper in general too. Along with a much much bigger Pampers size 9's when they finally come out as well.

[LGGrace]

On 8/30/2024 at 1:09 PM, Little Sherri said:

I have heard that the Parent's Choice size 8's are actually notably bigger than either the Pampers or Huggies size 8's

I will have to give these a try soon.  I may actually be able to squeeze into these since the Pampers size 8 are at the raggedy edge when trying to tape them on.  The tabs will break if I try to move too much.

On a side note, since I had a box of Pampers to go through, I have been doing some experimenting.  Instead of just using one diaper as a stuffer, if you are roughly my size (wears adult small or mediums depending on brand), you can cut the front taps off of two diapers and use the backs of both diapers with one in the front, tape it on.  Pull the front one between your legs, then pull the back one forward so that they are overlapping.  Using a mid-range diaper, in my case, Abena S4 slip, and tape it on so that the two pampers stay in place.  You now have a diaper that is just as good or better than an NS megamax of little kings.  The way it works is when the front starts to get overwhelmed, it flows into the rear diaper before flowing into the main diaper.  Because of the overlapping, it gets pretty bulky between your legs.  It is technically a double diaper, but the main diaper can get to 70% before getting press-out leaks from the pampers which never gets close to happening with trying to double diaper with two normal diapers.

[SpiderBaby]

I just wanted to elaborate on the previous post I made earlier in this thread. With the Pampers size 8's and the Pampers size 9's seemingly coming out soon I hope this means that eventually we can see much larger, bigger baby diapers for bigger kids and teens. Without that stigma of being ashamed to be in diapers, because they're very very comfortable. It's my hope that one day we can see diapers like this enter the market and be a viable option for kids that have wetting or messing accidents on a regular basis. I think that would be pretty cool. And I just think that that option should be there if the kids want it honestly. I actually saw a documentary in Britain where they actually had diapers for kids ages 15 and up. The diapers had skateboard designs on them. So I think society is getting there slowly but surely. At least, a baby can dream, right? LOL!