A bad nappy?

(April 20 2009 at 05:07AM)

By Wendy Knowler

It goes without saying that without the scores of emails I get from readers every week this column wouldn't be possible. I'm hugely grateful to those who spot something amiss - be it a banking charge, a defective product or a misleading advert - and make the effort to tell me about it.

Two years ago Jodi Adam of Durban was the first person to tell me how the back glass of her Corsa Lite had shattered suddenly while she was driving along a freeway, for no apparent reason.

I wrote the story because, when she took her car to a local dealership, there were two other Corsa Lites there with the same problem and I suspected it could be widespread. It was - more than 300 owners of these cars then e-mailed me about their "shattering backlite" experiences.

General Motors SA then admitted the glass was defective, set about refunding those who had paid insurance excesses and recalled thousands of the affected models to have them fitted with re-engineered glass.

... And they're not saturated nappies!
The point of this recap is that it all began with Jodi. Up until then all the others thought they were "the only one" it had happened to.

Jodi got hold of me again last week to say that the Pampers nappies she uses on her one-year-old son Adam have, since December, been splitting on the side of both legs, depositing the gel on his body. On one occasion she was horrified to find him eating the stuff in his cot.

"This happens at least three or four times a week and sometimes even once or twice a day - and they're not saturated nappies!"

Jodi says she runs a moms' group and knows of many others who are experiencing the same problem with this premium brand.

I've since heard from several other women whose experiences with Pampers nappies in recent months echo that of Jodi.

'The diapers fell apart and the small absorbent beads fell all over the floor'
Interestingly, on the local consumer complaints website hellopeter.com, I found the following complaint, posted by a Canadian woman called Korey in March. She'd bought Pampers for her 11-month-old baby.

"The diapers fell apart and the small absorbent beads fell all over the floor," she wrote.

"This happens at least twice a day - every time he gets up in the morning and at least once during the day.

"I am sure that it is not from him wearing it for too long as it has often happened within a half-hour of getting out of the bath.

"On several occasions while he has been playing on the floor, I have found him eating the beads..."

But Pampers manufacturer Proctor & Gamble's South African office is giving no indication that there is a problem batch or a widespread quality issue with their product.

P&G told me that any defective products would be replaced but made no mention of a possible recall.

The company says the so-called "super-absorber" used in the nappies is not dangerous to children or animals. If a child ate it, it would not cause any harm, the company said.

A leaking nappy might indicate that a child needs to move up a size, the company suggested.

Responding, Jodi said: "Joshua, who weighs 16kg, is in Pampers Active Baby No.5 Junior, which supposedly caters for a baby or toddler between 11 and 25kg.

"So I have to question the information supplied on the packaging - how on Earth will a child of 25kg fit into a nappy this size if they are suggesting that he, at 16kg, is too big for the nappy?"

# If you are using Pampers, and you're having - or did have - this problem with nappies which are not saturated to bursting point, I'd like to hear from you at consumer@knowler.co.za and at info@kwik-p.co.za