Doesn’t the name Pampers imply some level of … pampering?

When the monkey was born, the hospital had Pampers Swaddlers – they gave us a bunch to take home and we’d gotten a bunch at the baby shower. They seemed like a good choice. But we did also have some Huggies – I think some free samples and maybe some from friends. We tried them and it seemed that we had far more leaks / explosions / ew moments with Huggies than with the right size Pampers (my husband had an uncanny ability to open the bigger size packages she hadn’t yet grown into and think they were the right ones in those days).

So while I’ve never been much of a person for brand loyalty (people loyalty sure! Brand – um, is it on sale?), we became Pampers people. And for 13 or 14 months, we felt a loyalty here. Sure, Costco sold Huggies for cheaper, but remember? They leaked. Not worth it. And there were the non-name brands – but didn’t that seem risky for my little munchkin’s caboose? No, Pampers people we were.

And then a friend of mine mentioned that she thought that Pampers had changed their diapers – to some new “dry max.” She said the box looked the same, but the new diapers were thinner and she thought that they might have even caused a diaper rash.

I didn’t think too much of it. I didn’t even realize that they’d changed. And then, I started to notice a diaper rash on the monkey – maybe a little over a month ago. OK, these things happen. She’d never really been prone to it before, but ok – we need to get on top of changing her more often and lube her up with diaper cream. I’m on it.

Except that didn’t seem to do it. It would get a little better, but the second you didn’t cover her in an inch thick layer of diaper cream for one or two changes (usually it would be that I’d be out and didn’t have it on hand), the rash would be back. I mentioned to my husband that maybe we should see a doctor, but he brought me back to the point I’d been making for a week – what will the doctor tell us? Change her more frequently and get cream on her every time. We just need to do that.

Until one day, I went to change her and her butt looked horrible! I mean, it looked really painful. It was all red with lots of angry looking bumps. I called the doctor right away and in we went. He told me that what had started as diaper rash had opened the door to other opportunistic infections – staph (but not the bad kind. The kind that is always on your skin.) and a yeast infection. He gave me his “recipe” for diaper cream, called Dr. Bill’s Butt Paste – it was equal parts A&D, Lotrimin AF and Neosporin. I went to get the ingredients and, though not a brand girl, went name brand on all – creating a tub of $20 diaper cream.

A week later she was still all red. It wasn’t as bad. But it wasn’t good. We went back. I saw the other doctor and she gave me a prescription. She mentioned lots of possible causes – any change in diet or soap or cream and did mention that some people thought the new pampers could be the cause of this. I began to wonder… But didn’t switch her out yet as I had the new prescription.

In our overzealousness, we ran through the whole 30 day supply in a week. And really – her rash wasn’t gone. It was better certainly – but she was still red and a little bumpy. We went back to the doctor – he gave us another script (telling us to only use this one twice a day, not every time – apparently not all of us were listening when this advice was given (ahem)) and we mentioned we’d switched to Huggies the day before. He told us – you’re actually not the first parents to make this connection. I can’t tell you if it’s true, but you’re not alone in thinking it.

A week later was her 15 month appointment and, of course, we did another check on the rash. She looked a ton better, but her skin still looked a little discolored. The doctor looked and said that discoloration actually wasn’t diaper rash, but the healing skin. The rash was gone, but it could take up to 6 months (SIX MONTHS!) for the color to go away and the skin to be entirely normal.

UGH. So we are no longer Pampers people (this is what I get for brand loyalty!). And the internet is implying that a number of other people are going that same way – though Pampers official statement is still that this product was well tested and is not an issue. We’ve given away the rest of our size 3’s (it was of course the ONE TIME we were totally stocked up!) to friends not having the issue.

Is anyone else having any issues with the new Pampers? Do you have a specific product for which you have unshakeable brand loyalty?