Happy with nappies? Babies from near and far gave their verdict on the best disposable nappy (or at least their nappy changers did).(Trial: disposable nappies)

Publication: Choice (Chippendale, Australia)

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Australian Consumers' Association

IN A NUTSHELL

* With nappies it seems the more you pay the better it is--HUGGIES was again the most popular nappy, but also the second most expensive.

* The debate over disposable vs cloth nappies continues to rage, but from an environmental perspective it's a toss of a coin--both have environmental impacts to be considered.

* Using cloth nappies and doing your own laundering is by far the cheapest option--expensive disposables or nappy laundering services more than double the cost--see page 30.

Whatever your thoughts on disposable nappies, there's no doubting their continuing popularity. Last time we put them to the test in 1999 they were commanding 76% of the nappy market--by 2001 this had increased to 89%.

We asked our Home Testers and their friends and family with babies to assess which nappy they thought was the best. They rated the nappies for leaking, keeping the baby dry, easy fastening, fit, shifting absorbent material and whether they disintegrated under duress, and then gave each brand an overall score.

The overwhelming favourite was HUGGIES Ultra Dry Nappies. Trialists found it less likely to leak, kept the baby significantly drier, and its absorbent material was less likely to shift.

KIMBIES VIP's and TARGET Dry Soft Day & Night nappies were the next most highly favoured, with both scoring well for leakage. KIMBIES VIP's are particularly good at keeping the baby dry, and TARGET Dry Sort Day & Night for the absorbent material not shifting.

Those three are the most expensive nappies in the trial. If you're on a tighter budget, the cheaper BEBES and SNUGGLERS both do their job quite well, but both have areas that let them down.

Trialists noted that the BEBES have very sticky tabs that sometimes stuck to the baby's skin: "Good nappy overall, but I didn't like the sticky fasteners as they stick to the baby's skin during changing."

Quite a number of trialists round SNUGGLERS to be a bit big, with some noting they were too high at the back, too wide or loose around the thighs, and that the nappy bunched between the legs: "I'd be happy to buy this nappy if I could get it in a smaller size." If you've got a larger baby, though, you might be happy with SNUGGLERS.

WHAT...

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