I do remember my friend saying the new diapers were causing burns. Scary!
.-= CFMama´s last blog ..The release of Avatar! =-.

[...] Update:  The CPSC is investigating new Pampers with Dry Max.  Details here. [...]

Wow. Yet another reason to be happy that we cloth diaper. No way in hell I’d want to give any of my family’s hard earned money to a company like that!

If you click the link given about the investigation, the very first response is from a woman from Pampers trying to cover their butts (and failing may I add). I don’t think her response helped their situation any!

I’m glat to see that they are being investigated, and I hope that the product is recalled soon! It’s so sad that these parents and babies are having to go through this, and it’s even sadder that Pampers is trying to make the parents look bad! I didn’t like Pampers before, and now I dislike them even more!

This makes me even more glad that we switched to cloth. My only regret is that we did not do it sooner with my oldest son. I did not find out about the modern cloth diaper until this time last year when he was getting ready for potty training, and we had our second little guy on the way. I tried them out on him for a few months before we began potty training, and I fell in love with them. My nine month old is in cloth full time, and I just couldn’t imagine ever going back to disposables. The scary thing is that with my oldest Pampers were my favorite disposable, so had I not found cloth my baby would probably have been in the new Pampers. I feel so bad for the little ones suffering with this terrible rash. I would be in tears if my little one developed such a rash.

THIS MAKES ME LIVID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember all the horrible rashes my older 2 used to get and they used to scream their heads off because it hurt so bad. I am so thankful that I am using cloth for this baby and every one here after. I wish that more moms would understand how EASY and beneficial cloth diapering is. I hope people sue the heck out of pampers!!!!

I tell all my friends who do use disposables about this, even friends that don’t have kids. It’s horrible. We use disposables when we travel every so often and at one point did use pampers, but they just didn’t work as well as Huggies. He broke out in a rash in regular pampers anyways. But it certainly wasn’t a blistering oozing rash like Dry Max causes.
.-= Andrea´s last blog ..Project 365 pt 2 =-.

I’m not trying to say that the Dry Max diapers aren’t the cause of these babies rashes, as I have no way of knowing, but are there any hard (or even estimated) numbers on the percentage of babies who are diapered with these and are having problems?

We have almost exclusively used Pampers on our son (who has been to the dermatologist for non diaper rash related skin issues) and the Dry Max have been the best diapers we have ever used. Not only do they absorb a TON, but his skin isn’t wet in the morning if he has a really wet diaper overnight.

Just another perspective to consider. I would personally be disappointing if I were unable to continue using them.

@Kris In my other Pampers post I gave their response to parents. Even though the diapers don’t cause this rash for every baby (thank goodness) the other thing to consider is how they treat people. Parents complaining about Dry Max diapers causing rashes were given scripted responses and coupons for Dry Max diapers. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. It is great the diaper doesn’t cause a rash for your son. But I personally can’t buy from them (even though we haven’t personally had the rash, and haven’t used them at all) since they clearly don’t respect their loyal customers.

without considering the rash, they do NOT absorb as well.. the absorbant part only goes just past the middle of the diaper from the front (unlike the old ones) with no padding except paper in teh back. PLUS, they droop horribly worse than the old pampers cruisers. My son’s diaper was not very wet and was falling off his behind. The old cruisers never did that.

To the point that Pampers is giving canned responses and offering discounts on their products to the small portion of their customer base that believes the company is in the wrong, if I stopped giving business to every company that did this, I’d have no choice but to be a dirty hippy living in a commune. All companies do this. This isn’t what I would prefer that companies do in general, but I live in the real world and understand that this is what happens.

I do understand that the situation is different as there are babies in pain and/or discomfort rather than a tv not turning on or a hard drive crashing, but these diapers are just another consumer product. 3% of electronics fail. Flat out fail. I suspect that a much smaller percentage of these diapers are causing rashes. As I asked in my first post, do you have any hard (or even estimated numbers) on the number of families affected?

Just because people have gotten food poisoning from eating at McDonalds doesn’t mean that Big Macs should be taken off the menu and just because some babies have gotten rashes doesn’t mean that these diapers should be recalled.

I haven’t spent a significant amount of time reading through all of the information on this issue, but has there been any official comments on it from any medical professional (official comment – not second hand quotes from parents who say that their doctor has told them it’s the diapers causing the problem)?

I want to be very clear that I’m not trying to claim that parents are wrong to stop using these diapers or to stop giving their money to Pampers. This is what the free market is for – if enough people stop giving Pampers their money, they will change their marketing and product line to make their customers happy. I also want to be very clear that I am not claiming that the diapers are not causing the rashes, as I am not a medical professional and am in no way qualified to do so. I think it’s irresponsible for ANYONE who is not a medical professional to claim conclusively that the diapers are or are not causing the problems.

Finally, I’d like to say that I am happy that the issue is being investigated by the CPSC. If it means a better quality product for my son in the end (no pun intended), all the better.

To any other Canadians, Health Canada has issued a bulletin. They’ve only received 2 reports so if you are or know anyone whose baby has these burns, contact them!

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/advisories-avis/_2010/2010_68-eng.php

As much as I love using cloth diapers and have had bad rash experiences with brands of disposables I CAN see the other side to this issue. American is lucky enough to have a free market economy where different company can promote their products. Rules and regulations are in place so companies can not intentionally do harm. Although regulations do not always work, and companies do not always comply. I have to assume that Pampers did not intentionally put something in their diaper to cause severe rashes, they want rash free babies as much as Mom’s do or else they run into a PR nightmare like this current one. They thought they were creating a superior product to previous ones. But parents are lucky enough to also have the choice of switching brands of disposables or going to cloth. Its like people who blame McDonalds for making them fat, no one is forcing them to eat all the food, just like no one is forcing someone to use a certain brand of diapers over and over again if its causing problems. If your baby gets a rash, or you think the quality is bad stop using the diapers and switch to something else. I think Kris put it better than I just have, but I agree there is another valid side.

@Kris at this time there aren’t numbers for the rashes. I am hoping with the investigation and the complaints received there will be a more clear picture, and I will keep an eye on it.

A valid theory has been put forth which was stated on the article I linked about the investigation, saying that the reduction of materials in the diaper (which they said would make the diaper more eco friendly) may also be exposing the babies more to the chemicals inside the diaper. So if they are correct in saying there is little difference between the chemicals in the old diaper and new, then this is a feasible explanation. And some babies are obviously more sensitive to it than others.

And people are free to purchase what they like. But knowing how Pampers has handled this has made even parents who love them and didn’t get rashes to reconsider their brand of choice. I just want people to know so they can decide.

If and when I do get more info I will post it!

I am SO glad we use cloth! I posted the link on FB but most everyone is so sick of hearing me tell them facts about how bad disposables are that I don’t know if anyone will look. But really, I wish everyone could just be aware of this problem and to know that cloth isn’t hard. But whatever. I’m sick of them all being so mean and negative to me about my hippie ways. Glad I have wonderful internet mama’s who understand me! Thanks for all your great researched info!

I’m curious if the majority of the rashes come from the free sample packs. I purchased a box of what I thought was the old Cruisers and it had the new ones in it. My son *knock on wood* hasn’t had a rash yet (other than a random bump here or there) from using them; however, I have not used my free samples. I threw them in the diaper bag and forgot about them. Since the reports of rashes coming out, I’m scared to use them. Could it be possible that there is something wrong with the sample packs? Is it happening in all Cruisers sizes or just specific sizes? Something to think about.

I appreciate having this information out there. What did parents do before the internet?

@Tricia Judging by what other parents are saying, it isn’t just the samples sent out. I just watched a news story about a mother in Des Moines who was featured. Her daughter suffered the rash from the box of Cruisers with Dry Max. In fact, many boxes of Cruisers had the Dry Max diapers but weren’t labeled as such, so it was hard to understand where the rashes were coming from.

It is good you are not experiencing the rash. Certainly not everyone will or has. But it doesn’t matter if it is a sample or a whole case.

Give me a break….change your babies diapers more often! I used 5 sample packs…..NO issues. If it was a problem, wouldn’t it burn ALL babies….not just random ones? Pampers are sold by the millions…..a few thousand just may react badly. Switch diapers and move on, jeesh!

@sally,
I have 4 children, and was a loyal pampers customer. My 18 month old son uses cloth diapers but I put him in Pampers when he is with a baby sitter. He received chemical burns as soon as he was put in the new pampers with dry max. My niece had the same rash and had bleeding sores! We did not know that the rash was related to the diapers. Why would we? These were the same diapers we had used from their birth, or so we thought.

When the rash developed, I was changing my son every 2 hour, putting him back in pampers so I could use creams to heal his sore burned bum. Little did I know I was making it worse. As soon as I read Kim’s original post on these rashes, I went back to my cloth and called my SIL. Both of our children are fine now.

If your child was injured due to a reaction form Tylenol what would you do? What if they changed the formula with out you knowing? Wouldn’t you report it? Wouldn’t you let people know?

I can’t speak for every one, but in my case I was upset the most at the fact that I was unknowingly making my son worse, and suffer. He didn’t have the ability to tell me the diaper hurt him. When I contacted the company, the response was basically blaming me and pointing to any scapegoat they could.

Before passing judgment on us, and saying we don’t change our babies, read both sides! These diapers did not burn all babies, but in other recalls millions of users are fine, yet we recall a product for a handful of injuries. This should be no different.

@sally, I suspect you’re just a troll, but I will play along for the moment! Ithink the issue is partly about the severity of the reaction. I am not one to overreact to this sort of thing, but I personally know one baby who has *scar tissue on her genitals* from her horrible diaper rash that started ONLY after using pampers dry max. (Let that sentence sink in for a minute and I think people’s reaction makes more sense.) This baby’s horrible chemical burns got better as soon as she was switched to another brand. What if it was your baby who was injured? Wouldn’t you be upset about that? Those “few thousand” that have been affected are just as important as your own child. And of course the situation has been made worse by Pampers’ absolute refusal to engage in any discussion about the problem. People take the safety of children’s products very seriously, as they should. This is no joking matter. Even if you love disposable diapers and plan to continue using them, this issue should be of concern to all parents.

No, not all babies would react the same way because all babies have different sensitivities and tolerance level. Do you remember about babies getting burned with the Carter’s tagless labels?

I have three kids. One got the burns, the other two didn’t. The one that did has the most sensitive skin and we have to be more careful. HOWEVER, she is fine with other tagless labels and safe products.

Babies should not be exposed to something that is potentially harmful, no matter if they react or not. The babies that have are like the canary in the coal mine… And good customer service is a must, not a luxury, that all consumers should demand.
.-= Brenna´s last blog ..The chemicals we expose our children to… =-.

@Sally~ so you think it has something to do with how often people are changing their child’s diaper? Are you serious? And to answer your question about it affecting ALL, is NO!! Everyone has different skin types, and sensitivities. We went through EVERY sposie on the market with our last son, before finally making the switch to cloth, and with crap like this coming out I breath a sigh of relief that we did make that switch, because ALL sposies give him “burns” and blisters!! Is this something you would say to a mother who has a crib recalled? Switch cribs and get on with it? I know that crib recalls are much more serious than that of a diaper, but still it IS the health of a child that is being gambled with!!!! Do you realize that diapers are filled with a combustible material? Is this something you want near your child’s bum? I know I don’t, and there are several other mom’s on here that would agree!! Why even take the chance that it affects even 1? Don’t our children deserve to be protected from stuff like this, and children that are yet to be born, shouldn’t their parents KNOW what could possibly happen to their child if these diapers are NOT taken off the shelves and investigated to figure out what is causing the problem? If this is your take on YOUR child’s health, then I feel for them, and you are just showing your ignorance, and allowing companies like those that put out questionable 2nd rate products to continue to do so. There in turn putting MY child’s life in danger!!! YOU may think it’s ok for these diapers to not be investigated because YOUR child was not affected, but how would YOU feel if it was YOUR child in that diaper with blisters and burns, screaming uncontrollably from the pain? Yeah, that’s what I thought, different story now?

Sally-
WOW. You can not tell me that thousands of rashes were caused by the baby being left in a soiled diaper for too long! Do you even KNOW why disposable diapers are notorious for causing or contributing to rashes? RESEARCH the ingredients, dear.

Something that is going to be used on a child should not cause harm. Period. If your child was the one with open, blistering wounds, you’d be livid as well and I can bet you’d be looking for the source of the rash, right?? These moms ruled out other possible causes and the common denominator was the Dry Max diapers… get a clue.

@Sally – “Pampers are sold by the millions…..a few thousand just may react badly.”

So is this what you tell the “few” parents whose childrens had fingers amputated by their strollers? It only happened to a “few” people, but they sure as heck recalled HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of strollers because of it…or what about the “few” babies who suffocated because their drop side crib came down unknowingly and they were stuck? As a corporation being held to certain standards it is their job to ensure the products we as consumers buy are SAFE for us and our children…now get a life and go troll somewhere else…

@ sally— As a neonatal icu nurse for many years (took care of babies born as early as 23 weeks gestation) and a mother of 3, married to a pediatrician- I can FIRMLY say that NO!!!!! not all babies would have a reaction-, every skin type is different; what I can tell you is a LOT of nicu babies in disposables get horrible, bleeding, diaper rashes- there are no cloth diapers to fit extreme preemies-or any preemies for that matter. And despite religiously changing these tiny babies diapers every hour-to every two hours, they got diaper rash- the only cure was a warm heat lamp and leaving their little bums open to the air— with a CLOTH diaper covering their bed……… No medicine would fix this and many of them got rashes so bad, they would end up on antibiotics because the open sores would become infected, which kept them from getting extremely sick but did not heal the sores. So if you want to take a chance with your future children, by all means go ahead…. I have just switched to cloth for my youngest 2, not only for the money savings, and benefits to them, but to protect this planet for all children, including yours.

@sally

I, personally, would find ‘a few thousand’ cases of diaper rash that severe pretty unacceptable. And don’t you think that these moms are ruling out possibilities before they go making accusations?

It could just be bad ‘batches’ of diapers, yeah… but when you’re dealing with something as delicate as a human infant, there really should be some pretty darned high standards in manufacturing and inspection.

I’m glad that when we got Pampers, it was long before they came out with dry max! I just wish that Huggies were as soft as the Pampers…

That really is a wack response from Pampers. You’d at least expect a “we’re investigating” rather than dismissing the moms who complained as not being able to tell the difference between diaper rash and a chemical burn. Insulting your customers = not the brightest PR move!

[...] a new ingredient called "Dry Max." Bloggers such as Kim R. are trading stories about the severe diaper rashes they have seen in children who have been wearing the "new, improved" diapers. Scott [...]

[...] a new ingredient called "Dry Max." Bloggers such as Kim R. are trading stories about the severe diaper rashes they have seen in children who have been wearing the "new, improved" diapers. Scott [...]

No burns here, but I noticed that when my stockpile of pampers swaddlers ran out this past week and I had to buy new ones, we suddenly had massive leaks, two days in a row, resulting in soaking wet pajamas. This has never happened before. I’ve also noticed having to wipe up bits of diaper gel off my baby during changes a couple of times. Clearly, the new diapers are inferior to the old product, and letting babies stay in wet diapers is going to increase the risk for rashes.

Report has been filed. My son had a horrible rash on his testicles and bottom. Dry Max needs to be recalled!

[...] CNM News Network,” that there was a recall of Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max technology.  And a post in Cloth Diapering  (obviously not a manufactured diaper proponent) claims at least partial credit for bringing this all [...]

I want to thank you for your part in getting this information out there! I heard this was on the news last week and I didn’t get a chance to see it but the very next day I got an e-mail at work about it. I work for the health authority in my region and daily we get an e-mail from the person in charge of the library in the hospital titled ‘In the News…’ and everyday there is usually 4-5 different topics. Well that morning one of the links in the e-mail was about Pampers Dry Max… so as a mom who buys the pampers cruisers, I clicked on the link to see what it had to say. I was SHOCKED to read what these diapers are doing to babies!!! This is HORRIBLE! I am SO THANKFUL for the people who complained and got it on the news.. if it weren’t for you guys, I would never have known. I have a 5 year old and a 14 month old and I have always used pampers on both boys. My younger son I used the swaddlers and once he grew out of those sizes I switched to cruisers. I always buy my diapers in bulk (the box) and recently there was a sale at Safeway for the cruisers boxes so I bought 2 of them.. both of them with the new dry max label. I still had 1/2 a box left though of the pampers cruisers (reg label – not dry max) when I read this article. So I hadn’t even opened either of my 2 boxes of the new label.. and I am SO glad I didn’t because I took them back the very same day I read about this and exchanged them for 2 boxes of the regular pamper diapers. I did not want to take any chances!

I filed a report too! I normally wouldn’t bother, but while DSs cloth diaper covers were in the wash, I put him in a sample pampers with dry max…and in less than two hours he had a raw red rash! Now, I normally don’t report things like this, but P&Gs response has made me so mad! I think their response above anything has increased the uproar. When you tell parents they are just being stupid…you are shooting yourself in the foot.

This still bugs me: “These rumors are being perpetuated by a small number of parents, some of whom are unhappy that we replaced our older Cruisers and Swaddlers products while others support competitive products and the use of cloth diapers,” Jodi Allen, vice president for Pampers, said in a statement.

I love this – if you are following this story, you hear about cloth diapers in the following manner – – parents offering to help other parents to use chemical-free diapers that will help their babies heal after being hurt by Pampers and then blamed and dismissed by the manufacturer. Parents have legitimate concerns about putting plastics and chemicals on their babies’ most sensitive areas – – and if they’ve had the opportunity to escape the well-funded PR machines of enormous disposable diaper companies and find their way to simple, reusable cloth diapers, they’re grateful and ready to lend a hand to other parents in need. Perhaps that kind of caring looks like evil advantage-taking and rumor-mongering by P&G’s damage-control unit (or at least that’s how they want other people to view it), but actually, that’s parents-supporting-parents, something P&G apparently knows nothing about.

The rashes & burns r completely real!! My baby girl doesn’t want to urinate because it burns & literally stands there holding herself & cries because she is In pain. She’s been walking funny or not at all! This is sad that P&G is trying to protect themselves instead of considering that this could be factual!  & I do change my baby often. She’s 1 1/2 & has only had 1 (antibiotic induced) rash in her life! So it’s not my problem, but theirs!!  (& I have changed brands in an effort to find one that will work. Mom’s BEWARE!!

My son indeeds have scar tissue on top of his penis and had to have surgery this week and the doctor has said its caused by the diapers and the kind of diapers he has always used is pampers, i am going to court for a civil suit over this so if there are anyother moms that has had this happen please contact me at babyboo204@aol.com thank you so much

Hi my name is Jessica and I’m so happy to be able to say something about this. My son cohan is my first child and ever since he was born we followed down the pampers line from newborn to 6′s. Until tomorrow. Today is the last I will “torture” my son into wearing the new pampers. It has been a few months of about every 2 weeks at the most we will go through the most awful diaper rashes to the point were they are bleeding. At first I was ate up in guilt thinking I wasn’t changing his diaper enough, to the point where my fiance would come home lecturing me about changing cohans diaper. My son is 16 months old and tonight after I gently as possible wiped his tushy he cried out mumma no shaking his head. Now that’s when enough is enough, so I decided to google it after cohans doctor had given us medicines that failed his rashes. That’s when I came across all these websites about the pampers causing rashes. Its such a sad thought. And I really want to do something about it!!. Please feel free to email me because enough is more than enough.. jesstayy@ymail.com

I am absolutely for Huggies. I used to LOVE pampers, it’s the only brand I used on my boys. But now the drymax is out and it gave my little one a rash who never had one with pampers. Only luvs gave him a rash. So to me, it is VERY clear they need to go back to the old style pampers. They were the best. Huggies has gotten better with their diapers, however. I like theirs, too. The pure and natural were REALLY nice as were the snugglers. They were like the pampes sensitive and swaddlers.

I am in complete agreement with you. I also prefer the use of cloth diapers. It is sad that the world has become so money driven that people care more about their bottom lines than lives of others. Great post.

Get Free Diapers

These diapers DID cause a chemical burn on my grandbaby! I am very insulted that Pampers would dismiss such an issue with out speaking to me directly or viewing pictures! This is NOT a normal diaper rash!!! My grandbaby has NEVER had this reaction to anything we’ve ever put on her. We tried Pamper’s Cruiser diapers and with in the same day extreme redness occured, looking like a very bad dry sun burn! IF you’ve ever had a sunburn you know first hand it’s unpleasant. Imagine what it’s like to have one this bad on the most sensitive area of your body!!!!!! To see my 7 month old grandbaby SCREAM from pain when she tried to sit was heart breaking! To change her diaper was torture for her! When she peed she screamed! Touching the redness we felt the dried out skin and heat! We tried to give her a bath and that too caused her to scream! Needless to say, taking those diapers off of her and doctoring the burns it caused helped tremendously! For those parents that see no reaction or change in their babies, good for you. But for the baby in our family, it was an extreme nightmare! Never again will we buy Pampers! And I’m not saying this to be mean, I’m saying this because this is what I’m doing to protect my grandbaby. I had nothing against Pampers until now. We didn’t know other parents were having such problems until we investigated our own situation. We couldn’t believe Pampers, a huge name brand company would dismiss such injuries to such innocent children!!!! I suggest every single person dismissing these problems wear the Pamper’s Cruiser diapers for an entire day. That’s how long it took to sevearly burn my 7 month old grandbaby. Let’s see how comfortable they are when their private areas are burned so bad they cant sit down or take a bath!!!! It sickens me to know such a product is allowed to be sold. I can only imagine all the parents out there punishing their kid(s) because they won’t sit still & can’t stop crying! I really hope Pampers deals with this quickly and starts taking this seriously.

SO sorry to hear about your grandbaby suffering from that rash. I hope she
heals quickly and that you find a new diaper to trust. Pampers is
definitely not one of them.

[...] to have caused thousands of rashes in babies all over the country.  Even if the CPSC gave up that investigation you’ll never convince me Pampers Dry Max diapers weren’t to blame.  {disclaimer: that [...]

My 16 month old has never had any diaper rash, and we use pampers dry max (always!!) .. The thing is, we ALSO use butt paste for EVERY diaper change.. Which is why I firmly believe we have been blessed with no skin irritations… What we love about the dry max, is we can get a full nights rest without worrying that our daughter will soak up the bed (which has happened on occasions when we ran out of dry max, and used huggies). I know every other parent on here, has a chi.d suffering from a skin rash… I do pray that pampers follows up with the complaints and that justice is done for each and every one of you… I would hate to be the parent of a child with a burn, and having a company just wash their hands.. Not resolving the issue… I would hate to have to switch brands (or to cloth) due to pampers lack of loyalty to their baby bums!!