The Best Britches for Your Baby: Pampers Diapers Versus Huggies Diapers

Victor Mills was an employee for the company Procter and Gamble and he was trying to find a solution to his grandchildren's 'toilet issues'. He found cloth diapers inconvenient and decided that the company's pulp mill produced good absorbent paper. This led to him creating the world's very first disposable diapers in the year 1961. Although a name wasn't given to it immediately, it eventually came to be known as Pampers. These disposable diapers faced unprecedent success in the US market and by the late 1960s Pampers had become a national brand.

The 1970s saw an upsurge in the demand for disposable diapers. This was the time when Kimberly-Clark came out with their production of disposable diapers and named the brand Huggies. Huggies was introduced in 1978 and it proved big competition for Pampers and they remain rivals in the diaper market to this day. Some say that the competition runs deeper than that between Pepsi and Coca Cola! The demand for disposable diapers remained in excess of supply for a long time to come.

Huggies offers several choices of diapers. They have Huggies Preemies which was more recently introduced in the market and are diapers for premature babies. They are smaller than diapers made for normal sized babies. Huggies came out with Pull-Ups in 1989 which are specially made for potty training children. Huggies even has a range called Goodnites which are diapers for older children as well as teenagers who have bed wetting problems. Huggies Little Swimmers are swim pants for children. Apart from these niche categories the Huggies range of traditional diapers are known as Huggies Supreme and Huggies Baby Shaped that come in different sizes for children weighing anything upto 70lbs. The sizes go all the way up to 6. Huggies started using a cloth like outer covering for the Supreme and now they even have Ultratrims which are smaller than the big old bulky diaper of yester years. By the year 2000 all diapers were made thin and the concept of a bulky diaper has now faded away into oblivion. Huggies is also known for its superabsorbent material used on the inside of the diaper.

Pampers on the other hand has divided its diapers into several categories based on the different stages a child goes through. Pampers too has a maximum size of 6. Infact they were the ones to first introduce diapers of size 6 in 1998 on the advice of a famous pediatrician Dr T Berry Brazelton. The products that Pampers sells are diapers, training pants and swimming pants. The diaper section has been divided into Swaddlers, Cruisers, Baby Dry and Sensitive. The Swaddlers come in different sizes for newborns and premature babies. The Cruisers are for infants on the brink of toddlerhood. Baby Dry is the basic brand for toddlers and larger babies. The Sensitive comes in sizes upto 5. Pampers Premium introduced in 1996 was known to be the first 'breathable' diaper because it had side panels to allow the diaper to 'breathe'. Apart from this the diaper technology at Pampers has included moisture absorbing material to ease the discomfort a baby faces. The secret behind this was the Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) that was used to make the diapers. There is even a line of Pampers diapers for adults with incontinence.

Huggies and Pampers have both taken advantage of the internet revolution. Their websites include information for expectant mothers and potty training advice. Huggies provides information about developmental milestones as well. Pampers too gives advice on things such as parenting and creative strategies to teach toddlers about the world around them.