AUTHOR: Marty, a.k.a. canape TITLE: Pampers Dry Max and other evils on the shelf DATE: 5/04/2010 11:39:00 AM ----- BODY:
Bird is at school and Squeak is sleeping in his bouncy seat. He slept on my chest for 90 minutes, but then want to move, so he's vibrating and snoozing, and I have two free hands. Two free hands which should be cleaning something, writing thank you notes, doing laundry, or organizing the boys' clothes for storage - but I'm actually trying to put writing back into my list of priorities, so here I sit.

I have a copy of Healthy Child, Healthy World that I have been putting off reading because I'm scared of all the things I could be doing better for my children. That's so lame. After this week of recalls and dangerous products, I'm thinking it's time to dive into it.

Squeak had almost finished his trial size bottle of Infant's Tylenol that has been recalled. It could have tiny particles - of what, they didn't say - in it or it could contain too much of the active ingredient. Either way, it's not good for him.

Bird had on a Pamper with their new "Dry Max technology" the other day. When I went to change it, he started grabbing the inside of his thigh and telling me that it hurt. I lay him on the changing table, and he began to scream before I could even get his shorts off of him. The blisters on his legs and bottom were unbelievable. I immediately began trying to calculate when the last time I changed him was and starting cursing myself for letting him have a wet and dirty diaper - even though I hadn't done anything different that day than from any other day. I changed him right when I noticed, and it wasn't that long from the last change.

I was mortified and cried right along with him. I stopped trying to clean him up at the changing table and put him straight into the tub. I wanted to make sure he was 100% clean, and rubbing the blisters wasn't an option.

After I put him to bed that night, I noticed a buzz online about Pampers and their new Dry Max diapers. A friend from my LLL group had posted a news story, and after watching it, I started searching for more information. What I found was unbelievable.

Thousands of reports of chemical burns and unusually bad blistering and rashes have been reported with these diapers. I couldn't believe it. The pictures I saw of those poor babies look just like Bird. The bigger than a quarter raised blisters - they were on all of these babies.

No more Pampers for us. I don't care how much that box cost me. I'm not using another Pamper ever again.

So begins my foray into cloth diapering. I tried it with the gCloth inserts for our gDiapers and hated them. They were terrible. But I've got some friends who are willing to give me lessons in all of the other ways to cloth diaper, so we are getting ready to make the switch. And for the times we need a disposable one, I'll be using a Huggies natural or a Seventh Generation diaper.

I feel so strongly right now, that as a mama and a consumer, I have got to start making better choices for my family. Choices based on their well being instead of cost and convenience. I did that for Squeak's birth, and now I need to continue that throughout their lives. I owe it to them to keep them safe and healthy.

It's frustrating to not be able to trust as a consumer.

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----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Stimey DATE:Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 1:24:00 PM EDT Oh, that's so horrible. Your poor guy. It's kind of shocking that those Pampers are still on the shelf. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Renee DATE:Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 1:42:00 PM EDT We have had issues with both the tylenol recall and the dry max pampers as well. Little Max kept getting blister after blister with them, and he wasn't going too long between changings, either. I was chalking it up to "acid poo" from having been on antibiotics until I saw the Pampers warning. I am FURIOUS. This sort of thing should NOT be happening in this so-called "developed" country... it just feeds my continuing anti-capitalistic rant. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Magpie DATE:Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 1:44:00 PM EDT That totally sucks. Poor kid. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous workout mommy DATE:Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 2:53:00 PM EDT ugh, this is awful! poor little guy! Is this just the new version? I've always used pampers and never had problems---but I don't use the cruisers, which I think are the new ones?

i agree--the inability to trust these brands it just awful! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous themsrevolution DATE:Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 3:48:00 PM EDT being a smart consumer is even more difficult than usual when you have small children to care for, and often on very little sleep! it sounds like you are being a smart mama, despite these factors. thanks for the heads up about the diapers. i had not heard that but my little bird has had some blistering. so frustrating! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Two Lines On a Stick DATE:Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 3:56:00 PM EDT Yikes! That is awful about the Pampers. We use Huggies on Taylor (Target brand on Bailey) but I love the HUggies Naturals. They are sooo soft and they fit really well. I have done cloth diapering on and off. I go through phases where I love it and phases where I don't want to bother. I haven't wanted to bother since Taylor was born but I might get them out again one day. Try Bum Genius :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous @sweetbabboo DATE:Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 8:11:00 PM EDT I was shocked when I heard the Pampers thing. As a cloth diaper mama, I'd always heard the chemicals are bad line but didn't really give it much thought. I can't believe he had blisters!!! I'd be pissed.

Anyway, I'm reading Healthy Child, Healthy World as well. We can chat about it. I just have to keep telling myself that I can't improve everything all at once, but I can do the little things like air out the house and get some houseplants along with the other things I'm already doing.

Can't wait to share our diapering experience with you. Have you read my post about it already? I don't want to repeat what you already know. http://tinyurl.com/573zzs

-Abby

(Is it bad form to a post on my blog in comments? I don't know this stuff. If so, sorry.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Anavar DATE:Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 5:49:00 AM EDT First, you couldn't know Pampers are bad. After all, they have so nice commercials! I can't believe one has the heart to still produce them! Nowdays it's so hard to trust the merchants. And it's even harder to find quality products! Poor little kid... I hope he'll never had to go through this again. ----- --------