www.incontinentsupport.org

When are manufactures goign to realize that "No Leaks" is more important to people and a bigger confidence builder than cloth-like disposables? Who is the driving force in the cloth-like market anyway? It's not the people that have to use them for medical reasons.

Having a product that works and doesn't chafe my skin is MUCH more important to me than something that tries to look like cotton underwear, and fails to do so in most cases. I never feel like I am wearing regular underwear no matter what they try to make it look like. I still feel like I'm wearing a diaper, but I worry more about leaks, odor control and raw skin with cloth-like products.

The plastic backed diapers are much more kind on my skin and better for odor control and leak prevention, because they don't wick to the edges are much.

I vote we make the people that design these products wear and use them for a few weeks to see if they feel any more "normal" when they leak and their inner thighs are rubbed raw. Then maybe they will understand how it is a step in the wrong direction for confort and confidence.

Sorry for the rant. I just had to blow off a little steam with people that I know understand at least some of my frustrations.

Doug

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When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

I hear ya Doug, I use the cloth backed too, and thankfully it is not all day-all night, but when that day arrives, I will be going to plastic for sure. The chaffing is the biggest problem for me but not really an issue as of late, only had 2 episodes in 6 months. The only reason I use them is they are easily available here, fairly cheap at under $1 a piece, and do what I need for now. I am sure if the makers had to spend a week in cloth backed day and night, they might begin to understand! Puffy

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Puffy
BC, Canada
Fighting the "Bladder Battle" since 1995

As I now am double incontinent, I wear plastic-backed disposable diapers. Cloth-like diapers stretch way too much and the stretch causes looseness at the crotch, encouraging leaks. With a heavy used diaper, diaper sag is much worse than with a plastic-backed diaper!

I have experimented with several hybrid diapers with non-breathable mat and breathable sides. They stretch slightly less than most pure breathable diapers, but the stretch factor still is a disadvantage.

It may be that the institutional buyers of diapers, most of the diaper consumption in the country, don't care about these issues. After all, the buyers don't have to wear them! The residents have their diapers changed every few hours and leaks seem to be expected.

--JD

My biggest complaint is wicking of disposables. It would be nice if a disposable could utilize the entire diaper. For me it never does which seems to be wasted product and more changes. I've been told & read that cloth is much better in that regard but really want nothing to do with them.

Don,

I have recently made to change to cloth and like you, I was not too crazy about it but I needed to find want cost saving I could so that was the main reason. Its true that cloth wicks very good and it uses the entire diaper but I have found it is this fact that really seperates the two. Disposables absorb liquids and turns it into a gel where cloth moves the liquid to somewhere that can hold it. The main question you need to ask yourself would be are you a leaker or a soaker. if you soak, both can deal with this issue but IMO disposables would be the way to go. wicking takes a little time and the disposables way of turning liquids into a gel is done pretty fast depending on who make the disposable. if you leak, this would give the cloth plenty of time to move the volume around the diaper. But again, both do this job, just one will do a different job better.
Back on subject though, I agree the the cloth like backing sucks. What I hate the most is the backing between the legs feels like it gets damp with sweat and this inturn make me feel like i am leaking and very uncomfortable.

I'm glad to see this topic addressed. I cannot stand wearing the cloth-like diapers at all for precisely the reasons the original poster mentioned. They chafe, they don't control odor and worst of all they seem to leak really quickly. I suspect the manufacturers are trying to cater to the notion that cloth-like diapers look and feel more like cloth underpants but A) they don't and B) what good is a product if it fails to meet the primary goals for which one is using it in the first place. I bought some of the Tena Stretch diapers and they were just hell on my skin rubbing the inside of my legs raw. I will only buy the plastic-backed diapers from here on.

CJ

I am very happy my supplier is now sending me the Abena M4 Classic diapers now. I am almost out of the Cloth-Like and I am very glad about that. I am only using the Cloth-like diapers while I'm at home now.

As a direct comparison I decided to wear one of the plastic backed Classic diapers for an outing. I had not had any more or less to drink than I usually do. The classic diaper contained as much urine by itself as the Premium diaper did with an insert inside it. The premium diapers leak long before the Classics do. The Premium diapers tend to leak before they even reach 2/3rds capacity. The Classic diapers wicked better and didn't leak until they were between 3/4 and completely saturated.

I guess we can same that "Premium" is a step below Classic for Abena. The M4 Premium performs more like an M3.5 than is does an M4. This seems to ring true with the Premium M3 as well. It leaks with the very first moderate flood. Depends Maximum diapers are not too far away from the M3 for overall performance and that is not something to be proud about for Abena.

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When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.