Here is my Pampers Dry Max story. I know this has been getting a lot of press lately, and I’d like to be able to shed some light on this situation.

I like to think I’m a normal and reasonable mother. Let’s face it, in today’s world disposable diapers are the norm. I feel bad for the environment. I really do. Cloth diapers aren’t exactly feasible for me since I don’t have a washer and dryer; I go to the laundromat. There is one on the first floor of my apartment building, but it’s $1.75 per wash and $1.75 per dry. Considering my son urinates just about every hour…well, you can do the math. For the sake of my sanity, I use disposables and I don’t feel (too) much guilt. There; I’ve justified myself to you.

Moving on, I’ve been using Pampers on my son since about day one. I had about a billion and a half of diapers when my son was born. Apparently everyone thinks you need diapers. Lots and lots of diapers. And you do. You really cannot imagine how many diapers one tiny human being can go through in a 24 hour period, unless you’ve witnessed it first hand. Why am I telling you this? Because it still blows me away.

So there I was: this new mother with her motherly scent of sweat, puke and breastmilk, foraging through a sea of diapers. Want to know an interesting fact about babies? Babies can outpiss you. Enroll my son in a pissing contest and he’ll come away with the grand prize. But back to diapers.

So there I was, up to my neck in diapers. The diapers others had so thoughtfully given us. Some bought us Huggies, others store name brands arguing they’re just as good as the name brands, and yet others bought us Pampers. I tried them all. The store brands never stood up to more than an hour’s worth of excrement. Huggies was about the same (remember: my son pissed like a race horse). Luvs gave my son a rather bad rash. But Pampers were the ones that worked best for us. So once my free diaper stash was gone (you didn’t think I’d throw them away, did you?), I bought me some Pampers. Lots and lots of Pampers.

And I happily kept buying them.

It wasn’t until about four months ago that I started noticing a difference in the Pampers Cruisers. The mesh liner was gone. I mean, it was there one week and the next it wasn’t. I checked the Pampers box to see if anything had changed. Nothing on the box indicated so. I wondered to myself why they would get rid of this revolutionary mesh liner that kept my son’s bum so clean and dry. I missed that mesh liner. What the hell, man?!

Replacing this mesh liner was a stiff, purple liner that smelled like my Dad when he went through chemo, but if he were wearing Grandma’s perfume. I shrugged it off and figured it was nothing. I mean, hey, it was purple. It was kind of cute. Maybe they were trying to cut back on costs and that’s why they got rid of the mesh liner.

About a month later my son developed a nasty rash. He had had this rash twice before. Once, when he was a little baby and another time when I tried the Luvs. It was a most horrible rash: big red spots that looked like pimples; dry, scaly skin and his entire bum was just inflamed. He’d cry when I wiped him. Those bumps would fill with puss and ooze and bleed. I felt like the most horrible mother.

At first I thought it was just “diaper rash”. Now, notice that to a mother “diaper rash” can cover a broad range of actual medical terms such as: Allergic Contact Dermatitis and Irritant Contact Dermatitis. Before I enrolled in medical school, I’d zone out to my pediatrician as he spoke of such things; drooling on one side of mouth, eyes glazed over until he said, “Here, I’ll write you a prescription”. Immediately I’d perk up at that, thank him and leave well satisfied that my doctor knows what he’s doing. And he does. Which is why I trust him.

The prescription he had written for my son’s “diaper rash” did the trick. So I figured this “diaper rash” was no different. It turns out, it was. The prescription medicine I immediately reached for didn’t work. The A&D ointment, the Desitin, the Butt Paste, the Lansinoh cream, the Vaseline, the Baby Magic….nothing worked. Still my son would cry and complain about his bum and still, I felt like the most horrid mother in the world. What was I doing to my son?

It never got better. In fact, it got worse. The bumps filled with pus spread down his legs. Now I really started freaking out. My husband had just started a new contracting job after being unemployed for a year. We both lost health insurance, but were able to keep Medicaid for our son. But once my husband started this new job, we lost Medicaid. He works on an “on-call” basis, so we’re never 100% sure he’ll be working a 40-hour week. We can’t afford any health insurance. I toyed with the idea of taking my son to see his doctor, but since we already owe thousands of dollars when my husband went to the ER, I decided I’d wait it out and see.

At first, I though it was some kind of chicken pox. But he never seemed to scratch at the bumps, they just seemed to annoy him. So I started looking into other reasons: maybe it’s his diet? I took out the things that I thought were causing problems. One of them was apple juice. I’d read somewhere that apple juice was acidic and could cause allergy problems. I promptly switched him to white grape juice. It helped the slightest bit, but his rash was still there.

Well, I thought, maybe he’s staying too long in his own filth. I mean, I could only assume how acidic urine is (and again, thanks to medical school, I learned urine is actually pretty neutral when you are well hydrated) so I vowed to change his diaper more often. It got to the point where I was changing his diaper every hour. This was ridiculous. I was going through diapers like crazy and our grocery bill each week was tremendous. I decided to just let him go without a diaper during the day. It helped. A lot. But still the rash persisted.

I gave up at this point. I figured until I got the money to take him to a doctor, I’d never get this rash under control. Besides, I had other roadblocks with my three year old: such as potty training.

Then I read this article spotlighting a Facebook group advocating that Pampers bring back the old Cruisers. Further reading revealed that many parents were having the same issues with their children’s bums. I figured I was reading too much into it. I mean, each kid is different. Then I read that Pampers had changed their diaper “formula” which is what resulted in the stiff, purple diaper I remembered seeing.

Still, I dismissed the article. But as I lay awake at night, wondering if my kid’s butt was ok, it ate at me. Maybe it is the diapers? Maybe I’m just being too neurotic? And still, it ate at me.

One night recently I broke down and said to myself while at the store, “I’m just going to buy some Huggies”. Just to see. It can’t hurt. I mean, worse comes to worse, I spent the same amount of money on diapers and he still has the rash. At this point in time, I must tell you, my son goes pee-pee in the potty during the day. The only time he wears a diaper is at night or when we are out and about. I bring home the diapers and forget about them until last night. I had resolved to use the rest of the Pampers before I used the Huggies because I am frugal like that. But I swallowed my pride and wanted to see what happened.

Here’s the magical part: my son’s rash did a complete one-eighty. He peed through the Huggies (as I expected), but his butt looks so much better.

I correlated my frustrations and came to the conclusion that my son’s rash is due to the new Dry Max formula. Whatever they did to their diapers caused my child to have the worst, and longest running case of “diaper rash” I have ever witnessed him having. I have no scientific evidence to back this claim up. It could just be some cosmic coincidence, and I am the butt of the joke (get it?). But I stand by the claim that whatever they put in that diaper caused my child three months of “diaper rash” hell.

I don’t really intend to boycott Pampers. I don’t ask that you do, either. At least, not in the sense of never buying them again. If Pampers were to admit there is something in their diapers that is causing massive cases of “diaper rash” in children, and were to change their formula, I’d gladly buy a box again.

Until then, my son’s butt comes first.

~JazFusion

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