I know bit of a stupid question but where modern disposable nappies around then and what were they like? In the uk
probably only plastic backed.
Yes, they were around and the norm in 1997. Disposable nappies were first marketed in around the 1950s and had overtaken cloth diapers by the mid-80s so by 1997 most babies were in disposables. My grandparents were foster carers and in around 97/98 they fostered a baby whose birth mother stipulated was to be in cloth nappies and I remember that was very much not the norm and my grandparents thought them a terrible faff and inconvenience, despite having raised their own kids in cloth in the 50/60s. Disposable nappies were very much seen as more convenient and superior to cloth by 1997, probably even more so than now as the effect of disposables on the environment wasn’t so well documented and in the last couple of decades and with more focus on climate change there has been a revival of cloth nappies.
In terms of shape they were similar to now with leg guards and single tapes. In terms of look the diapers were mostly plain white but with a printed waistband. Nappies were still plastic backed but premium brands had moved to hook-and-loop tapes/ landing zones rather than sticky tapes. Cloth-backed/ breathable disposables started to appear around the late 90s/ early 00s, but not sure on the exact year.
If you google 1997 Pampers/ 1997 Luvs or 1997 Huggies images of the nappies and YouTube videos of some commercials all appear in the search results if you want to see what nappies were like. Apart from some of the prints being different I don’t think there were any major differences between the UK and USA in terms of what nappies were like - I’m in the UK and the images I can see from US nappies are similar to the nappies I remember being around when I was a kid.
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when I was a baby (born in 1981) I wore cloth diapers with rubber pants. My sibling born in 1985 wore disposables. No idea the brands of either.
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Disposables were around since like the, I think ,1970s? I know for sure they were around in the 80s. Plastic backed up until around the year 2000.
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You were correct! They gained popularity in the mid to late 70s. I was born in ‘83 and was a disposable kid through and through.
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I was born in 76 and was in plastic backed disposable diaper. My brother was born before me and he was in cloth diapers.
Born in ‘92, always wore disposables growing up… never tried a cloth diaper until I was 26.
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I was born 1969 and my mom used cloth diapers and rubber pants on me. But when I was three she bought Pampers for me to wear at night.
As for adult diapers, I first remember seeing Attends in the Sears catalog in the early 80’s. Not long after that Depends also came out. The original Attends and Depends plastic backed “briefs” were really good diapers! Nothing like the stuff they make today. They were more in line with a Tranquility ATN is now.
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Yes. You can watch adverts for these products from the 1980s onwards.
Yes they were.
There was a greater difference between nappies and Pull-Ups because disposable nappies we’re still plastic backed, whereas Pull-Ups were cloth backed.
In the UK in 1997 you could get Pampers Baby Dry (still gender specific then, I think), Huggies Ultra-Thin from Kleenex (also gender specific). Supermarkets often had their own ranges too.
I think Dry Nites arrived roughly about that time. They were billed as “Huggies Pull-Ups Dry Nites - for older children”. They came in one size (16-30kg) and did not have any age range on them. They were plain white and unisex.
I think Boots training pants were the first to have ages on and were available in age 2-4 and 4-5 years at that time.
In terms of adult nappies, Boots Staydry Maxi Brief Style was plastic backed 4 tab at that time too, and came in sample packs.
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Pampers came out in 1961 as the first mass-marketed disposable diaper, made up of simply wood pulp between a layer of nonwoven rayon and a layer of diamond-embossed plastic. These diapers were fanfold and had no tapes, relying on diaper pins to fasten. Pampers were P&G’s first billion-dollar brand.
In 1971, Pampers made some strides: they introduced toddler- & premature-size baby diapers…and put tapes on all sized diapers.
Over time, other disposable diapers emerged, such as Kimbies (Kimberly-Clark’s forerunner to Huggies) but Pampers dominated the market. P&G came out with their second disposable diaper brand Luvs, their first hourglass-shaped diaper, to compete with Kimberly-Clark’s new hourglass-shaped Huggies diaper. All diapers were white then. Pampers remained fanfold and began experimenting with thicker diapers.
In the early '80s, diapermakers were making thicker diapers for absorbency and putting refastenable-taping panels on their diapers. Also, Pampers diapers started using smooth white plastic, added elastic to the leg areas and increased thickness for “Double Elastic Pampers”…these were the diapers I used to make me-sized diapers when I got into DL. This didn’t last long, as by the end of 1984, Pampers went hourglass.
By around 1986 or so, not only were diapers using SAP polymer for absorbency to make diapers thinner but taping panels started getting cute prints and diapers were experimenting with gender-oriented colors & patterns for the plastic. Throughout the years after, the patterns evolved into various schemes as we see today. Also, the use of SAP made even generic & store-brand diapers exponentially better, ranking closely with the big brands.
In the late '90s, a turnabout occurred: P&G’s budget-oriented Pampers became the pricey brand while the elite-classed Luvs became the bargain brand. Also, Pampers reverted to a solid white plastic, albeit with their famous teddy bears on the taping panel, to make their iconic Pampers BabyDry diaper.
Aaaaand that’s just about everything right on up to 1997. 
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Wow does this make me feel old… I was 7 in 97 & yes a variation of the modern disposable nappy was around then. I remember I would take my younger siblings nappies from their pile and wear them & hide them in my toy box before I could throw them in the bin to make it look like it was theirs. Done this with both of my younger brothers nappies & pullups. xD
Lucky guy to have younger siblings… I always got fidgety with envy when visiting other families with had children who were diapered. I literally dreamt of sneaking diapers and used my few precious ones as economically as possible. Maybe that’s one reason why I’m hoarding nowadays.
But I digress.
Yes, there were disposable nappies, but less sophisticated than today. One kind of french generic 80s diaper with white plastic and blue tapes got me hooked. BetterDry is one of my favourites because they remind me of my first crinkly experience.
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Diapers haven’t changed since the late 1990’s, only the patterns and they started going cloth like around 1996. Back then, the patterns still only went in the front and they started to put patterns around the diapers early 2000’s.
I have no idea when they stopped making plastic shells completely.
But adult diapers have changed a lot in the last 20 years. We didn’t have pattern adult diapers in 1997 and we had diapers like Attends and Depends and other brand diapers I am not aware of. You could order online or order in catalogs. First time I saw an actual pattern AB diapers was 2004 and it was from Germany and I would see them on ebay. Before then, people would make their own AB diapers and sell them on ebay for high price. They would take a pattern and slap it on Attends. I knew to not fall for it.
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Does anyone know how good baby diapers were in the 80’s and 90’s in terms of absorbency? Were they better or worse than cloth diapers?
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They were quite thick. Absorbency and dryness weren’t as good since there was no SAP in diapers prior to the late '80s so thicker padding was believed to be the solution. They still felt a little wet yet drier-feeling than cloth.
I absolutely loved those thick, bulky Pampers diapers back then: forced waddling and a big bottom, LOL!
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I wore Pampers in the late 70s to early 80s, and they generally worked well unless I wet while sitting down (for example, in my car seat). Being born prematurely (and being small for my age back then), it is possible that this happened because they didn’t fit properly.
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Chances are I wore the exact same Pampers you wore…back in '81, when I was 14! :smiling_face_with_3_hearts:
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My mother claims that my sister’s Pampers needed to be pinned on and she was born back in the early 70s, and she wore them long enough for them to have tapes on them at some point (according to the history presented here). She says the Pampers she bought didn’t have tapes on them until I came along in the mid 70s. I was just talking about this with her in the last couple of weeks or so.
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