use by date

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beckijed

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  1. Adult Baby
  2. Diaper Lover
So back in the late 90's my first ever purchase of Adult Diapers i bought a case of Tender 2 Nights... I still have several packs left which i had forgotten about... so my question is do Diapers deteriorate with age?
 
Time weighs on everything but in my experience, diapers do pretty well over time if they're stored well. Out of direct light and with a relatively steady temperature and no undue moisture, they should still perform close to when they were fresh.
 
as long as they haven't sustained physical damage and haven't been exposed to moisture, you should be good, do use common sense though.
 
In 2010 I wet a Huggies from 1992 and it held up. So you will probably be fine.
 
I've noticed that some yellow with age in the absorbent part, even after less than ten years. They seem to do better in a sealed package.
 
I had some vintage diapers that the tapes lost adhesiveness.
 
tender diapers was great,lucky you
 
Some diapers do actually have "use by" dates. I have some plastic-backed Abena M3s that have just reached their "expiry".

I don't think it's too much to worry about. I imagine that it's mainly for hospitals, where there might be lots of infectious airborne viruses, moulds, etc. After a long period, the diapers could absorb moisture from the air and pick up moulds, etc. Even then, I think they're being overly-cautious.

Stored correctly (i.e. normally), I think the risk would be extremely low.

I had some old (~7 year old) Tender diapers. The tapes were really sticky -- it was almost impossible to unpeel them to put the diaper on. And then they wouldn't stick so well when I stuck them in place.

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activefit said:
tender diapers was great,lucky you

Was? Ah... I was just about to place an order for some. Have they changed, or don't they make them any more?

I couldn't believe it when they changed the Kolibri Comslips earlier this year. They were amazing. The new ones don't bear any resemblance to the originals. :frown:
 
I've sold a lot of vintage diapers on eBay. There's a good market for them which makes me believe she doesn't ruin them.


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Some newer diapers are made to decompose more easily (especially cloth like disposables). Their packaging is also not well sealed so they can absorb a little moisture over time, and also start breaking down prematurely. Not to mention, a use by date will get people to unnecessarily toss them out and buy more, thereby increasing company sales.
 
I have a stash of vintage baby diapers and pull ups, the oldest being the first year pull ups split genders. I can say that for the most part, age does not have a huge impact on a diaper's performance. You should be alright.
 
I think the comments about storage are spot-on. Disposable diapers aren't really made with long shelf-lives in mind, and what may appear to be a sealed bag will, over years, let the outside environment in. I've experimented with vintage (20+ years old) Pampers and Huggies diapers when the eBay prices were right (which is rare), and I've run into several bags of "stale" diapers. The most common symptom has been that the padding, which usually expands considerably once the diapers are removed from the bag, has instead become permanently flattened. As well, I've run into non-sticky tapes, non-stretchy elastics, and significantly diminished perfumes. Following several big disappointments, I finally concluded that buying vintage disposables with the intent to use them was just a bad idea.

But I certainly wouldn't worry about exceeding the "use by" date by a few years, and certainly not for safety reasons.
 
the plastic can become brittle, store them in a cool dry and dark space.
 
if anything goes wrong... it will be the glue on the tapes, some times it fails... sometimes it becomes stickier
 
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