At what point did adult disposable nappies become decent

LittleMissPink

LittleMissPink

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By the time I was able to buy my own adult nappies it was around 2014 so I have no idea on the history of adult nappies before that point.
I was wondering for people back in the 1980's and 1990's at what point did the adult nappies rival that of today's nappies? Or at least begin to rival it? I know early on they weren't that great, so would around the late 1990's be the time that they started to become good quality? I know even today some brands, like depends, are still pretty bad so I'm talking brands like tena, molicare, abena, attends etc.
This excludes ABDL brands obviously as they only came into the market fairly recently and are clearly better. I'm talking about medical brand ones and their history.

Did I miss out on much back then? Or would you say that now is the better time? Or maybe even worse today because of the companies switching to cloth backed?
I generally would love to know more on the adult nappy industry history as I find it rather fascinating.
 
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For me it peaked in 07 to 09, 2010 brought M-4 as a replacement for X-Plus and all the store brands thinned out and went cloth backed.
 
The first adult nappies I bought in the mid-90s were a brand called Tranquility and they were not good at all. If I wet one while sitting down it would invariably leak. Depends were also easily available then, they were much better at absorbing stuff. They weren't good for multiple wettings, so wouldn't have suited people who don't like to change much.

Then in the late 90s I discovered Tena Maxi. These were great, no problem wetting them while sitting down, and they had a white plastic backing, not that strange green backing that Depends had. Tena was all I bought until AB nappies appeared.
 
I started wearing mid 90s and only had the chance to purchase Depends and Attends. Attends around that time was a great experience, especially with the scent. Depends were ok, a little better with the overnight run. Overall, you didn't miss much i'd say.
 
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The first print ABDL diaper i remember were 'Classy Comfort' .. i never bought any because i thought the design was atrocious ..but Bambino came out about a year later, and ABU about a year after that... seems it was 2005-2009 or so..
 
Been wearing diapers since 1982, was wearing Pampers back than as adult diapers where hard to find and as useful as a paper towel. Than along sometime in the 90’s I Found Attends brand diaper and they where better than nothing at all, had to double diaper to get more than one wetting.
Somewheres in the early 2000’s adult diapers started getting better, since 2015 adult diapers are now equal to what Pampers where in the 80’s, I just wish today’s adult diapers where around back when I first started wearing diapers as I would have been in diapers 24/7 a lot sooner.
 
I didn’t really get hold of decent ones until early-mid ‘00s but that was more down to living situations and the growth of online sales etc., I get the impression there were good quality ones from at least mid-90s, but they were bulkier for a start (even up to around 10 years ago).

I think vaguely reliable adult nappies started some time in the 80s, and before that incontinent people had to rely on adult cloth nappies and plastic pants.
 
KCA said:
The first adult nappies I bought in the mid-90s were a brand called Tranquility and they were not good at all. If I wet one while sitting down it would invariably leak. Depends were also easily available then, they were much better at absorbing stuff. They weren't good for multiple wettings, so wouldn't have suited people who don't like to change much.

Then in the late 90s I discovered Tena Maxi. These were great, no problem wetting them while sitting down, and they had a white plastic backing, not that strange green backing that Depends had. Tena was all I bought until AB nappies appeared.
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Thanks to everyone for their responses it's all very interesting. It's crazy to think that until the 2000s that adult nappies were mostly bad. I thought they were always on par with baby nappies.

Just a question for you KCA. Since you're an Aussie (so am I) I was wondering if you know at what point here in the Australia that the mainstream medical nappies went from plastic backed to cloth backed?
Also can we still get the Tena Maxi plastic backed here at all?
 
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In the UK it must have been the early 90s, with Attends and Depends at the forefront. I have a couple of packs of Depends from that era, saved as a basis for comparison, and they probably equate to a basic medical brand today. SAP content was low at that time, even some later '90s adult styles had low or zero SAP. Baby nappies OTOH had improved significantly since SAP was introduced in the mid 1980s so they made reasonable boosters.

It's difficult to be objective about absorbency expectations back then. I was in my teens and just discovering 'real' nappies that fit me, so that excitement tends to colour what I recall of their performance. I wasn't wearing full time so there was no need to keep up with my entire urine output. They were good enough that when I needed a poo, I could do that and empty my bladder at the same time without much risk of leaks, and that was all I expected from the nappy.
 
Attends hit the US market around 1980. Even the early ones of those weren't the greatest. Depend followed shortly thereafter. There were other brands but they were not distributed to retail pharmacies. When PG sold off Attends, those got pulled back, too.
 
With medical suppliers of diapers there seemed to be a reoccurring theme with there products, at first they were made decently then slowly quality was reduced till the product became total garbage, then a new "line" would be produced and then slowly tend downwards, this occurred all through the 90's and through today.
Some companies see the advantage today of keeping a good product and if they have to raise the price they will, this seems to be the ab diaper business model, offer a product with few variations throughout production.
 
the 80'a and 90's were pretty poor here in the UK. it was usually Boots or depends.
 
In Canada I remember going to an incontinence store around 2009 and finding Abena M4's and Molicare's that I tried for the first time. Before that it was mostly Attends (the old ones from 1995-2000 did smell great and did a decent job) and Depends for me.
 
Early 2000s was when I would consider adult diapers to have made a big leap in quality

Previous to abdl diapers, I used attends and abena m4s which were pretty good for their time, then secure xplus which eventually morphed into the original bambino’s diapers. I rocked the bambino’s for years when they first came out

Along came the abu diapers which as far as functionality of a diaper, they sucked big time. But I loved the plastic they used and the single tapes.

Somewhere in the midst of this of all this the dry 24/7 became available in Canada. They became my go-to diaper when bambino’s weren’t available.

Then from there everything took off, started to see multiple designs and styles from bambino and Abu as well as new companies coming to market
 
Pretty much around the time ABDLs started getting ticked off enough to do something about it. :ROFLMAO:
 
SweetPrincess said:
Thanks to everyone for their responses it's all very interesting. It's crazy to think that until the 2000s that adult nappies were mostly bad. I thought they were always on par with baby nappies.

Just a question for you KCA. Since you're an Aussie (so am I) I was wondering if you know at what point here in the Australia that the mainstream medical nappies went from plastic backed to cloth backed?
Also can we still get the Tena Maxi plastic backed here at all?
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I really couldn't tell you. I know in the mid-2000s Tena Flex became available, which had a cloth backing. These were actually quite good nappies, they didn't clump up like Tena Maxi sometimes did. If you want plastic backed medical nappies I think you have to go with Molicare and the like these days.
 
diaperdawg said:
Not sure what is available on the top of world for Aussie friends... but there are some great medical plastic backed diapers. The Northshore line, Abena, Betterdry... etc. I'm waiting on my first packages of megamax and confidry now!
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Unfortunately for Aussies. No Northshore here and Abena and Depend lines are all cloth backed not a single plastic backed variant like in other parts of the world. We have Betterdry at least. I'll admit I do get jealous of you guys around the world that do. I personally like the medical ones because they're usually cheaper.
 
KCA said:
I really couldn't tell you. I know in the mid-2000s Tena Flex became available, which had a cloth backing. These were actually quite good nappies, they didn't clump up like Tena Maxi sometimes did. If you want plastic backed medical nappies I think you have to go with Molicare and the like these days.
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Oh well thought I'd ask, thanks for replying though. Yeah Molicare Maxi is the only one I know of too that's plastic backed but I prefer them to be white or mostly white. Like tena or abena which sucks.
 
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