When did cloth-backed disposable diapers/nappies become more common than plastic-backed?

Lori

Lori

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You get a bunch of different answers to this very question, but the usual is the mid-1990s or something.

Don't think that's it, honestly. I was born in 1999, my first memories are from 2001 or so when I was 2 and I still wore nappies, and they were definitely plastic-backed. Not sure what brand they are though.
I have a holiday snap from July 2000 (I think), and was wearing what seems to be a plastic backed Pampers Baby Dry.
 
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I’ve always heard around the early 2000s, late 90s.
 
Here's an older topic with some photographic evidence in it. What's stated in there more or less agrees with my memory of things: Huggies went cloth-backed in the mid 90s, Pampers in the late 90s, and Luvs in the early 2000s. Some store brands remained plastic-backed for a little longer.
 
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Cottontail said:
Here's an older topic with some photographic evidence in it. What's stated in there more or less agrees with my memory of things: Huggies went cloth-backed in the mid 90s, Pampers in the late 90s, and Luvs in the early 2000s. Some store brands remained plastic-backed for a little longer.
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I was told that Pampers Baby Dry specifically went fully cloth-backed in 2002, but you could be right TBH.

That would at least fit the photo I had from 2000...

As for the non-major brands, a few of them were still plastic as late as 2008, 2009 at least. My sister was born in 2006, and she definitely had a few plastic-backed diapers.

@PCS is the local nappy/diaper historian, certainly as far as the UK and Europe is concerned. He'd probably be able to give you a more detailed answer :)
 
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My sons were born in '98 & '01. I know that my oldest son's diapers had the PE outer shell as did the diapers for my younger son until '02 or '03 though you could still get a diaper with the PE shell for a little while until all of the old stock sold out. He was definitely wearing the newer, cloth-like diapers when we were going through potty training with him when he was 2 1/2 or so. The cloth-like diapers work fine on babies and I figure that's because the tabs are large and they don't have to hold up a substantial amount of weight like an adult diaper does.

CptKirk
 
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This was the last package of Pampers before making the switch to cloth backed. 1708395215741.png

These ran consecutive at the same time making the introduction to cloth backed. All happed around 2000.
1708395372042.png
 
This was also running at the same time.
1708395506882.png
 
My memory of adult nappies here in the UK is that they generally didn't begin to transition to that cotton-backing until about 2014 / 2015.
 
It's still more common for ABDL diapers to be plastic-backed than cloth-backed, because there's higher demand for plastic-backed ABDL diapers than cloth-backed ABDL diapers. If the demand for cloth-backed ABDL diapers started to become higher one day, then maybe we might start to see many ABDL diapers (both existing and future) make the switch to cloth-backed.
 
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BlankieLover said:
My memory of adult nappies here in the UK is that they generally didn't begin to transition to that cotton-backing until about 2014 / 2015.
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Adult ones are around this time, I agree. Baby ones though probably follow the other replies. I do rather distinctly remember Wilko doing a baby own label cheap one that was plastic backed around the late noughties though!
 
bigtoddler96 said:
It's still more common for ABDL diapers to be plastic-backed than cloth-backed, because there's higher demand for plastic-backed ABDL diapers than cloth-backed ABDL diapers. If the demand for cloth-backed ABDL diapers started to become higher one day, then maybe we might start to see many ABDL diapers (both existing and future) make the switch to cloth-backed.
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GOD I hope not! I have NEVER found a cloth like adult diaper that 1) Stayed tight 2) didn't leak like a sieve 3) didn't seep through the outer cover 4) fit properly, because they continually stretch and literally fall down 5) The tabs are USELESS in short order as they become "clogged" in short order 6) They simply don't give me ANY confidence I can go ANYWHERE without a catastrophically embarrassing situation!

IF they ever stop availability of OURE PE shelled diapers, I will HAVE TO switch to cloth diapers and waterproof pants!
 
I am not sure. I do know that I despise and detest cloth-backed diapers. They are complete rubbish.
 
WoollyAndJoshy said:
Adult ones are around this time, I agree. Baby ones though probably follow the other replies. I do rather distinctly remember Wilko doing a baby own label cheap one that was plastic backed around the late noughties though!
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Yeah, that would be terrible and we would all suffer as a result.
 
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