Huggies, a brand of diapers made by Kimberly Clark, has a possible solution—a line of diapers called Little Movers Slip-On diapers. They’re patterned after the brand’s popular Pull-Ups Training Pants which, if you aren’t familiar with them, essentially are disposable underpants that little kids can pull up or down themselves to make potty training easier. The main difference between the two products is that the Little Movers are much more absorbent than the Pull-Ups, which are meant to feel uncomfortable when wet to encourage a child to get to a potty when nature calls rather than pee or poop in his Pull-Up. This sounds great in theory, although one obvious issue is that to slip a diaper on requires removing a baby’s pants (and maybe even socks and shoes) completely. Regular tabbed diapers can be changed by scrunching a child’s pants down around his ankles. This can even be done while he’s standing up and holding on to something. Of course, this wouldn’t be an issue for a little girl who’s wearing a dress.
Fit
Unlike diapers with side tabs that can be adjusted according to a child’s belly girth, for Little Movers to work well, they need to fit. One parent of a child with a “long and lean” body type wrote that her baby had “some increased skin irritation because of the inability to tighten the waist.” And several reviewers commented that the diapers run small, adding that ordering a size up was a good solution, although a mom with a baby she described as “chunky” found the diapers hard to pull up over the legs. (The diapers come in four sizes: size 3 for babies who weigh 16 to 28 pounds; size 4 for babies weighing 22 to 37 pounds; size 5 for those who weigh over 27 pounds; and size 6 for kids who weigh more than 35 pounds.) Wrote one frustrated mother: “They have a strange fit and do not come up very high on the back. My 2-year-old had a blowout this morning while he was sitting on his knees in the floor. I walked in to find him sitting in a pile of mess.”
Absorbency
For some parents, Huggies Little Movers were adequately absorbent—even overnight. More than one expressed the same sentiment as this mom: “The diapers are wonderfully absorbent for my two-year-old. She wakes up with her PJ’s dry each morning.” Others weren’t as impressed and many complained about leaks and rashes. “They leak particularly out of the back cause it is cut super low like real underwear. These may work for older kids but they didn’t work on my 10-month-old. The worse part about these diapers was the intense rash it left on her. She’s never really had a rash before and we were shocked that after just two diapers she had a very painful rash covering all lower areas where it touched.”
Kid-Friendliness
Most parents who commented about how their babies seemed to feel about Huggies Little Movers gave them a rousing thumbs up—especially those kids who were nearing time to start potty training. Children able to pull the diapers up and down themselves loved feeling independent: “I used these diapers the minute my daughter could get into a size for her to start with,” one mom wrote. “Now she’s two-and-a-half and fully potty-trained. All because in her mind she was wearing ‘big girl’ undies.” Said another: “We bought these for my almost two-year-old because she is close to potty training… She sees her older brother and sister going potty and wants to do it too. Before we bought these she was always taking her conventional disposable diapers off since the closure tabs made it easy for her to open and remove the diaper… Now she does not remove her diaper and she can pull them up and down when she wants to practice sitting on the potty… The closure tabs are not in a position where she can easily open them and they are firmly closed.” And finally, “These diapers are great and my son loves ‘helping’ me put them on.”
Ease of Use
Parents were decidedly mixed about whether Huggies Little Movers lived up to the biggest selling point: For a lot of reviewers, they did: “I find them particularly helpful when changing diapers in the car. My baby can stand up and look out the window while I quickly slip these on” and “Love these!!! The only way I can diaper a baby on the run.” This parent’s experience was mixed: “On a good day, they slide right on. On a squirmy day, it’s hard to get the feet through. But comparing it with a regular diaper, you don’t have to worry about the tabs aligning or the diaper twisting or on occasions the tab breaking off when your baby is attempting to get up or crawl away. Once you are able to get both feet through the leg holes, then the baby can get up, crawl off.” And several reviewers weren’t impressed at all: “It’s a pain to have to slip these on, pull them halfway up, stand my two-year-old up, pull the diaper up, lay him down again, then put his pants on, then lift him up again to pull his pants up… I also tried pulling them up all the way while my son was laying down, next to impossible to get them just right. Then I tried pulling the diaper up halfway, then the pants halfway, then stand him up and pull them up all the way, still too much going on. I also tried slipping them on while he was standing, but he’s losing his balance and having him hold on to me while doing all of this. For me, it just seems like too much trouble.”
Design Features
Several parents homed in on some very specific likes. The fact that the diapers are designed to be pulled up like underwear but still have tabs on the side was especially welcome: “I like that when I do get him to lay still, it has tabs on the side that you can pull to take it off like a regular diaper” and “I like the way they slip on but can still be checked and resealed.” Other plusses: “They are unscented which is good because she has sensitive skin,” “Easy on my nose (I hate perfumed diapers)” and “Doesn’t leave crystalized material on my son’s butt.”
Price
Many parents felt Huggies Little Movers were expensive. As with most products, those buyers who felt neutral about or were dissatisfied with how the diapers performed tended to feel they weren’t worth the money. On the other hand, fans of the Little Movers were willing to pony up a few extra pennies: “These diapers are more expensive than other brands…BUT…completely worth it!!”
Bottomline
Huggies Little Movers Slip-On diapers aren’t for every family, but for some parents coping with diaper-change resisting tykes, they may be helpful. This reviewer sums it up nicely: “This diaper doesn’t magically resolve the challenges of diaper changing but it makes it at least 50 percent easier.”
