According the Real Diaper Association, the average child will cost about $1,600 for two years of disposable diapers. That's about $65 a month. A good way to save money is by switching to the generic store brand. But are you sacrificing quality? A class of Houston fifth graders put it to the test to find out if price matters.
Moms know switching to the store brand could save money, but they don't want to risk quality over price.
It's a lesson Rebecca Mitchell's fifth grade class learned. The class' science project, "The Droppy Drawers" experiment, tested national brand diapers versus store brands.
"Almost everybody thought the Huggies was going to hold more," said Christy Sides is was one of the scientists in the class.
In the first test, the students put Huggies up against Wal-Mart's White Cloud brand.
"They are both size three diapers," said experimenter Allison Elder.
A pack of Huggies costs $10.24 at Wal-Mart. The store brand was $6.97. At the same time the students poured the same amount of water in each diaper and waited two seconds.
The White Cloud did not leak but the Huggies did. That's right the more expensive Huggies brand leaked. Mrs. Mitchell says after dozens and dozens of tests, the results were always the same.
"I have never seen a case where the Huggies doesn't leak," Mitchell told us.
We then had the students test Pampers brand versus the Sam's Club store brand. While the Pampers didn't leak on the first try, it leaked on the second try. The Sam's Club brand didn't leak at all.
"The Wal-Mart and the Sam's club still beat the Pampers and Huggies," Elder said.
The students also tested the Walgreen's brand versus Huggies and once again, the Walgreens held up better.
"So overall Huggies and the Pampers were not the best diapers," Elder said.
"I think that the store brands held a lot more, they are better quality than the name brands," Sides told us.
In all fairness, this was a group of fifth graders who tested the diapers, but we're told they followed this experiment by the book.
We also checked with Consumer Reports and they found that Wal-mart's White Cloud diaper was the best for their wide, soft stretch waist, secure grip, cloth like cover and absorbent core.
