There was a time, many moons ago, when my older children were babies and toddlers, that I used nothing but Huggies nappies on their bums. At that time they were simply the best nappies available, with different versions for boys and girls, padded out perfectly for the way they wee and very few leaks. But over the years Huggies have been redesigned, are now unisex and are simply not effective at holding in my son's wees. Remembering how much I loved Huggies when his brothers and sisters were babies, I first tried him in their nappies when he was newborn in hospital, only to find that it really hadn't been worth me putting the nappies on him as his clothes and bedding would be soaked after the first wee. Thinking it may have been because he was such a long, skinny baby I left it a few weeks before trying again, only for the same thing to happen. After this I swore that there was no way another Huggies nappy was going to get anywhere near my son's bottom, but while on holiday we ran out of our trusty Pampers Active Fit and the only nappies available in the local shop were Huggies and what follows is our experience of using them on our two year old son.

Before I go any further, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my son, as from experience how well nappies work depend greatly on the child. Freddy is two, obviously a boy, and quite a tall lad who could be described as chunky, that is he is well built but not fat or overweight. Apart from our trials of Huggies as a very young baby, Freddy has almost exclusively worn Pampers Active Fit and now is in size 5 or 5+ depending on what is available. As with most children his age he now does fewer wees a day, but when he does wee it fills a nappy. His poos are usually of the perfectly normal "adult" type, but occasionally, when he eats something he shouldn't (he has pica so eats the strangest things) he will produce explosive, runny nappies that would challenge any brand. Saying this Pampers Active Fit have coped admirably with everything Freddy has thrown at them, only leaking if not changed quickly enough in the morning after a full night's sleep or if a poo has been particularly explosive and runny.

So now you know a bit about Freddy, let's move on to the Huggies Super Dry nappies. Although this particular brand of nappy is regularly on offer at most retailers, we bought them in a small shop in a tourist trap and paid £3.49 for 14 size 5 nappies. According to the packaging, size 5 is suitable for children weighing between 11 and 19kg (24-42lb), while I'm not sure exactly how much Freddy weighs, I do know that he is significantly below this maximum weight and above the minimum. As with most disposable nappies, the Huggies Super Dry are supplied in a plastic wrap that is opened via perforations, and as with most disposables this package is easy to open if you have plenty of time, but can be awkward if you're in a hurry. The nappies are tightly packed within this packaging and seem to burst out when it is first opened making removing one at a time quite difficult for the first few nappies. (But this is the norm with disposables so I won't be taking off any stars for that).

Although technically a premium nappy, in my opinion Huggies Super Dry feel cheap and nasty almost as if they are a budget brand. The exterior of the nappy feels almost as if it is made of plastic coated paper, not at all soft. The exterior is, however, decorated with characters from Winnie The Pooh, but this doesn't make up for the fact that they simply feel cheap. The interior of the nappy feels similarly cheap, and much rougher than the Pampers equivalent. When putting the nappy on, the rear of the nappy is elasticated, but there is no give at all in the front. The nappy does up via a pair of Velcro-style tabs that can be repositioned if necessary, but I find these tabs are quite weak and do occasionally break. There are elasticated cuffs that fit around the tops of the legs, that in theory should help hold in any solid waste.

I find it fairly easy to put these nappies on Freddy, but to be perfectly honest, the actual feel of them does not inspire much confidence in their poo and wee containing abilities. As long as a tab has not snapped I find that they fit well enough so as to neither fall down nor rub uncomfortably, although they do seem to gape a little in the groin area. As far as good things go that's about all I have to say about these nappies. In the absorbency stakes, these are next to useless, they can barely hold one wee, indeed they often can't even manage that and Freddy will have wet through within an hour. If they do manage to hold the one wee, that's all they can manage and should a second wee make an appearance then that will simply leak straight out. They also don't seem to lock the moisture away from Freddy's skin and he will often get a mild nappy rash, simply from wearing these without the added irritation of a poo. There's no way that I would leave one of these nappies on him for more than an hour, or while we're out and about or at night as they simply cannot cope with a toddler's gushing wee and will irritate Freddy's sensitive skin. On those few occasions when Daddy has put a Huggies nappy on his bum and then forgot to tell me, Freddy has leaked through every time, (and this is in the same time-scale that a Pampers would could with no problem). I cannot comment on whether Huggies nappies "hang" as they fill, for the simple reason that these cannot absorb enough to get to that point.

There is no way on Earth that I could recommend Huggies nappies to any parent. At one time, many, many years ago they were my nappies of choice, but over the years the design has been changed to the detriment of the actual performance. I find them to feel cheap, look cheap and perform cheap. They can barely absorb any liquid, leak regularly and most importantly do not draw moisture away from the skin, meaning they irritate my special man's bottom. Personally I think Huggies need to do a total redesign, as I've heard other parents have exactly the same problems, and what use is a nappy that cannot hold wee, needs changing every hour and has no hope of lasting the night. I know that no disposable nappy is environmentally friendly, but due to how many of these we went through a day and how many extra clothes needed washing, these are the least environmentally friendly nappies I know of (even the cheapest economy nappies work better). And so Huggies Super Dry in Size 5 (Junior) are getting a paltry one star out of five from me, and that's only because I can't give them zero.