A nice idea, but poorly designed (PHP Flushable Baby Wipes)

Member Name: BabyPom

Product:	PHP Flushable Baby Wipes
Date:	10/02/03 (386 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flushable, Not Tested on Animals

Disadvantages: Packaging Poorly Desinged, Strong Synthetic Smell

I usually use ordinary flannels with warm water to wipe my baby's bottom which I wash with my cloth nappies, but I tried these in conjuntion wth compostable nappy pads.

The first thing I noticed was that the packaging wasn't like "normal" wipes. It was square and the wpes were rattling about inside. So after opening the packet, I had to poke around inside to find the edge of the top wipe so I could pull it out.

Then I discovered the second problem. The wipes are folded into tiny squares. Anyone who has ever changed a baby's nappy and been confronted with the type of mess that they can produce, will know that you need to be able to whip out a wipe and get cleaning immediately! Not with these. If I knew in advance that it was going to be a messy nappy, then I took out some wipes and unfolded them beforehand. Otherwise, for "surprise poo", it was just a case of getting them unfolded as quickly as possible, or using them as they were - which wasn't very effective!

The wipes are also incredibly thin. This, I suppose, is to make them flushable, but poo just soaks right through them onto my hand. And the "baby fresh" perfume is incredibly strong and unattractive. I would have preferred an unscented wipe.

On the positive side, they are not tested on animals. And, of course, they are flushable, which was my main reason for trying them. It says on the packet to flush no more than three at a time (which I didn't) and there were no problems with blockages.

Pricewise, they are probably on a par with brand name wipes. There are more in a packet (100 as opposed to 72 or 80) so the price probably evens out.

There's probably little incentive to use them if you are using disposable nappies. The nappies go in the bin already, so what's one or two wipes as well? However, if you use flushable/compostable disposables or cloth nappies, they won't create ru
bbish and are convenient when out and about.

I emailed the company a couple of weeks ago with my views. No reply so far, but I hope they will take into consideration some of the suggestions about the packaging which would definitely go some way to making them a more convenient product.

Summary: