Diaper sorting and inspecting at Kimberly-Clark, October 5, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
TOWN OF CLAYTON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A Fox Valley manufacturer is celebrating a milestone.
In October, Kimberly-Clark Corporation will mark 10 years producing diapers made for premature babies.
Added up, that translates to about 30 million diapers.
Facility Manager Andy Grignon say the items are more than just diapers.
“It’s one of the product forms that you will never see on the normal store shelves, because they are sold directly to our hospitals,” said Andy Grignon, Kimberly-Clark KCPX Facility Manager.
Grignon is talking about the micro preemie diaper made to accommodate babies up to four pounds, and the even smaller nano diapers made for babies up to two pounds.
“If you compare that to maybe our smallest, step-one size diaper, is typically in that 6-8 pound range,” he said.
After the diapers are made, they are taken to another room where workers inspect each of them by hand. Kimberly-Clark Team Leader Emily Schmitz says neonatal intensive care unit nurses and staff provided input and feedback. She says the diaper design had to be soft, flexible, and absorbent.
“Usually in the NICU, there’s a lot of things that the nurses, or the parents need to worry about. So we wanted to make sure that the diaper is really not one of them,” said Emily Schmitz, Kimberly-Clark KCPX Team Leader.
Schmitz says the diapers are also packed, and boxed by hand.
Officials say some diapers don’t pass inspection, but that’s a very small percentage.
“People that are working on this product are very proud and feel good that they’re helping to do something that is really helping to support the growth and development of these low birth weight babies,” said Schmitz.
“Just given the consumer for this particular product form is such a delicate consumer, and it really solidifies the importance of what we do here every day to make these products,” said Grignon.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10 percent of the babies in the United States are born premature.
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