Absorbent articles having cuffs with skin care composition disposed thereon

Abstract

An absorbent article, such as a diaper, containing cuffs with a skin care composition disposed thereon. In one embodiment the cuff is a nonwoven leg cuff comprising spunbonded nonwoven material and characterized by the lack of a meltblown component, the nonwoven material having a basis weight of about 17 gsm and a hydrostatic head of at least about 95 mm. The spunbonded material comprises metallocene polypropylene fibers having a denier of less than about 1.3. In another embodiment, small amounts of meltblown fibers, for example, up to about 10% by weight, can be added to the metallocene polypropylene spunbonded material to increase production rates of the nonwoven material, without an unacceptable decrease in skin health benefits. The skin care composition disposed on the cuffs is transferable to the wearer's skin by normal contact and / or wearer motion and / or body heat. The skin care compositions disclosed in the present invention are selected to maintain and / or improve the skin health of the wearer upon transfer during use, for example, to provide a skin protective barrier or a therapeutic benefit; to minimize the abrasion between the cuffs and skin in the area where the cuffs contact the wearer's skin, resulting in less skin irritation; to improve BM clean up on the skin, or to improve the barrier properties of the cuffs.

Description

[0001]This is a continuation application of Ser. No. 09 / 398,842 filed on Sep. 17, 1999 which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08 / 962,310 filed Oct. 31, 1997, which is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 08 / 766,386, filed on Dec. 3, 1996; and is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08 / 884,069 filed on Jun. 27, 1997, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08 / 345,159, filed on Nov. 28, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,588; and is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08 / 908,852 filed on Aug. 8, 1997.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to absorbent articles such as diapers, training pants, adult incontinence devices, sanitary napkins, feminine garments, and the like, having cuffs, including elastic leg cuffs. More particularly, the present invention relates to absorbent articles having a skin care composition disposed on the cuffs or the cuffs and the topsheet that is transferable to the wearer's skin by normal contact ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]The present invention relates to an absorbent article, such as a disposable diaper, having one or more cuffs with a skin care composition disposed on (applied or migratable to) the body surface of the cuffs. Importantly, the skin care compositions useful herein are readily transferable to the wearer's skin by way of normal contact, wearer motion, and / or body heat. Upon transfer to the skin, the skin care composition provides desirable therapeutic and / or protective coating benefits resulting in less red marking, erythema, diaper rash, skin irritation, and / or reducing the adherence of BM to the skin of the wearer, thereby improving the ease of BM clean up. Where hydrophobic skin care compositions are employed, the skin care compositions described herein can also increase the containment / barrier properties of the cuffs, thereby improving their leakage protection. Such a hydrophobic skin care composition particularly allows for flexibility in cuff designs using nonwoven materials by providing an alternate method to achieve the desired containment / barrier properties. This can lead to reduced material costs.

[0014]As used herein, the term “cuff” includes leg cuffs including barrier cuffs, gasketing cuffs, combinations and variations thereof; transverse barriers and pockets / spacers; side panels; as well as waist cuffs including waist flaps, waistbands, waistcaps, and unitary waistcap / waistbands; and combinations of all or some of these cuffs. In one embodiment the leg cuff is a spunbonded nonwoven material characterized by the lack of a meltblown component, and basis weight of about 17 gsm and a hydrostatic head of at least about 95 mm. The spunbonded material comprises metallocene polypropylene fibers having a denier of less than about 1.3. In another embodiment, small amounts of meltblown fibers, for example, up to about 10% by weight, can be added to the metallocene polypropylene spunbonded material to increase production rates of the nonwoven material, without an unacceptable decrease in skin health benefits.

[0015]Importantly, the skin care compositions described herein provide a protective and / or a therapeutic benefit upon transfer to the wearer's skin, including reducing erythema and / or diaper rash. The skin care composition may also act to minimize the abrasion between the cuffs and skin in the area where the cuffs contact the wearer's skin, resulting in less redmarking and / or skin irritation. Additionally, the protective coating on the wearer's skin may reduce the adherence of BM to the skin, thereby improving the ease of BM cleanup.

[0016]As will be discussed hereinafter, skin care compositions useful in the present invention preferably have a melting profile such that they are relatively immobile and localized on the cuffs at room temperature, are transferable to the wearer at body temperature, and yet are not completely liquid under extreme storage conditions. In such embodiments, less skin care composition is needed to impart the desired skin care benefits. In addition, special barrier or wrapping materials may not be necessary in packaging the treated products of the present invention.

[0017]In one preferred embodiment, an absorbent article of the present invention will comprise a skin care composition disposed on (applied or migratable to) the cuffs and the topsheet. Applicants have discovered that such preferred articles increase transfer of the composition to the wearer's skin, resulting in increased therapeutic and / or protective benefits discussed herein. In this regard, increased transfer will be realized as increased skin coverage (i.e., area of skin) and / or the amount of composition transferred to a given area of skin.

Problems solved by technology

The most common mode of failure for such products occurs when body exudates leak out of the gaps between the article and the wearer's legs or waist to adjacent clothing because they are not immediately absorbed within the article and the absorbent article is not able to sustain a good fit on the wearer such that gaps are created allowing the exudates to leak out of the article.

Additionally, loose fecal material that is not easily absorbed by the absorbent article tends to “float” on the body-contacting surface and work its way past the gaps between the article and the legs or waist of the wearer.

However, because the forces generated by the elastic members are concentrated along a narrow area resulting in high localized pressures, such elastic cuffs have an increased tendency to indent and mark the skin of the wearer.

These skin effects are even further acute due to the occlusion of the skin caused by such products.

The occlusion of the skin by the diaper can potentially lead to skin overhydration.

As a result, overhydrated skin is more susceptible to damage from abrasion due to rubbing caused by normal wearer movements and contact with the elastic cuffs.

The reduced barrier efficiency of abraded, overhydrated skin can further cause an increase in diaper rash.

This leads not only to increased costs for these treated diaper products, but other detrimental effects as well, including decreased absorbency of the underlying absorbent core.

Even without increasing its level, the tendency of mineral oil to migrate once applied has other detrimental effects.

A major disadvantage of the diapers disclosed in the Duncan et al. reference is that the hydrophobic and oleophobic topsheets are slow in promoting transfer of urine to the underlying absorbent cores.

In addition to the migration problems encountered by placing liquid compositions on the topsheet, the prior art has failed to recognize the skin care detriments caused by the use of cuffs, nor of a way to treat the cuffs so that skin care compositions disposed thereon remain on the cuff and transfer to the wearer's skin in an effective amount to provide a skin care benefit.

The prior art has also failed to recognize that treatment of an article's topsheet alone does not necessarily transfer the composition to all critical regions of the wearer's skin.

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