Need help with nighttime diapering

[jessmke]

I use bum genius pocket diapers with microfibre inserts. For nighttime I put an insert plus a booster in her diaper, which gets saturated and needs to be changed at 1 am, and then her diaper is again saturated by 8am. I would really love to stop this middle of the night diaper change, but she seems to be a heavy wetter. Even if I put two inserts in the diaper (which is about as bulky as she can comfortably handle) she will still have leaked by morning. I have thought about putting her in a wool cover as well but not only will that add more bulk, but she will still be sleeping in a saturated diaper it just won't leak onto the sheets because the wool will absorb the extra urine (or so I understand). I want to keep her dry and rash free. I am really thinking about using a disposable overnight because when we do that while travelling she doesn't need to be changed in the night. What do you all do about nighttime diapering?

I also assume that at some point she will sleep through the night (fingers crossed!) in which case I can't be waking her up to change her diaper so I would like to find a solution before we are in that situation.

 

[donnarobinson]

I woul use a disposable if that works when you do it but I always use disposable so don't no any different X

 

[minties]

I wouldn't use microfibre at night (or any time, but I hate the stuff). I would get a few fitted night time nappies made from bamboo or hemp or a combo of the two, and a wool cover.

I can't find anything to work for Emma but she is obviously very little and peeing a hell of a lot due to her age and always nursing. I have some hemp an bamboo fitteds for when she is bigger though.

 

[Rainbow82]

We used totsbots bamboozle bamboo blend at night with extra bamboo insert and a cover over the top. This worked till he was about a year old. I agree with the above about not using microfibres at night I found we got a lot of compression leaks.

 

[noon_child]

I use bum genius pocket diapers with microfibre inserts. For nighttime I put an insert plus a booster in her diaper, which gets saturated and needs to be changed at 1 am, and then her diaper is again saturated by 8am. I would really love to stop this middle of the night diaper change, but she seems to be a heavy wetter. Even if I put two inserts in the diaper (which is about as bulky as she can comfortably handle) she will still have leaked by morning.

For night time I always used a diaper with a separate cover. Otherwise all the extra boosting causes the leg elastic to not fit snugly against the skin and leaks occur. Then I would boost a bit inside, but also outside the diaper (so between the diaper and the cover) as this allows for extra absorption but the fit round the leg isn't affected.

I also used a combination of hemp and bamboo inserts at night. Microfibre would never have kept my LO dry at night.

I have thought about putting her in a wool cover as well but not only will that add more bulk, but she will still be sleeping in a saturated diaper it just won't leak onto the sheets because the wool will absorb the extra urine (or so I understand).

What the wool will do (and to a lesser extent an airflow type cover) is allow some of the liquid content of the nappy to evaporate in to the air. I don't know whether you actually loose much of the volume of liquid this way, or if it is just that this evaporation draws the liquid through the nappy to the outer layers rather than staying near baby's skin.

I also assume that at some point she will sleep through the night (fingers crossed!) in which case I can't be waking her up to change her diaper so I would like to find a solution before we are in that situation.

Law of averages - she'll probably have grown and be able to wear bigger more boosted night nappies before she sleeps through the night! EDIT: I've just checked her age - I think if she's struggling to be comfy in the boosted nappy at her age it is probably the fact that microfibre and pocket nappies aren't the best design for night time (I think anyway).

Have you popped over to the natural parenting forum to see what night nappy recommendations they have?

 

[Twinmum87]

I use bambino mio 2 piece with a their booster in for bed time. He still wakes several times a night but I do not change him thru most of the night. I put his bed time nappy on at around 7pm and he will be changed again at 4-6am. He wakes for a mini feed and a cuddle at some point between those hours and is pretty awake and alert where as thru the rest of the night he is still super sleepy so don't want to waking him up more changing him. He has only soaked the nappy 3 times in the 5.5 months since I stopped changing him every 3 hours and has never leaked.

 

[loeylo]

Personally I'd use a disposable at night. We get 12h out of Gracie's night nappy, and it's a cheap nappy. She has only had nappy rash once, and had only leaked once or twice. I cant imagine changing a nappy in the middle of the night, we haven't done so since about 6 weeks!

 

[CRWx]

I'd use a disposable, makes for an easier life. It isn't bulky and she'll not need changing. My DDs night nappy last for a good 10-12 hours and she's never had any sort of nappy rash.

 

[jessmke]

Thanks everyone! I am going to buy a couple of hemp inserts and see if putting those in my pocket diapers will get us through the night. If not then I will buy a fitted diaper, use the hemp inserts I've bought, and a wool cover. If that doesn't work then we are going to switch to disposables overnight. I really hate that 1 am diaper change!

 

[loeylo]

Thanks everyone! I am going to buy a couple of hemp inserts and see if putting those in my pocket diapers will get us through the night. If not then I will buy a fitted diaper, use the hemp inserts I've bought, and a wool cover. If that doesn't work then we are going to switch to disposables overnight. I really hate that 1 am diaper change!

Sounds like a good plan..i was planning on cloth diapering (my degree is in environmental science) but using one disposable at night isn't going to make a massive difference. Sounds like you have a good plan in place!

 

[noon_child]

Thanks everyone! I am going to buy a couple of hemp inserts and see if putting those in my pocket diapers will get us through the night. If not then I will buy a fitted diaper, use the hemp inserts I've bought, and a wool cover. If that doesn't work then we are going to switch to disposables overnight. I really hate that 1 am diaper change!

I used cloth night nappies from 3months (hemp and bamboo like I said) and never had leaks till she was too big for them at 4yrs.

 

[jessmke]

Thanks everyone! I am going to buy a couple of hemp inserts and see if putting those in my pocket diapers will get us through the night. If not then I will buy a fitted diaper, use the hemp inserts I've bought, and a wool cover. If that doesn't work then we are going to switch to disposables overnight. I really hate that 1 am diaper change!

I used cloth night nappies from 3months (hemp and bamboo like I said) and never had leaks till she was too big for them at 4yrs.

That's good to know, thanks! I'm hoping the hemp inserts will work for us because they were fairly cheap. I will buy a couple of overnight fitted diapers if I need to, but they are fairly expensive so I'm hoping to just get away with using the inserts in the diapers I already have!

 

[SarahBear]

(only read first post so far)

I've always changed diapers at night. Leo pees at night less than Violet did, but if it's wet and I'm awake to notice, it gets changed. And not all babies wake up when you change them, especially if they're sleeping without pants.

 

[jessmke]

(only read first post so far)

I've always changed diapers at night. Leo pees at night less than Violet did, but if it's wet and I'm awake to notice, it gets changed. And not all babies wake up when you change them, especially if they're sleeping without pants.

Isla defiantly notices when I change her. She fights like she is fighting for her life and screams at the top of her lungs the entire time I am changing her. It takes three times as long because she is fighting me so hard. That is why I would like to stop changing at night. If she was calm or even slept through it I wouldn't mind at all since I'm already up to feed her, but I hate having that fight in the middle of the night and it gets her really amped up so it's hard for her to fall back asleep afterwards, even with a feed after the diaper change.

It doesn't help that at night she has three layers of clothes I need to take off and put back on to get to her diaper! She needs to wear little baby underwear overtop of her diaper otherwise she rips the diaper tabs open through her clothes, then she wears a sleeper and then a sleep sac (our house is chilly!). It makes for quite the production!

 

[SarahBear]

That would make it quite a challenge. I bedshare, so even when it's cold, they sleep without pants and in the same blanket as me to keep warm.