Night Time Soaking Through Cloth Diapers

Updated on October 16, 2008
K.T. asks from Portland, OR
25 answers

Hi all- My daughter is 6 1/2 months old and is soaking through her night time cloth pre-folds. We have been doubling them but recently switched to the next size up in pre-folds. Tonight we doubled her up and it was HUGE!!! My husband is worried about her
back sleeping with such a huge butt because of the 2 diapers. If you cloth diapered, what did you do for night time soakings? I've looked at some on line wool soakers, but don't know if $30/ diaper is a practical investment. Any suggestions are much appreciated.
K.

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So What Happened?

Thank you so much for all the incredible advice. We will be looking into wool soaker shorts as well as hemp/bamboo/wool liners to add to the diapers. I'm so grateful for all your wonderful suggestions and responses. I LOVE Mamasource!

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M.B.

answers from Portland on

Hi K.
I used to use cloth but recently switched to g diapers both day and night and at night i just double to insert. You can buy g diapers at the freddies in tualatin or go to their website it rocks and you can find out where to get them. good luck,,,,,MJ

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M.L.

answers from Seattle on

We've had great luck with my 16 month old and Funnibuns. She's only leaked through one night I think.

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O.A.

answers from Portland on

Like your daughter, our son also started soaking through at about that age. We also switched up to the next size diaper (we use Fuzzi Bunz) and began using both a cotton and a hemp insert. Yes, his butt does look huge, but it doesn't seem to bother him or interfere with his sleeping. I haven't noticed any evidence of back problems, either. This usually works, although we do still have an occasional leaker. Sometimes, if I really don't feel like dealing with it (or if we're away from home) I will break down and use a disposable diaper.

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M.Z.

answers from Seattle on

Hi K.-

We use a few different diapers for nighttime.

1. Babykicks hemp prefolds with a prowrap cover (not my favorite option as there is nothing to wick away moisture and baby feels the wetness all night-although you can buy fleece liners to eliminate this problem)
2. Thirsties pocket all-in-one with a Hemp Babies Little Weeds as an insert - my favorite
3. Rumpsters all-in-one

With the babykicks and the rumpsters I usually add a Happy Heiny's small hemp oval insert. My guy is 1 year old now, and these options have been getting us through the night for about 6 months. And he still nurses 2-3 times per night. Somtimes though, I don't get the diaper on properly and we will have an occasional leak.

It may take some trial and error to find something that works for your babe, but don't give up. There are a lot of options out there.

Good Luck!

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H.M.

answers from Seattle on

We used cloth diaper only during the day. At night we always used huggies. I think makes the baby more confortable.

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A.Z.

answers from Portland on

Hi K.,

I am the owner of www.punkinbutt.com and I live in Tualatin. I am happy to help you out if you need any assistance beyond the advice I will offer.

1. You definitely do not want to make the diaper really big or your baby won't be comfortable and will start waking up more often.

2. Have you tried adding doublers rather than extra prefolds to your diaper? Hemp and bamboo are more absorbant than cotton, so many parents like to add these to their nighttime diapers.

3. Is the cover leaking? Many times the fit of the cover will result in leaks rather than the actual absorbancy of the diapers. Cotton needs time to absorb and a properly fitted cover will help hold the pee until it is absorbed into the diaper. You may just need to switch to a wool cover or for an inexpensive option, use vinyl pull on pants like Bummis Whisper Pants.

4. Perhaps you need to switch diapers for nighttime use? My daughter leaked through everything at night, but I had the luxury of having numerous brands and styles of diapers at my disposal. What finally worked for us was a Bamboozle diaper, lined with a Fuzzy Doubler (micro-fleece on top to keep her feeling dry and the back of the doubler is made with a hemp/cotton blend for absorbancy) and then a cover (both whisper pants and wool covers worked beautifully). Many parents will buy Fuzzi Bunz for nighttime diapering, but I was only able to use them on my daughter during the day because she leaked through them at night.

Remember every child is different, so while one system will work beautifully for one child, it doesn't mean it will work for yours. I am happy to go over your folding techniques and check her covers for proper fit. It may be a need for a simple fix of technique, or an inexpensive change, to a completely different solution for nighttime from your daytime options.

A.
Ph: ###-###-####

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A.P.

answers from Eugene on

Hi,

We've been using cloth diapers since my son was born (he's 14 months now). When he was about 5 1/2 months old we switched to a double diaper at night or "the big diaper" as it was called, but then he started soaking through that too (Hooray for sleeping long enough at night to leak!)...anyway, when he about your daughter's age we went ahead and use a disposable at night--it's not ideal, but it's what has worked for us...it's also not that expensive because a package that costs $10.00 lasts for about 1 1/2 months.

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K.R.

answers from Portland on

I find that though hemp is wondreful for the environment, it doesn't absorb as well. I use swaddlebees terrycloth inserts. The other thing that was happening was that our daughter had just gained enough weight to be within a few pounds of needing to upgrade to the next diaper size. Finally, though, we stopped using Kushies at night and put her into Gdiapers. The medium size from 6 months until 10 months kept her through the night without leaks. We haven't had a night leak yet, but are upgrading to large size just in case. If you don't like the compostable/flushable g diapers, you can always use a liner like swaddlebees inside the g. It hasn't worked as well for us lately to use the swaddlebees liner rather than the g liner at night.

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J.K.

answers from Seattle on

Hi K.! I own Simple Cloth, a shop in downtown Olympia specializing in the retail of infant cloth diapers. Please stop by or send me an email and I will get you squared away with overnight cloth diapering! There are a number of very trim and very absorbent options that will be much less bulky than doubling up with two prefolds. (hemp doublers, microfiber, etc.) My shop is located at 210 W 4th Avenue, Olympia, WA 98501. We're open Wednesday through Saturday, noon to five. I can be reached via email at ____@____.com.

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J.M.

answers from Portland on

I did cloth exclusively, and what worked for me was once this started happening I would do a diaper change right before I went to bed. This was usually about 3-4 hours after baby. This helped them to get used to feeling dry (rather than wet) thru the night and they started staying dry on their own.

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L.C.

answers from Portland on

We had/have a peer too.

When she was in diapers/pull-ups we would change it once durning the night. She got used to it and it wouldnt wake her. In fact she would help us by lifting her bottom up to get the diaper under her and still not wake up.

Now that she is out of diapers/pull-ups we walk or carry her to the bathroom - she pees and then goes right back to sleep.

She will still have accidents at night - I think that she just either has so much pee or her bladder is small.

We usually take her right before we go to sleep - her bed time is before ours so we dont loose too much sleep.

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J.T.

answers from Portland on

K., I used cloth exclusively with my kids, and I had the same problem. I came up with an idea that worked really well for us. I used two diapers -one tri-folded- and then put plastic pants (are they still called that?) over the diaper wrap. It seems like a lot, but it worked very well. Plus we never noticed any major bulk. The plastic pants are very thin, so they didn't add anything. My kids slept very well, and I can't remember any real leakage ocurring with this combo. I know it can be a pain, but you are doing a good thing by using cloth diapers rather than plastic. I thank you, and so does our planet. :)

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L.R.

answers from Portland on

I had a similar problem, but I didn't like how my baby was sleeping in a wet diaper all night. It tended to give her a rash. So I just used a disposable at night, and that effectively solved the problem. That's probably what I'll do with my son when he's born.

Even now my daughter is potty trained, but I still put a disposable on her at night, just in case. She rarely pees in her sleep, but sometimes she doesn't want to sit on the potty first thing in the morning and will pee in her diaper before I have time to change her. Other times, she'll have a dry diaper so many days in a row that I just have to throw it away because it gets lumpy and starts to smell! I could probably put a cloth diaper on her, but keeping 2-3 diapers until laundry day isn't practical, and washing 2-3 diapers at a time seems like more work than it's worth (especially since we have a very old dryer and no clothesline).

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J.B.

answers from Medford on

I don't remember. I think I used regular cloth diapers and used another one as a liner, folded differently than the outside one. At some point I started getting disposables for at night.

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M.D.

answers from Seattle on

I would suggest using a hemp or bamboo diaper with a wool soaker. Both hemp and bamboo absorb about 50% more liquid than cotton and they are available as fitted diapers or prefolds.

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E.S.

answers from Bellingham on

Hi! My son is four months old. At night we use a pocket diaper that is fleece lined, like Bum Genius or Bummis, then we use a fleece insert and then a pre-fold! Yeah, a lot of diaper. He also has a HUGE butt! But what we have noticed is that the fleece wicks away the moisture and the prefold holds a lot of the wetness as does the insert. He has soaked through it only a couple of times. It seems to work pretty well! Good luck.

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D.R.

answers from Portland on

i cloth diapered both of my babies and used the ProRap on the outer. ProRap is 100% polyester urithane laminate wrap, basically plastic-ish, cloth-like on the outside, whick won't soak through. i used the standard prefold and used a square doubler which i folded, in essence double, doubling, rather than the two diaper option. granted, they each still wet the diaper and doubler through, but it did not soil the bed and they woke up when they were wet, at which time i would change them quickly, nurse for a short bit and back to sleep. no problem. hope this helps! good luck.

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M.K.

answers from Seattle on

Hi K.,

We have done fuzzibunz cloth diapers for both of our girls. I have the same problem as you with the night time leaking. I finally gave up and we put a disposable on at night. I have a friend who tried very hard to use doublers and special inserts and she also went to a disposable at night. Not sure what other advice you will get, but this has worked for us. Good luck!

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S.E.

answers from Portland on

We cloth diaper our 11 month old twins. They use a Bummis Whisper Soft cover with 2 prefolds then a doubler and a fleece liner. Their rumps are rather large. We have been doing this since they were 2 months old or there abouts.

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C.W.

answers from Portland on

Hi K.,
I've had the same problem with my son. I've tried various 'hemp fleece' doublers with pre-folds, pocket diapers with 3 inserts and all sorts of combinations. I did find a used wool cover that has been the best! I would have forked over the $30 in a heartbeat if I had known how much it would help! We now use a pre-fold hemp diaper (not cotton) plus 2 hemp/fleece doublers in a one-size bigger wrap covered by the wool cover. It does the trick. His butt is big...but he doesn't soak through anymore!

Good luck!
C.

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J.D.

answers from Seattle on

Hi K.. We used cloth diapers with our daughter, now 3 and recently potty trained! We doubled up at night with no problems. We used a diaper service and folded the diapers ourselves, so I'm not sure what the pre-folds are like. Good luck.

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K.R.

answers from Seattle on

We also use cloth diapers. We used Fuzzy Bunz brand and doubled them up for naps. They worked better for my son, but my daughter soaked through them all the time. I still use them on my daughter, but I put her in a disposable for night time. It just works better for us. We use the seventh generation disposables and they work great. I don't like the idea of putting diapers in the landfill, but the cloth at night was not working. The Seventh Gen diapers are a bit more expensive than other brands, but I like their products and they work great for her (they are unbleached and none of that weird gel stuff).

Good luck!

K.

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S.S.

answers from Seattle on

Hi K.,
We used g-diapers with our son and all was good except the night-time soaking, so we finally gave up and started using huggies leak-lock diapers for his night-time sleeping. We switched when he was about your daughter's age and we never had a wet bed again! I know it's not environmentally friendly, but neither is doing laundry every day. ;-) Are you from Ireland, by the way? We were considering Aoife for a name if our son was a girl. My husband's from Dublin...

Hope that helps.

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A.L.

answers from Seattle on

I used cloth on both my children. At night I made sure they went to sleep with a dry on on that was doubled. Then when I went to bed a few hours later, I would check them and change to a dry diaper. It was easier to potty train later if they are changed as soon as they are wet. That is why I didn't use disposible, they can't feel the wet as soon. And many parents don't change their children as often as they should because they don't know they are wet when using the disposibles.
Good Luck.
-A

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R.C.

answers from Seattle on

I've gone thru the same thing with my son. I solved my problem by purchasing wool covers on evay. they're way cheaper, hand made, work great at your support SAHM's which I think is wonderful. We still have an occasional leak but usually only if I need to relanolize them or he is wearing a cover that is a little loose. Anyways, totally worth the investment. I bought 5 wool covers....cost me like 25-30 bucks. If you buy them all from one person you can get combined shipping too! Check it out and good luck! :-)

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