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Thursday, June 30, 2011

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Getting Over The Night Diapering Challenge

Night diapering has always been my biggest cloth diapering challenge. Sam is my second baby to use cloth diapers, so at least I had some ideas about what to start with when he came along. When we cloth diapered my older son, Adam, it took me many tries to figure out a good solution—and yes, I had to shake it up from time to time to make it keep working. Initially a well-stuffed pocket diaper worked, but then he started wetting through that option, so I bought some super-thick fitteds and a wool cover. Those worked, but with two issues: the super thick fitteds were very absorbent, but hard to get clean. And he had such a fluffy bum that figuring out what kind of pajamas to use was a challenge. Pocket trainers, stuffed with hemp, were the final night-diapering solution when he was a toddler.

When Sam stopped the mad all-hours pooping of the newborn, I started to look at what our overnight options would be. The first try was one of my trusty OS pockets (we use mainly bumGenius and Fuzzibunz), with extra stuffing. As far as absorbency goes, this worked, but his legs were still pretty skinny, and when I stuffed the diaper enough to last all night, the leg holes gaped and we ended up damp, all of us. So I decided to head back to fitteds and wool. I got two Happy Heinys pocket fitteds, size medium, which I discovered through trial and error were best stuffed with a prefold and one microfiber insert. These are fleece-lined and his skin always feels nice and dry in the morning. I also got a wool soaker. This combination worked beautifully… until recently. Sam is a much chunkier monkey than Adam ever was, and the medium-sized HH was just not a long term solution. Right now, the rise is a little low, so if he squirms around enough (especially in the early morning hours when the diaper is on the wet side), the diaper droops, and we end up damp. We still use them during the day, though, with no issues.

Enter our latest solution: the Thirsties duo fitted, size 2. Sam is still on the lowest snap setting on this diaper and it is a great fit. I was initially reluctant to get a diaper with sewn-in microfiber, but the "tunnel" design enables it to get clean easily. It takes a bit longer to line-dry than my other diapers, but not terribly so. I stuff it with a small prefold and we are ready to go—he still has a bubble butt, but fits better into pajamas. I use a wool soaker on top, although I have used a duo wrap overnight, too, without any leakage. Besides the obvious benefit of everyone waking up dry…. the duo has the super-cute factor, too.

Anne-Marie is a stay-at-home mom to a 9 year old, a 6 year old, and a seven month old. She blogs about their adventures in sustainable(ish) living at http://mainemonkeys.blogspot.com/

11 comments:

Brassy said...

I haven't tried the Thirsties Duo Fitted yet, since I don't really like Fitteds. I really love the Duo Wraps, which we use with prefolds and homemade stay dry liners, and the Duo Diapers, which I never bought in Size 2 because they don't come in snaps. It's not very helpful to have an awesome diaper on if the kid can take it off themselves. My toddler even manages to get her bumGenius undone UNDER a snapped onesie - though that also might be because the aplix doesn't last well and has issues sticking...

Mar [Parenting and Proverbs 31] said...

This is a great post, it gives me an idea of where to go if double stuffed pockets don't work when we start cd'ing at night. Just waiting for her to grow into the rest of her os dipes.

Brittany H said...

I'm glad to know this. I'm a little worried about the night time diapering thing. Thirsties fitted are wicked cute and I'm glad they work so well!

I think I'll invest in some prefolds too for the newborn stage and for stuffing later on. Great ideas thanks!

tracysday said...

I'm new to cloth diapering and I still cringe every time that I go in to get the baby in the middle of the night to feed her. The first few weeks we had a lot of leaks. Now I'm figuring out that the FuzziBunz and Flips are the best for her at night right now. She's only nine weeks old though so I'm sure that I'll have to adjust my routine eventually.

Wazka815 said...

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I know they'll be helpful as my little one gets older and I have to "revamp" our night-time options!

Nessa said...

THANK YOU for this post!!!! I am so happy I read this I've been using disposables at night on my Little One to avoid the cloth diaper leaks, I'm anxious to give this a try!

LeahandEric said...

Night diapering has been a huge challenge for my DS of 17 months. Lately, he's been waking in the middle of the night asking for a diaper change.

We've always used cotton prefolds stuffed with a Bumgenius doubler or a folded up flat and a regular old cover.

Recently I've added a second doubler and a fleece liner. So far this is working great! But I'd like to try wool soakers.

Liz said...

Great post! We have nighttime issues as well. I've tried the pocket with two inserts, wool covers, everything I could think of. I like the Thirsties Fab Fitted but I can't find them anymore :( I'm contemplating going to flats with an insert folded into them with a cover just to try it, heck, I've tried everything else!

Anne-Marie said...

I get a ton of use out of the newborn sized prefolds we bought-- they fit Sam for the first few months. Now I use them for stuffing, for burp cloths, and as doublers with the larger prefolds he wears now.
@Liz, it is amazing how creative you have to get sometimes! I hope you figure out something that works for your little one soon.

Christine said...

I haven't tried the Thirsties Duo yet.... perhaps it's time we tried that on our little guy!

Tawnya said...

My daughter has been nothing but a sweet baby. She sleeps 12 hours a night at 5 months old (and has for several months now). But about 1 out of 3 nights, she has leaked out the back of her double stuffed Kawaii pocket diapers. I'm going to have to try some of your suggestions. First, I'm going to look up the Thirsties Duo you mentioned. Thanks!