I currently use bumgenious and fuzzybunz pocket diapers for my 11 month old. During the day, I use both the one-size microfiber liner and the infant size microfiber liner in the bumgenious diapers. At night we use a prefold and the 4 ply microfiber liner together in the fuzzybunz. This is working right now. However, my daugher is filling these dia[ers to capacity (and I change her frequently during the day). Any advice on how to make her diapers a bit more effective? I would prefer to not make them a ton bulkier as that makes it difficult to find pants that fit over them. I have cloth diapered her whole life and just increase the filling as her bladder capasity increases, but now I seem to be running out of ideas :)
I am not interested in switching to disposable diapers as my daughter ends up soaking her clothes, her bed, and her lovie with urine when she sleeps in the overnight disposables. (We have tried Huggies, pampers, and several off brands of overnight diapers resulting in a urine soaked baby and bed) They are fairly worthless for our situation in addition to being expensive and horrible for the planet.
Thanks for your help ladies!!
I think one of my daughter's wetting issues is actually that she sleeps through the night. While she does not nurse at night, that also means no midnight diaper change. She also is still getting more of her nutrition from her milk than from her food (which her ped says is normal at this age). She gets absolutely no water or juice as per her pediatrician's recommendation so I can't cut back on her water consumption before bed time. I looked into the KnickerKnappies Super-Do's which seem like a good idea but are out of stock in med and large on all the websites I found. So I am going to keep checking back on that one and also look into hemp since everyone is saying that is more absorbant. We may also try the paper diaper/cloth diaper combo if these other options don't pan out.
One mama was also saying the BG pocket diapers didn't work for her after about 1 year of age, and I think we will run into that soon as well. At 22# the largest setting on the one size fits perfectly (so I doubt we will hit the 35# mark in these diapers as advertised). I am really disappointed because I love my BG diapers, and I hate all of the snaps on the other brands. I love my velcro :)
Thanks for all of your cloth diapering support ladies! I really appreciate all of the good ideas!!
Try using a hemp doubler. I use the cotton babies microfiber and joey buns hemp insert for overnight and that works for me.
wow, i was gonna suggest disposables at night, as they really solved our problem in a hurry. Most people i know who have leaks out of them switch to the next size up for nighttime and it fixes the problem.
My mother-in-law swears by the plastic pants as diaper covers, instead of a new fangled diaper cover. I suppose you could try them to minimize leaks out of the cloth diapers.
I also recently bought new pre-folds and that made a huge difference - my old ones were quite worn out. Of course, the new ones are also thicker by virtue of not being worn out. Don't know if this helps you.
Last thing would be to reduce how much she urinates at night, by cutting back on her night time liquids. But, at 11 months, i'm guessing she doesn't drink water at night that you can remove.
Good luck.
combine your technologies. ...at night use a disposable with a reusable liner inside. Not so great for planet but...perhaps it actually is as you will not have to waste water washing and electricity on load of sheets and bedclothes. Also talk to your pediatrician it is not normal for a child to wet so much all the time...maybe has diabetes
How much milk does she have at night before bed? Does she nurse frequently through the night too? Maybe try to cut back a nursing session. At 11 months old 1 night nursing session could be dropped.
Try doubling hemp prefolds..they are very thin so won't add too much bulk and the hemp holds a ton of liquid.
Microfiber can get a build-up off detergent; hopefully you are NOT using any dryer sheets with them, as this can make them lose effectiveness.
I agree with other poster that trifolds are better than microfiber inserts. I did Bumpkins wraps with trifolds, surrounded by a large sized Huggies overnights. If you use the disposable as the outer shell, you can often use it again for several nights in a row, if there are no leaks.
You might also look into simple Diaper Doublers. FYI, the BumGenius didn't work for my son beyond about a year, even though they claim to last until 35 pounds. They just didn't hold enough or fit right past a certain point.
KnickerKnappies Super-Do's!!! They are lots of layers of hemp, by far the least bulk for the most absorbancy. I'd use a large, and you may want to use something else to double up--like microfiber inserts or a hemp doubler. I get mine at www.clothdiaperoutlet.com
I didn't discover cloth beyond prefolds with my first, so I resorted to disposables at night. The Huggies Overnights were the best--and I always got a bigger size. He was a big kid, peed a lot, and nursed multiple times a night, these gave me the best results.
I use a joey bunz hemp insert in my FB's and that seems to do the trick.. .still she has to be changed way more often then a disposable. But hemp and also you could try wool or fleece over the top to keep in moisture overnight.
We didn't use pocket diapers, we used prefolds, but at about 8 months we had to move to the toddler prefolds--they are a lot thicker and more absorbent. We also changed our covers to Thirsties because he was getting skinnier legs as he got more active as needed the gussets around his legs. We did have to move to a night-time disposable diaper though, because his diaper was getting so incredibly huge at night it looked really uncomfortable.
I found prefolds hold more than the microfiber inserts. I would use one insert and a prefold overnight.
Good luck!
I know it has already been said, but I'll toss in my vote for using hemp inserts. We had the same challenge with our daughter, and switching to 4-layer hemp inserts made a huge difference. We stocked up on Rainforest Babies contoured hemp inserts for use with our Fuzzi Bunz: http://www.rainforestbabies.com/index.php?l=product_detai....
I ended up triple diapering pre-fold cloth diapers my son until he chose to be toilet trained (at four). It was amazing how much the diapers could hold. Of course that was then, when we had those old fashioned plastic diaper covers with elastic leg bands. They held everything in--I do mean everything!
I would suggest that you try double diapering and then triple diapering until you have some measure of control. Also try some different types of diaper coverings until you find something that works.
I think you have gotten some good advice here. There is a bit of trial and error involved in finding the correct night time ritual. Using hemp could help. Baby Kicks makes some good hemp inserts, the Hemparoo (http://www.cottontailbaby.com/item_150/BabyKicks-Hemparoo...) that might work.
HempBabies also makes the Little Weeds and Bigger Weeds which are designed to fit inside a pocket diaper. (http://www.cottontailbaby.com/item_357/Hemp-Babies-Little...) Either of those might work.
Another option is a prefold with a wool cover. When properly lanolized, wool is fairly bulletproof when it comes to leaks. They just don't. Plus, they are super cute! Or, a good PUL cover like the Thirsties that was mentioned already or a Bummis. Mother-ease makes the AirFlow covers that are terrific and Imse Vimse makes an organic cotton one that I love.
Sorry you are dealing with this but I promise you the solution is out there. Good luck!
Not all disposable diapers leak, Huggies overnights are quite good. But if you are against them in principle, good luck.
