Night-Time Cloth Diapering Q & A

On occasion we have mommas, daddies and caregivers write in with a specific question about cloth diapering their babies. Up until recently we try to handle those questions based on our personal experience and those of our cloth diaper store customers.

Now that we are fortunate enough to have a growing base of Guest Bloggers writing about cloth diapers, we’ve decided to put our most recent question to them – and what a great response!

So, enjoy this particular Q & A Session on Night-Time Cloth Diapering and be sure to click through the links of our Guest Bloggers to see what else they’ve published here at CDB!

THE QUESTION

Hello -
I would like to see a post about cloth diapering your baby at night. My two-month old is starting to sleep through the night. My Prefolds and FuzziBunz were perfect when I was changing her every 3-4 hours at night, but they don’t hold up to eight hours. She is wet every morning, as well as her blankets and sheets. I thought I would stuff two inserts into the pocket diaper, but then I was unable to snap it on my baby. Do you have any suggestions? I don’t want to have to use disposables just at night, but neither do I want to wash sheets and blankets every day.

Thanks so much,
Andrea Hamilton

THE ANSWERS

Becca Gettel writes:

When night diapering my daughter I take two things into consideration: absorbency, and how dry the inner layer is against her skin. For absorbency, a common solution is to use hemp. Hemp is super absorbent, but also trim, so you won’t find that your baby has a monster butt if you double up on inserts. I prefer the Loopy Do inserts from Knickernappies for my night diapering. They have a layer of hemp and a layer of microterry. The microterry absorbs the moisture fast so that my daughter doesn’t feel wet, and the hemp (which takes longer to absorb liquid) holds a ton of liquid for how thin it is.

If that doesn’t work for you, you can try hemp inserts/doublers from Hemp Babies, and also Happy Heiny’s One Size Pocket Diaper. Just remember that you have to wash hemp 4-6 times before it gains full absorbency. If you use it before washing it a couple of times, it probably won’t solve your issue.

My favorite material (so far) to put against her skin is microsuede. No matter how soaked the microfiber insert of the diaper is, my daughter’s bottom stays dry with microsuede. My Rocky Mountain diapers have a microsuede layer instead of fleece and sometimes I can’t even tell if she’s wet when I change her because her skin feels so soft and dry.

Becca Gettel is a part time Spanish Teacher, a part time Stay-at-home-mom, and the wife of the best husband imaginable. Becca’s absolute favorite thing to do is to spend time with her little family. She also enjoys doing anything crafty – from making jewelry, to writing, to sewing, to photography.

You can read more about Becca at her blog, Becca’s Cloth Diaper Blog.

Joanna Barrette writes:

We had a problem with leaking at night too! The way I solved it was by buying the Thirsties All In One Pocket Diaper (I have heard the Thirsties Duo Cloth Diaper works just as well).

I use the medium sized diapers for my 2 month old. I stuff the pocket with an extra insert, and actually use the bumGenius! diaper insert. The Thirsties diapers have extra material around the leg to help prevent leaks. These are the only cloth diapers that haven’t leaked for us at night.

Joanna Barrette is a stay at home first time mom with a 6 week old baby. She loves being around family and feels blessed to have them close. She enjoys reading, baking, cooking, and making crafts.

Terra Jones writes:

Night time diapering has long been an issue for our family. It took almost a year and half of trial and error before we figured out what worked for us – so frustrating! We found the best solution for us were prefold diapers and the Bummis Super Snap Diaper Cover (we prefer the snap covers over velcro).

However, we make them more absorbent by placing an insert into the prefold (we use Babykicks Hemparoo Joey Bunz for the insert) and then tri-fold the prefold. We have found this makes for a very bulky bottom so, we compensate for the “overage” by buying our night time covers in a larger size than our boys need.

We refer to our youngest (lovingly, of course!) as a “Super Soaker” – he can wet through the toughest of diapers! For him, we double up on the inserts for extra protection (if you’re using a larger than needed cover, this will still work just fine). Thisties Diaper Covers seemed to work better for us than the Bummis (not sure why) when he was your daughters’ age and we did the same by buying a larger sized cover. Good luck!

Photos in the image above are contributed by Terra:
The red-head is Keaton at 34 months – Benjamin is 17 months

Terra Jones is a SAHM to two boys (ages 2.5 years and 16 months). She loves blogging, crafting and spending time with her family and friends. She is also working on completing her doula certification to become a birth attendant.

You can read more from Terra at her musings blog or her family blog.

Bobbi Jepsen writes:

Great question! Here is what I do at night. We’ve been doing this since our daughter was about 9 months old. So, it should work for a 2-month old as well. We use a Thirsties Duo Wrap or Flip One Size Diaper Cover. The Flip diaper cover is almost 100% leakproof, so I’d stick with that. With that I have a size small Diaper Rite Prefold and a Thirsties Fab Doubler. For your baby a size small would be huge, so you’d want the newborn size. I personally think the sizing runs very large with the size chart on these.

With the cover, prefold and insert, she’s usually dry all night long for 12 hours. I have tried the Flip diaper cover with a Flip Stay Dry insert and a Thirsties Fab Doubler, but that isn’t as absorbent. Diaper Rite Prefolds are VERY absorbent after they have been washed enough times. The type of prefolds you use makes a BIG difference-try the Diaper Rite ones. They are soft and VERY absorbent. We hardly ever have leaks with this system.

Also, if you still nurse your daughter during the night, you may want to add an additional insert or maybe try a couple hemp inserts with the prefold. If she still nurses frequently, she’s probably going to need a lot of absorbency. I haven’t tried hemp yet, but it seems like they are well respected for their absorbency. My daughter still nurses at least once during the night at 11 months. If she nurses more than that, then we can have leaks if I don’t use extra inserts. Hope this helps. :)

Bobbi Jepsen holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Student Personnel and previously worked at a state university before deciding to stay at home with her three children. She believes strongly in taking care of the resources entrusted to us by our Creator and uses cloth diapering as part of her “Earth friendly” mission.

Leanne Goolsby writes:

My 6 month old son is a super-soaker and has been since he came home from the hospital. “normal” cloth diapers were never up to his night-time peeing abilities, so I’ve spent a while figuring out what works for us. After much trial, error, and laundry, this is what I’ve found to work:

• Bamboo fitteds with a fleece diaper cover: I personally like the organic fitted by covered caboose; it’s a side snapping, all-bamboo diaper with a snap in insert that can be tri-folded, as well as an additional soaker. If you use all pieces, you end up with a something like 15 layers of bamboo; that is some serious absorbing power! We choose fleece diaper covers because we are allergic to wool. I have an Organic Caboose, a Sugar Peas, and a Lovey Bums…all of which work pretty well.
• Thirsties Duo Pocket Diaper: I just started using the Thirsties Duo and love it. When my son was newborn, I used the XS AIO’s on him with great success. Now that Thirsties has come out with this new pocket diaper, I’m getting back into the Thirsties brand. This diaper comes with both a hemp and a microfiber insert that snap together. I add in an extra 4 layer hemp insert and the combination of the three inserts last us through the night. Be sure to put the microfiber on top for quick initial absorbtion. Place the hemp insert on bottom to hold in the liquid through the night. Since your daughter is still pretty small, you would probably be in size 1 and have room for adjustment.
• The final thing that helps is your choice of pajamas. Two-piece cotton jammies have a tendency to creep under the waistband of cloth diapers and wick moisture out onto the sheets, eventually waking your baby up. I have much more success dressing my son in fleece pants, or even better, a fleece “sleeper” (footed, zipper jammies). This just provides an extra layer of protection.

Leanne Goolsby is a first-time mommy to the love of her life, a 6 month old baby boy and also works full-time in Development at a University. In her “free time” she loves anything crafty, being outdoors, saving money, and building her cloth diaper stash!