There’s a little secret that some cloth diaper users don’t always choose to tell you. We don’t cloth diaper exclusively. Sure, we love the financial savings that cloth diapers afford, and we love knowing the materials that are sitting so close to our children’s sensitive skin, and we love knowing that we aren’t filling our landfills with dirty diapers that take 500 years to decompose. We are budget conscious and health conscious and environmentally conscious…
But sometimes, we’re also tired. And overwhelmed. And so over the sleepless nights.
Some cloth diaper parents use disposables at night.
Because cloth diapers need to be changed more regularly than disposable diapers, it can be hard to keep a cloth diaper leak-free for a full night’s sleep, especially once babies start sleeping through the night. It is absolutely possible to use cloth diapers overnight, but to some parents, the idea of trial and error seems like way too much work, especially when it involves wet bed-sheets and overtired babies in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, there are some tips and tricks that seem to work well for a majority of parents who put their kids in cloth diapers all night long. I did some crowd sourcing to come up with the best ways to keep your child dry in cloth diapers all night long. Apparently, it is possible!
Stuff It!
Amy, who uses Hipkiddo Cloth Diapers exclusively on her one and a half year old daughter both day and night recommends not only double stuffing, but triple stuffing diapers.
“We single stuff during the day, and triple stuff with one microfiber and 2 bamboo inserts at night. She’ll go all night like that (about 13 hours). The only thing I have to watch for is that the leg bands are still tight around her legs. Stuffing them with that many inserts sometimes makes them pop out a bit which causes leaking around the leg straps (Ella has chicken legs though) – so I just have to double check to make sure there isn’t a gap there!”
Amelia (who blogs at House Pretty) can get away with only two inserts for her nine month old daughter.
“We’ve always used cloth diapers at night and have never had any issues. I double-up on liners and make sure the diaper is snug, but still comfortable, to help prevent leaks. My daughter goes to bed around 7/730 and sleeps until 6. Aside from the double liners, the routine is the same as during the day.”
Material Matters
Many cloth diaper users prefer bamboo and hemp diapers and inserts when they require extra absorbency and long wear. These materials also tend to be less bulky than microfiber, so they can easily be doubled up.
Meghan, (the wife of Mommy Miracle’s contributor Christopher who blogs at Modern Man of the Cloth) explains that hemp and bamboo inserts are a must for overnight cloth diaper use.
“The type of diaper doesn’t matter much, as long as it fits well. So you would want maybe a microfiber and hemp in the pocket then bamboo on the outside since bamboo absorbs quickly and hemp is a major soaker.”
Cheryl agreed that hemp was the answer for overnights with her child.
“I use a hemp diaper at night with a waterproof cover and we haven’t had leaks in months. My 8 month old is a heavy wetter but the hemp is up to the task!! The hemp was irritating to her skin when it was really wet so we put a little fleece liner and it solved the problem.”
When All Else Fails
Be prepared. Accidents happen whether you use cloth or disposables, but they can be a whole lot less daunting if you are able to quickly recover from them in the middle of the night. Jenna, cloth diapering Mom of twins, has some great advice for times like these.
“Double-sheet the crib (good for for pukes, etc, too) – layer a crib sheet, then a waterproof cover, and finally a second crib sheet. It allows for an easy change if needed. I also keep a supply of the kids PJs on the top shelf of the change pad.”
I’d love to hear from you! If you use cloth diapers at night, what do you do to keep your children dry?
My suggestion for overnight success is to use Hipkiddo Naturally Hip cloth diapers with a bamboo insert and a microfiber insert.
The small print: I use Hipkiddo cloth diapers on Gavin. They’re an awesome cloth diaper choice if you’re looking for green, affordable diaper options. Be sure to Like Hipkiddo on Facebook and follow on Twitter to hear about chances to save and win. Hipkiddo provided cloth diapers for the purposes of this blog series.
More Cloth Diaper Resources
Diaper Daycare
New Fluff: Getting Started with Cloth Diapers
Fluff In Numbers
There is a lot of great advice here Laura, thanks for writing /crowd sourcing this.
Christopher D Drew recently posted..5 Lies TV Tells Us About Being A Dad
Those days are behind me, but I know that nowadays it’s so much easier to use cloth diapers than it used to be. Bravo for doing such a kindness to the environment.
Lady Jennie recently posted..Life in the Trenches – Chapter 22
When Charlotte was a baby, we used to double-stuff her pocket diapers and that worked for a while. Then she became a heavier wetter, so we switched to fitteds and covers because then it was the WHOLE diaper absorbing the pee, not just the inserts. That worked beautifully until she was about 18ish months old and I noticed she was starting to get almost a burnt-like rash. I concluded that she was essentially staying dry most of the night and peeing when she woke up, so the concentrated urine was basically burning her. We had to switch to disposables at night after that because the rashes were too awful. I was sad to do it (and couldn’t fathom how people could afford to buy diapers regularly because dammit, they are SO expensive!!) but it had to be done.
Now she’s in underwear and comes out of her room to pee, so I don’t have to worry about it anymore!
I love cloth diapers but we have never successfully managed to cloth diaper at night. My little guys is a heavy wetter but I found if I triple-stuffed his diapers we have no leaks but we started getting awful rashes, I think that much pee against him all night was just too much for his skin – any ideas?
Michelle recently posted..Day in the life
We adopted an 11 year old daughter back in March from an Orphange and she was in disposable diapers because of her bed wetting and occaisional daytime accidents.she got an occasional rash from them,so we switched her to the regular cloth diapers and rubber pants.we got the youth size cloth diapers from a website with the diaper pins and the rubber pants we got from another website.she hasnt had any rashes from the cloth diapers and they work well for her.at bed time,i put a diaper doubler in the diaper to make it even more absorbant.the rubber pants i got in a larger size to fit her loose and more comfortable.We baptized her back in august [catholic] and did her in the traditional white,poofy,top of the knees dress with a matching bonnet,lace anklets and white ‘mary jane’ shoes.I made a new diaper for her to wear under the dress by sewing the gerber cloth diapers together to make one diaper and then put ruffled rubber pants over it.she looked cute and adorable on her big day.