Once babies start sleeping through the night, families often struggle to figure out a good overnight cloth diapering set up.
Day time cloth diapering is easy because you’re changing your baby's diaper often, every 2 hours or so. But overnight cloth diapering can be tricky — the diaper has to work really hard to keep them dry and comfortable for eight to twelve hours. It’s a tough job for any diaper.
What are some things you can do to stop stubborn night time leaks in your baby's modern cloth diaper?
1. Check for gaps in the cloth diaper
Sometimes too much absorbency can cause the reusable diaper to have a poor fit which can lead to unexpected leaks. If you find that the added bulk of night time inserts is preventing the diaper from sitting in baby’s underwear line properly you may need to adjust the style of absorbency you are using or how you are placing it in the diaper.
With pocket style diapers, we recommend splitting bulky absorbency so that some of the absorbency is inside the pocket and some sits against your baby's skin, on top of the lining of the diaper. This will allow the elastics to nestle into baby’s underwear line and provide a better fit.
Boho Basics Pocket Cloth Diaper with Athletic Wicking Jersey
$11.00
Kinder Cloth Diaper Co. modern, reusable pocket cloth diapers feature a three by five adjustable rise setting that is flexible enough to fit most babies from birth to potty training. Our diapers feature a soft breathable, athletic wicking jersey (AWJ)… read more
You may also find that you need to adjust the rise setting of your overnight cloth diapers to be a size bigger than your baby's daytime cloth diaper setting.
2. Increased absorbency
When families reach out to Kinder because they are experiencing persistant leaks with overnight cloth diapering, one of the first things we talk about is increasing absorbency.
How do you know if you need more absorbency?
When checking baby's diaper in the morning, if the inserts are fully saturated—there is no remaining dry area at either end—it is time to increase the amount of absorbency you are using. Try adding one additional insert to start. This will look different for every family but often this can be as simple as adding one more 4-Layer bamboo or hemp cotton insert. Often you don't need as much extra absorbency as you think.
6-Layer Bamboo Hemp Cotton Insert
$6.05
Kinder Cloth 6-Layer Bamboo Hemp Cotton Inserts are a great way to add a lot of absorbency without a lot of bulk. 6 Layers of Natural Fiber Textiles 2-Layers 30% Hemp / 70% Cotton 4-Layers Bamboo Terry (83% Bamboo, 17%… read more
3. Switch diaper styles.
For families with really heavy overnight wetters, pocket diapers may not be a good choice for overnight cloth diapering. In these cases, we tend to recommend something like a flat or fitted style of diapers.
Flat diapers are very versatile. You can fold them a number of different ways to customize where the bulk of the absorbency sits to meet your baby's unique diapering needs. And if you find that you don't like the flat style of diaper, you can always pad fold it to use as an insert in diaper cover or pocket style diaper.
A fitted diaper also offers 360 degrees of absorbency and is great for overnight wear. Fitted style diapers are hourglass-shaped with elastic at the legs and waist, providing a secure and comfortable fit for babies.
Fitted diapers and flat style diapers are not water resistant and do need to be paired with a reusable diaper cover.
Patterned Reusable Cloth Diaper COVERS
$11.00
Features: Kinder Cloth Cloth Diaper Cover All Kinder Cloth diaper covers feature a PUL (Polyurethane Laminate) waterproof outer layer Featuring the same three adjustable rise snap settings as our Kinder pocket diapers. This allow our diapers to be tailor fit to… read more
Need more help? Consider joining our discord community. The Make Cloth Mainstream Discord includes channels about cloth diapering help, fit checks, and more.
