Guest post by Tanya, Director of Marketing at Sweetbottoms Baby Boutique
Let’s deal with the giant elephant in the room, shall we. Night time diapering is pretty much the number one reason for reaching for a disposable diaper. Between the leaking and the overwhelming ammonia barnyard smell in the morning a lot of moms ditch the night time cloth real quick.
Let’s talk about leaks first- here is when I will tell you WOOL is your best friend. Don’t be afraid of wool, you do care for it differently but it isn’t harder. Wool breathes to help prevent rashes from that marathon sleep session and it absorbs up to 30% of its weight in liquid (more on that in another post). Whatever night time diaper you use put a wool diaper cover over it and help save your sheets. The ying to wool’s yang is a good fitted diaper. There are many options out there and I am just going to go over some of my favorites while I was cloth diapering 2 preschoolers at night!
- EcoPosh – The number one most absorbent diaper in my opinion is Eco-Posh. I feel like that thing could soak up a lake and still have room to spare. The down side is it’s bulky and it tends to hold stink, but bulky is my washing machine full of sheets every night so I am good with a bubble butt baby instead AND wash your Eco-Posh more often and in HOT water through all cycles and you won’t have the stinks either. They come in newborn sizes as well.
- Tiny Tush Trim Hemp 4.0 - Hemp is extremely absorbent and I used these fitteds many nights with my kids. I did sometimes add a microfiber type booster under the snap in soaker because sometimes hemp needs a chance to grab up the pee as it isn’t a quick absorber. These diapers are also VERY roomy…they fit for a long time and can fit pretty young babies as well.
- Sustainablebabyish Snapless-Multi Fitted – I probably used these diapers the most because I used them during the day too! These diapers do great with a snappi and are very absorbent. They are also easy to treat for stink issues but ironically they have very little stink issues because of the material.
- Flip Diapers One Size Diaper Cover – I know, a cover with no gusset sounds crazy, right?! But I used these a lot on the road diapering at night so I didn’t have to worry about my wool air drying during the day. I used 2 microsuede Flip Stay Dry Inserts with a Flip cover and they never leaked. The trick? Make sure your rise is adjusted correctly. The other bonus on this diaper system is that they fit FOREVER…my four year old who just stopped wetting at night still fit in them.
- Wool Diaper Covers – I like adding a wool cover to any night time diaper I use including the Flip system just as added protection BUT you want a full stretchy knitted cover that will fit over all that bulk. Recycled sweater covers tend to not be that. I like Aristocrats Wool Soakers, Sustainablebabyish Knit Wool Covers and EcoPosh Wool Diaper Covers best. All in varying price ranges.
What are you favorite night time diapering solutions? We’d love to hear what works for you!
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
We moved to Bamboozle fitteds with Hempbabies inserts under covers several months ago and haven’t looked back. We couldn’t be happier with this nighttime solution; it works perfectly.
We figured out the leaks easy, it was the ammonia and ammonia burns that made us switch to sposies at night. Now we deal with leaks but no burns
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I’m so sorry you had night time ammonia issues! If you ever want to try cloth again we are happy to help you trouble shoot and resolve your ammonia woes.
What diapers were you using? I’m actually surprised to find out that cloth diaper moms reach for disposables at night. Even if I use disposables during the day (for travel), I ALWAYS use cloth at night because I don’t want them sitting in all those horrible chemicals all night long. We use the flip system with organic inserts – they are amazing! When my son started wetting through, we added a microfiber or hemp insert into the organic prefold. He stopped wetting altogether by 2 yrs old, though, so not sure if older kids pose a bigger problem in terms of nighttime solutions…
Hi Linnea. I, too, gave up on cloth at night and have eliminated leaks by using a Sustainablebabish wool cover over our overnight sposies. I have a little boy who is a tummy sleeper and was always waking up with wet jammies until we started using the wool covers. Good luck!
Linnea,
We have the exact same problem. Now we’re throwing a wool cover over the disposable. No leaks or rash!
We’ve had lots of questions about handling ammonia issues so be on the lookout for a blog listing solutions!
In looking into creating a blog for ammonia issues, we’ve found that trouble- shooting on an individual basis works better. Please email tanya@sweetbottomsbaby.com with your specific problems/questions and we we happily help you find a solution!
Both of my boys are very sensitive to the overnight wetness. They sleep 10-12 hours and wake up red and hurting if they’re in cloth. It recently happened to my youngest when he soaked a disposable as well. We use pockets and I hated to invest in something that may not work. I hate to see them sore and disposable were a quick solution to stop that.
Would it help to have something that breathes more possibly? What would your first step be to figuring this out? Thanks for the help!
Please email tanya@sweetbottomsbaby.com with your specific problems/questions and we we happily help you find a solution!
We love our cloth! We use fuzzibunz pockets and once we started double stuffing at night (one regular, one hemp) we have no leaks…yay! The ammonia stink though is no fun. We’re just bearing with it because I don’t want to do disposables, but I’d welcome any suggestions on how to handle it!
We’ve had lots of questions about handling ammonia issues so be on the lookout for a blog listing solutions!
Excellent! Will definitely be on the look out for it. Thanks for the heads up!
We use GoodMama, Little Fancy Pants or CutiePaTooties fitteds under sloomb shorties or longies and we have a couple ecoposh wool covers as well. It’s rare that we have any leaks! I don’t know how we did night time before we discovered wool! =)
I use a Ragababe AIO with a Ragababe organic insert. Super trim, never ever a leak, not even with my 22 month old super night soaker. I just run it through a quick short rinse with cold water in the morning before throwing it in the diaper bag. No stinkies or burns of any kind. With sponsors we always had leaks, even with the “12 hour” night time ones. This system has saved me so much time and effort with washing sheets every night. Definitely worth every penny.
Oops, sposies, not sponsors!
What about other Sbish, like OBF or HLC? I’m not keen on snapless.
I’ve been Cd’ing my son for the last year, he’s almost 2 and we just switched him back to sposies at night because he period
I’m in the middle of this right now! My little one (7 months) jut all of a sudden started leaking at night! I have one Kissaluvs organic cotton fitted and a Thirsties size 2 cover that work well for us but I’m in the process of acquiring some more options to try out. He’s been wearing Kawaii GNHWs with 2 inserts. I also read an article recently about pointing his bits downward and checking the positioning of the diaper itself. So I’m checking those things too but I don’t fully understand wool though. My son currently sleeps in footed pj’s. With a wool cover would he just sleep in that?? Or still in his pj’s? Do you just put the wool over a regular fitted without a cover or over a cover? Shorts? Longies? There’s just so much to understand it feels like. Thanks for any help!!
Please email tanya@sweetbottomsbaby.com with your specific problems/questions and we we happily help you find a solution!
Thanks for sharing this. We’re in night sposies right now because my son leaks like crazy. He even leaks through the Huggies night time diapers most nights! I’m eager to try wool though!
Let us know if you need any help picking out your wool or have questions once you begin. We think you’ll like it!
I have the night time ammonia issue, and as a result my son is getting bad rashes. I need some options for products that you can ship to Canada. I currently use a Canadian cloth diaper called mother ease and love the diapers for daytime. I don’t have leaking issues either just the rashing/amonia at night. I am interested in any suggestions you may have……would love it f I could work with the diapers I am currently using!!
Please email tanya@sweetbottomsbaby.com with your specific problems/questions and we we happily help you find a solution!
Motherease Wizard night time or even the Motherease Wizard AIO with a soaker added just in case have worked amazing for us. We used to use sustainable babyish and loved it, but my 2 year old went on strike with them so I had to find something else. These are pricey but worth it. The remain soft wash after wash and finally some leg elastic that doesn’t turn her legs red or raw overnight! I would love it if you started carrying these diapers so I could buy them from you!
Thanks for your suggestion! We’ve noted this and if we get enough requests for a product we will add it to our selection.