Aristocrat wool cover leaking!

[dejagerw]

I don't know how it's possible, but today I woke up with another big wet spot in the bed. I have 12 month old DS in a size 5 "overnight" disposable diaper with an Aristocrat wool cover, fleece pj's and there's still a big wet spot in the bed. I bought the wool cover because I thought that would solve my leak problem, as 2 overnights on top of each other didn't seem to work either. (That worked for DS1 when he was teething). Any ideas as to what my problem is? I'm not against cloth at night. For DS1 I did a bumgenius stuffed with a couple extra doublers and he was usually fine. I haven't even attempted all cloth at night with DS2 because I can't seem to get past the disposables leaking.

[Brambleberry]

Wow.  That sounds like it should work.  How much earlier does he go to bed than you?  You could change him just before you go to bed.  Or the first time he wakes up in the middle of the night.  Not ideal, but it might help him sleep better too.  If DD doesn't pee right before bedtime she will pee within about 2 hours of going to sleep, so we always check before we go to bed.  

[dejagerw]

He goes to sleep 2-3 hours before me. I guess I could check him before I go to bed, but he would seriously go hysterical if I did this. It's funny, because he doesn't really sleep bad when he's wet. All the laundry is just such a pain. (we cosleep, so it involves a lot of laundry when he soaks through everything. Plus we're going on vacation in a couple weeks. I'd like to have this leaking thing fixed prior to then. I don't really want to be sleeping in pee-peed sheets for a week at the hotel, because they probably won't change them till we leave.

[greenmm]

I don't use disposables or Aristocrat covers so I'm not exactly sure what's going on. Is it lanolized pretty well though? Also I've heard of people felting their Disana covers to make them work a lot better and I think Aristocrat soakers are similar wool. We use a big bulky night time fitted for my heavy wetting son & he sleeps 12hrs but since he's never really used disposables except his first week I have nothing to compare it to. I can definitely recommend some fitteds. I also think interlock works better than knit so an interlock wool soaker might work better for you, they just seem much thicker than my Disana one. Night diapering is such trial & error & it took us a while to find something that worked. We started with pockets w/ superdos or Blueberry combo inserts but after he started sleeping 8hrs+ he was leaking out of those.Good luck!

[illiterati]

I don't know how you're LO is proportioned. But we've got a very thick little 12 month old and at night he's using a size 4 disposable (huggies overnights).  I remember when a diaper was too big it was more prone to leakage. Is the size 5 used for extra absorption or because it really fits him well.  Another thing we've also tried is a flip diaper disposable insert inside a regular disposable, sort of like a disposable doubler. And until you find a solution maybe whip out those sheet protectors again (if the baby actually sleeps in one place).

 I hear you on nighttime leak woes. We cloth during the day but at night anything goes just to stop those darn leaks. 

[Carynia]

Just a thought...Since Aristocrats are designed to work over a cloth diaper, it could be that the outer barrier layer of the disposable is causing the leaks to be dispersed in a way that won't allow the knitted wool to 'grab' the wetness very well. Maybe you could try putting a lightweight cotton training pant or a cotton undie on between the disposable and Aristocrat (tucking it inside the Aristocrat completely). -- I know, sounds a little crazy but it could be the lack of some natural cotton between that might be contributing to the leaks. ~ If you try this suggestion, please post whether it helped or not!

Other possible causes for the Aristocrat leaking...detergent buildup, or a well-used soaker that's needs lanolizing. Contact us if you need any suggestions on how to take care of those issues, and good luck!

You can always use a nice wool puddle pad too if you need a barrier over the mattress...

~ Heather from Baby Bunz & Co. ~ www.babybunz.com   1-800-676-4559

[mamayogibear]

Do you have to use disposables at night? I find zorb to be very absorbant and use a bamboo/zorb doubler at night with a hemp fitted with a buit in doubler all covered up with a wool side snap cover. Using differnt layers with different 'gussetts' in the inner thigh seems to make a difference as nothing has a 'way out' unless there is a ton of pee. I hope that makes sense and is helpful. 

Also I hope this doesnt sound to weird but at night If I only have one doubler and a prefold to use I will wrap  my ds penis in the doubler so there  is a bulge of several layers of fabric right there to absorb pee so the prefold will only get wet once the doubler soaked through.

[dejagerw]

Thanks for the replies. My Aristocrats are new, I washed them once to start with, so I don't think there's a detergent build up issue. The instructions for the diaper said I don't need to lanolize them before use, so I wouldn't think that to be an issue.

BabyBunz - that's a good point about the wool cover being designed to be used over cloth, not disposables. I'll try putting some of DS1's cotton undies over the disposable, then the wool pant. I'll report back how that works too.

Illiterati- I may look into some of those flip inserts. That might beef up my sposie absorbancy.

Today I had another really bad leak, all up the back of DS. It got me thinking though, could it be possible this could be sweat? I'm thinking probably not, but IDK, I'm grasping at straws to solve the wet everything that's going on in our bed. I tried sniffing it, but I cannot tell.

Also, to answer some of the other questions. I'm using size 5 overnights because when DS started leaking the size 4 overnights, I thought the solution would be to go up a size in diapers. He's a chunky guy (just under 30 lbs at 13 months). The size 5 do seem to fit him okay though. And the diaper does seem very full in the morning. So it doesn't appear that it's just leaking from the side or something.

I'm not totally opposed to trying totally cloth at night. But I am hesitant to spend a lot more money and then have it still not work. Plus I need to find a disposable diaper solution because we're going to FL for a little over a week, and I don't do cloth when we travel. (I plan on bringing the wool covers though) I know cloth while traveling works for some people, but I'd really rather stick with the convenience of disposables while we're out of town. We also camp in the summer which means I need to use sposies then too. And I really need to fix the leak issue. Last time his diaper leaked while camping, and the sheets didn't dry the whole weekend. Then I had to wash the sleeping bags when we got home.. not fun.

If you have more ideas keep them coming. Or if you had better luck with cloth at night over sposies, then maybe that will help motivate me to spend the extra $ to convert over.

[mamayogibear]

Peerhaps you could get a piddle pad to put under him at night so the leaks are not as disasterous. I am thinking of getting a wool saddel blanket off of amazon for my 1.5 yo son since I'd like to stop putting him in tons of layers at night. I often wake him up at night after he nurses and hold him over the potty so when he does 'go' in the dipe it's not as much. If you don't night nurse it would be a big pita though. Both he and his older sister have always worn cloth at night. Also I would lanolize the cover even if it says its not needed. Lanolized wool is just sooo soft and comfy.

[dejagerw]

So... I tried the overnight sposie, then underwear, then wool cover. For the last couple days it seems to maybe have helped a bit. The underwear is always soaked in the morning though. Sometimes the pjs are wet, sometimes not. I've also got a waterproof cover on top of the sheets so now laundry is less of an issue. It's strange though how wet the underwear gets. This morning my hubby changed DS in the morning and he said the diaper was not that wet, but the undies still were. DS night nurses a lot. Last night I didn't nurse his as much though, which is probably why his diaper wasn't as wet. It's weird though how the undies are still really wet.

I've lanolized the covers. So we'll see if that makes any difference. I'll probably go back to just the overnight and the wool cover and see if that holds with the lanolized cover. I will figure this out, and hopefully be able to progress to cloth at night next.

[cristeen]

Wait - you say you washed the aristocrats before using it, so detergent buildup probably isn't an issue... how exactly did you wash it?  You shouldn't be using detergent on wool at all, since it will strip the lanolin.  If you did, then you would need to relanolize it really well, probably several times. 

How wet is the aristocrats in the morning?  Is the pee going through it or is it absorbing it? 

I know sposies didn't work for my DS at night so long as he was still drinking during those hours - by morning the diaper would be falling apart from being so wet.  I had to use a pocket fitted that was stuffed to bursting (and under wool) just to keep the bed dry.  Now that he's night-weaning we're down to a more reasonable thickness at night. 

[dejagerw]

I used about a teaspoon of ECOS and hand washed it. Is that not right? That's what I use to wash my cloth diapers. What should I be washing it in? Also, when it does leak, the cover feels wet, but not soaking. It's like somehow the pee gets through the cover, through the pjs and just leaves a big wet spot in the bed. It's been better though lately. I'm thinking about trying to get him on cloth at night. I'll still use sposies while travelling. I have pocket diapers, so I'll probably use those with the wool cover over it. For DS1 I did a bumgenius with the regular insert plus 2-4 of those doublers they give you with them. I'm not sure how well that will work with DS2 though. DS2 seems to wet more at night. Also, my bumgenius elastics are a bit more stretched out now than they were with DS1. I think they may just leak at the leg if I overstuff them. I've changed the elastic out on one diaper and I think it seems to be working well. It's a pain to do though, and I don't have a sewing machine, so I have to do it by hand. I may just change the elastics in a couple of the diapers though. And maybe get some better doublers than just the ones that came with the bumgenius's.