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please help me troubleshoot nighttime diaper leaks!

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diapering
650 views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  mumkimum 
#1 ·
I'm an experienced cloth diaper mama. DD1 was in cloth from birth to potty-learning, and we did fine at night with Bum Genius diapers stuffed with 2 or 3 inserts (hemp or microfiber), and a wool cover.

Now DD2 comes along and nighttime isn't going so well. She's 5 months old, but the same system isn't working consistently. Many mornings she wakes up soaking wet.

It seems like pee may be leaking out of the top of the diaper and getting her pajamas wet (I need to pay more attention to exactly where she's wet -- this morning it was her belly. She was sleeping on her front), even though the wool cover extends a few inches above the top of the diaper. The wool is still dry on the outside when she wakes up, so I don't think the moisture is coming through the wool.

My brainstormed ideas so far:
- I want to try to be more careful to be sure the lining of the BumGenius is tucked well inside the diaper, so it's not wicking moisture outside the diaper somehow.
- Use or add doublers instead of just inserts? I have little microfiber things that say "doubler" that came with some of the BumGenius diapers -- are they just intended for newborns? Or still useful? Otherwise we don't own any doublers.
- Use 4 inserts instead of 3? That diaper is getting really huge already, though.
- Super-heavy dose of lanolin on the cover?
- Buy a different kind of diaper and/or cover? Or just newer ones?

What do you think I should do next?
 
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#2 ·
Are they the same diapers/wool soakers you used with baby1? They may need to be stripped/ lanolized...
Sometimes a build up of residue can lead to leaky diapers, etc.

I would also stick to hemp only at night versus microfiber.

You may even try a couple of new inserts of hemp and see if the new inserts make a difference at night, even if it doesn't solve the entire problem they still come in handy down the road.

The bumGenius infant size ones will still help but they are not as absorbent as their larger peers since they are not as long.

(I think the term doubler is more for effect than actually doubling the absorbency power.)
 
#3 ·
Yep, same diapers as from DD1. I washed and lanolized the cover this week, but didn't do as heavy a re-lanolizing as I could have.

Stripping it all -- I hadn't thought of that. That's certainly an option.

I've mostly been using only hemp inserts in the pocket diapers at night. I guess it's worth trying stripping them first, before buying new, but add that to the list of brainstormed ideas!

I can search this site or Google, but if you have good stripping instructions or a favorite site with this, send it my way!
 
#6 ·
Sometimes I'll use a prefold diaper wrapped around some kind of insert (instead of increasing the # of inserts). Seems to work better if you're getting gaps in an otherwise very fitted diaper and they're causing leaks.

Sometimes doublers have been helpful too (say, if the kiddo is just peeing so much/so fast the diaper can't absorb it at the same rate - lay them on top of the inside).
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by mumkimum View Post

Sometimes doublers have been helpful too (say, if the kiddo is just peeing so much/so fast the diaper can't absorb it at the same rate - lay them on top of the inside).
Just for clarification, do you mean put the doubler against her skin, not inside the pocket diaper? Or inside the pocket, but the doubler would be the first thing the pee reaches, on top of the other inserts?
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by indigosky View Post

Just for clarification, do you mean put the doubler against her skin, not inside the pocket diaper? Or inside the pocket, but the doubler would be the first thing the pee reaches, on top of the other inserts?
Yes, I do mean against her skin instead of inside the diaper.

I use a natural fabric homemade doubler when doing this, and sometimes that's all we needed to make a small difference with leaking in certain diapers. (Any microfleece topped doubler would not make a difference - and is more intended to protect the skin. Sometimes a natural fiber will absorb faster, you'll also end up covering a small gap in the diaper doing this.).
 
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