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Cloth Diapering For Nights
Many moms start cloth diapering enthusiastically but prefer it only during the day. Night time Cloth Diapering looks like a big battle to most of them or is it a mental block if I may say! The thought of having a leaky diaper, crying baby, wet bed or having to change at 2 past midnight is not quite pleasant for an already exhausted mom, and disposable diapers look like the best things for nights, but if they aren’t good for the day, they aren’t either good for the night! Night time CDing is doable with a little experimentation and is pretty easy once you know what works for you.
If you are new to cloth diapering do check out this related post that I wrote sometime back.
I started using cloth diapers when my son was 2.5 months old, soon after full days of CDing and having built enough stash, I started to cloth diaper him during the nights as well.
Warning- This post does not guarantee a leak-proof night time diapering solution; because honestly, I haven’t found any. It is to help you understand the various options that you could choose from and also to let you know that it’s okay to have a few leaky nights, you and your child are on a much bigger mission, that of saving the environment from disposable diapers!!
During the first few weeks the pocket diapers worked well for us, they used to be heavy and dripping by the dawn though, but they sufficed.
My son has been a heavy wetter (drinks a lot of water and nurses through the night, even now at 27months) and there are more than occasional leaks, but that hasn’t deterred me from using Cloth diapers at night.
Cloth diapering is about experimenting, learning through trials and errors; from your experiences and mistakes and those of other moms.
Just when you start the night-time diapering see how long your regular diaper lasts during the day; add an additional layer or 2 of insert ( I started by adding an additional insert in our regular pocket diaper). See if it works fine for you. It should work if the diaper fit is perfect and if your baby is light to medium wetter.
If this isn’t good enough for you, try adding a hemp or bamboo insert. Hemp and bamboo are known for high absorbency. Keep changing the combination of inserts to see what works best for your baby.
While using a pocket diaper adding too many inserts can make it bulky and also can hamper the fit. See that the diaper fit is intact from the legs and that the baby isn’t uncomfortable in the diaper.
Here are a few other things that you can try apart from adding extra inserts to your pocket diapers.
• Try an AIO (all in one) or AI2( all in 2), if these too are being outpeed, try adding an insert to these as well. I happened to try an AiO by Bumberry and I must tell you that it works perfectly well during the day for my son (a heavy wetter) and with an extra insert for the nights. They are soon going to launch the AIOs for sale on all their platforms.
• A fitted diaper with a cover: Not many brands offer fitted diapers, a fitted diaper is made up of hemp, cotton or bamboo fabric which is gentle on baby skin. These diapers are highly absorbent all over and hence are good for tummy/side sleepers. Since these diapers don’t have a PUL cover it is advisable to use a diaper cover with these for nights. Also being natural fabric, these fitted diapers don’t have a stay dry layer, for nights it is advised that you top it up with a fleece liner. I haven’t tried a fitted diaper, so I won’t be talking much about it.
• For tummy sleepers another option is to use a muslin or other soft fabric around the waist. My son sleeps on tummy and on sides, to avoid the leaks from the waist I started putting an insert horizontally across the tummy (right where we tuck the snaps). I waited for him to show signs of discomfort but was fine and slept well without any leaks! So, an extra insert sideways works for us.
Few more points to ease your night time CDing-
• See that the baby pees right before you set him/her for the night diaper change.
• Change the diaper only around the bed time.
• Keep a set of diaper handy by the bedside (if you co-sleep) or by the baby cot, to change if there is any leak.
At the end, do not worry about occasional leaks, keep experimenting with your fluff and you will have it right soon!
This blog post is a part of ‘Conscious Diapering and Sustainable Living’. A blog train sponsored by Bumberry hosted by Genevieve of Life.of.gen & Me. Here 18 Supermoms have joined hands to share their perspective on cloth diapering and living an eco-friendly sustainable lifestyle.
I thank Preeti, the founder of DelhiBlogger for introducing me. The next station of this blogtrain is thehappymummablog, blog my Priyanka, who writes about her motherhood journey. Priyanka is a passionate babywearer and a clothdiapering mom.
Hop on to our blog-train for it needs no tickets; spread this love for clothdiapering by sharing this post and others in the series!
Happy Cloth Diapering!
What’s in my diaper bag??
My first introduction to The Diaper Bag, “new mom’s most useful companion when out” happened when I was 39 weeks pregnant preparing to pop. That’s when I ordered a “Pink” coloured diaper bag (please don’t ask me why), it was a disappointment and I barely used it.
Back then my only criteria was a pretty looking, spacious bag with many pockets and separators.
However, the bag that I use now is a back pack that we recieved with our duty-free perfume shopping. It is a lovely silver/grey coloured bag, with one pocket inside and one on the outside.
I have a thin body frame with narrow shoulders, carrying handbags is never too comfortable for me. Also with a baby I prefer my hands to be as free as possible. So, babywearing and a backpack make going out super smooth for me.
Below is the list of items that you will always find in my diaper bag.
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back to basics, cloth diapers, eco-friendly, natural parenting, new mothers, prepping, stripping, sustainability, washing the cloth diapers
Prepping, Washing, Storing and Stripping the Cloth Diapers
You have landed on this page, probably because you are keen on starting to cloth diaper your baby or you are already doing it and want to know, how others deal with cloth diapers’ nitty-gritties.
We begin with prepping the diapers.
Your fluff mail has arrived and you can’t wait to see the little bums dressed bright and beautiful; but heyy, hold on; you’ve got to wait! It is important to prepare the diapers for use, mainly for two reasons:
a. Hygiene: Just like you wash any other piece of cloth before putting it on to your baby’s sensitive skin, these diapers too need to be pre-washed.
b. Absorbency: The natural fibres (cotton and hemp) have residual oil that restricts the absorbency, hence you need multiple washes before you can use them
Now, the question is how do you prep the diapers? Mostly you will find the prepping and washing instructions mentioned on the packaging that the diapers come in.
However, the simplest way to prep is giving a wash in detergent and then run a few (2-3) more wash cycles in regular (without detergent) water. This will get rid of the residual oils and any detergent from your first wash. The synthetic fibres like polyester and microfibres can be just washed with detergent and given a second run in regular detergent-free cycle.
Washing the diapers
The solids are to be knocked off before putting the diapers for wash. For pocket diapers, what I follow is just knock off the solids, good if it falls off easily, if it doesn’t then I gently take the insert out and use hand-faucet to get rid of the remaining sticky poop. This helps in avoiding the inserts from staining. Once the solids are taken off, I just wash the diaper with regular water and put it in the diaper pail.
Initially, I hand washed all the baby clothes, but I have found machine wash better than hand washing. I use regular detergent (Tide/surf excel/Ariel) and they seem to do pretty good job for me. You could also give a try to the eco-friendly detergents that are available in the market. Conditioners and fabric softeners are a big No-No for CDs, as they tend to leave a non-absorbent coat on the fabric, which may affect the absorbency of the diaper.
Initially, I hand washed all the baby clothes, but I have found machine wash better than hand washing. I use regular detergent (Tide/surf excel/Ariel) and they seem to do pretty good job for me. You could also give a try to the eco-friendly detergents that are available in the market. Conditioners and fabric softeners are a big No-No for CDs, as they tend to leave a non-absorbent coat on the fabric, which may affect the absorbency of the diaper.
After machine/hand wash it is always better to sun-dry the diapers, the ultra-violets rays from the sun helps killing the bacteria. Sun drying also helps in lightening the stains; you know how a piece of colourful cloth or plastic lightens in colour once left in the sun for too long? Similarly, the CD stains too get light or vanish post sun-drying.
Folding and keeping the diapers
For some time initially, I would just keep the inserts and diapers separately; but I realised that stuffing the cover/pocket diapers and then storing saves much time and is extremely convenient during diaper changing sessions.
How I fold the diapers:-
Step one: Stuff the diaper with the insert
Step Two: Lay the diaper flat, wrong side up
Step Three: Fold the front part towards inside, and keep rolling until it becomes compact like the picture below (in step 4).
Step Four: Button it up tight.
I stack my stash in a drawer Konmari style.
Stripping the Cloth Diapers
If you have just started Cloth diapering, then you need not have to worry about stripping for many months to come, until your diapers start stinking awfully bad like ammonia. The diapers start stinking mostly because of the detergent build-up or if they aren’t being cleaned properly. Initially I was handwashing our diapers and in few months, they started smelling bad; I had to strip them and now I have switched to washing machine completely.
Stripping is mainly getting rid of the detergent build up. Please read the warranty (if any) of your diapers, because sometimes the warranty may get void if you strip the diaper.
How I stripped our diapers; well, I soaked them (clean diapers) in hot water for more than 30 minutes (we don’t have any hot water connection to our washing machine) and then ran 2 wash cycles (without detergent). I found bubbles in the water, which is an indication of detergent build up. I then line-dried them, n they haven’t smelled that bad again.
Sometimes you may have to add bleach if simple hot water stripping doesn’t work. Adding ½ cup of bleach to the first wash cycle and then run 2-3 wash cycles and an extra rinse cycle will help you get rid of any bleach residue.
To avoid diapers from smelling bad it is advisable to rinse right after use and store them in an airy container or pail. Wash them thoroughly and use warm water cycles and an extra rinse cycle. Washing them everyday or alternate day helps tremendously.
Other things that have been great aids in my CDing journey so far are:-
1. A Diaper Pail
Other things that have been great aids in my CDing journey so far are:-
1. A Diaper Pail
2. Eco-friendly CD liners
3. Wet Bag
That’s it from me.
This was my experience of cleaning/storing/washing and stripping the diapers. If you have more to add, please share it here with me.
Happy Diapering!
AI2, AIO, bumberry, bumgenius, cloth, cloth diapers, cute diapers, diapers, eco-friendly, infant, new born, new mothers, pampers, pocket diapers, smartbottoms, superbottoms, sustainability, sustainable
The Poo-Pee keeper (An introduction to cloth diapering)
My initial days of motherhood were only spent on feeding and changing nappies/diapers,burping the baby A and when i say “only” i do mean only. I felt like an overtired cow who frequently got showered at with baby’s pee ( luckily baby A didn’t poop that often).
It was this that asked me to look for more options other than traditional langots and modern disposable diapers which may leave your baby with rashes, earth more polluted and you with a hole in your pocket. I googled for more options in nappies, but didn’t find much help, tried using cloth liners etc. But to no avail, only until i bumped on a post about cloth diapers and then there was no looking back. I discovered this wonderful world of cloth diapering and was amazed to see so many new age mommies addicted to the colourful lot of fluffs. But why would you really want to make diapering so complex, when there are so many good brands of modern disposable diapers available to keep your baby dry and happy?
Well the pros of cloth-diapering outnumber the cons giving you reasons enough to switch to CDs.
#1. Cloth diapers are economical:- initially it may look like an expensive choice but in longer run it will prove to be an investment which certainly is cheaper than disposable diapers.
#2. They make this earth a cleaner place by not adding to sanitary waste. How disposable diapers add up to the pollution is non-debatable; and this should be a good enough reason for environment conscious parents to switch to CDs.
#3. Skin friendly; since its just the cloth it is safer and better for your baby’s skin.
#4. They serve more than one purpose; yes, you read it right! the cloth diapers (covers) can be used as swimming diapers; these diapers save you from buying bloomers/underwears that you would otherwise buy to cover disposable diapers.
#5. They are bright, beautiful & colourful making you want for more as your little one’s bum get smarter/cooler and cuter. ( well that’s why perhaps some brands are SMARTBOTTOMS,BUMGENIUS etc)
As a new mom who learnt through trial and error I will just give my two cents to help others with smoother diapering experience. In the beginning it may look like a mammoth of a task to choose from the whole range of diapers ( they come at a price and you must think before plunging in). Before spending a fortune, it is best to try out different options to check what works best for you and your baby. Some common kinds of cloth diapers are:
1. Prefolds: the traditional grandma’s diapering choice. These are rectangular shaped diapers that are folded lengthwise in three sections and secured with snappy/ velcro or safety pin. I have personally never used flats or prefolds, but there are moms who swear by their goodness. Firstly they are real cheap, you can customise them to your baby’s shape and need and they need much less care.
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| prefolds image source: osocozy website |
2. Covers: These are PUL covers that restrict the leak. One needs to put an insert in the cover. Few of my first CDs were covers. They are good because you don’t have to keep changing the whole diaper; esp. in places that see heavy monsoon as these reduce the laundry pile, because you can just change the insert if the cover is intact and poop-free.
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| Covers |
3. Pocket diapers .Pocket diapers are my first diapers and half of my stash consists of pocket diapers. These mainly consist of a water proof outer layer, another stay dry layer, and a pocket opening where inserts/soakers are put. Most of these pocket diapers are lined in either fleece or suede cloth to have the baby feel dry because the urine is absorbed by the insert that is inside the pocket.
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| Pocket Diaper |
4. AIO- This stands for “All in one” these are diapers with attached/sewn soaker and these leave you free of the hassle of fixing the inserts. Though convenient to change, AIOs can be slightly expensive as compared to other CDs.
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| All In One |
5. AI2- these are all in two diapers with a main soaker and a mini soaker. these could be just used as covers or with your choice and no. of soakers. Most of them have pockets as well, so the soakers can either be inserted or snapped on; the shell can be reused if the inserts are snapped in. These are extremely easy to use and cost effective.
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| All in 2 |
My stash has a combination of all the above types except pre-folds and these are Indian, Singaporean and American Brands (thanks to Baby A’s Aunt and daddy’s job that requires him to travel all across the globe) I have been using these diapers depending upon hours I need to diaper my baby (I give a lot of diaper free time) and some I prefer for outdoors while others for the night diapering. I came to make these decisions after a lot of trial and I am still learning.
Hope you found it helpful for your cloth-diapering journey; more about prepping, cleaning, maintaining and folding the cloth diapers Here.
Happy diapering 🙂
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