Cloth diapering a newborn at night is challenging. Cloth diapering a newborn is also challenging.
The challenge about cloth diapering a newborn at night is newborns are tiny and newborns pee a lot. Once you get over the initial “poop all the time” phase, parents begin to wonder how can we get one diaper to go all thru the night (8-12 hours). Meeting that kind of absorbency when your child is on a liquid diet is hard, and for most parents it’s very flustering.
I’ve mentioned before that my most recent addition is an easygoing baby. She’s so easy. She requires like a 1/4 of the energy my first did. Best part – SHE SLEEPS THRU THE NIGHT! And I mean the more conservative 5 hour stretches, with wakings after that, but still. My Toddler *still* struggles to go 4 hours without waking up.
Being exclusively breastfed, and sleeping so very long, nighttime cloth diapering her little 8-12 pound body was a struggle. She’s tiny and almost anything with enough absorbency to go 10 hours (I’m thinking 16-20 oz of absorbency) is MASSIVE on her and makes her look uncomfortable. It just made her look uncomfortable. The few times I did use a nighttime diaper at nigh she still slept great despite the bulk. One diaper I tried often with success was a Bummi’s AIO boosted with a booster of any sort (whatever I found in my drawer)
My Night Time Diaper Strategy
Guys, you ready for?
I use disposable diapers at night.
I said it. I admitted it.
Disposable diapers at night is just so freaking easy.
No Shame: Disposable Diapers for Nights
Here’s why I have zero shame about using disposable diapers for nights with Little Miss.
- It’s not all or nothing. Cloth diapering is making it work for you and your family. If that means only at home, only at night, only during the day, then awesome and you rock that.
- It’s just easy. It’s not playing the absorbency game every night trying to get a diaper that fits, doesn’t leak and lets her lay flat on her back.
- 2 Under 2. I have 2 kids in diapers, and 2 kids under 2. This means my life is already a shit show, and if I cut myself the slack and take the easy way out with a disposable diaper every now and then I will.
- One diaper a night does have an environmental impact on the earth, but I’m not perfect, and I keep trying. I know I’m doing other things to make a difference, and I just refuse to feel guilt or shame for my one crutch.
Nighttime Diapering Today
Little Miss is now almost four months and she’s surpassed 15 pounds. This means bulkier, more absorbent cloth diapers are beginning to fit her better. I’ve stopped using disposable diapers at night because she’s sized out the size 2 disposable I did have. Honestly, I’m too cheap to go buy a package of size 3 disposable diapers. Therefore, I’m figuring out a night time solution.
For the post part she usually uses a padded up flat – I finally like my GeffenBaby Fladdle and I boost with another insert. I also use a larger Geffen Flat at night (Check it out at my affiliate links LagoonBaby or Kellys Closet). Sometimes a Sweet Pea Fitted. Really, just whatever I think can get me 15oz of absorbency.
The Flats and Handwashing challenge also kicked my butt in getting me off disposables at night and back into cloth. It forced me to solve this problem we were having and try new things and I’m grateful for that experience.
Moral of this Story
Don’t ever feel guilty for a crutch. Do what you need to do to survive and thrive in your journey of parenthood.
If you cloth diapered a newborn at night, I’d love to hear what worked for you. If you didn’t, how do you shake the mom guilt?
Grover ONE. Thats my current night time diaper for my girl. she is 6 months 15lbs. Its bulky but i don’t mind it especially at the night. it takes us through 10 hours after which i have had leaks. she just eats a lot at night.
i meant GroVia ONE. damn autocorrect!
Oh I agree with you. We used cloth nappies with both of our children during the day (purely to save money and not necessarily the environment) but at night it was disposables. So much easier to change in the middle of the night. Both of my children were very heavy wetters over night and we just could not find the best insert solution for the MCNs!
I only have cloth diapered one newborn and he was 9lb 9oz at birth! But i used the grovia ONE with both inserts starting at 10.5 lbs. Yes it looked bulky but it didnt bother him. Then at 6 months i switched to a pocket stuffed with a bamboo flat and now at 10 months i add a geffen flat with the bamboo (not the fladdle or prefold). It surprisingly isn’t too big.
I just put a bath towel under the fitted sheet (the mattress was protected well) where my infant daughter slept during the day, this way if she did pee it wasn’t right up against the skin. I simply washed her off with warm water and no soap and patted her dry so that regular washing would not dry out her skin, wrapped her in a towel to prevent more messes and changed the sheets and put her back down. As she grew older when we were home I kept her naked in the summer and just pants and shirt on in the winter. Daycare required disposable diapers so we used them, but I only had about 12 prefold diapers which used when out running errands or social activities and I supplemented with T-shirts at night for when we were at home. We mostly practiced elimination communication and she potty trained herself at 9 months, we kept the potty chair in the hallway to make it accessible and the bathroom door shut to prevent toilet play. and checked it at regular intervals. I would have preferred fitted diapers but poverty got in the way, This method saved us money and kept her skin rash free. Moral of the story is just do what you can and don’t feel guilty over raising a healthy kid just because you were poor when she was little.
Thanks so much for sharing! I’m a first time mom and nervous about making cloth diapers work…it’s good to know that I can be gracious to myself and even if I cloth diaper most of the time I’m still doing good!