Overnight Cloth Diapering

We are completely immersed in cloth diapering now, having done it for almost 6 months, and still loving it. But we are not 24/7 cloth diapering. Reed is in cloth diapers all the time except church nursery and nighttime. Only one disposable a day isn't bad, but 365 per year is quite a few when you think about it. Money wise it isn't that big of a deal, maybe $50-60 a year, but when you think about all those diapers going into a landfill, it got me thinking I could eliminate all that waste (literally, hah).

I will admit that I was a little scared to try cloth diapers overnight because Reed wakes up wet once a week already. I just knew I would have problems. But I know a lot of people do it so I jumped into research. The best information I got was looking at forums and seeing what other Mom's do. Just search 'best overnight cloth diaper' and look for the communities or forums.

If you are interested, here are some non-forum sites:
http://www.thinking-about-cloth-diapers.com/overnight-diapers.html
http://www.zephyrhillblog.com/2012/04/overnight-solutions-for-cloth-diapering/
http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/best-cloth-diapers-for-nighttime/

The last one is great because it talks about sleep positions and the best diaper for them.

There are so many people that have so many solutions, but the basics were:
1. wool
2. hemp

This lead to even more research. If you're just starting out, it is really easy to get lost in all the cloth diaper jargon. So check out this post with a cheat sheet of terms with links to actual products.

I wanted a solution that was going to work with what we already had. I didn't want to buy completely new diapers/accessories just for nighttime diapering. Plus I looked into the cost of wool covers and about had a heart attack. Yikes! So I decided to go with hemp. I ordered 4 hemp inserts at 2 for $10, so I spent $20 total on my nighttime solution. Much better than I was expecting.

Here's what I did:

Fuzzibunz diaper (the newest version, they are so much bigger and easier to stuff several inserts into) with two microfiber inserts and 1 hemp insert. (Fuzzibunz comes with 1 regular insert and 1 long insert. I used them both.)

I used the longer insert to fold over the shorter one (for my little front wetter) and put the hemp insert on the bottom. Hemp absorbs slower, so it is suggested that it go on bottom so it has more time to absorb.

That's one fat diaper!

It was seriously comical to see how huge this diaper was.
I went into this process knowing it was going to take a few trys to get it right, and honestly expected Reed to be wet when I went to get him in the morning. However, he was completely DRY! The diaper weighed about 5 pounds, but Reed was happy, and I was THRILLED! It had actually worked! Now that was just once, and if you paid attention in elementary school, you know that to get accurate data you need to repeat the experiment more than once. Here's to many more dry nights!

A few notes on hemp: You have to wash them at least 3 times before use (air drying them only) and they reach their peak performance after 8 total washes. A lot of prep work, but hemp just likes to be annoying special like that.

If you are looking into overnight cloth diapering, here are some suggestions:

1. Start small: I only ordered 4 new inserts to start with, but I can always use them during the day if they wouldn't work for overnight. Don't buy a bunch of new diapers right off the bat.
2. Patience: You need to find out what works for your LO (little one). Several factors will effect your outcome including boy/girl, sleeping position, and even if they can handle having a bulky diaper on their tush or not. Don't throw in the towel after a couple failures.
3. Do some research: There are so many ideas and ways to cloth diaper. Get familiar with the jargon and what has worked for others.
4. Get Hubby on board: After all, you may or may not be changing sheets/jammies at 3 in the morning. It's best everyone knows what you're getting into. Speaking of changing sheets, have you checked these out? GENIUS! We LOVE our zippered sheets. They are a little more expensive than traditional sheets, but boy are they a lot easier to change at 3 in the morning. Thanks Jen Modesette for the idea when I was pregnant with Reed.

Enjoy!

The Turners