I have not had a small baby in years, but lately I have seen a question floating around in a couple of my online mom groups:
How to prevent my baby's diaper from leaking overnight?
This is something I actually went through with my son so I realized it is a common problem and thought I would share my tips.
I never had a problem with either of my girls, but from about 3 months till some point (I don't actually remember when but it was months) my son would leak out of his overnight diaper every single night.
There are many reasons this is a pain to deal with, from ruining clothes and bedding, to diaper rash, to discomfort causing your baby to wake. Dealing with a leaking diaper is never fun.
I tried a few things first before I stumbled on my solution. Now if you cloth diaper this may be completely different. In my case, I was dealing with disposable diapers.
The first steps I tried to prevent my baby's diaper from leaking overnight:
I tried changing him overnight at some point before I went to bed. If your baby is sleeping through the night or good long stretches all moms know, we DO NOT WANT TO WAKE that sleeping baby. For this reason changing in the middle of their sleep cycle overnight can be tricky.
But I didn't want the leaking so I tried it but even with a nighttime change he would still wake up wet!
I tried sizing the diaper up one size. This alone did not work either. Still waking up wet.
I tried making sure his boy parts were pointing down. I heard this can help, because pointing up leads to leaking out of the diaper. This still did not do anything to prevent the leaking.
I tried various diaper brands and ones marketed for overnight. These alone did not prevent the leaking.
At last after a lot of trial and error, I found a solution to prevent leaking overnight diapers using a combination of items:
- Sizing the diaper up one size. So if your baby is a size 3 diaper try a size 4 diaper for overnight.
- Using an overnight diaper. My choice was Huggies Overnight but there are probably other ones available.
- Using a diaper booster pad in the diaper overnight.
The diaper booster pad was the main solution for me.
Once I added this to my son's overnight diaper we no longer had leaks all over his clothes and bedding each night.
At the time I discovered this solution there were not specific pads made for diapers. I see now there are a couple of items on the market for this problem specifically and made for diapers.
I used these which at the time were advertised for adult diapers. I bought the smallest size I could find and they worked great. I believe they do now have a size specifically for diapers:
I see now there is another highly recommended product called:
Whichever product you end up using I believe the key to preventing a diaper from leaking overnight is fortifying it with one of these diaper booster pads.
Of course this is not a problem for all babies. Two of my children never leaked, but for some reason my son was a huge leaker even when I changed him the in the middle of the night.
Once I discovered this solution we all slept better and I didn't need to worry about wet clothes, bedding, and diaper rashes anymore.
Having the peace of mind knowing he would stay dry and comfortable, and we could all get some sleep was priceless.
I hope this helps you and please do let me know if you have any questions about those leaking overnight diapers!