Nighttime diapering
Many of our pocket parents are at wits end trying to find the balance between appropriate stuffing/leg gaps with their heavy wetters. And honestly, even without labeling the baby as a heavy wetter, 8+ hours is a long time in a diaper, so even the light wetters can easily flood a light nighttime solution.
Pockets can be tricky with nighttime, the trim fit welove during the day does not accomodate nighttime stuffing for most babies, and when we stuff it enough, the rise sinks down, the legs stand an inch away from their thighs, and you can count on at least one wet sheet change in the middle of the night.
If your pockets have been exhausted with options, consider the following solution of a pocket fitted and a cover. Now, don’t tune me out just yet, this isn’t a wool cover we are talking about, so if you are not on Team Wool yet, you can still do this.
My favorite pocket fitted is the Happy Hempy. It accomodates chunky thighs, but can still wrap around slender ones. The diaper itself is absorbent, so you have the sides and front able to hold urine. Then, you stuff it with whatever you have on hand/need to meet absorbency needs. My favorite insert for these, and the most economical, is a prefold trifolded width-wise (not lengthwise, so turn it 90 degrees), with some microfiber or hemp if you have it handy.
The whole thing gets wrapped in a cover.
I use both wool and PUL covers, you can easily use your PUL covers over these. Hempys run small, they also shrink over time, so buy bigger than what you think you need. Sebastian has his extra larges getting prepped today, and he is 18.5 pounds/almost 10 months old. I need to stuff the heck out of them though, and his larges were left over from my last daughter, so he is a little early on the XLarges. I use an extra large Bummis Super Brite cover over the XL’s, for the Larges I used large Thirsties covers, or Duo Wraps in size 2 all the way unsnapped. For his mediums we used a medium cover, and size 2 Thirsties duo wraps almost unsnapped. Wool is also great over these guys for a completely breatheable system.
Next week we have the One Size Hempy in snap or aplix closure coming in, which gives you small-large in one 3 step rise fitted. Great investment for nighttime and naptime. Now, Hempys will be bulkier, it isn’t trim, so either plan on sizing up on fotted pj’s, or toss on some babylegs with a longsleeve onesie or tee shirt for pajamas. Our Hempys all have the stay dry fleece inner to wick away wetness as well.
In summary, here is how I stuff/size wise:
Small Hempys for newborns=trifolded infant prefold with small covers, or one size covers on small or medium rise settings
Medium Hempys=trifolded infant prefolds OR trifolded regular prefold for the hevier wetters, with one medium joey bunz, medium size covers or one size covers with one rise setting to go
Large Hempys=Regular prefolds trifolded with joey bunz and/or microfiber insert, large Thirsties cover, Large Super Brite, Coverall all the way open, Duo Wrap all the way open.
Extra large Hempy=premium prefold trifolded, joey bunz and microfiber, extra large Bummis Super Brite or Extra Large Bummis Super Whisper Wrap.
Disana wool soakers are great at any point, we always have our wool info up here if you want to refresh:
https://thecloththatcounts.wordpress.com/category/wool/
The Wonders of Wool (part 3)
I wanted to touch on “felting” and shrinking of your wool. Now, we know from last time that we do not machine wash wool, unless your toddler’s Baby Alive doll is an especially heavy wetter and needs some backup, because that is about the size you will get.
I get the question “should I felt my new soaker?”. Felting refers to the process in which wool rubs on itself, the fibers “fuzz” and become denser, making the wool weave tighter and shrinking it down. Disana and most other wool soakers come a bit larger than their size range, because over time some felting will occur. Do I recommend it? Not really, it happens over time, and the soaker will work as it comes.
If you have the right amount of absorbency under it, wool in its natural state will work well. If you have a particularly heavy wetting situation and have lots of layers underneath (email me if you need help with this), what you can do to felt it, dampen the wool with warm water, and put it in low heat in the dryer for about 3 minutes. Let it finish air drying, and then see how it works. You can’t go back and undo this process, so if you overshrink, you are probably stuck with a small soaker. THe only thing you can try if you overshrink, immediately get a basin with warm water, and dump gobs of hair conditioner in it (doesn’t matter the brand, I have used cheap Suave before to do this), and soak the soaker in it. Then, very carefully stretch out the wool and let air dry. You may recover up to an inch of the soaker this way, but be careful when pulling on it to stretch it out.
Another popular question is ” can I just get a wool wash with lots of lanolin and skip that step?”. There are brands out there I have used and did not like that advertised this. The problem is, if the wool wash has enough lanolin to really do the job, it didn’t get my wool clean. It was so tacky the odors stayed put, so I do recommend a separate system for the two step process. Now, our brand we carry has some in it, for lighter wetters this will do the job, but it isn’t a full “dose” for a heavy wetter. Another option is a Lanolin Spray for touch ups in the crotch area in between washings, and this can be handy as well if you need it.
The Wonders of (Washing) Wool
More about the “how” and “seriously I have to handwash it?”
The second part of that sentence was a big reason I steered clear of wool for so long. I hate hand washing dishes for crying out loud, laundry was definately a no go for anything handwashed. I just don’t own or allow the kids to own anything that is delicate enough to need it~
Wool is really very easy to care for, I am going to outline my very easy, no fuss wool care washing system. I do ours maybe once a month, Lucy is a very light night wetter now, and her wool rarely gets wet, when she was a very heavy wetter, once a week I would do this routine.
-First, do all of your wool washing outside of your sink. You don’t want lanolin in your pipes, look at it in the cooled version, and imagine it sitting in your drain. Use a rubbermaid basin, an old pitcher with a wide opening, a metal baking tin, sometimes I used a cake pan, easy to wash and it wouldn’t absorb the wool care products.
-Fill your container with warm water, and about a tablespoon of liquid wool wash (We sell a fantastic brand, you can use Eucalan, in a pinch liquid dish soap will do, but on a regular basis this can really wear on the wool fibers). If you are using a bar, you will scrub the wool lightly all over after you wet it. Compress the soaker into the solution, and let sit for about a minute, swishing it with your hand to work the water/soap into the soaker.
-Have an old towel nearby, take the soaker out and lay it in the towel. Roll the towel up, and press on it, don’t wring it, but press it to compress the water out.
-Dump your first basin outside, and refill with new warm water
-Take a coffee mug, microwave it full of water for about a minute
-When you take it out, squirt about 2 pea sized drops of lanolin in it, we sell some great stuff by Face of the Wave, you can use lansinoh as well), and mix it up quickly with a fork or knife. This is really the only part that you have to move quickly, you have to dissolve the lanolin and use it fast, or it will reclump back up as it cools.
-Pour the coffee mug into the basin, and quickly press your soaker down into it. Gently swish it around in the basin, then let it sit a minute
-Repeat the towel trick, compress the water out, and hang to dry.
-Toss the basin water/lanolin outside, and allow the soaker to dry a day or two.
During the winter, I have mine in my laundry room so it doesn’t freeze, if you have a really large soaker, or longies, lay them flat to dry instead of hanging to preserve their shape. If you need a wool soaker overnight, get two so one can dry while you use the second.
This whole process takes maybe 5 minutes to do, and is really very easy to get the hang of. Truthfully as Lucy became a lighter wetter at night, I can’t remember the last time I lanolized, the small amount of lanolin in our Face of the Wave liquid wool wash is enough to have the soaker work. Wool is super absorbent on its own, so you can see if you really need to lanolize your wool if you have good absorbency underneath.
The Wonders of Wool
The organic and natural features speak for themselves, so this chat is about how wool works for your baby, and later we will get into super-easy ways to care for it ( I promise super easy because I do it, and as the laziest wash routine person on the planet, I can tell you it is easy!)
-Why wool? The first time I saw a Disana wool cover I literally laughed out loud. Why some sadistic mother would put a urine soaked dog sweater on their child’s sweaty bottom was beyond me. It looked huge, uncomfortable, and the idea of handwashing something made my stomach turn. (Never mind I was a big dummy and didn’t actually feel it to see it was really pretty darn soft).
Then I had my second daughter, little Camille, who as a petite and tiny baby had a bladder that could take on any racehorse at the track. Every nighttime and naptime solution I tried failed. The poor child would have a bottom that extended four feet off her rear and it still became saturated and would leak. In desperation I thought I would give this wool thing a try, and two children later I have not turned back.
Wool by nature is anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. The lanolin naturally present in fresh wool, and present when you relanolize it, works with the properties of the wool to self-clean it. When you use it and urine gets on it, if you flip it inside out and let it air out throughout the day, press it on your nose at night you will not smell one thing.
Wool is truly hugely absorbent in and of itself. An easy way to see this is when you wash it, compress it down into a basin of water, and that little soaker will suck up everything in the basin. You can also enhance its “waterproofing” abilities with lanolin, by coating the fabrics with a slick, waxy substance to really give it some oomph in working for a heavy wetter.
The neat thing about wool, while most customers use them over fitteds or prefolds, is it is 100% breatheable, and truly can be used over anything you want. No different than putting pajama pants over a diaper, I use my wool over PUL pockets stuffed with lots of absorbency, you will not be trapping heat, so for the heaviest of wetters you have a failproof solution.
Wool is great to a point, but you do have to have adequate absorbency underneath. A prefold for a 2 year old isn’t going to cut it, we need to double up, fold in some hemp, possibly some other inserts, then try the wool.
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