Cloth Diapers - Staying Dry

We've been using cloth diapers for about 3 months now.  I'm no expert by any means.  But I have already learned quite a lot about keeping a baby dry.  Abram is a very heavy wetter...probably because he eats so much :P  When we first started putting him in cloth diapers it felt like he was wet a lot.  And he had leaks/wet clothes all the time.  The worst part was night time.  Every single time he woke up in the night he was soaked...jammies, sleep sack, bedding.  It was getting very tiring cleaning everything multiple times a night.  And I was wondering if cloth diapers were going to work for him at night.  I did some research and talked to the owners of our local store that sells cloth diapers to try to find a solution.

There are basically two things to consider when trying to keep a baby dry - absorbency and fit.  I'll start with absorbency.  There are various inserts you can use for pocket cloth diapers.  We use Bum Genius and Fuzzibunz.  So I'll be talking about those.  They come with microfiber inserts.  In general these are nice...they absorb decently and aren't too bulky.  The diapers come with a newborn/doubler insert and a regular insert.  But even as a newborn with both inserts Abram was wet at night.  I then turned to hemp inserts.  Hemp is quite thin, but much more absorbent than microfiber.  So I bought some Fuzzibunz hemp inserts.  We used those with a microfiber insert.  We started having more dry periods.  But still some leaks.  And they were fairly bulky.  Especially for a newborn.  I then tried a new brand of hemp inserts (Hemp Babies).  The insert is much thinner/smaller than the Fuzzibunz insert.  And with this hemp insert I used a regular old pre-fold cloth diaper around it instead of the microfiber insert.  This seems to work very well!  It's pretty amazing how much the good old cloth diapers can hold.  So at the moment this is what we are using.  A Bum Genius diaper stuffed with a Hemp Babies hemp insert inside a pre-fold cloth diaper.  It is very rare that we have leaks at night these days.  We have also found that the Bum Genius All-In-One diapers work quite well at night.  And they are as easy at it gets!  So we usually start the night with the hemp insert diaper (longest stretch of the night).  Then I change him into an all-in-one when he gets up.  And that lasts the night.

Obviously leaks don't just happen at night.  We do have leaks during the day sometimes.  What we've found to be our biggest problem during the day...Fuzzibunz diapers.  Apparently they just don't work for Abram.  At least not with the microfiber inserts.  When we use Fuzzibunz he's often wet/leaking in a matter of minutes.  Even with both inserts.  It's hard to tell if this is an absorbency issue or not.  I have tried using a prefold cloth diaper in the Fuzzibunz.  And so far he hasn't leaked with that.  So it must be at least partially absorbency related.  It is very rare that we have leaks during the day with the Bum Genius.

This brings me to the fit issue.  In order to stay dry the diaper has to fit properly.  We use one size diapers.  So there are many ways to adjust them to fit your child.  We seem to have found a good fit with the Bum Genius for now.  They keep him dry.  They seem comfortable on him.  The Fuzzibunz...not so much.  I am constantly adjusting the elastic and snaps to see if it will make a difference but he always leaks.  And they make his legs and belly red/leave marks.  The elastic seems so tight.  I love how soft and cute the Fuzzibunz diapers are, but they just don't seem to work for Abram.  I did read a long time ago when I was first researching diapers that Bum Genius was better for chubby babies and Fuzzibunz was better for thinner babies.  I guess it's true.  And the main reason I didn't buy many Fuzzibunz start.  Thank goodness!  For now we have stopped using the Fuzzibunz.  I might use them once in a while with a prefold insert if I'm running out of clean diapers.  And I'll try them again when he gets a little older/thins out a little.  But right now we are just using Bum Genius.  Unfortunately this means we are down 6 diapers again...and may have to do laundry more often again.  So I may have to buy a few more we'll see.  We don't use as many at night as we were before, so that helps.

So when trying to avoid leaks, be sure the diaper is absorbing properly (is the insert saturated if a leak happens) and fits properly (snug, but not making baby's legs red).  Hemp works well for overnight and heavy wetting.  I've heard bamboo is good as well.  Prefolds and even the regular cloth diapers work well as inserts in pocket diapers.  At some point I might try making my own inserts.  But for now this is what works for us.