Help with Leaky Diapers and Sleeping Thru the Night!!!!!!

Updated on December 01, 2009
L.B. asks from Grain Valley, MO
15 answers

Hello mamas~ I need some advice. This is really two questions in one here so.....first of all- my 6 month old is now is a size 2-3 diaper made by Pampers. I love them and they are perfect because she was really outgrowing the size 2's and the 3's seem a little big. I have always used Luvs with both my girls with NO leaks whatsoever. Especially with ym 2 year old-she has always worn Luvs with no issues. But i guess my new little one just urinates a lot at night or something because no matter what brand diaper i put on her at night-she always wakes up with her entire back completely wet. This is aggravating to me because i do enough laundry as it is without washing her sheets everyday. I even tried to put a size 3 diaper on her at night. And even tried a size 4 diaper one night-but to my dismay-no matter what. She soaks thru and the night time diapers (which i have never tried) that Huggies makes only comes in bigger sizes.
Also- my 6 month old has had terrible acid reflux since birth- has been on Prevacid and the formula we use is Nutramigen as that seems to be all she can tolerate-although its getting better now that we are on table food. So up until now she has been sleeping in her bouncer in her crib at night because when she would lay flat on her back the acid would burn in her chest and throat. Obviously it is time for her to sleep on her mattress- so i elevated the head of the crib slightly- and she will sleep most the time until 2 or 3 in the morning. But then she will either roll over onto her tummy and get mad because she cant' quite get back onto her back while she is sleepy or she just seems to wake up for whatever reason. Sometimes i put a binky in and she goes right back to sleep-other times i have to feed her about half a bottle to get her to go back down. I am no stranger to crying it out-i did it with my 1st one and i know it works-problem is-now i have a 2 year old in the room next to her-that woke up the other night when i was letting her cry it out. Frustrated and tired!!!!!! Any advice? All i need is 2 babies up in the middle of the night- but i know that sometimes crying it out is the only thing that helps them start sleeping all night long. With my last one-it only took about two nights and she was sleeping thru the night but i just don't want her waking up my other one! Thanks guys! Any advice welcome!

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B.B.

answers from St. Louis on

As for the leaky diapers -- I tried using two diapers at a time - one right over the other, or a bigger size over the one that fits. That's worth a try. Once someone told me that she double-diapered, but cut a slit in the first one to allow it to leak into the second one. I never tried that but it seems like that's worth a try, too. My kids went through this too and eventually the diaper fit better and it subsided at some point. Also, would it wake her too much to change her before you go to bed, eventhough she's sleeping? Good luck.

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A.C.

answers from St. Louis on

There are inserts that you can buy at Babies R Us that make the diapers more absorbent. I have never used them, but I have heard that they work.

Sleeping through the night is a subject very dear to my heart right now!!!!!!!! My son is 8 months old. He started sleeping through the night pretty early, then about two or three months ago he got a cold, then he started teething, then he got another cold, more teething, etc. He was still going down to bed well, but waking up many times a night and crying the second I would try to lay him back down, and he wouldn't fall asleep on his own for naps at all. My sister sent me the book "The Sleep Easy Solution" last week, which basically is just letting them cry. I started it Friday night, and he was a different baby by Sunday, naps and all! My daughter is in the room right next to him. I have a CD player in her room, and play lullaby music on repeat so it goes all night. She did not wake up once during the process.

1 mom found this helpful
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K.G.

answers from St. Louis on

Diapers: My husband is awesome and found that Huggies makes size 3 overnight diapers. I haven't seen them by themselves yet, but they were part of a box of diapers that he bought. (One of those "buy 54, get 6 overnights free" kind of deals) We love them! Here is a link to see them on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Huggies-Overnites-Diapers-Step-Jumb....

Sleeping through the night: We had our second son when our first one was 22 months, and they had to learn to share a room. Here's how we did sleep training (it's a little strange): We put our youngest to sleep in a pack and play that had wheels. He went to sleep in their bedroom first, then the oldest went to sleep in their bedroom. When my husband and I went to sleep, we wheeled the youngest into the living room. He could cry it out there without disturbing the oldest. It took about 4 nights for him to learn to sleep through the night.

Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful
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J.K.

answers from St. Louis on

Hi L.!
I sure know what it's like to have a little one with acid reflux. My son had it really bad when he was a baby. I tried the sleeping in his bouncer, in a swing, tilting his mattress up. You know the only thing that ever really worked? When I just gave up fighting and let him sleep on his tummy. He always tried to sleep on his tummy and I'd roll him over. If I left him alone though, he would not spit up in the middle of the night. I comforted myself with breaking the back to sleep rule by thinking it's probably better for him with his acid reflux. If he were to spit up/puke in the middle of the night on his back he'd be more likely to choke on it. If he did on his tummy, it'd just land on his mattress. Sounds silly and I know it's bad to let them sleep on their tummies. It worked for us though and nothing ever happened to him. I DID check on him numerous times throughout the night though.

Leaky diapers? I had that problem too. The ONLY thing that ever worked--overnight diapers by Huggies. In the biggest size he could fit in. If they start to get too small, he leaks still. So if he is right at the lowest weight limit for that size, I put him in it.

Good luck!!

1 mom found this helpful

L.M.

answers from Kansas City on

Hi L.

Like you I had the same issue with my son, but he was a tummy sleeper (yes i know the warnings about SIDS, we were extremely careful with him - he is now a healthy 1 year old) and he hated being on his back think the feeling of falling kept him up.

If your daughter is turning onto her tummy, it wont be long before she can turn back onto her back - so have lots of tummy time and try to encourage her to roll over. That will make life so much easier for you both. But im sure you know all this as you done this all before;-)

Here are a few tips that helped me get my son to sleep better.

1. A proper mattress. One that is both supportive but comfy

2. A warm blankie (babies are most comfortable either wrapped up like a burrito or just with their fav soft (warm) blankie. Room temp probably around 70' - 74'F)

3. Have you considered a baby positioner to keep her from rolling onto her tummy?

4.Make sure she has fed enough before putting her to sleep - I had to put cereal in my son's bottle just so he does not wake again at 10pm for formula.

5. Pampers also make good nights diapers (for night time or traveling and has extra absorbency) and they are much better than the HUGGIES brand. I personally prefer Pampers to Huggies - yes we use luvs too for daycare. I am using Pampers Cruisers and they work just as well. They are specially formed to prevent leaks and they have flexible sides. they come in sizes 3 and 4.

My son also wakes up when he is wet so i try my best to keep him dry enough for sleeping. This was a big issue and it took me a long time to find the right diapers. The baby dry works too - supposed to keep baby dry for up to 12 hours. Try any of those three and see what works best for your baby. I change his diaper when i feed him at 3/4 in the morning this way i know he will not over-fill his diaper and ly there cold and wet. (it happened before and broke my heart)

Some babies sleep best when swaddled, others don't like to be constricted. Its all trial and error.

Most important i would say - make sure she ate enough, Night time diapers and a comfy mattress. If you dress her warmly and she does not use a blanket - that's fine too.

Good luck!

-L.

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D.M.

answers from Lawrence on

Hi L., Have you tried the reg. Huggies Diapers or the Target brand diapers? I think Huggies and the target brand are way more absorbant then any other diapers. The other thing that you could do is Gerber makes plastic pants that you can put over her diaper to help, so she doesn't leak through. I don't know what the smallest size is that they make but you could try those. My son peed a lot too and I used regular huggies and then when he got big enough I used the over nights and then we went to the night time pull ups after that. I hope this helps. When you put your daughter to bed do you feed her baby food and her bottle? I have a 5 month old ( almost 6 months.) that has reflux and I have a 3 1/2 year old who also had reflux really bad when he was little. I give my little guy some oatmeal and a bottle before he goes to bed and he never wakes up but if I don't give him the oatmeal he does. Also I was wondering could she be waking up cause she is teething? well, I hope this helps and I want to let you know that I know how hard it can be when you have a baby with reflux. God Bless you and your family!

1 mom found this helpful
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C.M.

answers from Springfield on

Have you tried cloth? Surprisingly enough, cloth diapers can be more absorbant than disposables, depending on which ones you use. I may be scaring you by saying "cloth", but cloth diapers have come a LONG way since we were kids. Check out www.kellyscloset.com. For nighttime, I would suggest a bumGenius one size diaper with two inserts. That's what I use for my baby and we've never had a leak. Disposables were leaking at night for her. I am new to cloth, so I used only disposables on my son and Huggies Nighttime seemed to work the best (and we tried EVERYTHING!). I wish I had known about the advances they've made in cloth diapers when HE was a baby!

1 mom found this helpful
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J.B.

answers from St. Louis on

Hi L.,
My daughter used to have some leaky diapers at night as well. Whenever I picked her up from day care one day, I noticed the worker had fastened the diaper much tighter around her waist than I usually did. (I just fastened the straps until they were snug, but she had them almots touching in the middle.) While I still don't put them on that tight, I started fastening them a little tighter around the waist at night and the leaking out the back lessened quite a bit. Also, now that she is eating more, we decrease her fluid intake a few hours before bed time. She gets a few ounces of milk before bed, but that's usually it. (She does go to sleep two hours after dinner, though.)

These were simple solutions for us, so maybe they'll help you too. :)

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K.K.

answers from St. Louis on

ok so i am going to tell you what i do with my son for night time with the diapers. I use the Huggies overnight diapers and they were working great, but once he started getting older, i noticed he was leaking more. so i went up a size and i tried something that might be a little odd to some people but it works wonders. i take a generic poise pad (i use the ones from Walmart and it is the Options brand) it is the moderate level one, and i just put that at the top of the diaper to soak up any liquid that the diaper can not hold. i have been doing this for almost a year and some months now and i have only had like maybe 3 or 4 max leaks, and that was just because he had a LOT of fluid that day. If you have any further questions feel free to ask about it.
Now with the acid reflux, my son was on the same thing, prevacid with the formula (Neutramigen (i know the spelling is wrong). I understand what that is like, but my son has not taken the prevacid in about a year or a little more, so there might be hope for you in the near future. with the whole sleeping thing, im a single mom living with my parents, so im sharing a room with my son and have since he was born. We went through a battle for a long time over him sleeping in his bed rather than mine (he would just climb over his crib into my bed, my bed was right up against his) so we eventually went to the sleep clinic at St. Lukes because he was still taking bottles in the middle of the night at 1 year and i was in school so i needed as much sleep as i could, so anyway, there was a three step process that we followed and it worked pretty well. if you would like to know about it let me know, i can scan my papers and email them to you. hope things get better for ya~ K.

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S.B.

answers from St. Louis on

Babies R Us carries Diaper Doublers that we have used for both my girls overnight. The youngest especially is a very heavy overnight wetter. They work really well, just sit inside the regular diaper.

My 2 (27 months apart) share a room, and rarely wake each other up, so I'm not much help on the sleeping, sorry. And neither had reflux.

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C.D.

answers from St. Louis on

Hi L.

Please don't use cry it out with your refluxy baby. At least until you know that it's not reflux that's waking her up. And how would you know that? My daughter had bad reflux as a baby (silent reflux though...didn't spit up much, swallowed it instead so it burns both up and down). Hers was due to allergies to milk and corn and whatever else. No medicine helped...only diet changes for me (I was nursing) but her sleep was still terrible because we hadn't figured out how sensitive she was to corn derivatives, which are in everything. Doctors told me reflux and allergies are two different things, but I knew what happened when we had the wrong foods, and now there's a study out that shows that reflux can be caused by an immune response rather than by too much acid, so medicines to lessen acid wouldn't help (if doctors would listen to moms they would learn A LOT). Anyway, if she's having trouble with formulas, likely she has allergies to milk and maybe soy and who knows. I know that there is virtually no formula that's ok for corn allergies, so it's a good thing I was able to nurse. My daughter didn't sleep through the night consistently until we eliminated enriched rice milk and juice("enriched" with vitamins means corn). She's three now and her moods and sleep are still very affected by food. We started letting her come to our bed when she had trouble sleeping too, and that helped a lot.

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C.P.

answers from Chicago on

We had the same leaking problem and the Huggies overnights have worked great. We have been using them for several months and not one leak. They can be harder to find, but they do come in smaller packs (maybe 20).
Good luck!

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K.C.

answers from Wichita on

Huggies overnight diapers worked very well for us. Try them even if they are too big.
I never had to deal with reflux, but I have seen products online that drape over the top of the mattress & come down to a diaper like device that holds baby on his/her back, tummy or side. Here is a website with many of these products:
http://www.pollywogbaby.com/refluxandcolic/acid-reflux-in...

God bless!

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T.C.

answers from Kansas City on

About the diapers. Pampers swaddler are my absolute favorite diapers. My little girl cannot wear them at night because she soaks right threw them up the back and her whole sheet around her is soaked. I have found that the huggies diapers are the best for nighttime. I use size 2 for my little girl because also like yours, she's not ready for the 3's yet. I don't know if you have tried the huggies yet, if not hope it helps. Now about the acid reflex. my little girl has spit up since the day she was born. I have tried sitting her up and everything. Until a couple days ago (the doctor thinks she has an allergy to it) we have used the rice cereal. The doctor told us it would thicken up the formula in her stonach and make her not spit up so much. Like before, don't know if you have tried it. Good lluck! and hope you figure it out! :)

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T.M.

answers from St. Louis on

Pampers has a nighttime brand called 'Extra Protection' - they come in size 3 and my daughter wears them every night (usually) with no leaks. I can only find that size at Target.

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