Leaking Diapers Every Morning

Updated on October 20, 2010
S.R. asks from Cincinnati, OH
22 answers

My baby boy is almost 17 months. Every morning before I get to his crib he has already pooped. About 75% of the time (which to me feels like all of the time), it has leaked out and is all over the inside of his pajamas. I don't know what to do. Not only is it a huge time-suck in the morning, but I can't do laundry every day and I can't buy 7 pairs of PJs. Did anyone else have this problem? What did you do about it?

A little background: he's about 25 lbs, just moved into size 4. We've used both Huggies and Kirkland for overnight. We use Kirkland during the day without incident. There's just so much first thing in the morning!
He sleeps through the night, and I am totally opposed to waking children in the middle of the night for diapering.
We didn't have this problem with my older son (no longer in diapers). He wore cloth during the day and Huggies at night.

Please, I would love any suggestions you might have about how to contain this. Thanks!

P.S. I don't really need any suggestions of what doesn't work. Thanks again.

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So What Happened?

Thanks, everyone, for all the suggestions. We still have the plastic diaper covers we used to use with cloth diapers so we've started putting one of those over his disposable before bed. We have at least 7 of them, so if it gets all over the inside of that I am fine with putting it in the laundry. At least it won't be the PJs, changing table cover, etc all the time!
Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Featured Answers

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S.H.

answers from St. Louis on

try every brand on the market.....& what about trying plastic pants normally used when potty training? Or you could try double-diapering him! Good Luck!

1 mom found this helpful

B.C.

answers from Dallas on

At one point, my DD was leaking out of the overnights too. I put a pair of gerber training pants over her diaper. It worked pretty well!

1 mom found this helpful

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J.K.

answers from Phoenix on

I use Pampers. I used to have trouble with leaks all the time until my children became allergic to everything except Pampers. And I found that my leak problem diminished a lot after I made the switch. Good luck!!

1 mom found this helpful

K.M.

answers from Chicago on

If it is the poop then you may want to remove ONE serving of fruit and a bit of the milk from the diet to see if the poop becomes easier to manage, for pee we did go one size up and that did help, also Huggies has an Overnight Specific diaper you may want to try for the pee issue if that is an issue at all.

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M.F.

answers from Phoenix on

I can only imagine how super-frustrating that is. My daughter was waking up wet in the mornings, right before we switched her Pamper's from size 3 to 4. We started using the Pamper's Extra Protection (their version of overnight diapers) and it solved the problem. I know Huggies makes an overnight diaper that might contain the mess better because they hold more. Some people also have success using diapers one size bigger than usual at night. Personally, I haven't found that to be such a great solution because a too-big diaper can lead to leaks in itself. Good luck!

A.F.

answers from Chicago on

Put a pair of plastic pants over the diaper...they are bigger (have more room) and can be pulled higher on the waste and are tighter around the leg holes. We have some Gerber ones. We have a similar problem with our 23 mo old son with pee (not poop thank the Lord) and we put a pullup overtop a diaper and it gets the extra pee at the top and legs but I am not sure that will do it for the poop. Good luck!

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K.O.

answers from Columbus on

We use a size larger at night with an insert you can get cheap at Toys/Babies R Us. For a pack of 30, it is about $4. Her leaks almost completely stopped. Hope this helps and good luck.

A.C.

answers from Cincinnati on

I would go up one size. Even though you just moved into a 4 he may be ready for a 5. That's where I would start. :) Good luck!

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D.H.

answers from Canton on

My daughter used to wake up wet, so we used Walmarts brand of diapers for night. She never leaked with those. We looked online and found a lot of parents who used the walmart brand for that reason. If that doesn't work, I'd try an overnight diaper or a larger one. Good luck.

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

Is the leak, loose stools? Perhaps feeding him foods to bulk up his feces would help.

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T.P.

answers from Cleveland on

It sounds like his stools r pretty loose? We had a similar issue with one of my boys & it turned out he was lactose intolerant - we found that lactaid milk helped him the most, as well as limiting all other dairy products. There r otc pills he can chew that help as well.

Good luck!
~T.

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B.O.

answers from Chicago on

Pampers also worked the best for us. When my son was almost 2, he went through period of a few months where he leaked a lot at night. I tried a variety of brands for my son and regular Pampers worked the best overnight. Although the Pampers worked the best, he did sometimes still leak if he had too much to drink close to bedtime. So, the winning combination for us was decreasing the amount he drank after dinner and using Pampers. Good luck!

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K.C.

answers from Evansville on

you can also try Pampers... they fit differently than Huggies.

G.T.

answers from Bakersfield on

He's probably pooping first thing in the am when he wakes up and the already peed diaper has no absorbancy left in it. Can you catch him earlier so he doesnt lay in bed and poop maybe?
Yep, that's a crappy thing to have to wake up to every morning, that's for sure!
Maybe reduce fluid and food intake in the evenings or don't give him anything to drink at all about 2 hours before bedtime?

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D.K.

answers from Indianapolis on

They still sell plastic pants that go on OVER the diapers....the kind everyone used to use. That should help with the leaks and laundry.

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D.S.

answers from Fort Wayne on

We have the EXACT same issue with our 9 month old son. We use Luvs one size larger at night. During the day he wears size 3 Huggies and at night he wears size 4 Luvs. The Huggies didn't work at night...even a size bigger, but the Luvs to a great job!!!! He also sleeps through the night, but if he happens to wake up I will go a head and change him...just trying to be proactive :o)
Good luck!
D.

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K.U.

answers from Detroit on

We've had good luck with the Huggies overnighters but our daughter didn't really do #2 at night - she has1 BM during the day usually and they tend to be pretty firm. It sounds like he is having fairly loose stools that would tend to leak more and maybe his diet needs to be tweaked a little. Maybe keep tract of what he is eating and how they affect his stools.

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B.B.

answers from Seattle on

Have you tried the next size up? My 1 year old is still in the weight range for size 3 but leaked every night. I moved him up to size 4 and he rarely has leaks anymore.

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C.N.

answers from Cleveland on

The Huggies Overnites diapers worked really well for both my boys. They are a bit larger and more absorbant than the standard size huggies diaper. The other thing we did was go up a diaper size at night. (I.E. Wears a size 4 diaper during the day and used a size 5 at night.) Good luck!

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R.P.

answers from Youngstown on

I used the next size at night when we had leaks... and you should maybe not feed him as close to bedtime as you do.

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S.D.

answers from Indianapolis on

Humans don't eliminate in their sleep, they wake up to do it. So, if he's doing it first thing in the morning, be better about getting to him right away when he wakes up. If he's doing it and then going back to sleep, it will be harder. Have you tried other diapers than the ones you've listed? Maybe those don't fit snugly enough? Ask around and see if other people you know with babies have other types. Ask for a couple of their diapers to try a few days in a row.

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K.S.

answers from Dayton on

I find that cloth diapers generally do a better job of containing runny poop than disposables. It sounds like cloth diapers don't work for you overnight or I would suggest trying a super stuffed pocket (3-4 inserts in a OS diaper) or double prefolds inside a sized up cover. It might require you to wash a poopy cover every morning, but have you considered putting a cover over the disposable diaper? It might keep all that poop in the cover and off the sheets.

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