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I had to write this post for my many many friends that tell me this so often! If your baby is waking up wet in the morning because their diaper leaking at night, there are a few things that you can do to help, until you can potty train at night. I have written several posts on how I potty train in three days and I even wrote a book about how I potty train in a weekend (I trained our three kids this way and plan on training #4 next month… when she is 20 months), but the leaking diaper situation was driving me crazy. Here are tips that have helped us and I hope that they help you, too!
1- My best tip to keep your baby dry all night is to go up TWO sizes in his/her diapers at night. (We used these diapers) So, if your child can fit into a size 4 in the day, put her in a Size 6 at night. It works. If we put her in a size 4 in the day AND night, she used to leak every single time. I would go up two sizes. I don’t think diapers really go much higher than that, but if you can’t go up anymore and your child is still leaking, see #2.
2- My friend, Deanna, shared another great tip with me! She used to put a maxi pad in her child’s diaper before bed. She said that the extra absorption was just enough to keep them dry at night (and since the cost for a pack of pads is far less than a pack of diapers, it is another good option).
3- Put the bigger diaper on RIGHT before bed. If your child has a bath at 5:30 and is in her pajamas, be sure to wait to change her diaper into her size 6 until right before bed, around 7:00. The bigger diapers are more expensive, so I only used them at night. I used the regular ones at nap time.
4- Instead of using a pull-up at night, go for the full diaper. I never use pull-ups in our house for potty training (see my post on how I potty train in 3 days without pull-ups) but when I have tried them for our bed-wetter at night, they seem to do about as much good as a swim diaper (I use them on our kids that are trained, but have occasional accidents). Plus, when I night-train our kids, I just put their diapers on a little looser than I would in the daytime, giving them the ability to pull it up and down themselves, similar to a pull-up, but with the protection of a regular diaper.
I’ve never tried cloth diapers, so I can’t really say much about cloth diapers, one way or another.
ps- You could always try to gently change them at night, but my kids wake up very easily, so this was never an option for us.
I hope that was helpful! If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them!
If you are thinking about potty training, you are welcome to download these printable potty training sheets for free:
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I’m surprised you didn’t mention cloth diapers as an option. Most moms don’t consider them because of the poop factor but by the time baby starts sleeping through the night they’re not pooping at night anymore. I’ used to use disposables at night but couldn’t find anything that worked. I tried different brands, boosters, going up 2 sizes, etc. I finally landed on an overnight fitted cloth diaper from a company called Pooters. . It’s made of hemp fabric so it’s crazy absorbent (holds up to 32 ounces a night). I wash them every 3 days so I only needed to buy 4. They come in one-size fits most and last up to 40 lbs. And they have a stay-dry layer so baby feels dry no matter how much she wets. I’m now on baby #4 and I’m still using the same diapers I bought 7 years ago so it’s not only saved me from wet sheets every night, but it’s saved me a ton of money too!
my daughters also have issues in the #2 department after they go to bed. I have them wearing youth size TRANQUILITY PULL-ON underwear diapers. Their doctors’ say it is something called encopretic bowel retention disorder, whatever that is.
Great tips!
Using a maxi pad is quite smart.
I used to wake up panic when I saw the diapers. haha
But now, I figured out how to solve this.