Totnes Nappy Company Night-time Nappies

Once your little one starts sleeping through the night you may find that the nappies that are fine for a few hours at a time for the daytime won't stay the distance at night. Getting night nappying right for your baby sometimes takes a bit of experimenting with different combinations of boosters and wraps and you may need to tweak a previously reliable combination as your child gets older and becomes a heavier wetter. A new aspect of this that you have to get used to is your baby going to bed with a huge nappy on! It seems very strange but it doesn’t seem to make a difference to them at all, but you need to give it a good few nights before you convince yourself of that! Seeing your little one waking up after a good nights rest, dry and comfy is a great feeling. If you are struggling with leaking disposables and several changes during the night, cloth nappies may well provide you with the answer you are seeking and are well worth the effort to get it right.

As with day-time nappies, there are two main options; two-part nappies or a pocket nappy.

Two-part Nappies

You will need a very absorbent cotton or bamboo nappy with extra boosting, and then a very big wrap to contain it all.

Suitable nappies:

Easy Peasy BTP Bumble (cotton) or Bambeasy (bamboo) are both ideal night nappies for babies over 8lbs. They are very absorbent and fully fleece lined to keep baby's whole nappy area dry. There is a space behind the fleece layer that allows you to add as many boosters as you need for your baby. They both come with their own detachable booster. A clever popper arrangement allows adjustment from 8lbs to 35lbs making them a very economical option. At 8lbs you will probably be able to use the Bumble or Bambeasy without any boosters, then add the snap-in booster provided as baby gets bigger, then an additional booster or boosters later on. The Bambeasy is more absorbent and slimmer fitting, but takes longer to dry and is more expensive than the cotton Bumble.

Other great night time nappies are Tots Bots Cotton or Bamboozles, Little Lamb Cotton or Bamboo, Tots Bots Fluffle. Other nappies can work but may need a large amount of boosting, making them fiddly to put on.

Go to: Two-part Nappies

Suitable Boosters:

Bamboo or hemp boosters give the most absorbency for the least bulk. Bamboo and hemp will both take longer to dry than cotton but this is hopefully not such a problem when you only need to use them at night. Microfibre inserts and cotton boosters also work well as do folded terry squares or prefold nappies.

Go to: Inserts and Boosters

Suitable Wraps:

Good wraps for night times over boosted cotton or bamboo nappies are the Motherease Airflow (a bit more room in these than the Rikki, but the Rikki works well also), Nature Babies Wraps, or Wacky Wraps. The Motherease are especially leak-proof. The Nature Babies and Wacky Wraps have softer leg-bindings. Fit greatly depends on the build of your baby.

Fleece wraps are a lovely option for night time. They don’t have a waterproof layer but they are very breathable and they do work! Pyjamas sometimes feel a little bit damp in the morning but the nappy itself is always less wet in the morning as it has been able to “breathe” during the night which is obviously better for baby's skin. The Nature Babies fleece wrap is superb and fastens with poppers, unlike most fleece wraps which fasten with Velcro (poppers are less easy for toddlers to undo!)

You will probably find that you need a size up from the wrap you usually use during the day once you have to boost the nappy a lot.

Go to:

Motherease Waterproof wraps

Wacky Wraps

Nature Babies Waterproof wraps

Nature Babies Fleece wraps

Liners:

You will hopefully not need a paper liner in night nappies as older babies tend not to poo at night. A stay-dry layer next to baby's skin is a good idea overnight as otherwise their skin will be exposed to wetness for a long time. If the nappy you have chosen is not fleece lined, you could use a fleece liner, a fleece topped booster or a Motherease Stay-dry booster.

Pocket Nappies

Most pocket nappies are slim-fitting which is great for day-time but means that you cannot get enough absorbency in the pocket to cope with a whole night. The one exception to this is the Minki Pocket nappy.

Minki Pocket nappies are big fleece pocket nappies that you can stuff lots in (microfibre inserts, folded cotton or bamboo terries, hemp prefolds . . .). Minkis are completely fleece-lined inside and out, with a breathable waterproof layer in between, so baby's skin is dry in the morning and taking the nappy off isn't unpleasant, as it is with a terry nappy and wrap, which, by the morning, is often sodden. One big advantage with the Minki is that you can get it all ready and stuffed with the level of absorbency that works for your baby then put it on in one go. This is especially useful later on as toddlers tend to get up and run off during nappy changes and having several boosters, a fleece liner, the nappy and wrap can sometimes be a tricky combination to get on an escaping toddler! Minkis also dry more quickly than the cotton or bamboo nappies but the inserts / boosters will obviously take much longer as they are the absorbent bit. One possible problem is that Minkis have Velcro fastening meaning that toddlers might be able to undo them. Pyjama trousers minimise this problem. Being a pocket nappy, they are never going to be as leak proof as two-part systems, but a bit of experimentation with inserts / boosters should help you to find a stuffing combination that works for you.

With both two-part and pocket nappies you can experiment with boosting / stuffing until you find the minimum that works for the night – start with more than you think and reduce.

Our current favourite combinations:

Easy Peasy Bambeasy BTP with Little Weeds Hemp Prefold (on top of the provided booster) and a Motherease Airflow wrap.
Minki Pocket Nappy stuffed with a 70cm Bamboo Terry Square. (Fold into a square a quarter of the original size, then fold this square lengthwise into 3, making a long rectangular pad.)

For more ideas you can have a look at one of the Cloth Nappy Forums. Baby Centre's Cloth Nappy Board has regular "Sat Night (etc) Bums" threads where parents post what their little one is wearing that night! Really useful for ideas that might work for your baby!

Local Customers:

If this has left you completely overwhelmed why not try out a few nappies from our hire kit? We have all of the nappies, wraps and boosters mentioned on this page available in the hire kit.

Whatever you do, take your time and don’t pressure yourself into getting it right first time. It is great when you find what works and then you know that every night you use your cloth nappy is one less disposable used (and paid for!).