overnight nappying - what do you do for dreamfeeds - change nappy or not?

How do you handle your nappies overnight?

DD is 4 months old. We use mostly cloth nappies. Overnight I've been using BBH bamboo nappies with a fleece liner and a BBH PUL cover. Which kinda works, but I have some worries about them all the same.

Firstly, I want to be able to give DD a dreamfeed late at night before I go to bed. I have hopes that if I keep this up for long enough she'll start actually sleeping through. At the moment when all is well she sleeps from 7 or 8pm until 3-4am, so that's an 8 hour sleep. I'm hoping that with say an 11pm dreamfeed she will end up sleeping the whole time I'm asleep, so I won't have to get up in the night any more (OK, maybe I'm dreaming, but it's a nice dream).

Problem is, that if I have to take her into the bathroom and change her there, it definitely wakes her up. These nappies aren't fast to put on or take off, since there are 3 layers of the thing (liner, nappy, cover).

If I change her in bed I run the risk that she'll wee at the wrong moment and soak her bedclothes. This is a risk I'm willing to take for the 5 seconds it takes to change a disposable nappy, but not so much for the cloth ones.

If I don't change her, then she doesn't wake up, but she's soaking wet all night. Now even if the nappy doesn't leak (which so far they definitely don't), that worries me because of the dampness.

I have the same set of problems with early-morning feeds. Lately I've been so tired that I really don't want to get up and start the day, so I just pull DD over to me in bed, feed her, then we both go back to sleep easily together. Lovely, but the nappy is still wet for another hour until we get up. which isn't so good.

I'm starting to think that the best solution for sleep and her being dry would be to buy larger-sized disposables and use one every night for the whole night with no changing at all. But I don't really want to do that, because I much prefer the cloth nappies overall.

Does anyone have a way to solve these problems with cloth nappies? How do you keep yours dry and sleeping at night?

the idea of dreamfeeding is to feed whilst asleep so i wouldnt change nappy, having said that, i know she would be soaked if she then slept through! sooooo id stick with cloth and see how she is IF she does infact sleep through, if shes soaked try a sposie. i use cloth too but barely used cloth overnight as DD still feeds once, sometimes pooing over night too, ive pretty much always used a sposie, i figured one a day isnt much!! she might not need changing if you use a sposie and she sleeps through, id say its trial and error to see what works best!

goodluck!

Nate is still awake every 2 hours. I don't change him at all overnight. He has dedicated night nappies (has never worn a disposable at all) that yes while they are damp, he in't any the worse off for.

Darcy only ever wore a BBH with cover as a night nappy.

If you are concerned maybe try a fleece or wool cover as these are breathable and let some of the moisture evaporate and the skin breath whereas PUL doesn't at all and isn't really for long time wear.

Thanks both.

Isn't it a problem if she's damp for that length of time? I spend so much time giving her nappy-free time during the day (and generate so much washing in the process!), that it seems wrong to put her into something that I know will have her damp all night.

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Problem is, that if I have to take her into the bathroom and change her there, it definitely wakes her up. These nappies aren't fast to put on or take off, since there are 3 layers of the thing (liner, nappy, cover).

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Can you lay all the layers together before you are about to change, so then it all goes under her and you put the nappy and liner up and fasten, and then fasten the cover?

Well, I'm not sure of the technicalities hun, but I have been using cloth for a looooong time and we hardly have any issues at all. Darcy rarely ever got a nappy rash, and Nate only gets the nasty teething ones.

you could also look at the nappy you are using for overnight.

Have a play around and see if you an find one that is more absorbant, and try using a wool cover
the wool will breathe, helping prevent nappy rash.
Do you have any other nappies?
We used a double boosted BumG pocket that worked well overnight - didnt last all night at that age, but wouldnt leak, and meant I didnt have to change her until about 4am.
You can also boost the BBH you are using to make it last longer.

Have a play and experiement a bit, look around at some other night nappies (they will be needed later on anyway)
Also keep in mind that the bamboo wont reach its max absorbancy until it has been washed and dried abut 10 times (I dont know how old your nappies are)

GL! :)

Thanks again for the advice.

We have BBH bamboo, BBH minkee magic-alls and bumgenius nappies. I've been using the bamboo ones at night because they are, I gather, the most absorbent of the lot. Not that they get sopping wet yet by any means, though they might if I left one on all night. Have definitely used the bamboo ones more than 10 times, so I think they would have reached their max absorbency.

I guess I'll experiment with different boosters. Can wearing too-large a nappy for an extended time harm a baby's spine or anything, do you know? It does make me wonder.

If you can change the nappy without waking her then it would be fine to do that. Usually though people don't as they don't want to risk waking them.

WRT nappy, it depends so much on the child. When I used cloth, I used BBH Bamboo with wool covers for night - the wool seems to last longer at night than the PUL. With one DS I needed a booster and he still sometimes wet through. The other DS was fine all night with just the nappy and cover. If what you are doing isn't working, there are specialist night nappies. Or you could try an extra booster (if it will fit!) and a wool cover instead of the PUL.

Hi Tenar,

We stopped changing DD in the night around 2-3 months ago. She was in a sposie then and we had no troubles with leaking but by 7 am when DP left for work it was definately time for a change, which I made him do and then bring her into bed with me.
Then we went to cloth but still sposies at night but I noticed the waste even more just with using 1-2 a day.

Now we are in cloth full time, I use BBH magic-alls and after a bit of trial and error we put 3 bamboo boosters in the pocket which gets us through till around 7-7.30am. If it was longer I might use 4 boosters. I was afraid she would be damp sleeping in cloth all night but the BBH wick it strait into the booster so we havnt had any probs.

Best of luck with whatever you decide! :)