My darling son began rolling to sleep on his stomach when he was four months old. Since he could get there on his own and roll back to his back without any trouble, I have been totally fine just rolling with that. However, laying on his tummy through the night combined with a penchant for a full bedtime bottle led to some consistent issues with overnight diaper leaks. I swear, it seems like he produces a gallon of pee overnight. Over the course of the many months that followed, we have experimented with all sorts of remedies for providing extra absorbency to keep Colin dry and comfortable overnight (and of course, to keep mom and dad from dealing with the excessive laundry that the leaky diapers caused).

– Moving up a size in diapers for overnight: In the beginning, just moving up into regular Pampers, one size ahead of what C was wearing, solved the problem without much fuss.  Sadly this tactic only lasted for a month or two.

– “Point Mr. Penguin down”:  This advice on a Facebook mom’s group had me giggling, but it is totally true.  With little boys, it’s important at bedtime (and really all the time, but most important at bed time) to make sure the penis is pointed downward so that the stream of pee points into the diaper, instead of up and out.

– Adding a cloth prefold inside the sized up diaper:  This solution wasn’t a great fit for us, as I was never personally destined to do well with anything cloth diaper related. Using just one cloth diaper a day made orchestrating laundry difficult, since my loads were few and far between. Plus using a cotton prefold left C’s tushie in a less-than-desirable state.  We tried this for a week and a half before scrapping the plan for something else. (Cloth diapering experts can probably give much better insight on this, as I have read all sorts of different solutions for those who use cloth.  I rolled with what I already owned and failed, but I would love to hear if anyone has faced this as a cloth diaper user, I’m sure that readers would appreciate any insight you can share.)

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– Switching to a diaper specifically designed for overnights, one size larger than what C wore during the day.  This solution worked for us for a long time.  I know many moms who swear by these, and although I hated buying a box of 40+ diapers without knowing if they would work, I gave in and bought a box of Huggies Overnites that I found on sale at Target.  I’m glad I did, because they worked beautifully, and for months, it was easy to continue to adjust up a size every time they started to seem like they were bursting at the seams.  This worked without a hitch until recently.  Colin is currently in size 5 diapers during the day, and was wearing size 6 Huggies Overnites at night.  But when the Overnites started leaking, a search on Amazon led me to the sad discovery that size 6 is the largest size they make (same holds true for the Pampers version). Sad, sad, sad.

– Doubling up: With no new supplies on hand, after 3 days in a row of soggy sheets in the morning, I experimented with what I had while surfing the web for products that could help.  Surprisingly, an Overnite diaper with a regular diaper over top worked just fine.  I could have just stuck with this, but so many layers of diaper seemed a bit constricting for C (not that he complained, but I could not imagine that it was too comfortable).  This is still a valid option, but we don’t rely on it unless we have to.

– Adding a disposable doubler pad: A friend tipped me off on a very helpful product – diaper doubler pads.  Basically they look like a maxi pad but without a sticky back, so that the liquid can soak from the doubler into the Overnite diaper.  These pads are a great invention!  I was wary at first, but from our first use, we were 100% sold.  They are easy to use, can be dumped right into the diaper pail, and are relatively inexpensive.

– Tapering off liquids near bedtime:  This is something that we are working on, but I have a very thirsty kid.  He drinks about 20 ounces of milk a day, 6-8 of which are at bedtime.  He is so attached to that bedtime milk, and I hate toying with our bedtime routine. Colin is always toting around his straw cup of water, and when he asks for more water with dinner, I have trouble saying no (as I am sure more people would – no one wants to be thirsty, right?!).  So for now, I am dealing with this on the output side, rather than on the input end of things.  I am sure as we get closer to the potty training stage (which is far, far from now), I will reevaluate since this will be a greater issue at that point.

Do you have a heavy wetter?  Any other tips you’ve had luck with that you can share?