Help - leakage! Advice needed

[thewaffler]

Hi everybody

Am a bit of a lurker and have only posted a couple of times before, but am absolutely stumped and need some advice from some cloth aficionados.

My daughter has been in resuables since about 3 months, she was prem so didn't fit in the size 1's which i had got to start with. Spent many a day 'working from home' during pregnancy which mainly consisted of buying lots of different types of nappies and becoming obsessive about reviews. Size 1 was mainly two part system.

Was getting ridiculously excited about the pretty fluff have purchased for size 2 AIOs so i don't need to use wraps
bumgenuis
Itti Bitti tutu
Blueberrys
Rumparooz
Tots bots AIO
Coolababy

Having spent lots of money on pretty cloth have been super disappointed that they don't seem to be working. The bum genius i have used before without incident, as i have the tots bots as they are birth to potty - but now am getting major leaks, last week after about an hour.

I thought to begin with it was the bumgenius but then realised it has happened with other brands too. Is it possible to have a baby who is a super wee-er? I really can't work out what i am doing wrong. She's always been on the 9th percentile so isn't big and at 1 is only 17 pounds, and perhaps has skinny legs, but surely birth to potty are meant to fit babies that weigh a lot less? The advice about the coolababies was to wait until she was about 12-14 pounds, but have waited until now. It isn't just one brand though, its all of them - the common denominating factor is me putting them on, prehaps incorrectly and maybe a child with extrodinary weeing potential?

Any advice would be very much appreciated as i want to see her with a pretty bum! Ive resorted to buying some second hand fluffles which i got on well with in size one and since i've done that, all has been fine - but ive got a box of gorgeousness going unused.

A previous lurk revealed that some thought little lamb bamboo boosters could be the answer, duly purchased some from ebay but hasn't made much difference. Boosting the Itti Bitti with all of the inserts they come with as well as the bamboo meant that there was hardly any space actually left in the nappy.

For those of you who have been doing this for a long time, are there any fundamental mistakes that you think i may have made?

Some stupid basic questions, just to make sure:

Are you putting the nappies on tightly enough?
They don't need to be cutting off her circulation, but they do need to be cosy.

How often do you change them?
Do you think she is doing one wee, two or more before leaking?

I personally have always used tots bots and easy peasy nappies with wraps. On many occassions the wrap acts as a second barrier to prevent leaks where the nappy itself would not be enough. ie a poo that escapes from the nappy gets caught by the wrap.
Maybe you would have more luck with a separate nappy and wrap system?

Not sure, but from your post it sounds as though you have moved on to all-in-ones. As RuthChan has said, the wra is an important second layer and ime 2 part systems way out perfrom AIOs in terms of leakage. Get yer wraps back out!

Sorry Wraps! I just use Bumbles with Motherease wraps for DD.

Not as pretty as the AIOs, but they keep poo and wee in and that's more important to me

Leaks could be due to one of a few things. Either the fit is wrong because your bub has changed shape, you need to start boosting as your child has grown and is peeing more in one go, or you have detergent build up causing the nappies to repel rather than absorb liquid.

As a rule of thumb if you are getting leaks and the nappy / insert is sodden all the way through then you need to add more absorbency. I use slim hemp boosters as they fit nicely into pockets without adding too much bulk and are very absorbent. Place them under the microfibre insert or if you are using 2-parters between the nappy and the wrap.

If the insert is not fully wet but you are still getting leaks then either the fit of the nappy is wrong or you have build up of detergent. If the leaks are at the waist band then you probably need to increase the rise (height) of the nappy, this is common in birth to potty nappies which need adjustment as the child grows. If the leaks are at the legs then check how tight the fit is around your babies thighs. You may need to adjust the leg fit if you can, or in older or faulty nappies the leg elastic may have gone. Watch out too for pressure wicking, e.g. if your child is in very tight trousers which press hard onto the nappy this pressure will cause liquid to draw out of the nappy rather than staying put. Or it may just be that the nappy doesn't suit your child's build, not all of them do all kids and when kids first learn to walk / move they thin down and change shape and this can sometimes affect the fit of a nappy, especially on a more slender baby - although they will soon grow back into them.

If fit doesn't seem to be a problem, then do an absorbency test. Get a clean and dry nappy and dribble a small amount of water onto it from your fingers. If the water soaks in then all is probably OK, but if it stands as droplets for a while before soaking in, or simply runs off then you have detergent build up and need to strip wash your nappies (see above). Detergent build up can also be detected by a cabbagey smell on the nappies.

A strong urine smell can either be build up, or sometimes a side effect of teething. If your bub is teething and you are getting this smell try pre-washing or rinsing your nappies on cold first, as this helps stop the urine ?setting? into the nappy with the hot wash. If this doesn't work, then strip wash and then do the cold rinse / pre-wash for the duration of the teething.

Thanks for your replies - Ruthchan and Gmajor7 - i was using two parts, had hoped to go to AIO for stage 2, but have bought some more size two totsbots and motherease wraps and no sign of leakage, so i know that i have got that option - just would like to be able to use the other cloth that i bought as well. If i don't get on with it, will try to sell to recoup some of the money spent on them and then buying the two part size 2s although got these second hand so were quite a bargain. In the two parters i would usually be changing about every 3 hours, but the AIOs were leaking within an hour and a half.

Cumbrianlass 2 - thanks for the info - that's really comprehensive and gives me a good idea where to look. The leaking is around the legs, not the rise, although on some of the AIOs, she's on the tightest setting, so couldn't adjust further. Rather embarrassingly , hadn't even considered checking the insert to see how sodden it is, just noticed that the legs are wet and it had gone onto clothes.

She is teething at the moment, dribbling a lot and red cheeks flaring up and think that her wee smells quite strong, but it isn't permeating into the nappies. I always wash on cold rinse first and have had a couple of strip washes, so i don't think that it will be detergent, although will do the absorbancy test just to make sure.

As i said before, she is quite slender, so it could be that i ought to put them away for a bit, go back to the two parter which are doing fine and then try again when she's grown a bit?

before i get to this point am also willing to try some hemp boosting, can you recommend any brand in particular? The bamboo boosters i got were from ebay, and supposedly littlelambs, although didn't come in any form of packaging, so don't know if this was the case!

Thank you again for your comments - much appreciated

We never really got on with AIOs for DS - I have a lovely set of Ittis which we have used a fair bit, but only on days when we knew we could really change regularly. IME boosting them doesn't work because it pulls the edge that should be snug against the legs down and away which only increases the problem.

I'm in the process of choosing some size ones for DC2 who is due in a month, and it will be bamboo of some sort and Motherease Airflow all the way to potty training! :)

Good to hear that i am not the only one who hasn't got on with them, I thought it was something that i was doing wrong. Good luck with baby number 2 and choosing some new nappies! Although it looks like you already have 40!

I had a few AIOs with DD1 and they were fine for early months, but as soon as she got more mobile they started leaking. Fitteds with separate wrap are by far the most leakproof option IMHO. It's all about pay off though - I switched to pockets for the crawling stage as they are easier to get on a wriggly baby, but had to change a lot more often as they tended to wick at the legs even when well boosted.

I use easypeasy hemp boosters. £2.25 each or 5 for £10 if you buy direct from website. They do free p&p too on over £5 orders.

Hope it is absorbancy and not fit for you, if it is the latter than I think you are right to stick to two-parters for now. You can get some really pretty wraps nowadays, and you could always sell on the ones that dont work to invest in new fluff. Check out weehuggers and thirsties duo wraps

I think that i am going to have to do some further investigation this weekend, get the stopwatch out and fully inspect level of saturation of boosters! Thanks for all of the advice - Weehuggers and thirties duo wraps OMG, how have i never heard about these?! They are absolutely gorgeous and could be the answer to my problems, pretty two parters!!! Must sell old AIOs on before purchase will be a good incentive to find out whats going wrong and if it is fit, then to invest in something else

oh - I'm with everyone else here - forget pretty (and bleeding expensive!!) All-in Ones...because they are rubbish compared to a nappy and wrap. I tried AIO's and they were a waste of money TBH. Get pretty wraps if you want to!

My personal fave.....just because they are VERY absorbant and fit well is bamboozle stretch nappy

wraps - take your pick tots bots or motherease work very well but a surprise find has been peachy tots on e-bay at half the price (nappies are ok as "spares" but not very absorbant, or good at keeping shape) but their wraps are great.

Also - ALWAYS use a fleece liner - stops the wet coming back through on to your baby's skin.

With a good nappy (your choice!), fleece liner and wrap I defy you to have nappy rash or leakage as long as you change fairly regularly!

Ooo fab advice on bamboozles - and fleece liners - you can get pretty there too, check out ebay (and yes, I know only you see them, but still......)

Motherease wraps are bombproof. Great for overnight, pretty wraps tend to be cotton based prints so dont do too well for nighttimes.