I think boosted washables are stopping my dd sleeping soundly. Any advice?

[Dragonhart]

I use wambamboos/bambineos at night which have been fine up until now but as dd is getting bigger she has been out weeing them at night so I have been stuffing them with boosters; either prefolds or bamboo terries.

The problem is that she cant seem to get to sleep with them boosted. She just cries and cries, which until recently I thought was a stage or teething but then I put her down in a disposable as my mum was looking after her for the evening and she isnt comfortable using the washables and she went down like a dream. Tried it the next few nights just to see if it was a fluke, then last night I put her in a washable and she cried again.

Has anyone come up against this before? I really dont want to use disposables at night so any suggestions welcome. She wears the nappies unboosted quite happily in the day.

Yup had exactly the same problem with DD1 but.....and I know this isn't what you wanted to hear.....swapped to disposables at night and all was fine and dandy. How about the recycled nappies - they are great and biodegrade to boot!

Where do you put the boosters? I find that DD appears to be more comfortable if I put the boosters between the nappy and the wrap rather than boosting inside the nappy. Maybe you could try that if you haven't already.

I use Ella's house bumhuggers at night which do seem to have the most amazing absorbtion capabilities so I only use one booster (outside the nappy as discussed) and it isn't much more bulky than her daytime nappies. Although when I hadn't done any washing for a while the other day I used one of my bambineo nappies at night with 3 (or was it 4....) boosters making her bottom enormous and bulky and she didn't care one bit, so maybe I'm just lucky that my daughter doesn't mind having a huge bottom!!

If you have to resort to using a disposable at night don't beat yourself up about it, the fact that you use washables most of the time still has a hugely posative effect on the environment in comparison to using disposables all the time.

You could try a different nappy for night use we used to use a Slinki Minki, for example and stuff/boost with something slimmer (e.g. microfibre cloths). Do you use fleece liners?

I'm just wondering how old your dd is and whether she could be uncomfortable because of a buildup of ammonia in the nappies? Just say this because my ds2 is now 11 months and a couple of weeks ago we'd been going through a lot of disturbed nights because he seemed uncomfortable (went through 4-5 nappies a night and still not much happier - he wasn't hungry). After a bit of reading around on here I rinsed them in vinegar in the washing machine and then washed them properly with vinegar as the conditioner and we have a settled baby at night again. Have decided to use vinegar as a conditioner from now on. He's been in terries since 10 days.

I would agree with NellyT.E. about the bumhuggers. I use those for my monster at night and not only are they pretty thin sometimes use a pocket nappy stuffed with a bamboo terry and the poor little one looks like a little weeble (remember those - I hope so or that bit won't make sense ). Sometimes I use bumhuggers during the day as they are so slim fitting. The only downside to them is that they take a while to dry - I 'assist' mine by putting them on a rack next to a radiator.

I think my monster gets a better nights sleep in the bumhuggers than anything else. I boost with two thin hemp bumhugger pads.

Also like Nelly said, don't worry if you have to go over to disposables for night time. I have had to do this in the past for various reasons but when I do I always put a fleece liner inside - this seemed to keep her drier and stop any gel from getting onto her bottom.

hth. Good luck

sorry that should have said 'not only are they pretty thin fitting but also super-absorbant. I sometimes use pocket nappies etc etc....'

My keyboard is playing up big time today - too many Pringle crumbs underneath the keys

Hi there,
we had a similar problem and resigned ourselves to using a disposable at night - we use naturebaby and moltex nappies - I don't feel very guilty as it is 7 nappies a week alot less than if we didn't use any washables..
Iknow it adds up OMG I have started trying to convincemyself again that it isn't bad..

Sorry wanted to let you know that we had had the same issue.. got sidetracked..

Thanks everyone. I put her down in a new bambinex teddy stuffed with a bamboo shaped booster and a hemp shaped booster to see if that helped and she went down like a dream (fingers crossed it will keep her dry though )

I am wondering if it was just the bulkyness of the terries pad folded as her legs were pretty spread from the thickness of it. I normally stuff on the outside with the booster but put it inside tonight as the nappy is big enough on her and the boosters are quite slim. Or maybe it is the fact that I have been drying the wbbs on the radiator so they were a bit crispy where as the teddys are so soft!?

Yomella- dd is 10months so hadnt considered anything like that. Maybe that is why the new one had worked? THing is it was actually getting to sleep rather than waking that was the problem. She was screaming and arching her back then totally chilled when I put on a disposable. I do use vinegar as a conditioner, but had never considered doing a rince using it so might give that a try.

Mind you, she was sleeping fine with them when not using the boosters and also is fine in the day. I might try making afew shaped boosters out of the bamboo terries if the nappy I used tonight works as I borrowed the ones from tonight from other nappies (btw Nelly and corby- the hemp booster I use is ella house one and it is amazingly absorbant)

I think I worry so much about the disposables at night because when we visit my ILs (they live quite far away and we stay with them quite often) they dont want me to wash the nappies as they are on a meter so we have to use disposables then. I have enough guilt about them without adding to them with ones for the night too!

Thanks again for all the advice xxx