ILuvLA wrote:
Certainly enough to catch pre-leaks while a person gets to a bathroom.
I've tried so many products for this over the span of many many decades. I would be very tempted to give Carer's products a try too, except that since about a year ago I'm just back in diapers full-time anyway. I was one of those people who got used to always being within 30 seconds of a bathroom, during the pandemic when everyone was at home all the time. As the pandemic eased up, I just realized I couldn't make it work. I was barely able to make it work,
before the pandemic. After the pandemic, no way.
Some of the factors that go into the question of pre-leaks, for me:
1. If I have to wait longer before I can get to a toilet, more urine (total) ends up in my pants than if I only have to wait a short time
2. The more absorbent of a product I'm wearing, the more risks I'm willing to take. For example, if I'm at work and I'm wondering how much longer a conference call is going to go -- if I'm wearing normal underwear I'm not willing to take any risk. I'm going to invent whatever excuse I have to, to get off that call right now. If I'm wearing something thicker, I might try to hold my urine and let the call wind its way naturally to a conclusion.
3. The flip side of that is: the more absorbent of a product I'm wearing, the more urine, total, is going to end up in my pants, rather than the toilet. This is fine, it's what the product is there for. But having that much urine in a product that isn't fully a "diaper", is also risky. If I sit down the wrong way and squeeze the contents of the pad out, suddenly the seat of my jeans is soaked.
4. If I go to the bathroom 8 times during an 8 hour work day, that's a lot of chances for pre-leaks to happen (sometimes big pre-leaks). All that urine just basically accumulates through the day, in whatever product I'm wearing. Often by the end of the day there's basically no absorbency left and I'm just kind of stuck with this soggy pad in my pants that isn't doing me any good. Especially with cloth/reusable products where there's often no good way to change without taking off my shoes.
5. This one is embarrassing, and I wish I could solve it by just "trying harder" but I really can't. If the product I'm wearing is waterproof and I know that it "could" absorb my whole bladder in an emergency... that makes it much, much harder, psychologically, to keep holding it. Holding urine when my bladder is full is
really, really hard. It's not something I can do very well at all, unless there's the threat of disaster if I fail. I've tried some products that were really less like "training pants" and more like "pull-on waterproof cloth diapers" and I just kept emptying my bladder right at my desk. I would give myself a pep talk, I would tell myself I was going to hold it and urinate in the toilet. But then I just kept urinating my whole bladder before I even stood up. Or if I did stand up and start walking to the bathroom, it was pointless because by the time I got there and was actually standing in front of the toilet, there was nothing left in my bladder.
Again, I'm not really in the market for a product like this anymore since I went back to diapers. But -- yes -- the "pre-leak" problem is huge, and it's really hard to find the right balance. At least for me. It was always really hard for me to find the right balance.