Doing the math...

[JDinVirginia]

LucOllie,

Re wearing cloth over disposables, here is my bullet-proof combination for night diapering despite my being a heavy wetter.

First, I put on a Rearz Inspire +Incontrol super-absorbent disposable diaper, with a booster pad. Over that I put on a thin flannel pull-up covered by a very thick cloth pull-up (made from toweling). Then two PUL diaper covers or "plastic pants." One PUL cover is larger than the other so that the leg elastics fit lower own on the thigh to catch any leaks from the inner cover.

The thin flannel pull-up worn next to the disposable diaper helps to spread and wick liquid to a greater surface area of the thicker pull-up. An advantage of cloth is that eventually wicking will disperse the liquid to soak the entire cloth pull-ups.

This combination has been bullet-proof protection for me. I have had zero wet beds since I began using it.

Note that the resulting combination of disposable diaper plus cloth pull-ups will be bulky - approximately as bulky as wearing night cloth pinned diapers. I had been wearing only cloth at night so the bulk does not bother me.

A significant advantage to this system is that, if the disposable diaper does not leak onto the cloth pull-ups, there will be no need to wash the cloth pull-ups. The cloth pull-ups, while initially expensive, will last a very long time.

The downside is that you do not have the cost savings of wearing only cloth diapers at night.

I buy the excellent cloth pull-ups from KINS (Babykins) in Canada. I am not ABDL and these are plain white pull-ups, so do not be hesitant to use KINS. KINS just had the best product I found.

If you try this method, let us know how it works for you.

--John
(double incontinent, diapers 24/7)

[LucOllie]

Thanks everyone! I have to admit I have stayed away from KINS and Rearz just because of some of the products on their website. I will give them a try and let you know. Bowel incontinence is an issue but usually just slight leakage at night. The thought of a full night’s sleep without worrying about urine leakage seems like a good trade off for the bulk.

[Don]

LucOllie,
I tried confidry, abena, molicare, etc. for years. Nothing contained my wetting at night. It is very heavy. I wore abena x-plus for the longest period. I would wake up all the time covered in urine up to my chest. Sorry if it’s disturbing. I take meds to sleep at night and I am unable and unaware to get up and use the bathroom. I wet several times a night and just sleep right through it till the medication wears off. No disposable diaper can handle that kind of output. It’s a miserable situation. I switched to cloth a couple months ago and have woke up dry ever since. I just layer up. It’s thick though. I can’t sleep on my side because of the thickness. But it does work. I sleep on my stomach. Now I get a restful nights sleep and don’t wake up cold.

[realworldic]

I once calculated the rough number of disposables that I have used during my life and the number was shocking considering the products available to me at one time I was using 6-8 per day... And I tried cloth and still keep some in case of emergency (hurricane etc) where I may be caught in between deliveries and they are delayed. However for me to be effective they are too bulky for work, and I never got comfortable wearing them, I always felt wet and I just never have that feeling with a disposable until its time to change. but if it works for you that's great! ultimately its what works for you that matters!

[5bugles]

Wow! Those are shocking numbers. I noticed some have posted that they use cloth OVER disposable. Can someone give perspective about how that works or why?
I deal with fecal and urine incontinence. I like the idea of cloth but I am reluctant due to the size and discretion of a cloth diaper. I am in Canada and I can’t find where to buy and ship plastic pants and cloth diapers. It would be so nice to have continence advisors that could help with fit and where to buy and how to dress etc.

I wear cloth over a night weight disposable to bed. As a heavy wetter and side sleeper, I need the cloth to prevent leaks out the sides or over the top. I wear the disposable due to my morning bouts of fecal incontinence, because, frankly, the thought of having to deal with a messy cloth diaper every morning is devastating to me. With the disposable layer, it makes cleanup so much easier.

Another reason some may use cloth over a disposable is to reduce bulk that may aggravate or inflame a back injury. For some time, I wore cloth exclusively at night, but when my back was acting up, it helped to reduce the bulk for a couple nights until things "settled" a bit.

[MSUSpartan]

Some excellent points and perspective! I am starting to use cloth more often, especially around the house. For a while, I used cloth exclusively at night, but since the early morning fecal issues started, I use cloth over a disposable to make clean up easier. Even so, wearing cloth during waking hours would save me in the neighborhood of $7 to $10 a day. And seeing the numbers showing what goes in a landfill over time, makes it even more worthwhile.

Thanks for posting this! It gives me a renewed desire to transition more fully to cloth.

Don't forget that there is a cost to laundry. It's more expensive than most people seem to realize, and you still need to replace plastic pants, etc, occasionally.

When i did a very thorough calculation, cloth were about half as expensive as disposable, on an annual basis.