Heavy night wetters

Hi all!

Been more absent than present on TS lately, but I'm having a problem I am totally stumped on. The twins are 19.5mo old and are THE WORST night wetters I've ever seen. DS #1 was pretty bad, too, but not until after the age of 2, and never this bad. At least one - if not both - of the twins are wet every morning.

Dinner is 5:30ish at the latest. They each get 1/2 - 2/3 of a sippie (the tall handleless Gerber ones) of milk at this time. A lot of times there is a little milk left when they are done w/ their meals. They go to bed at about 7:30. We are putting them in the Huggies Overnites in a size larger than they normally wear, line them with a diaper-doubler pad, and put a nylon diaper cover over the top. The covers seem to shift during the night, exposing just a little of the diaper, but I don't think the covers are too big...the elastic is pretty tight. Every morning I have at least one wet onesie. And those poor diapers are soaked beyond belief. Often, it's both boys, and often it's thru their jams to the bedding.

What is left to do???? Tonight I got Nolan up at 11:30pm and changed him, but I really, really hate this solution (esp. since it would probably be until they are trained...UGH!!). Who knows if that'll even be enough, since his diaper really didn't seem all that wet. I just hate the thought of them being wet all night, esp. on cold winter nights. And I'm really over the laundry game. Has anyone BTDT? Can I/should I limit their fluids even more? I really think they should have as much to drink w/ meals as they need...is this off base? I've totally and completely run out of ideas and would LOVE any input!!

Thanks!!
Eve

 

The best solution is to cut out that milk before bed. I also used a cloth diaper and folded it ARoudnd the diaper doubler. I HATED them being wet all night tho so I think (in hindsight) I should've just cut back their milk.

GL!

 

My son was an incredibly heavy night wetter. I use cloth diapers so I tried every combination suggested to me and he still seemed to end up soaked. The one thing I found that helped keep him warm and feeling dry even if he was wet was fleece PJs. They don't get soaked like the cotton ones do. They aren't as breathable but they helped keep him warm and feeling dry so that's what I used. Even if his diaper was soaked his PJs still felt dry and he stopped waking up from being soaked and cold.

 

They don't get any milk at bedtime, only at dinner (sorry, I don't think I was clear about that). So are you saying I could/should cut back on their dinnertime fluids?

 

I used to think the same thing with my son...the amount of pee was insane! I forgot to mention that I also used wool diaper covers or soaker pants (it's funny how quickly you forget what your routine was as soon as it changes, lol). Since wool is a natural fiber it holds the wetness and still keeps them warm and lets the skin breathe. Also, you don't have to wash them every day...once every week to 2 weeks...when you wash them you use lanolin to help keep the waterproof properties. They are expensive but if you're crafty at all they are super cheap to make yourself (I have a friend how made mine for me out of old wool sweaters, she found a patter on the internet). These also REALLY helped instead of using the nylon diaper cover which I found would just get wet too. If I remember anything else I'll let you know, lol!

 

[quote name='E's 3' date='31 December 2010 - 09:10 AM' timestamp='1293804600' post='1741523']
I used to think the same thing with my son...the amount of pee was insane! I forgot to mention that I also used wool diaper covers or soaker pants (it's funny how quickly you forget what your routine was as soon as it changes, lol). Since wool is a natural fiber it holds the wetness and still keeps them warm and lets the skin breathe. Also, you don't have to wash them every day...once every week to 2 weeks...when you wash them you use lanolin to help keep the waterproof properties. They are expensive but if you're crafty at all they are super cheap to make yourself (I have a friend how made mine for me out of old wool sweaters, she found a patter on the internet). These also REALLY helped instead of using the nylon diaper cover which I found would just get wet too. If I remember anything else I'll let you know, lol!
[/quote]

whoops...I guess I'm a bit rusty at posting! lol

 

:hug: Thank you E's 3!!! You know, when they were small, I did cloth for several months...until Bennett developed a persistent rash and the dermatologist recommended sposies. So...I think I have a pair or two of the wool covers somewhere. I'll have to dig. AND, I'm actually a pretty big garment sewer, so I could tinker a bit. I do have some PUL (diaper cover fabric) and a pattern that I never got to use. Maybe I can modify it to cover the diaper better than the nylon covers. I think the problem so far w/ them is that they keep slipping down below the top of the diapers and that's where the leaks are coming from...but a smaller size would be TOO small for them.

Thanks for the helpful tips - and reminders!!

 

Could you see if a woman's maxi-pad is more absorbent than a diaper-doubler? I could never find a diaper-doubler for my heavy-night-wetter, so I went with a regular maxi-pad. I tried a generic maxi, but she wet through that. I tried an Always brand ultra-thick pad without wings and it works very well. I do the Huggies Overnights too.

Could you offer milk with their afternoon snack and just water with dinner? If they don't like water as much as milk, they might drink less, but still enough to satisfy their thirst.

I HATE limiting liquids and have a very hard time doing that. Mine eat at 5pm, and I pick up the milk and water sippies at 5:30, and they go to sleep at 7pm. If they ask for water at bedtime I try to just give a few sips and remind my heavy-wetter that drinking makes her diaper leak and makes her cold and wet. That seems to make her satisfied with just one or two sips of water at bedtime, but she still gets wet about once a week.

Good luck!

 

I use cloth diapers in the day but HAVE to use the Fisher Price Night time diapers in the evening because my guys would wake up soaking wet! You can get just the night time diapers and they aen't expensive to try out. I also went a size bigger so absorb all the pee. When they wake up, not only are their pj's dry but their bums are too!!! I have been very impressed by this brand of diaper.

 

I hope it helps. I tried every combination of everything with my son and the wool seemed to work (along with a double diaper and a hemp liner). His skin is super sensitive too and I found he was less red and irritated when I started using the wool covers at night instead of the normal ones. If you could make something yourself that would probably solve the problem as you could do a custom job!

 

when you go to potty train you'll be limiting their liquids at mealtime/bedtime too... ours don't drink a whole lot with dinner and nothing past the end of dinner. probably nothing past 5:30p. they go to bed close to 8:30p and we still have to get them up close to 11p to "pee" them... since we don't use diapers.

anyway, like a pp said, maybe try to shift some of the liquids earlier, even if its an hour earlier... and then just offer 1/4 of the sippy at meal times...

YES it's insane how much pee the little ones have in the middle of the night!

*when we were in diapers, I had to use these flannel "shorts" I made - mainly to keep the velcro cloth diapers together so the kids wouldn't take them off, but also to hold any little leaks from leaking through to their cotton PJs...

I did some type of search on patterns and did get one free pattern online, you could use it for yourself, but not to sell for others... anyway, b/c of our whole configuration of extra liners in the diapers etc. I had to modify the pattern, but in the end it was really easy to make - especially w/a serger.

the other thing I used with the cloth diapers that I really liked was the Hemp doublers. I think there were called "Little Weeds"... they were really trim and seemed to absorb a lot more than the microfiber.

 

Yes, it's true, somewhere along the line, you'll have to limit liquids. You can put as many layers on as you want but when it's potty training time it's going to be just as hard. It was for me. UGH.

We used Kushies and overnite Huggies AND cloth diapers but were STILLLLL drenched. Nothing I did mattered til I cut back (no matter when they're drinking it, take 1 cup away or whatever.)

The baby will not dehydrate and you have absolute proof of this by the overly heavy night wetting. Just mess around w/ cutting back here and there and see how much it helps.

 

I didn't read the other responses but this is a phase we went through around that age. I bought some big insert pads (basically looks like a maxi pad for the diaper). $3.99 for like 50 of them. They were a lifesaver..soaked it up and kept away from the skin - they started sleeping later when we were using these. We only used them a couple months and then didn't need them anymore. It was weird and frustrating at the time - I felt that they were waking early because of this.