Sometimes I want to give up. Anyone else

H

holdingon4life

New member
Hi everyone! It's nice I have found a whole subreddit dedicated to cloth diaps. But honestly I'm quite discouraged. I'm using an Ai3 system set that was very expensive (regional production), stocked up the inserts because I had to wash every day, but there are days (and nights) in which the diapers leak like hell and I don't know why. I change baby at least every 2,5 hours at night (and 2 hours at daytime) as he cries for boob anyway, but still he flooded his night diaper tonight. Leg fit is tight, the hose is pointing down, but still. Maybe the outer shell is quite lose, baby is still rather slim at app. 5 kg. Doing always the same fitting procedure, app. 9/10 times working, but the leaking 1/10 drives me crazy. It's random whether it occurs at daytime or nighttime. Is this an “acceptable“ rate? Or shouldn't this happen at all? I feel like a failure every time this happens, as the system seems to work very well for many families, as it was expensive and I even invested more. I don't want to change the system but I'm quite annoyed as you may imagine. P.s.: I don't know whether this plays a role but disposables even leaked more...
 
@holdingon4life I would say this is an acceptable rate - my 6 month old has always been a heavy wetter too. It’s frustrating when you have to change the sheets/outfit etc but disposables are even worse for leaking when we’ve tried them. I found a brand called La Petit Ourse (LPO)(pockets with 2 inserts) work great at night for us. Also MotherEase AI2 with a microfibre booster. I only have 2 LPO pockets and we use them for night time so if you considered a night time specific diaper it shouldn’t be too expensive to get say 2 (depending how often you wash) or check on marketplace for some used to try different brands/styles.

** recently learned if you get AI2 like motherease, you can revitalize the waterproof covers when needed so they’re more likely to last for multiple children if that’s your plan. Just wanted to point this out incase you see AI1s and think “that looks so much easier” (like I did) but you can’t do the revival process on them because it would waterproof the insert as well since it’s connected.
 
@holdingon4life Don’t let perfection be a deterrent. Diapers leak sometimes. Both cloth and disposables. Especially when they’re as little because they pee SO much and the diapers are so small.

Change a bit more often, at that age I changed at every 90 minutes the latest.
 
@holdingon4life If he's a newborn still he's probably just peeing a lot, and constantly. I thought of my daughter at that age as a leaky faucet. I changed her cloth diapers every 1-1.5 hours, we used disposables at night and generally changed her once at night until we stopped (unless there was night time poop) around 3 months.
 
@holdingon4life My guess is that he's either peeing a lot at a time so the inserts are absorbing too slowly or that you have inserts poking out somewhere leading to wiking.
For the night: try using nighttime diapers with a cover (Höschenwindeln). We're using Totsbots Bamboozle and they're lasting us 12h+.
 
Unfortunately my mobile just won't upload the photos I make, but my description might help and should answer most of your questions:
The diapers (by “Windelmanufaktur“) come in sizes “newborn“ (2-5 kg), 1 (4-11 kg) and 2. We are using size 1. Baby is app. 5 kg at 9 weeks. “Newborn“ is a diaper set on its own, which we don't have.
Front: Snaps are closed asymmetrically. According to the manufacturer, this is fine. But still, I can fit more than 2 fingers between outer shell and belly. If I close the diaper tighter, I really have to pull the sides and the textile presses tightly in his skin at his back, so I don't do this. Most leaks are in the snap area, if they occur.
Pouch: I always make sure to really push the pouch side edges into the leg folds. To make up for the lose fit of the outer shell, I stuff the pouch by folding the inserts so it gets a bit bulky at the front and sits close at the belly. Works 9/10, as I told already. If I don't do this, I get more leaks in the snap area.
Inserts: Daytime inserts: Cotton terry cloth+prefold or zorb or hemp. Nighttime inserts: Cotton terry cloth+2xzorb or + 1xzorb&1xhemp insert. Leaks occur irrespective of day or night, I guess. Probably more in the early morning. During leaks, either the inserts are soaking wet or just very wet in the front area with a dry back area.
I feel like the weak spot is the lose fit at the belly, but at least most of the time this seems to work out - why? What is different the times it leaks???
Sorry for any grammatical mistakes or probably strange choice of words, I'm not a native speaker. Corrections are welcome!
 
@holdingon4life Sorry wenn ich dir schnell auf Deutsch antworte.

Mit den AI3 haben viele Probleme. Hängst du sehr an den Windeln? Wir haben am Anfang sehr gute Erfahrungen mit prefolds gemacht. Tatsächlich ums Kind herum gewickelt und mit snappy befestigt. Das hat den flüssigen Stuhl am besten aufgehalten. Die avo+cado größe 2 müssten bei euch passen - danach passen sie super als Einlage ins Cover.

Vielleicht wären ein paar prefolds und 2 preiswerte Cover eine Möglichkeit? Für nachts passen Höschenwindeln. Egal ob Blümchen etc. zum stopfen oder anavy/Petit Lulu.

Windelmanufaktur ist sehr teuer und wird gut vermarktet - passt aber für sehr viele insb. am Anfang noch nicht und frustriert dann sehr
 
@micaelasc Ich finde die Vorschläge super. Ich denke, ich hänge so an dem System, weil wir schon so viel Geld investiert haben und ich das Stoffwindelangebot im Allgemeinen waaahnsinnig unübersichtlich finde. Da kam mir die WMW super entgegen bei schön designter Erklärbärhomepage, muss ich zugeben.
 
@holdingon4life Absolut!

Ich will dass System auch gar nicht komplett schlecht machen. Für viele funktioniert es ja gut, aber sie löschen schlechte Bewertungen und Erfahrungsberichte.

Wäre es vllt etwas für dich, ein anderes System zu probieren und dann später zur WM zurückzukehren?

Bis 12 Wochen hat bei uns wirklich nur die Prefold + Snappy den dünnen Stuhl gehalten. Jetzt haben wir Cover + Einlagen.

Dein Baby ist ja echt noch klein und zierlich, vielleicht sieht es in ein paar Wochen schon ganz anders aus. Zumindest die Einlagen kann man ja auch in anderen Systemen gut verwenden.
 
@holdingon4life I learned that hemp absorbs alot but does so slowly. So always make it the bottom insert and cotton being alot faster to absorb in case you've been switching them up? Also the diapers should better fit your lo as they gets bigger. I had more problems when I first started because he wasnt quite big enough to fill in all the gaps. But sometimes leaks just happen.
 
@holdingon4life It sounds like you may be getting compression leaks with the zorb. Can you try switching to all natural fibers (pairing cotton and hemp, for example) and maybe adding a second hemp to the set up? You may not have enough absorbency for your heavy wetter. I know you don't want to switch systems, but you could try adding a disana wool cover over the top for nighttime. Wool absorbs a lot. It's the only thing that gets us through the night.
 
@holdingon4life Have you pretreated your inserts? My first batch of hemp inserts and cotton prefolds I ran through the wash about 5 times before using. The leaks I have had are using the inserts and prefolds that I bought later and only ran through once before using. So maybe some inserts are better treated than others, which is maybe why it only happens sometimes?
But to me it sounds like the fit is affecting the diapers effectiveness as well. Not sure if you should be bunching up the insert in the front, it MAY be affecting the seal... It may feel like it's too tight but try snapping just one more snap?
 
@frglen Oh they have been washed maaany times by now :D I don't dare snapping it any tighter - if I wear him in his carrier, the diapers already leave bad looking red marks on his back skin.
 
@holdingon4life I also want to say, sometimes as parents we hope and aim for perfection, and actually, good enough is good enough. It can be easy to feel like a failure when things don't go how we want, but one thing not going to plan absolutely does not equate to failing. This is a journey I am on! Hopefully someone on here will have an answer and solution, but even if they don't, you're not a bad parent, find people who can help you keep that in perspective x
 
@holdingon4life I also believe leaks are part of the game, we use both disposable and cloth. They both leak sometimes, they both have poop explode sometimes. If it isn't happening every single time personally I wouldn't be worried.
 
@holdingon4life I'd be happy to try and help too! What does your set up look like (pics would help!)? Does it work during the day, or do you still see leaks? Do you have a budget for any swaps or upgrades? If so, what country do you live in?
 
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