I have enough supplies for four overnight diapers. I usually wash every 2.5 days, but having 4 sets means I have enough for weekend trips or for nights when I have to change him partway through.
Instead of using fitteds or a jam-packed pocket diaper overnight, I’ve found a combo of inserts that I sandwich together to make our perfect overnight solution:
Recipe: (all “ingredients” are available at Lagoon Baby [affiliate link])
1 x AMP 3 ply hemp booster
1 x Flip Overnight Insert
1 x GroVia Organic Cotton booster
1 x PUL cover that gives you the best fit
(You can also top it all off with a fleece liner for a stay-dry effect and/or protection from diaper cream.)
Lay the GroVia booster (or any other slim booster) in the middle of the Flip insert. Fold the Flip insert in three and top with the AMP booster. Lay your insert sandwich in a PUL cover that fits your baby well, and doesn’t gape at the legs, even with all the bulk. I have used these inserts in Best Bottoms, Bummis Simply Lite, AppleCheeks and my Little Bottoms covers.
Why is this so great?
1) The wetness isn’t spread all over the diaper as with a fitted. Cub’s bum cheeks and hips are still dry in the morning.
2) Because all the layers of absorbent fabric are separate, they launder better since the detergent and water has more surface area to penetrate and not as many layers to pass through.
3) You can customize your insert sandwich with what you have on hand. Need a stay-dry layer? Top it off with a fleece liner. Don’t have any boosters? Wrap a hemp trifold around your Flip insert. (The Flip insert is the only one I’ve tried, I’m sure other thick cotton inserts would do the trick!)
4) PUL covers are wash and wear, as opposed to wool which is more maintenance.
5) This is a much trimmer system than most fitted diapers plus a cover. Cub can now wear one-piece pjs again! If you check out my Bummis Simply Lite review, you’ll see how trim this is on my Cub!
I rinse my inserts out overnight and this helps with my wash routine in my HE washer, which just doesn’t use enough water to rinse all that pee away (yes, even with a mainstream detergent). An overnight diaper contains 12 hours worth of pee: that’s a lot!
All of the items you need to build your overnight solution are available at Lagoon Baby, or check your favourite swap pages to see if you can snag a sweet deal!
Beth Rose says
How do you find the morning smell with this method, Maman Loup?? I’m having a hard time with fitteds and wool because of the morning pee smell….any different with this do you think?
mamanloupsden says
Since I’ve been using Tide and now trying out Kirkland Free & Clear, it’s not been a problem. I do rinse the inserts out in the morning, which I find easier with inserts than with an entire fitted.
mommyearthling says
Thanks for the tips. We have tried fitted with wool and with pul covers. I just hate how wet he gets and how huge his botton is.
I have one bonnibuns night time that I love. But they are expensive and I have no idea how to get more. (There are no Canadian retailers)
We usually use our bonnibuns then disposables the next night or 2 depending on when I do laundry. Tonight is bonnibuns night, but tomorrow I will try a similar combo. Great idea!
I have a question. . Does your Cub still have night time feedings? My 11 mon old is nursing minimum 3x per night.. Which equals lots of pee pee.
mamanloupsden says
Yes! And it holds it in even on the nights when we have nursing marathons!
Khristin Z says
I have a really similar night time solution that works on both my 8 month old and 2.5 year old. I also use a Flip insert and a PLU cover (usually thirsties duo wrap) but inside of my Flip, I use 2 Joey Bunz hemp doublers folded in half in the front of the diaper (both kids are boys). The only time I have had a leak with this diaper is when I accidentally delaminated one of my covers!
mamanloupsden says
Nice! It’s all about Finding the right ingredients for your insert sandwich!!
Suzi Satterfield says
I totally agree; rinsing is crucial! (And I don’t even use a mainstream detergent. 😉 )
mamanloupsden says
You Rockin’ Green REBEL YOU!! I was determined to not have to rinse, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that one overnight diaper is like 6 regular diapers worth of pee…. and that’s a LOT. If there was that much pee on anything else in my house… I’d rinse it first!
Krissy F says
I’ve been using the kawaii overnight heavy wetter pocket with both inserts and it works great. My 3m old boy sleeps in his overnight diaper from about 8am to 6am with no leaks yet since we switched to these! I have flip inserts as well so I may have to try this as an alternative, since I only have 3 of the kawaiis in my stash and am on the same 2.5-3 day laundry cycle. Curious about the rinsing? Do you rinse with a diaper sprayer before putting it in the pail? Maybe I need to get one of those, because you are right the o/n pee smell is strong and I’m sure its only going to get worse as he gets bigger. So far we’ve been using the bumgenius detergent which works great. I’m curious to try tide, but hesitant to change since they get so clean with the BG brand…
mamanloupsden says
I rinse the inserts in the bathtub. Most people I know end up switching from BG detergent as stink becomes a problem once baby starts solids. At 3 months my boy was pooping so much at night he never spent much time in one diaper!
Jennifer says
I just tried this with my 3 month-old daughter – and it worked great! All the inserts/doublers were wet, but we had no leaks! I love how trim this was in comparison to the fitteds I had been using. Also, I could use a cover that I know fits her well and the inserts were easier to rinse out in the morning. Even with 5 minutes of rinsing the fitteds in the tub, they were still pretty stinky – the sandwich materials were still stinky after rinsing, but not nearly as bad!
Mylène Bélanger says
I had the same concern then you «… using a fitted overnight because the wetness (does) spread all over (kid)’s tush.» but I find the find: Double Maman fitted! It’s a bamboo fitted with a long insert attach at the opening of a pocket (so I can add if necessary) and, that’s the beauty of it, the inside is stay dry. So far so good, my 2 kids (3,5 years old and 11 months) are dry after 10 to 12 hours of sleep, even their littles bums. Plus they are so trim and cheap right now (13$ for a OS fitted).