Saturday, October 8, 2011

Leaky diapers? There might be a simple solution.

Often leaky diapers are the reason families want to give up on cloth or think that something is wrong with their diapers.  They wonder, Are they ruined?  Worn out?  Need to be stripped?  Do they have holes or defective PUL?  Is XYZ just a bad brand of cloth diapers?

Sometimes when you're troubleshooting leaky or malfunctioning diapers the best place to start is by trying the simplest solutions first.
  • Check the size.  If the diapers a bit too small it could just be that you need to go up to the next size.
  • Check the setting.  If you use one size diapers you might be using the wrong setting, perhaps you need to snap up or down or adjust the leg elastic.
  • Check the inserts.  Could be that adding an extra insert or doubler is all you need.  The other possibility is that you might be overstuffing your diapers which can cause the diaper to not fit properly.  Here's a great post on the Knickernappies blog about the issue of "overstuffing."
Before you assume the worst try some of these simple tips and tricks to see if you can fix the problem without too much work.  Through process of elimination you  should be able to determine the cause of the issues.

2 comments:

  1. Great post! I often get frustrated when other cloth diapering mamas want to throw in the towel after one or two leaks. They usually don't do a little investigation first to find out the root cause of the problem. Posts like this are a great reference to send them to.

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  2. Very common to deal with leaks because of fit problems. Always had that happen when we were ready for the next size. Thanks for the post!

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