Thinking about testing the waters with cloth diapers overnight? We KNOW how important comfortable and dry nights are for you and your baby (really, we’re moms ourselves 😅 you gotta make the most of the restful hours you can get!) – and happily – you can totally use cloth diapers for the longer overnight stretches, without any leaks! You just need a few tips and tricks to get you started.
In this blog post, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about using cloth diapers overnight, so that you and your baby can catch as many z’s as possible and continue saving money and reducing waste, even while you sleep 😉
What You’ll Need to Cloth Diaper Overnight
Proper Fit
We’ll start with the obvious: the first thing you’ll need to make sure you have is a cloth diaper that fits your baby properly. Check out this blog post for more tips on getting the perfect fit with your diapers.
Two Pieces
Make sure you have both parts of the diaper. Esembly cloth diapers are made up of two parts – an absorbent Inner organic cotton fitted diaper and a waterproof Outer diaper cover. Both are needed for the diaper to perform properly.
Absorbency Boost
When your baby starts sleeping longer than 6+ hours), you’ll want to incorporate our Overnighters. These are a simple and effective way to boost absorbency for longer sleep stretches while keeping your baby feeling comfy and dry all night long.
A quick guide to the basics:
- Overnighters are used to boost the absorbency of your baby’s night time or nap time diaper
- Overnighters are not necessary until your baby begins sleeping in longer (approx. 6+ hour) stretches
- Overnighters are made of 8 layers of absorbent organic cotton and 1 layer of up-cycled Stay-Dry fleece for moisture wicking
- You can use multiple Overnighters for heavy wetters (see below!)
- Overnighters are machine washable with your diapers, so no added work for you!
Customizable Absorbency
The beauty of cloth diapering at night is that you can customize absorbency based on how heavy of a wetter your baby is and/or how long your baby sleeps. If ever you find that one Overnighter isn't enough, you can try layering in a second Overnighter inside the Inner for added absorbency and see if that helps. If that works, great! If not, you can try adding in a third Overnighter (2 inside the Inner and 1 in between the Inner and Outer). We affectionately call this the “diaper lasagna”. 😂 Use as many as necessary while resting easy that they just get washed* and reused right along with your diapers, so no waste!
*Check out this blog post for everything you need to know about washing cloth diapers easily and effectively.
Other Things to Consider
We’ll close things by noting that in addition to these tips for overnight cloth diapering, you’ll also need to make sure that any skincare products you use with your cloth diapers (during the day and at night) are cloth-friendly. Using skincare products that are not cloth friendly can lead to greasy build-up on your diapers, which will cause them to no longer be absorbent. And as you might have guessed, lack of absorbency = leaky diapers! So make sure whatever you plan to use is cloth-friendly by checking out this blog post!
With these simple tips, you can rest easy knowing your baby will stay dry and comfy all night long, and you can save money and reduce waste with your cloth diapers while you enjoy a (hopefully peaceful) leak-free night!
Want to learn more?
Our co-founders host a free, virtual, Cloth Diapering 101 class every month to help cloth-curious parents get all the tools and information they need! You’ll learn:
- How to use the Esembly diapers and accessories
- How to easily and effectively launder your Esembly diapers
- The impact that your choice has on the planet, your wallet, and your day-to-day.
You'll leave with the confidence to Live Less Disposably and a 20% discount code to use on your first order. 🥳 We hope to see you there!
Sign Up for Our Next Cloth 101 Class
