Fabric suggestions please?

[Mermaidgrrrl]

Our 6 week old son seems to be a huge wetter. I made a whole heap of fitteds out of flanelette and old towels in the soaker part and he wets through them easily. That part isn't neccesarily surprising since it's only cotton, but we've started adding a microfibre trifold under the soaker pad and a microfibre booster with microfleece topping against his skin and he still soaks them! He's in lanolised wool covers all the time - we're not so keen on the PUL ones we bought. We've tried him in prefolds with Bummi's covers, but he soaks right through them within 2 hours too and they're not as easy to boost without being absolutely chunky beyond belief on his little body. I like a big clothy bum but once it gets too chunky he won't be able to fit in any of his clothes.

He has a nappy leak through to his clothes at least once a day. I know it's that he pees a huge amount because he leaks right out of dispies too when we've had them on him for trips! We are worried now about going interstate next week because we're planning to put him in dispies for the week and they leak all the time and I'm considering having to boost them with those thin menstrual pads to make them last for his sleeps!

My question is - what is the most absorbant fabric I can buy to make some more fitteds with? We love the fitteds because they're easy to put on, look nice, hold the runny poos and wash easily. The wool covers work really well and we want to stick with them so that means fitteds as well. Should I buy hemp or bamboo? I intend to use microfibre boosters in them since I already have them and I think they distribute the wee better once it hits the rest of the nappy. Any advice is received gratefully!

xxx Anastasia

[maya's mum]

Wow sounds like he certainly is a big wee-er. I would go bamboo and something pretty heavy duty like a fleece, check the gsm and get the heaviest you can. Bamboo Velour might be OK too, again check the weight.

[kermi]

I'm using bamboo as much as possible on my heavy weeing 8wk old at the moment Anastasia...
But even then, I still have to add extra boosters.
If you can get 2 hours out of a nappy on a newborn you're doing well... Joel wees through one in under 5 mins..

[Peach_Bums_Mum]

Microfibre is the most absorbant fabric for weight, but most people think bamboo is the most absorbant natural fabric, though hemp is a close second Some people dont like to use microfibre as a sewn in component of nappies cause its a synthetic which some find needs more thorough cleaning than natural fibres. However, some people sew in microfibre with no issue as all. Goodluck
eta - I was also gonna say 2 hours on a newborn is a reasonable time imho

[Mermaidgrrrl]

I thought two hours was quick to pee through all those layers - I guess it's the average The problem is that I don't like to wake him to change him if he's sleeping longer than that - he hates being changed so much and screams and screams. Not a happy nudist at all!

I think I'll make the bodies out of a layer of microfibre snadwiched in flanelette. Then the sides are still thin (at the moment our sides are two layers of flanelette) so they're easy to put elastic into, put the snaps on and not chunky at the sides under clothing. Then I'll make the soaker part out of bamboo I think and use our microfibre boosters with the microfleece top still. I'll make 5 that way and if they work well make another 15 or so. We love our cloth and want it to work the best way possible for our little fella!

[dacarpenter2002]

Our dd has been very similar, wet through in just one wee... We have gone all bamboo, the higher the percentage the better we have found ( ie 85-95% bamboo and only 5-15% cotton or poly) Only downside is the longer drying time of bamboo because of its absorbancy... we have been fully boosting BBBs since she fitted into them at a few weeks. all our home made fitteds quickly changed to bamboo, and using wool wraps over the top.

[Panini]

Anastasia,

I would do atleast one full body layer in hemp or bamboo as this gives you more surface area for absorbtion, flannelette holds very little, this will still give you a trim nappy. Then put lots of layers in the soaker/booster. Be careful with the microfibre boosters that they dont touch bubs skin.

If you have seen baby beehinds bamboo or hemp nappies - they have two full body layers of bamboo, then one two layer foldover soaker (4 layers) plus another short 2 layer soaker. So a total of 8 layers in the wetzone. You need to be aiming for this.

While microfibre is very absorbent it is also very thin so I think you would need atleast twice as many layers compared to hemp to match the absorbency.

With disposables put him in the biggest size that will still contain around his legs. The bigger they are the more area for absorbtion.

While you are still experimenting it might be worth using the PUL covers atleast while you are out and about. They contain leaks a lot better. I found that in PUL the whole nappy could be saturated before they leak but in wool often only the wetzone was wet through and they would leak.

Our main leaks happened if bubs did a poo quickly followed by a wee. The poo coated the nappy so the wee couldnt be absorbed so just leaked out, often taking some poo with it = very big mess! This was the same problem in cloth and disposables.

Good luck,
Shara

[mumstheword]

How do you know if bubs is a heavy wetter? I think mine is but not sure.

[Mermaidgrrrl]

Thanks for the suggestions Shara! I'll keep that in mind when I start to pump out my bamboo fitteds.

I wish I could put him in a bigger size of dispy for our trip, but because he was a bit early and is tall and slender I suspect buying anything bigger than the newborns would be a waste of money because his thighs and belly are quite slender really. Opposite to his mummy!

Sounds like I'll be pulling out the PUL's in the meantime and ordering some bamboo fabric. I'll have to convince my partner to use the PUL's though - she really loves the wool and doesn't like the feel of the Whisper wrap covers at all.

[kermi]

What about a size bigger in the cloth nappy Anastasia?

I've just put Joel in a med Keester Kover for the night (upon the suggestion of one of the other members...) and it fits him with a little extra stuffing! He's nearly 6kg now. I'm hoping to see how long that holds him tonight but I'm sure it would be great for our next looooong drive. (I will be doing an hour and a half drive on Wednesday with him so will bring some of the larger ones for that.....)
Just a thought.....