It’s time for cloth diaper advice! If I’ve received a question, I will answer it on Monday and ask my lovely readers to add their two cents.
Questions don’t have to be cloth diaper related, just email maria at change-diapers.com with “Mailbox Mondays” in the subject, or fill out my contact form for readers, which you will always be able to find on my Contact Page.
Courtney M. says:
My LO is a heavy wetter & for nighttime we have to use Kawaii heavy wetters double stuffed with one or two hemp babies diaper doublers. They are soaked in the a.m. (but no leaks!) and they smell! I need some kind of solution that doesn’t involve ammonia or him being stuffed in a diaper so big he doesn’t move! any tips or suggestions? I’m hoping my days of middle of the night changes are over…
I have been down this path. Night time diapering & detergent were two two biggest pains for me! What works for us is a Knickernappies Superdo insert in a Bumgenius 4.0 pocket diaper. The Superdos are microfiber with hemp in the middle. They are far thinner than two microfiber inserts, but much, much more absorbent. Since they do have microfiber, they get stinky after a while. About once a month I used to bleach my inserts, then rinse rinse rinse. Since I started using a dab of Oxiclean in every load, I rarely have to do that anymore. Bleach does end up damaging natural fibers, so after two years of bleaching, my superdos have developed small holes on the inside/hemp part.
You said you are using hemp babies doublers, but you might consider using a full size hemp insert instead. Sandwiching hemp in between (or just under) microfiber works wonders, since the microfiber absorbs quickly, but the hemp locks the moisture in.
In general, natural fibers (bamboo, hemp, organic cotton) won’t get stinky over time like microfiber. However, when you’re talking about something that has been soaked in urine for 12 hours, It’s going to smell like ammonia when you take the diaper off. Having more absorbency will help, but getting a whiff of ammonia in the morning isn’t unusual when you’re no longer needing to change diapers at night.
So how about everyone else? Have you found a night time solution for a heavy wetter? Do you smell ammonia in the morning?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
This is a problem near and dear to my heart, too. My son would obliterate a BG 4.0 stuffed with two full-sized microfiber inserts with a Green Mountain full-sized hemp sandwiched in between by 1am. We just couldn’t make it work. So we went to a disposable at night and he peed them out. We purchased doublers for the special heavy-duty overnight disposables and he still wakes up wet. *sigh* Major liquid consumption is cut off by 3 or 4pm and we’re still struggling. It’s insanity.
Wool is the answer! Not just because I make and sell wool covers, but they honestly are much different than the PUL in that it is a natural fiber and when you pair it with a natural diaper (I use prefolds with a small prefold inside as a doubler, or flannel pocket diapers with a prefold stuffed inside. (they seem to wake less with the flannel, I don’t think it feels as wet). The wool is breathable, so I don’t get that strong ammonia smell in the a.m. I am always taken aback by the smell when I use PUL. To me the built up odor makes me think there’s bacteria trapped inside. Also with a wool cover, especially longies, they might eventually feel slightly damp on outside if you don’t stuff it enough or you have a heavy wetter (or compression wicking) but the bed will be dry. I love the breathability of wool, especially at night.
We use a microfiber pad wrapped around 7 layers of hemp (3 layers are long, and then there is a 2 layer that I fold in half toward the front) My son can still move, and it absorbs all his urine even on the heaviest day. Then in the morning, yes there will be some ammonia smells. I always rinse them a few times, and make sure the diaper pail isn’t air tight (it will make the smell much worse and make washing the diapers harder). As long as I do a good rise with them in the morning (I simply put them under warm water and squeeze them out a few times under the water, doesn’t take long, and it works wonders!) then I don’t have any smell issues. Hope that helps.
My almost 3 yr old wears diapers to bed, and if she drinks a lot in the evening, therefore pees a lot through the night I get the ammonia smell. I do laundry just about about every other day so the smell doesn’t seem to settle into them through washes.