When I began cloth diapering my daughter, I was quickly convinced of the benefits of cloth diapers and how easy daytime cloth diapering really was. But when it came to nighttime, I was afraid.
I didn’t want to risk waking my daughter (who was not a great sleeper) for unnecessary diaper changes and definitely did not want diaper leaks soaking through to her sheets and pajamas causing a huge mess in the middle of the night.
So What is the Best Overnight Cloth Diaper Solution?
It took me some trial and error, and a lot of networking with other cloth diaper moms, but in the end, three nighttime cloth diaper solutions stood out as the best overnight diapers. These three solutions continue to be the best fix for the many moms in the Cloth Diapers for Beginners community who have struggled with nighttime diapers.
All of the nighttime solutions I layout in this post are going to work with heavy wetters, Though the
Let’s take a closer look at the options:
EcoAble Hemp Fitted Diapers | Bummis Dimple Fitted Diaper | GroVia O.N.E | |
---|---|---|---|
Pros | -Cost-effective -Incredibly absorbent -Incredibly durable and long-lasting -Gets more absorbent over time -Natural fibers | -Most expensive option – Most absorbent option -Absorbent right out of the box -Organic and natural fiber mix (stay dry booster included) | -Least expensive option (cover included) -Very absorbent -One-piece, no diaper cover required -No prep is necessary -Two closure options for every diaper: Velcro or Snaps |
Cons | -Requires a diaper cover to be waterproof | -Requires a diaper cover to be waterproof -Fabric can show wear with frequent washing over years | – May require an additional insert for a heavy wetter -Contains synthetic materials |
Links | Check out the EcoAble Hemp Fitted Diaper on Amazon | Not Available Any Longer | Check out the O.N.E the GroVia Website |
The Bulletproof Cloth Diaper for Overnight
1. EcoAble Hemp Fitted Diaper
My favorite choice for a nighttime cloth diaper that will last all night are hemp fitted diapers, which you need to put under a good diaper cover (note: this should be a true diaper cover and not a swim diaper or a pocket diaper cover, which will not work for this style of diaper). Some of the best and most cost-effective hemp fitted diapers are the EcoAble Hemp fitted diapers.
Hemp is the most absorbent fabric used in cloth diapers, and fitteds are the most absorbent style of diapers. So it’s no wonder these fitteds are amazing!
EcoAble Hemp fitteds come with two snap-in hemp inserts that boost the body of the fitted diaper, which is also hemp. The material is made from a 55% hemp, 45% cotton blend. Though the hemp needs to be washed multiple times to reach full absorbency, once it’s prepped, you’ll be impressed with how much it can hold!
This hemp fitted diaper is our first choice for overnight because it can hold what even heavy-wetters can throw at it when paired with a good diaper cover. Virtually bulletproof under wool!
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The Best No-Prep Fitted Cloth Diaper for Overnight.
2. Bummis Dimple Diaper UPDATED: NO LONGER AN OPTION IN 2024
Sadly, Bummis diapers changed hands a few years ago, and while you could still get their dimple diaper used, they’re sold out in stores everywhere now.
If you can grab one used, grab it because they are the best nighttime nappies! But otherwise, I’m just waiting for another cloth diaper maker to make another zorb fitted diaper because they are definitely one of the best overnight diapers!
The first cloth diaper that got me through the night with my daughter was a zorb fitted diaper. These diapers were common a few years ago, and often labeled “dimple” diapers because of the dimples in later generations of zorb fabric (you can read more about zorb fabric here).
Because of changed product lines, and sold businesses, today it’s tough to find a dimple diaper, and the ones you can find are on the pricey side. With that said, they work! If you have a heavy wetter and need a diaper solution right now, without the prep that hemp involves, and with a softer fabric, zorb is a stellar option.
Bummis is the dimple diaper you can still find in some shops and on Amazon, and I know from experience that it’s a solid choice. The Bummis dimple diaper comes with a two-sided booster. One side of the booster has a stay dry polyester fabric on the outside, and the other side has organic cotton, so you can choose what’s next to baby’s skin.
You can check out the Bummis Dimple cloth diaper on Amazon here.
Best All-in-One Cloth Diaper for Overnight
3. The GroVia O.N.E
This is the least absorbent nighttime option I have for you, but I include it because you are still able to add a bit of absorbency to it to make it work well, and it’s the only option I have for you that comes with its own cover attached so it actually works out to be the lease-expensive option too (before additional inserts).
The
The materials used are:
- Hidden Inner Layer: 100% Polyester Microfiber
- Outer: 100% Water Resistant Polyester TPU
- Soaker: 100% Cotton topped with 100% Polyester Microfleece
- Body Lining: 100% Polyester Microfleece
- Outer: 100% Water Resistant Polyester TPU (Exclusive of Trim)
One of the best things about the O.N.E. Diaper has to be the “Outlast Closure.” The Outlast Closure is strip that lets you change the snaps into Velcro! So not only do you not have to choose between snaps or velcro, but if you love Velcro, and it wears out, you can order a replacement. Of course, the Velcro is less likely to wear out because you can remove them before washing. It’s so smart!
The Outlast Closure is so cool that it’s actually a big part of how the diaper got its name. The O.N.E stands for Outlast closure, No prep, and Easy to use.
It’s true that you don’t need to prep the O.N.E diaper, which fits babies from about 10 to 35-plus pounds. The O.N.E is also very well made, and
For older babies that are heavy wetters, you may need an additional insert with these, but you won’t need too much.
If you're looking for an all-in-one diaper strong enough for heavy-wetters during the day, or moderate-wetters overnight, this is the diaper you're looking for. GroVia's O.N.E is absolutely unmatched when it comes to all-in-one absorbency, and it's the only non-fitted diaper we recommend for overnight.
Bonus: One Nighttime Diaper Hack That Also Works!
While the options above are amazing, I get that they aren’t in everyone’s budget on day one of using non-disposable diapers. If you’re on a tight budget and need something to hold you until you can invest in a good nighttime diaper, I have a nighttime hack that will keep most smaller babies dry overnight.
This hack does require you to have some prefolds at your disposal and maybe some good cloth diaper inserts if baby is a heavy wetter, but you can easily get good prefolds for a few dollars a piece (recommendation below) that will work great.
The hack is to put either a good insert (info on what makes a cloth diaper insert good can be found here), or a small prefold inside of a large prefold that is then fastened around baby with a diaper fastener, thus creating your own overnight fitted diaper.
This sounds complicated in words, but I promise you can get the hang of it if you see it. Here’s a great video from newandgreen showing you the two different ways to put a prefold on a baby.
For this overnight diaper option, you’re going to do both if you’re using just prefolds. What I mean is that you’ll use two prefolds; a pad folded prefold (the second fold in the video) inside of a Snappi fastened prefold (the first fold in the video). OR you can lay an absorbent insert like a hemp or bamboo insert inside the Snappi folded prefold diaper (again the first fold in the video), before attaching it to baby.
To put it another way, you’re doing the Snappi fold on your prefold but instead of using it alone, you’re putting either another prefold or an extra insert inside of it before doing it up.
Using two prefolds like this, one small one padfolded and placed inside a larger one that’s wrapped around baby, will give you something that acts like a fitted. Though it will make your baby’s bum roughly the size of Texas, it should get you through until you’re able to move on to some overnight-worthy fitteds. Don’t forget that, just like fitteds, prefolds must be used under covers to work.
What Prefolds Do You Recommend for The Nighttime Hack?
For the typical cotton prefold, I most often recommend OsoCozy prefold diapers. OsoCozy actually has two types of prefolds available: “Traditional” and “Better Fit”.
Their traditional prefolds are what I recommend for the Snappi fold, whereas the better fit ones in infant size are perfect for pad folding and using as inserts.
Here’s how the two sizes look compared to one another:
If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, get the traditional fold only, and pad fold the diaper vertically so that the thicker absorbent middle panel is only in the middle and the thinner sides hit the front and back of the diaper (it will make sense when you’re holding it, I promise; just fold it the opposite way of the lines, making it shorter).
Check out OsoCozy prefolds on Amazon here, or learn more about them in my post on prefold diapers here.
What are the Best Diaper Covers for Overnight?
As you just read, fitteds and DIY fitteds are great for nighttime.
The problem is that all of these options need a diaper cover.
While a generic diaper cover can get you through most daytime situations, for overnight where the diaper may be wet for a long time, I recommend a good quality cover from a solid brand like Best Bottom or Thirsties.
That means you may need a few more over the span of your cloth diapering career to cover baby from birth to potty, but what you get in return is a diaper that fits great, and can easily accommodate a bulky nighttime fitted diaper when you need one.
Another option, and the one I recommend for those cloth diapering heavy wetters, is a wool cover. Wool diaper covers do require special care. Luckily, you don’t need to wash a wool cover often, in fact, if it’s just used for overnight cloth diapers a wool cover only needs washing every few weeks or when soiled.
The unique part of washing them is that hey require lanolin to be applied to them to make them water-resistant. The process isn’t as difficult as it sounds, and it does come with a big payoff, in that wool covers keep everything contained by both repelling water and absorbing it. It’s strange, but it works like crazy.
You can get some wool cover 101 information here.
A few of the better brands of wool covers include Disana and our friend EcoAble Cloth Diapers. Or if you knit or crochet there are tons of free patterns online as well.
How Many Overnight Diapers Do I Need?
Bedtime diapers are not cheap, but thankfully unlike daytime diapers where you’ll need a significant number of diapers, you don’t need many of them to fit into any cloth diaper routine. To work out exactly how many you need for each of your babies will depend on a few things:
- How often you wash your cloth diapers laundry
- How often your baby wakes during the night, especially if they are sensitive to wetness
So as you can expect, you want to ensure you have enough for all of the nights that will pass between washes, as well as maybe one or two extra just for emergencies like an illness that causes more dirty diapers, a broken washing machine, etc.
With the overnight cloth diaper options I discuss in this post, you shouldn’t need more than one diaper per night, but of course, baby’s sleep schedule and comfort level (sleeping in a wet diaper) will ultimately be the deciding factor for how many you need per night.
FAQ
How Can I Keep Moisture Off My Baby’s Skin Overnight?
To keep some wetness of your baby’s skin, and help relieve any moisture sensitivity that can be aggravated at night, using a fleece cloth diaper liner is recommended.
Luckily you can DIY yourself a stack of fleece liners inexpensively and without sewing (instructions here).
Can You Use Disposable Diaper Inserts for Overnight?
Absolutely! That said, many disposable diaper inserts for cloth diapers fail overnight for some heavy wetters as they won’t hold as much as a hemp fitted diaper.
The thirstiest disposable diaper insert is GroVia’s Disposable BioSoaker pads, which are used with their hybrid diaper cover.
What Are the Best Overnight Diapers for Belly Sleepers?
The best overnight diapers for belly sleepers are the overnight diapers mentioned above, but with an extra step or two. Specifically, you’ll want to place the extra inserts you get with your GroVia O.N.E or EcoAble fitted diaper in the front of the diaper., laying it horizontally, across your baby’s lower tummy. This will put the extra absorbency right where you need it.
If you’re using the overnight prefold hack (see above for details), try folding your outer prefold in a way that puts the absorbency in the front. Both the diva fold or the newspaper fold would work well; I have instructions on both prefold diaper folds here.
What are the Best Nighttime Diapers for Toddlers?
If you’re buying your first nighttime diaper for your toddler, I’d recommend the EcoAble fitted diaper and a cover I mention above because it has the most absorbency of all the products available and your need for absorbency will only increase as they get older.
What are the Best Overnight Cloth Diaper for 3 Year Old?
Preschool-age overnight diapering naturally gets a little harder as their bladders are bigger, they’re drinking more, and they’re usually sleeping for longer stretches at night.
With this comes the need for LOTS of absorbency, and so the much thirstier EcoAble Hemp fitted diaper is best; potentially one or two extra hemp boosters if they are a very heavy wetter.
Alternatively, switching to bedwetting pants early may be an option.
What’s an Overnight Cloth Diaper for 5-Year Old and Up?
typically around 4 or 5 years of age your kiddo is past the age where these overnight cloth diapers will fit and hold enough even with boosters, so I suggest looking into bedwetting pants.
I’ve tried a ton, and by far the best solution was Mother Ease Bedwetting pants, which FAR outperform even nighttime disposable pull-ups.
April Duffy
April is the founder of Cloth Diapers for Beginners and author of The Cloth Diaper Wash & Care Handbook. Since 2015, April has helped well over 75,000 parents and caregivers cloth diaper their children through this website, her book, her YouTube Channel, and the Cloth Diapers for Beginners Facebook Group.Save Your Sanity and Avoid Diaper Smells and Rashes with This Easy-To-Follow Digital Handbook. This Ultimate Wash and Care Guide Will Give You the Step-By-Step Coaching Your Mom Group Can't Provide!