There comes a stage in every baby’s life when their nappy starts leaking at night. I don’t know if it’s down to a growth spurt or one of the many leaps they go through, but one of the most common questions I see in mum groups is how to stop the nappy leaking at night. We literally all go through this!
Through trial and error, and having had two baby boys, there are a number of things you can try to stop the nappy leaking at night (or at nap time!) Read on to find out how!
Baby’s nappy leaking at night?
It’s usually at around 8 to 10 months old that babies start waking up during the night because their nappy has leaked. It can also disturb nap times too, which isn’t great if you’re already going through the 9 month sleep regression.
There are a number of reasons why babies start leaking through their nappies, including quicjly growing, being able to move and wriggle around a lot more (thanks Leap 7!) and also just nature coming to bite you on the bum after thinking you’ve finally got your baby into a good routine!
If your baby’s nappy is suddenly leaking at night, or during nap time, here are some tricks you can try to get back to normal.
Size up
The obvious thing to do is to size up! If your baby’s nappy is leaking at night and certainly if it’s happening during nap time, it may be time to get a bigger sized nappy to hold in all that extra wee!
Sizing up tends to need to happen during the early stages of the weaning process, during growth spurts and just after their 1st birthday.
Change brand
If you’ve tried sizing up and the nappy is still leaking at night, try changing the brand. Sometimes brands change the design of their nappies and they go from having the best fit ever to suddenly not working quite as well.
Every baby (and every Mum!) has their own preferences on brand, but if you’re suddenly finding that your usual brand is causing leaking problems, try another one instead.
We swore by Tesco’s own brand and also loved Mamia by Aldi.
Avoid wearing a vest at night
I know it sounds bizarre, but when your baby wears a vest with poppers and they’re suddenly wriggling around in their sleep more and more, this can put more pressure on the nappy and cause the liquid it’s holding to leak out.
Before every nap time and before bed, I always removed vests with poppers and found this really worked a treat. This is harder to do during those cooler winter months though, so try an extra t-shirt underneath their pyjamas instead.
Try a more absorbent nappy
Did you know you can stick to the same sized nappy, but add extra absorbency? That’s what the + symbol on the pack means.
If baby definitely doesn’t need to size up, but leakage is a problem, adding a + sized nappy into your changing station will help.
We used 4+ for nap times and night times and kept the usual size 4s for during the day while our babies were 8-10 months old and this really helped stop the nappy leaking at night.
Dream change
If you’ve tried all of the above and baby is still waking up screaming in the middle of the night because their nappy has leaked, try a dream change.
This won’t work for every baby – some will wake up when you try to change them and it’s impossible to ever get them back to sleep again – but for some it’ll be a game changer.
Just before you go to bed yourself, give them a quick nappy change – as gently as you can. This should mean that by the time they wake up in the morning, their nappy won’t have leaked!
Nappies leaking at night won’t last forever
I hope the tips above help you to stop your baby’s nappy leaking at night, but just remember, this phase won’t last forever.
Before you know it, you’ll be potty training your baby and they’ll be a fully fledged toddler who can control their own bladder and leaking nappies will be a thing that existed long in the past!
If you have any of your own tips and tricks to share with readers, do let us know below!