www.incontinentsupport.org

So, general life update on me for incontinence management. About 5 months ago, I made the decision to start using cloth diapers again. Only this time, I did something that I have not done before on a regular basis. I wore flat diapers layered with boignos and snappis. The idea was to cut costs. Overall, it has been a worthwhile experience. But the preparation of flats and contours by adding extra powder and getting the right fold etc just wasn't convinent, and finding diaper covers that cover a flat diaper completely drove me a little insane. I found a product that does it, but the cost is pretty high, higher than the diaper cover on ECOABLE. The plastic pants I originally wore with my flats/contours was one I puchased years ago, and just seemed to be high maintenance and not practical. You could only hand wash it, and had to hang dry it. With my Ecoable diaper covers and Incontrol rompers, i worry less about damaging them. So, contours and flats still have a use, but its more obscure than I once thought, given my obvious prefrence for snap on ecoables, which might make the higher price per diaper worth it for the conviencene and ease of use. I have an inventory of 10 Ecoable fitted diapers and they are used very frequently at work. They are also used for extended wear out of the house. I know the idea was to save money and go with flats and contours, but the lack of stay dry liners was more problematic than I thought it would be. I still ended up spending money on the higher priced cloth diapers, so in the end, I don't know if I saved any money by going with flats vs fitted. Using snappis has been a very interesting journey, and it works well when flats and contours are used. I will say that the flat diaper when worn and wet gave sensations of sliding down which made me nervous. Its a different expereince than ive had with disposable products and even other cloth diapers I have worn. So I think that was a turnoff. I think my current preferred setup with the traditonal cloth in my inventory would be a flat folded and placed inside a contour diaper, or pockets stuffed with flats. I bought 4 pocket diapers from ecouable and 1 of the updated size. I don't use it as often as I thought I would when I bought it. Perhaps its because pockets require one to stuff each diaper with inserts. I prefer instead to just snap in the insert, put in a prefold, and put on the fitted. There's also less inserts to buy with fitteds. IF you want to layer absorbency you need the pocket diaper plus the number if inserts you want to use. For roughly the same absorbency but better coverage , I could wear a fitted plus snap in plus an ecoable prefold, and overtop a contour with snappis. It would probably be even more absorbent. Not to mention the inserts wont shift.

I recently realized that it would probably be more practical to have a mix of cloth use and disposable use rather than exclusively cloth. Frequent washing of cloth products has led to some escapades, and it makes sense to have some disposables on hand while I sort out an effective wash routine. To that end, I bought a case of Better Dry, and I sampled Better Dry day off LL Medico. Also, apparently XP Medical and LiveAnew ALSO carry both Better Dry Day and the Better Dry pullups. I really have been pleased with better dry for the most part. The case price was a good compromise without sacrificing performance, and the topsheet was comfortable. It's only when the price went up I stopped buying them regularly. Confidry was my go to before I discovered better dry but product changes made recently resulted in inconsitent quality. I found the backsheet to not be as comfortable. I occasionally use Northshore care, but less so than XP medical primarily because they don't include shipping in the case price. But, it looks like their products are very well made with higher dryness levels than the brands I've been using according to RWI, so they may be worth a second look for occasional use. I even may consider investing in a few cases of MegaMax at work since they kept the skin the driest. My incotninence is more moderate to heavy than heavy to complete, but because one of my episodes can be like niagra falls, I feel most secure in the more expensive max absorbency products, even though it might be overkill most of the time. No product is overkill if it give you peace of mind. Your peace of mind, confidence and self esteem when managing incontinence are priceless.

Peace out!

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"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II

Reviews such as this make this site so valuable, both to newbies and to veterans. Thank you.

So true! I wear TENA Ultimate Extra pull-ups during the day for just in case. A few days ago I did have a F-IC episode, which was barely contained. But had I worn no protection or undies + guard, that F-IC would have been so much more horrible. Thanks for the report.

My absolute pleasure Patrick! In fact, one of my hopes for the non profit im founding is to have a part of the program's emphasis be on education and awareness of quality products to manage incontinence not found in stores. I want to spread the word far and wide that there's a whole world out there other than Depend and store brand. Seriously! I recall speaking to a man who was retired who had overflow incontinece with really really heavy voids and NOTHING in the stores contained his output. That makes me mad that people don't know about Northshore, Beyond, Confidry and the like.

Peace out!

_________________
"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II