www.incontinentsupport.org

Got a question for you all. You know when you see a small child wearing a diaper, there's always a pocket at the bottom of the rear (which I always presumed was for collecting stool)? Does that pocket have a function for urine as well? I ask because when i wear a diaper at night it is a small size and there is little to no pocket. Is that pocket necessary to prevent leaks in case of a true flood? Should i consider switching to a medium size? I don't want too because the cost goes up and I'm such a short person that a medium would likely go up very high on my abdomen/chest.

While the pocket you mention, sometimes called "sag space" primarily provides space for feces for those of us who are bowel incontinent, it also provides room for urine to pool while being absorbed. Same for internal standing leak guards. While they are designed to keep fecal material away from the leg gathers, they also serve to keep urine over the absorbent mat of the diaper and away from the leg gathers while being absorbed. The sag space and internal standing leak guards work together to improve the diaper's efficiency.

If your diaper is so tight that it flattens the sag space ("pocket"), you may benefit from the next larger size diaper, provided that it fits you well. Note that the absorbent mat in the front of the diaper should come up to about your navel. The plastic will come above that and can be folded back into the front of the diaper.

--John

Last night I tried on a medium of Northshore Light from a sample pack I had hanging around. I had a real challenge getting it tight around my legs and didn't like the fact it came up to and maybe even a bit beyond my navel. a small size of ID Slip from xpmedical is a couple inches shorter than my navel and is the same size as my underwear. I'm a 30-31 inch waist so a medium with a range of 28-44 or whatever inches is super big on me.

I ditched the medium and put on a small.

G