www.incontinentsupport.org

Hey All,

Been a little while since my last post, although I’ve been lurking Work has been pretty crazy the last several months. I wanted to ask those who have night time issues, what does your setup consist of? I currently have a mattress protector (although I think it needs to be replaced, had one bad accident leak all the way through to our mattress , still need to figure out how to remove the stain). In addition to the mattress protector, I purchased a peapod mat. For those unfamiliar, it is essentially a reusable bed pad but with a soft towel-like feel. I am of course wearing a diaper (abena M4’s lately) at night as well. I don’t always like to use the Peapod mat as it can make things too warm, and it seems to be overkill the majority of the time, but I am side sleeper by nature so I like to have a backup layer of protection for the sheets. So, here’s my question, I know that cloth is better for side sleepers, but has anyone had luck with a disposable? The Abenas do ok, but I am definitely losing out on quality sleep because I’m so anxious about a leak. If you have night time issues, what does your set up look like? Plastic or PUL pants are another option I’ve tried, but again they aren’t the coolest temperature wise. Basically hoping for a system that would just allow, diaper and shorts (or at least as close as I can get). Any and all advice is definitely appreciated. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Regards,

Dallas

_________________
"It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.”
- Rose Kennedy

Hi Dallas!
If you are a heavy nighttime wetter and side sleeper, my opinion is that there’s no substitute for cloth. I use two nighttime thickness diapers and good quality plastic pants. Make sure that the diapers are snug but comfortable. Plastic pants over a disposable may help but only marginally. Once you leak past the disposable, the liquid will reside between two waterproof surfaces with nothing to absorb it, leaking to your bed with the first opportunity.
I use a good quality mattress pad as a backup but HAVE NOT leaked past the double diapers in a few years, even with flooding.
Women have the bulk of the diapers usually well compressed between their legs while on the side. Men likely have to be more careful with position but I believe cloth is by far the best choice.

When I'm at home and on short trips (no more than one overnight) I rely on double heavyweight birdseye nighttime diapers, a gauze or flannel lightweight pad, plus polyurethane pants. When I must travel for vacation or business I rely on heavyweight disposables, such as Dry 24/7, Molicare, or Abena, a disposable pad and urethane laminate pants. As long as all the cloth is covered, and stays covered, I do not have trouble with leakage. I am, however, a busy sleeper, and occasionally sleepwalk. When this happens, all protection guarantees are voided. At home I do not use a waterproof pad on my bed, because I have found it will be thrust aside after even one night.

Good luck finding what works for you.

I rely on two solutions. One is based on cloth and the other on disposable diapers.
First of all I do find cloth the best solution. It is the most absorbent and works very well for when you sleep on your side. For sure it is bulky, but it you can easily add or remove inserts depending upon the situation. When I have a very wet night I sometimes replace one or two inserts during the night. It works good. For sure you have to wear plastic pants.
When I use disposable diapers I do rely - funny enough - on a cheaper brand available on saveexpress.de. It is called "Seguna". I do find this one of the better diapers, great absorbancy, fits good and is really doing the job. I use the comfort slip maxi protection version (purple plastic). I do wear a cotton brief over it and then protected by a plastic pant. The additional cotton brief helps absorbing any leaks. So it must go really wrong before it leaves the plastic pants.
My bed has for sure bed protection. I have added a washable bed pad on top of it. This as additional matrass protection.
It sounds like a lot, but once you have the bed protected, it all works out pretty well. I hope this helps.
Cheers, Bob

Thanks for the advice everyone. It does seem like cloth is the gold standard for overnight dryness. I will be honest, I’ve been hesitant to pursue cloth diapers for a number of reasons: 1) I know next to nothing about them (sizing, type, what to order, etc.) 2) I’ve heard the start-up cost can be steep and 3) I try to be as private/independent as possible about my incontinence. My wife knows of course, but I try to largely handle things on my own. It probably doesn’t make sense but I feel like using cloth diapers would require more transparency, what with the washing and storage of used diapers. I’m happy to be proven wrong. Ultimately, I’m after a good, stress free nights sleep. I have my day time set-up largely under control, but night time not so much. I will check out the primer for some cursory information on cloth, but if anyone has any insider tips they’re willing to share then please let me know Thanks again, all!

Regards,

Dallas

_________________
"It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.”
- Rose Kennedy

Dallas,
I use cloth prefolds from ACD (mostly). I have a few dozen now, of various ages, with 10 in very good to excellent shape. I double diaper at night so that’s 5 sets, which is about right for me. The rest are less than very good shape to not so good.... These get used as daytime diapers, and get changed often for comfort. When double diapers get wet, I’m usually good until morning. When a single diaper gets wet, I try to change right away. If I’m outside in the Texas summer heat, in our private yard, I will sometimes double up for comfort. When I retire two or more diapers, I order new to replace. That means that after the initial investment, the maintenance cost is pretty small.
Abena M4 and 24/7 work for social activity where clothing would highlight a cloth diaper, but as I often wear a dress with a full skirt, a cloth diaper with a compression brief or hose is usually fine.
My suggestion to all wearing cloth is to launder ASAP. I will usually put soiled diapers in the washer with the door OPEN until the evening wash. I will usually wash them with colored if I don’t have enough for a white wash but always try to bleach and extra hot water at least every other wash to assure killing bacteria and to restore to bright white. I also use Borax additive regardless of color to cut odor.

For me I use a large reusable bed bad Im not a side sleeper usually sleep on my tummy or back I wear anything from Dry 24/7 Better Dry or Megamax Lately Been more Magamax then anything else. Our Mattress has a plastic cover over it Then a thick comforter and on my side an additional large bed pad under the top sheet just in case the one Im sleeping on fails

...........................Sandy

My bed protection is a 36" x 48" Champion brand (from Northshore Care Supply) reusable bed pad. Simple, but it's been totally effective the time or two it's been needed. As for my personal protection I use a 100% cotton pad (actually a WalMart 28"x28" Flour Sack Cloth) which I fold into six or eight layers and put into a premium pull-up like an Abena Abri-Flex. The cotton pad absorbs everything instantly and then transfers much of it to the pull-up. My voids are pretty small so even though this has worked well for me it may not for others. My thinking with this approach is that if I do wake up having to pee, which unfortunately is very rare, I can just pull everything down and use the toilet normally. Over all of that I wear a Gary PUL pant.

This is my new routine for home:
1. premium disposable (betterdry, 24/7)
2. thin pull-on cloth diaper to absorb any leaks
3. vinyl pant

Routine for travel: same as home. If I am on a long business trip, I will use towels instead of the cloth diaper and tip handsomely.

Up until about a few years ago, before I lost even more control and started wetting much more (flooding) at night, I’d use a Tena pull-up under a single cloth diaper sometimes at night. The idea being that the pull-up would catch a light to medium wetting (sometimes) and the cloth diaper with plastic pants would be backup. This worked pretty well and saved a lot of laundry. At that time, I would be able to tell if it was going to maybe be a light night. Since then, I lost most remaining control and every night is heavy flow.
There are times during days and nights, I feel the need to change it up a little and use a Tena Intimate pad in a Tena pull-up, which is what I sometimes use with snugger outfits, dress slacks, and such (about the same cost as a premium diaper). During the day, I’m pretty confident but at night, I make sure I have a underpaid under the bottom sheet, This combo is thinner everywhere other than where you need the absorbancy and cooler than a disposable diaper.
I run through cycles of depression so there’s a need to do things that get me out of the funk. One thing that will sometimes set me off is peeing down my legs and on the floor immediately after a shower while drying off or making a mess during changes. UTIs, skin infection does it too. There’s little worse than a nasty rash due to heavy leakage and perspiration in the Texas heat, thus double cloth whenever possible outside.