Getting the Most from Your Best Bottom Diapers

Best Bottoms are a well-loved, smart, cloth diapering solution. Designed to achieve all of the “pros” of other cloth diaper systems while cutting out the cons, they consist of a one-size diaper cover and sized (Small, Medium, Large) absorbent inserts that snap to the cover. The best thing to me about Best Bottoms is how compact they are. This has three wonderful implications for cloth diapering:

1. They are SUPER EASY to wash! There is a lot less to wash in a cycle with Best Bottoms than with any other system I’ve tried (prefolds, pockets, fitteds, etc.) You only have to wash the shell when it is soiled (if it’s just wet, you can wipe it and air dry), so usually the wash is just a trim pile of inserts and a handful of covers!
2. The TRAVEL really well. This is the least bulky system for traveling. (Flats may be comparable, but I haven’t tried those yet!)
3. They are TRIM on baby! Baby’s butt will be a lot less “fluffy” in a Best Bottom than in a prefold or fitted, and pants and shorts will fit Baby better!
   

Whether you’ve just decided to give them a try or have been using them for awhile, here are a few tips for getting the most out of your Best Bottom Diapers!

Save Money Overnight
You may not need to purchase overnight inserts for your Best Bottoms in order to make them work for overnight. If you’ve already purchased Small and Large Inserts, you may have everything you need on hand to use Best Bottoms overnight!!

You likely will not need Small Overnight Inserts at all, as you’ll be changing baby so frequently when they are teeny tiny that absorbency probably won’t be an issue. If you’ve already purchased Small Overnight Inserts, do not fret! They are an excellently absorbent option that can be used when baby is bigger and in need of more absorbency! 

For a boy, more absorbency is needed in the front of the diaper. Snap one snap of a Small Insert to the front snap of the shell. Then, snap one snap of a Large Insert to the rear snap of the shell. The Large Insert will cover the Small Insert. You have now added extra absorbency right where Baby Boy needs it, without adding rear bulk! Give this a try and see if it works for you for overnight! This combination is a perfect place to use your small overnight inserts!

  
For a girl, more absorbency is needed in the middle of the diaper. Lay a Small Insert in between the snaps of the shell. Then, snap a Large Insert over the Small Insert. The Large Insert will be snapped on both ends and will completely cover the small insert. You now have added absorbency right where Baby Girl needs it, without adding extra bulk!

 If the For a boy or For a girl suggestions are not absorbent enough for your baby, you can also try combining two regular Large Inserts in the shell. Snap one insert in, and then lay the second insert over it. You will not have the advantage of being able to snap both inserts in, as you would be able to with an Overnight Insert combined with a regular insert, but this option may be absorbent enough for your child!

 If none of these combinations work for your child overnight, then you’ve proven to yourself that it is indeed time to try Overnight Inserts!

How to use Best Bottoms on a Heavy Wetter
Some kids are just Heavy Wetters! If you find a regular insert of the appropriate size just isn’t cutting it for your child (i.e. they leak through within an hour to an hour and a half), there are a few things you can try!

First off, if you are using Small or Medium sized inserts, try stepping up to the next size. You may need to fold the insert down a bit until Baby grows larger (For Stay-Dry inserts, make sure you always fold so fleece is touching Baby’s skin, NOT the microfiber back, which can be irritating!).

If you are already using the Large inserts, check out the tips above for Overnight Diapering. These are excellent solutions for heavy wetters that still maintain trimness!

Little boys can have more issues with leaking than little girls. Make sure his little boy parts are directed appropriately towards the insert when you diaper! I had a brief stage with my son where he would leak out the side, particularly during naps. I was using a Large Insert, which was a little bulky on him at the time, so his parts had space to move around which caused the leaking. During that brief phase, I found that stuffing the shell with a tri-folded small or medium prefold for naptime was the best solution for us! Prefolds are super absorbent, and because they are bulkier, they will fold around Baby Boy’s parts and help contain leaks! They are also a cheap way to ‘bulk up’ your cloth diaper stash!

 If you have a really, really heavy wetter, it’s probably time to start thinking about combining Hemp and Stay-Dry Inserts. Keep the Stay-Dry Insert next to Baby, as the microfiber absorbs really quickly, and below it use a regular or overnight Hemp Insert. The Hemp is very thirsty and will absorb a ton, but it will absorb more slowly than microfiber. So, as Baby pees, it will be absorbed quickly by the microfiber, then the hemp will start to suck it out of the microfiber. Then, when Baby pees again, it can be absorbed quickly again! You can try using the tips found in the Overnight Diapering section above for combining Hemp and Stay-Dry Inserts.

Snaps vs. Hook & Look
You’ll hear it said that moms prefer snap closures and dads prefer hook and loop. This was definitely true in our home until Baby Boy got to be about 6 months old and VERY ACTIVE! Unfortunately, I had purchased all Snap Best Bottom covers and only ONE Hook & Loop (for my hubby).

My recommendation to friends nowadays is that they purchase a combination of Snap and H&L closure Best Bottoms covers. Snaps are great for baby who likes to undo their hook & loop diapers, as mine does, but Hook & Loop can be faster to get onto a wriggly, crawly toddler! And you can always pull a pair of shorts or pants over a H&L diaper to deter diaper removal! Definitely purchase more of the type of closure you think you’ll prefer, but choose two or more of the other option as well! I think an ideal set for our family would be five or six Snap covers and three or four Hook & Loop covers. Once Baby gets older and wriggly, they don’t poop as often, so even if you want to use your three H&L shells all day long, you’ll probably be able to!

I hope you found at least one pearl to take away from this post. Please let us know if you have any other great Best Bottom tips! 

Guest Blogger, Lauren, is a stay-at-home mom in Madison, Wisconsin. She lives with her husband, their 14 month old son, and baby number two is on the way! She started cloth-diapering her son the week he came home from the hospital and became even more of an expert in cding while working at the Nicki's Diapers retail store in Madison.

Finding an Overnight Diaper

One of the most common challenges that cloth diapering presents is finding an overnight diaper that doesn't leak on your little one. Even though I'm on my 3rd baby, I still sometimes struggle to find a cloth diaper that will hold Emmett all night long! His ever changing sleep pattern makes that an even bigger challenge as one night he will sleep 12 hours straight (ok, this actually only happened twice) and the next night he'll wake up and nurse 4-5 times per night. No wonder I love coffee...

Anyhow, I digress...

My first son, Ian, did very well with pocket diapers overnight. When we first started cloth diapering, the only diapers we owned were BumGenius One-Size Pocket Diapers. Back then the 3.0 version was all that was available, but you can now purchase the 4.0 version. He only needed the one-size microfiber insert and 2 of the newborn inserts stuffed into the pocket to hold him for 12 hours! As my love for cloth diapers grew, we later tried out several other brands, including Happy Heiny's, Swaddlebees, and Fuzzi Bunz. All of these with an extra microfiber insert or two worked great overnight for Ian!

Then along came my little Sean. Sean was a heavy wetter from very early on and we had to try several different diapers before finding one that worked for him overnight. Sean was an awesome sleeper, sleeping for 10-12 hours per night from about 6 weeks on. That means he needed something heavy duty! We ended up having 2 options that we could use interchangeably. The first option was a Best Bottom One-Size Cover. I preferred the hook & loop version for overnight, it's super adjustable. We snapped an overnight insert in the cover first, and topped it off with a stay-dry insert. Another option that worked very well for him was almost any brand of one-size pocket diaper with a one-size microfiber insert and a large hemp insert. I found the Happy Heiny's Hemp Stuffins to be really great for little boys. You can stuff a couple extra hemp ovals in the pocket of the insert and put that end in front, just where boys need it!

When Emmett came along, I thought I had it all figured out! A pocket diaper with some inserts was bound to work, wasn't it? Not so much! When I say Emmett can pee, I mean Emmett can pee. Somewhere in that tiny body of his is an adult sized bladder. No amount of inserts stuffed in a pocket diaper can hold Emmett overnight. I did find a combination with my trusty Best Bottom Diapers that works, though! Best Bottom Diapers now offers a hemp/organic cotton overnight insert when once they only had a microfiber insert available. I pair this with a stay-dry insert and this will hold. Phew! But I wanted more options. I love using my BB's during the day and sometimes don't have enough shells to use them overnight as well. Then I discovered fitted diaper love! A fitted diaper is unique in that unlike a pocket diaper where just an insert absorbs, the entire fitted diaper is absorbent. Another great thing about fitted diapers is that the vast majority of them are made out of hemp or bamboo, both ultra absorbent materials! I have 2 go-to fitteds that when covered with a wool diaper cover are bullet-proof. The Imagine One-Size Bamboo Fitted and Kiwi Pie Bamboo fitted both are absorbent enough that I don't even need to add an additional doubler! Why wool you ask? Wool is great for overnight and especially for heavy wetters because it's breathable, anti-microbial (you only need to wash it about every 2 weeks!), and it can also absorb when your diaper is soaked.

So don't get discouraged if you have to do some experimenting before finding an overnight option for your child. Even us CD "pros" have to do some trial and error! If you've found an overnight solution for your child, feel free to share in the blog comments!