Once babies start sleeping for longer stretches of time overnight, you might find that their regular daytime diaper just isn’t up for the job and starts leaking. Now I’m a fan of clean sheets, but I do hate having to wash urine-soaked sheets every single night. Leaky diapers are the worst, right? And you certainly don’t want your baby to wake up at night just because of a wet diaper! That baby (and their Mama) needs some sleep.
A good sign that it’s time for an overnight diaper is when your normal daytime diaper is handling its job during the day but not at night. If you’ve got leaking issues during the daytime and at nighttime, you’ve probably got a diaper fit issue you need to solve first. But if you’ve just got an absorbency issue, it might be time to think about an overnight diaper.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
Your baby might be ready for an overnight diaper once they start sleeping for longer stretches at night. Gasp, sleeping through the night is possible! If your baby’s regular diaper brand is working during the day, but leaking at night, that’s a pretty good sign it’s time to consider an overnight diaper.
An overnight diaper is a diaper designed to hold more liquid! Most overnight diapers will add more absorbent material which can make the diaper a little “fluffier” or less trim.
Overnight diapers are designed to hold more liquid. When babies sleep longer at night, you need a diaper that can hold all that urine. If your regular everyday diaper is up for the task of overnights, then great! But if you find your regular diaper isn’t quite enough to get through the night without leaking, it might be time for an overnight diaper.
Nope! If your regular everyday diaper is still doing its job overnight, then you are good! All diapers are designed with the hope of being good enough for daytime AND nighttime. But some babies (especially as they get older) pee more and need more absorbency at night.
If you find your baby’s diaper is leaking or overfull only at night, it may be time to consider an overnight diaper. Overnight diapers will hold more wetness than a regular diaper.
You need your baby’s diaper to fit. Most parents buy their normal size diaper or one size bigger. Bigger diapers have more absorbency (think bigger “real estate” for soaking up those fluids), but you don’t want it to be too big that it can’t cinch tightly around the legs and waist. Use your judgement here. If you’re about to grow out of size 3, you could try size 4 overnight diapers and see if they work yet. But if you just started using size 3 diapers, you’ll probably want to try size 3 first.
Just like with regular diapers, you may need to try a variety of overnight diaper brands to find the best fit for your baby. Every brand varies in their fit and absorbency, so you may need to try a few to find the best fit for your baby.
NO! Surprisingly, most diaper brands do not make overnight versions of their diapers! Every diaper brand wants to be the favorite for all of the time, and only a few make a targeted overnight diaper. Top brands making overnight diapers are Huggies, Pampers, Amazon's Mama Bear, Hello Bello, Target’s Up & Up and Walmart’s Parent’s Choice.
Pro tip: you can make ANY diaper more absorbent by adding a Sposie booster to it. Think of it like an extra pad of absorbency you can slip into your baby’s normal diaper. What a clever idea. I sure wish I had invented it.
If your regular everyday diaper doesn’t make an overnight version, fear not! You can always use another brand’s diaper for overnight (it’s totally allowed). OR you can add a Sposie booster to your current diaper and see if that added boost of absorbency is enough to get you through the night.
Our favorite overnight diaper brands include Huggies Overnites, Pampers Swaddlers Overnight, Mama Bear Overnight, Hello Bello Nighttime, Up & Up Overnight and Parent’s Choice Overnight. You can try an Overnight Diaper Sampler Package to try each brand side-by-side and compare to find your favorite.