Cloth Trainers #5

Unfortunately for Tate, I think he inherited my family's bed-wetting gene. I know it is common for kids to wet the bed until age 5, but he has always been a heavy wetter and nighttime is the worst. We have always struggled to find nighttime cloth solutions for him. Now he is a big 4 1/2 year old and he doesn't want to wear cloth diapers (not that we have any that fit). 
It has been months since Tate has had a dry morning, so regular underwear isn't an option. In our experience, most commercial cloth trainers we have tried aren't absorbent or large enough to accommodate extra absorbency. The key word is "trainer" and we need a super absorbent pull-up. I'm sure there are others that struggle with this, so I thought I would share what finally found that works for us... most of the time.

All of the free patterns I found online were for smaller kids (size 2-3T). I tried drafting my own, but I couldn't ever get the dimensions just right. I made one for Mayer using my own pattern and the fit was weird, so I abandoned the idea of using it to make Tate one. I really like this pattern, but I needed to modify it to make it work.

The pattern piece on top is the original size, a 3T. I printed the pattern, then used my printer to enlarge it to the size I wanted. I think I enlarged it 110% to get approximately a size 5T/ child's small.
To get enough absorbency for Tate, we have to add a toddler prefold inside the pull-up. I added 1" to the rise of the pattern to accommodate the extra length and bulk.

I never followed the tutorial, I just used the pattern. I have made three different versions. All are made from t-shirt scraps, Babyville Boutique PUL and a bamboo 2 layer soaker in the front. The pattern/ tutorial says to put the absorbent layer in the middle, but since I have boys, I decided to put it in front.

 

The first version is made from two layers t-shirt scraps and Babyville Boutique PUL with two layers of bamboo in front. The pull up on the left has FOE (Fold over elastic) on top, but the one on the right just has a knit waistband. Since the side panels are just 2 layers of t-shirt material, they will leak if you have a heavy wetter. When Mayer does potty at night, it isn't enough to get the sides wet. We usually stick a hemp or cotton insert in to help with absorbency. Tate is a heavy wetter and even stuffed with a toddler prefold, he still has to wear his under fleece pants or shorties or the bed gets wet.

This pair is my favorite because he can wear this pair without an extra fleece cover. I made it the same as the other pair, except I covered the side panels with microfleece scraps I had. It is super stretchy and goes on easy.

This pair was requested by Tate. He wanted a solid orange pair. I covered the side panels with the same Babyville Boutique PUL as I use in the center. Since the PUL doesn't stretch as much as the microfleece, it is a little harder to pull this version up.