ARBO said:
I am fed up with taped nappies, I am always prone to leaks at the back of the legs. And application is too variable.
I have used Abena M3 pull ups at night with 2 pairs of tight plastic pants. They last 10 hours without leakage if I use 2 stuffers of c.1000ml each. Any longer, any less, then I get leaks into my pants. I have tried the pull ups, without stuffers, inside a taped nappy. Waste of a nappy as once the gel is used in the pull up it becomes impermeable! Expensive solution anyway!
It's a matter of understanding wicking. Like you've found, all that SAP isn't useful if it forms a dam in the padding, preventing wetness from moving to dry areas of the pad.
Avoid diapers that swell a lot, because those are the ones with high sap. Look for diapers that are thicker to start with. Bambino Teddy is a good example, so are the comficare varieties. All of those start out thick, and while they do swell, it's not to triple their original size. This means there's more pulp in there to move the wetness around.
Those two sets also have better "corner coverage" - I'm referring to the back outside of the legs where you are getting your leaks when I say "corners". That's a very common place for diapers to leak, whether standing or laying on your back. Besides choosing a diaper that widens out rapidly out of the crotch to better cover the corners, the leak guards help too.
There's a third thing that can
really help corner leaks. After you put on your diaper, look in the mirror at the back. Is there a deep crease between your butt cheeks? That's a
bad thing. Unfortunately, it can be a challenge to prevent, especially during the day. The problem it's creating is that wetness that goes down into the crotch is channelled
away from the center of the diaper as it heads to the back, and out to the sides,
towards the corners. Spend some time working with your diaper as you are putting it on, pulling the corners IN a bit, and squaring out the back, so you have an unbroken "V" outward in the diaper, from front, through crotch, way into the back. That will REALLY help with your corner leaks. You may need to change your lower tape position a little.
I may add a few pics to my gallery here illustrating this later. It'd be peachy if they'd fix the inline images here.