Kids vs. Adults night wetting dynamics

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perlFerret

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I was recently thinking about how goodnites or even tape-on overnight baby diapers manage not to leak when worn by kids in the appropriate age range.

So what makes adults different? Kids can roll around all night and wet in all different positions and not leak but adults have to be careful to only wet on their backs, etc. Etc. Lest they leak. What gives? What's the different dynamic?

I think it'd be awesome to snuggle up with a plushie into a ball on my side and wet without fear of leaking but I'm positive that's exactly what would happen. :/
 
This link might help: http://understanding.infantilism.org/leaks.php

It seems to be physics and "because babies are babies". It would be awesome to not have to worry about leaks no matter how I twisted, turned, or rolled; but that probably wouldn't happen.
 
Seriously, I don't get where the problem of leaks might be. Just use a mattress protector. That way there's no need to think about leaks and you can sleep all safe and sound without a worry.
Two nights ago, I made the very bad mistake of going to bed with a nappie I had on all day. Although it wasn't 'used', I leaked all over the place. Even my blanket and Harvey (I'm so sorry about that, I had to drown my plushie in soap water :( ) got wet, we had to throw it in the washer. However I had a protector in place, not a drip on the mattress.
 
Babies and kids do have leaks and blowouts. Parents complain about them from time to time. I don't think we have any way to know whether it's more or less than what we experience.
 
I don't even use diapers myself, I've got a top quality mattress protector (After going through 12 mattress's in my life time) a fitted sheet over that and an absorbent mattress pad on top on that. If an accident happens I usually just watch the mattress pad and the doona cover. Not even worth getting upset about. Give it a try.. you may enjoy the alternative??
 
perlFerret said:
I was recently thinking about how goodnites or even tape-on overnight baby diapers manage not to leak when worn by kids in the appropriate age range.

So what makes adults different? Kids can roll around all night and wet in all different positions and not leak but adults have to be careful to only wet on their backs, etc. Etc. Lest they leak. What gives? What's the different dynamic?

I think a lot of it is "pelvis shape". Infants have essentially a round pelvis area, and so one tape on each side works fine for them. Adults have a more boxy, wide pelvis, and so four tapes are necessary. Two for the lower area to seal around the legs, and two for the top area to hold up around the waist. Basically on adults, the diaper's back needs to be pulled up and down at the same time, making it really tricky for just one pair of tapes to do the job. Some people can pull it off, but it makes the size of the diaper a lot more critical to a good fit. Baby diapers are also available in a much wider variety of sizes.
 
arcituthis said:
This link might help: http://understanding.infantilism.org/leaks.php

It seems to be physics and "because babies are babies". It would be awesome to not have to worry about leaks no matter how I twisted, turned, or rolled; but that probably wouldn't happen.

I liked the explanation on that site. Thanks for the link!
 
Trevor is right. I've looked at the Amazon customer reviews of Goodnites, and there are a lot of complaints that Goodnites leak. If I was a parent with an older, nighttime incontinent child, I would really want Goodnite to improve their product.
 
I think it depends on how much the bladder can hold and the amount of flow a baby can produce vs a adult.
 
Oh god. Having put two kids through diapers, I can personally--well, as "personally" as is possible through an anonymous web forum, anyway!--assure you that diaper leaks of all kinds happen with babies and toddlers, and they happen very often. I don't think a day went by where an article of clothing or a bed sheet didn't acquire at least a small urine spot. We struggled a lot with nighttime diapering solutions as well.

I guess the other thing to keep in mind is that, unlike adults who are trained to save up their urine over the relatively vast spans of time between visits to the toilet, babies are indiscriminate with their urinating. They urinate when their bodies are able to, which is inevitably more often than an adult would. On the other hand, the majority of us are recreational diaper-wearers, using our diapers when our bladders reach the same (or similar) thresholds of fullness that would otherwise suggest a trip to the toilet. In other words, we are prone to "flooding." Most diapers can't keep up with that.
 
I have three kids age ranging from 1 to 7 years. Never had any leaks. Well at least not from #1. *rolls eyes*
There were some incidents where the nappies couldn't hold the results of diarrhea but well...
 
BenTennyson said:
I have three kids age ranging from 1 to 7 years. Never had any leaks. Well at least not from #1. *rolls eyes*

I'm not sure I would call that a "good tradeoff"...
 
Well here's your dynamic. I'm 6'6" tall and I really understand my body's orientation and the stress that goes through it when I move. My Bones are also denser then normal (3 years ago I was told it was 1.5 times harder then normal). I weigh 250 pounds or a quarter of a metric ton. This is why I really need diapers that have good tapes because when I pivot on the ball of my foot I can feel most diapers actually tear away at the tapes usually. My size = more force being directed through my body when I move then a normal sized adult would have to deal with. Also when it comes to my size my accidents are a lot bigger then what a normal adult would put out (either in the toilet when I was not IC or otherwise). So how does this applie to babies and a normal sized adult with incontinence(and/or recreational diaper use)? Well I believe the smallest adult here far outweighs any child meaning more potentially damaging force is being directed through their diaper when they move. Stacked with higher volume of waste output due to increased bladder size. Hence the greater odds of a leak occurring. Now one might argue that adult diapers are designed to handle these extra stresses but tell me what makes a adult diaper "tougher" then a comparably sized baby diaper? I don't see much difference as far as tearing force is concerned until you factor in the cloth-like backing into that equation. The cloth like backing on a baby diaper is better for babies because they can get away with less force putting put through the diaper when they move as opposed to a adult. When comparing the amount of force going through a diaper for a baby as opposed to a adult during movement, just take the base numbers of a baby and add at least a factor of 10 to that number to the average sized adult in that equation in some cases. This is why adults are more likely to leak. :smile:
 
dogboy said:
Trevor is right. I've looked at the Amazon customer reviews of Goodnites, and there are a lot of complaints that Goodnites leak. If I was a parent with an older, nighttime incontinent child, I would really want Goodnite to improve their product.

Glad I'm not the only one thats noticed. Sometimes they hold but more often than not they leak fairly easy and I've even tried the damnest to avoid flooding. I don't dare wear them at night.
 
Trevor said:
Babies and kids do have leaks and blowouts. Parents complain about them from time to time. I don't think we have any way to know whether it's more or less than what we experience.

This. It happens a lot. One of my nephews leaked all over me while I was holding and feeding him a while back--of course he's a newborn so he didn't mind. The older one has had many times a near blowout or the leak guards not containing his more solid wastes fully.

And yeah, he's leaked while in the car and while on me. So, diapers for kids aren't always going to be 100% failsafe. My diapers aren't either, but they've worked so far with only a few leaks--It stopped when I tried a different method of taping it up.
 
Why the difference? You are only seeing one side. The grass is always greener on the other side. Infants and toddlers are smaller and the diapers have to withstand exponentially smaller wettings and force; the diapers still flood and leak. Newer baby diapers are much better, but it still happens. Why are they so good? Thickness, absorbency, surface area of pad, and elastics are all maximized to prevent leaks. Even the wings are nearly all absorbent matterial.

Adult diapers are nice if they have an extra large hour glass shape. Why are adult diapers made differently? Cost of matterial, consumer interest, and machine limits reduce the effectiveness of adult diapers. A proportionally thick diaper would be much more expensive to produce. That thickness would also require new machines. Extend the padding through the entire wings and the amount of padding will significantly increase. A baby diaper is so small, the material usage does not matter much. Adult diapers' material cost matters a lot.


It would be possible to make an adult diaper that allows wetting at nearly any angle, almost guaranted not to leak, and holds a ton. For now, they are called cloth diapers.
 
Well yes there are alot of toddler and older kid leaks in diapers. I will say from what I experiance with raising my little brother and my son it also has more to do with a the size, length, and position of a boys thing in a pullup or diaper as to how much they really leak. Myself as a kid I had no issue but I was and still is a bit on the small side I shoot streight out, my son is just like daddy, now my brother is better equipped down there he takes after his daddy there have been times if his is up he'd shoot streight over the top of a diaper and into his shirt or if it got sideways it get under the guards and out the side. As for girls IDK my older sister has two girls and never mentioned an issue but I also don't ask as its not my bussiness. Kids leak for same reasons as adults. If parents read the packages especially on diapers for older kids and preteens, for a while I believe goodnites L/XL bold and underlined a disclaimer on the package regarding a child's position and they had a section on the Web site about puberty with bedwetting and goodnites and steps to take to prevent leaks due to a boys changes for parents of boys between 11 and 13 but this was a while ago before they nuked half their site.
 
I remember dozens of times as a little kid waking up with a leaky diaper on. It didn't always happen but I'm sure it happened many more times than I remember. In my case, I'm sure my 'positioning' wasn't always right. Also back when I was in first or second grade, I was probably wetting too much for the Luvs or Huggies that I was stuck wearing. In 1986 or 1987, there weren't any Goodnites or even Pullups that were readily available. And being a small-framed child, an extra large diaper fit me fine, the trouble was the waist was pretty droopy compared to today's diapers and I simply soaked them.
 
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