Diaper Wicking?

[drnkrdnck]

Perhaps wicking is the wrong word, but once you fill the front of a diaper(like an Abena L2)will the wetness start to go up the back of the diaper? I've seen pictures where the back seems to be just as wet as the front. I'm wondering in premium brand diapers(like abena and molicare) does the wetness spread throughout the diaper?(front and back) I'm asking because I don't usually get to wear a diaper long enough to find out. thanks

[shybiguy]

I think you answered your own question. If you get a diaper wet enough AND wear it for long enough it will start to spread to the back. Or at least that's what my experience has been

[drnkrdnck]

I think you answered your own question. If you get a diaper wet enough AND wear it for long enough it will start to spread to the back. Or at least that's what my experience has been

wow thanks for the quick response, i just havent had the chance to test it yet

[drnkrdnck]

wow thanks for the quick response, i just havent had the chance to test it yet

I think too much too soon is causing it to leak. But I'm sure flooding it while drinking beer isnt helping it...lol

[puffybedwetter]

In the mornings my diaper is alwyas full up front, but when I have a heavy wet night its really saturated out back it actually feels as if pooped in my sleep, kinda like a trippy feeling honestly.

But it usually always depends on the diaper, The reason I dont like secure Xplus is that reason, the front has almost no protection and all the absorbent material is underneath and to the rear or their diaper (to be fair I havent ordered from them in 2 years) Currently I am using Wellness and I'm not to happy with them but they do keep my bed dry sometimes.

[Bettypooh]

The cheap pull-ups I wear (by first quality) are cut the same and the padding looks the same front and back You can wear them backwards and never know it Three blue stripes in the waistband indicate which is the back and it absorbs first. When the front gets wet you're already leaking By reversing them you can reverse the effect

BTW, "wicking" is generally understood to mean the transfer of liquid to outer clothing at the edges or through the cloth-like cover I'm not sure what word is used to describe what you're speaking of, but I'm pretty sure someone else will know here

Bettypooh

[BabyTara]

BTW, "wicking" is generally understood to mean the transfer of liquid to outer clothing at the edges or through the cloth-like cover I'm not sure what word is used to describe what you're speaking of, but I'm pretty sure someone else will know here

Bettypooh

Absorbtion?

[Dubious]

Girls pee infront and in the back at same time...

Might work for us boys if we stand, but sitting the diaper rather leaks than make the diaper wet behind

[ItchyTasty]

That's why the uk Attends Regular(NOT Active)10 super plus are probably my favourite diaper. As they wick moderatly well but it's mostly up the front and middle section. As I hate being wet up the back as I rash the most easy there.

Having said that I find Abena X Plus doesn't leave my rear wet on the skin and wicks really well even when it's really soaked at the front. Some cheap crap nappies like the Lille Supreme Fit Maxi which don't wick at all well, your skin stays wet and clammy and if you stay in them too long you rashes easy unlike with Abena X Plus.

[Tadpole]

Wicking (in the sense the OP meant) is the right word, and is what I wish disposables were better at doing. If you wet a cloth nappy at the front, after a while 100% of the cloth is wet, but with disposables, if you only wet the front the chances are when the front is bulging and you are getting "press out" leaks, the back 50% of the nappy will be bone dry. Molicare Super Plus are (IMHO) noticably better than Tena, Abena and the rest at wicking, and in the mornings I find that as long as I wet when on my back, I don't leak. A good onsie holds it all together and often I don't have to change straight away (and, like someone else said above, it's a nice feeling being in a heavy nappy!).

I really would like to find a nappy that can wick the moisture to the back effectively: for me the reason wearing a wet disposable is not comfy is that, apart from wetting on my back at night, the front of the nappy invariably becomes hugely heavy and bulky and eventually leaks. There is far more padding at the back of a nappy: if wicking worked properly, you could be containing twice the liquid with way less bulk. Real baby nappies seam to be able to do this.

[AutieAB]

I've seen pictures where the back seems to be just as wet as the front.

The part of a diaper that gets most wet doesn't just depend on the wicking ability of the diaper - it also depends on the position of the wearer when they wet it because gravity gets involved. When you pee lying down on your back, the butt of the diaper absorbs the brunt of the liquid. When you're stood up the wettest area would be in the crotch and towards the front. Obviously guys have a slight advantage in that they can direct the fire hose to some extent, as it were. If you're seeing pictures where both the front and the back are very wet, I'd wager it was done deliberately by peeing in certain positions to maximise the use of the diaper.

How well each diaper wicks depends on a couple of things. Firstly, the construction of the diaper and the proportion of the two main parts, the pulp and the SAP crystals. Unless it's totally saturated, once pee has been absorbed into the SAP, it's in there for good because it forms a gel that cannot wick any further. The pulp is the fluffy part and is made up of long fibres that hold the construction of the padding together and draw pee along them to spread it out to unused SAP, just like if you put a drop of water on a sheet of toilet paper, the long fibres in it will spread a small amount of water out into a comparatively wide area. Put simply, the pulp fibres are what allow wicking to take place and there has to be just the right amount of it to allow pee to spread around the diaper while still having enough SAP to absorb the pee when it gets there. Certain diapers have a better ratio than others (Abenas are quite bad at wicking in my experience, whereas the Bambino/Secure family seem to be quite good).

The second factor is how quickly you wet the diaper. Wicking takes time and if you flood it with a whole bladder-full of pee, you will saturate the SAP right where it hits the padding before the pulp has a chance to wick any away. When SAP gets saturated, then you can squeeze some pee out of it and that's when you'll start to get press-out leaks. So if you want a diaper to wick well and use all the available absorbency, get a good diaper but most importantly, wet it slowly over time.

[babychrise]

It appears that wicking is the correct word. I'd forgotten that XP Medical measures wicking distance in their testing. http://www.xpmedical.com/dtest.html According to their tests it looks like molicare wicks the furthest followed by abena.

[WBDaddy]

BTW, "wicking" is generally understood to mean the transfer of liquid to outer clothing at the edges or through the cloth-like cover I'm not sure what word is used to describe what you're speaking of, but I'm pretty sure someone else will know here

Wicking also generally refers to moisture pulling from front to back - there are some diapers (Abena "4" comes immediately to mind) that do an exceptional job of wicking front-to-back so that all the available absorbency is used efficiently.

[jbz2079]

I agree that Molicare are the best disposables that I have tried for wicking, but as already said disposables only wick when they get wet slowly.

They take time to gradually soak up urine and if you let go with a large amount all at once it tends to run over the surface and will usually try and find the nearest exit either up out the waistband area or down to the leg areas.

I tend to wet a fair amount each time I void, most of the time, my bladder stores about 250ml then decides it full enough and then completely empties, this is usually OK in a fresh diaper they will deal with this on the first wetting.

The problem is I don't just wet once and if you wet again in the same manner the parts of the diaper already wet will not soak up so it tends to run free further.

Thick cloth diaper are exellent at wicking, that why so many incontinents prefer them at night, they also can deal with wetting lying on your side far better than any disposable.

The downside is that cloth diapers are always wet against the skin, they don't have the sap crystals to absorb and hold the urine away from your skin, so some people find that they get skin problems from wearing certain types of diaper overnight.

Also there is nothing in cloth diapers to combat the smell of urine as it starts to break down so after a full night in a diaper thats getting wetter all the time it can be quite smelly by morning.

For convienance I tend to wear Abena X-Plus and find them good but they have limitations in the amount they will actually absorb at speed so always cover them with some large pull on cloth nappy pants and plastic pants at night to catch the leaks I have. I find these are usually damp about 50% of the time in the morning.

Sometimes if I fancy a longer time asleep I will wear all cloth diapers secure in the knowledge that they will not leak for the extra time that I'm asleep, they also tend to give me longer to get up and lounge around on lazy easy days before I have to change.

After being horizontal or even sitting down for any lengh of time I find that I usually wet quite heavily due to the effects of gravity when I stand up, if not immediatly usually a few minutes after. So I always keep my diaper on while brushing my teeth and shaving and only remove it just before getting in the shower.