Cloth vs Disposable

[MixerOp]

I have been using disposables for awhile. I like Megamax, Trest, and now, Forsite, and I usually wear one for 10 to 14 hours. I have used a pull-on cloth diaper (I don't know what brand, but it was big and thick) long ago, with plastic pants over them. I didn't use the for a day's worth of wettings, though. Can anyone comment (ha, I'm sure there will be a lot of comments) of the differences between the 2, especially the capacity over 10ish hours.  Im not a beginner, and I'll understand a lot, but I'm thinking about trying full day wearing in cloth. Thank you for the information.

 

Stay padded my friends,

MixerOp

[Little Sherri]

I have not used a pull-on cloth diaper, but I'd imagine that the principals of operation are the same, compared with a pin on, or Velcro cloth diaper. I prefer wearing disposables, for convenience, and also because they add less visual bulk, under daytime clothes, but I have worn cloth diapers during the day, and for extended periods before. @Stroller and @oznl are our cloth diaper resident experts, and @Little BabyDoll Christine literally wrote the book on it. 

My observations would be that how much they can hold, depends on how much material is employed. Thin diapers, whether disposable or reusable, hold less. Cloth diapers tend not to suppress odors as well as a good disposable, but a multilayer cloth diaper ensemble can have enormous capacity. They offer particularly good protection at night, for side-sleepers; this is an area where even the best disposables tend to fail. Cloth diapers also wick moisture evenly to all corners of the diaper, eventually, which results in a uniform dampness that you either appreciate, or you don't, but this tendency helps to distribute the workload, and avoid the phenomenon seen in disposables, where ground zero in the diaper is saturated, and starting to allow leaks, but meanwhile, 70% of it is still bone dry. 

Other than that, I'll leave it to our more knowledgeable denizens to chime in. 

[oznl]

I suspect that for a given mass and weight of diaper, disposables can hold far more fluid.

But (always a but...)  My experience is that cloth diapers, in contrast to most disposables make nearly 100% of their absorptive capacity available to the wearer in real world conditions.  This is largely because as @Little Sherri has identified, their ability to rapidly wick (capillary action) fluid evenly across the absorptive cloth field.

Whilst a given cloth diaper may have a lower nominal capacity, the capacity it DOES have is fully available to the wearer.  If you wet a cloth diaper you will feel wet.  It's not uncomfortable and doesn't mean you will leak but you will feel wet: like a bathing suit.  Over time, that wetness will spread to pretty much everywhere in your diaper.

For a 10 hour shift you are probably looking at over 1000ml of pee to deal with.  This is entirely do-able with (the correct) cloth diaper but it's going to be quite bulky.  You'd probably need one or more cloth boosters (top tip: cheap-and-readily-available infant flat fold diapers make great boosters in adult cloth nappies) to get through the day.  You might want to experiment with combinations in relative safety before hitting the mall.  A lot of people choose cloth for bed because (a) they are awesome for peeing in any orientation and (b) the bulk doesn't matter.

If I wear cloth out during the day I will use shapewear pants to help flatten out that bulk.

Your choice of separate plastic pants is a great one:  integrated waterproof layers inevitably fail prematurely and can make laundering/drying difficult.

Remember also the odor control technology in cloth diapers: there isn't any.  You will be relying on your plastic pants/shape-wear to limit air exchange.

On the upside, although capital costs are higher, cloth diapers are MUCH cheaper to run and way better for the planet (the dross about detergent/energy costs eclipsing the environmental costs associated with binning 1.5kg of pee-soaked SAP and plastic reeks of tobacco-company-science).

For a daytime pull-on I use these but they will require some kind of booster

https://babykins.com/collections/adult-cloth-diapers/products/kins-pull-on-adult-cotton-diaper-10700

 

 

 

 

[zzyzx]

13 hours ago, MixerOp said:

I have been using disposables for awhile. I like Megamax, Trest, and now, Forsite, and I usually wear one for 10 to 14 hours. I have used a pull-on cloth diaper (I don't know what brand, but it was big and thick) long ago, with plastic pants over them. I didn't use the for a day's worth of wettings, though. Can anyone comment (ha, I'm sure there will be a lot of comments) of the differences between the 2, especially the capacity over 10ish hours.  Im not a beginner, and I'll understand a lot, but I'm thinking about trying full day wearing in cloth. Thank you for the information.

 

Stay padded my friends,

MixerOp

@MixerOp: On Saturdays, I can go well over 10 hours still wearing my night diaper....  Longer than I really should...  Depending on your skin, as long as your skin is used to it and/or utilizing good barrier protection, and with enough layers, and proper protective (plastic / vinal /etc.) pants, you can go a long time before getting to the edge of a rash or leaking.  Until  higher capacity disposable diapers came out, I couldn't come anywhere close to the length of time I could wear a (heavily layered) set of cloth diapers.  I'd need to get a very good seal (at the legs, etc.) and/or a high capacity stuffer in front to get a similar round out of a higher capacity disposable diaper. 

Yes, wearing cloth that long you will notice the damp material.  For me, that's a non-issue.

[tuffy]

You can definitely use cloth for a 10 hour stretch, but they will be quite bulky. I do that for my overnight diaper, but for daytime use, I only plan for a capacity of about 28oz (828ml) that lasts me about 4 hours. If I'm going out of the house, I'll start with a dry diaper (even if the one I had on wasn't at capacity... you can do that with cloth) and change when I get back or I bring a change with me.

I'm currently using a 2x KINS Hook and Loop with one of their boosters and the added bulk isn't that much of a problem. Since they're currently discontinued, I'm looking elsewhere for the inevitable replacements as this batch wears out. Most of them are over 4 years old and holding up alright. 

For overnight, I use a 2x KINS Pull-On with one of their boosters and 2 pre-fold baby diapers across the top front. That combination prevents leaks out the front when I'm sleeping on my stomach and my equipment is pointed up. I haven't measured the capacity yet, but I suspect it is over 40oz. Note: I would not wear that combination out of the house (even without the boosters).

One other thing is I up size the plastic pants to 3x so I can tuck the elastic of the pp underneath the elastic of the diapers at the top and between the legs. Doing that stopped all my leaking problems when I was first trying to switch to cloth.

When I stated the switch, I tried several different styles before I settled on the hour glass design and I'd spent about $800 by the time everything was said and done. Previously, I was spending about $200/month (pre-pandemic) on disposables. 

Also, what @oznl said about the laundry cost is spot on. My back-of-the envelope estimate is between 10 and 20 cents per diaper at  most. You can reduce the cost further by having several layers of thinner material. The only problem is what is available today seems to be extra thick! So, the search for my next generation of cloth continues.

[ValentinesStuff]

The big advantage with cloth is that you can keep adding layers as long as your plastic pants fit over them.

[Stroller]

I'll chip in my twopenn’orth, for what that's worth, although you've got a pretty good response already. I spend most of my life in cloth nappies these days. I've no experience of pull-up cloth nappies, although I doubt they're compatible with long-term wear without substantial support to stop them pulling down again of their own accord as they get heavy.  I wear either velcro nappies or terry squares folded in the Chinese fold (aka origami or butterfly fold). That gives a built-in soaker pad in the crotch. I also add extra soakers (generally 50cm terry squares folded in 3, and more than 1 of them).  This will get me through most days and every night - I only use 2 nappies per 24 hours. Occasionally my nappy gets too sodden for safety in the evening, and then I change into my night-time nappy early. When I'm in a disposable I also add a soaker, and then I can always get through the day OK - ie I've got a bit more confidence a high volume disposable will last the day than cloth will.  But cloth does the job fine, and that's what I'm always in, unless we're away with no washing machine available.  In my experience velcro nappies will stay up better than pinned-on nappies, but all that's dependent on body shape.  Hips can be very useful if you've got them. And onesies are essential imho. Plastic pants need to be big enough so the nappy can't peek out, with a seriously wide crotch - many are too narrow to work properly with a bulky cloth nappy. Good luck! Over and out.

[zzyzx]

21 hours ago, tuffy said:

I'm currently using a 2x KINS Hook and Loop with one of their boosters and the added bulk isn't that much of a problem. Since they're currently discontinued, I'm looking elsewhere for the inevitable replacements as this batch wears out. Most of them are over 4 years old and holding up alright. 

...

Also, what @oznl said about the laundry cost is spot on. My back-of-the envelope estimate is between 10 and 20 cents per diaper at  most. You can reduce the cost further by having several layers of thinner material. The only problem is what is available today seems to be extra thick! So, the search for my next generation of cloth continues.

@tuffy:  Not sure where you are located, but if you are in the US, and don't mind using pins,or snappies (or equivalent) or maybe use them in a pocket diaper (like @WetDad ), you could consider / try https://adultclothdiaper.com/products/adult-flat-diapers-gauze-purity , where I use two of the small 4 layer (night weight) during the day and four of them at night.  If you want thinner, go with the 2 layer and twice as many.  I find these dry better than the pre-fold diapers I was previously using, or other thicker cloth diapers.

[Moochie]

Most of the time I wear disposable diapers but I like the feeling of being wet when I wear cloth diapers and plastic pants. If I plan to mess my cloth diaper I actually wear panties under my diaper and I use a disposable diaper liner. Clean up is a little more labor intensive. Cloth diapers are not as discreet in public, but still possible under the right conditions and clothing; using a disposable booster in a cloth diaper helps.

[wetdiaper55]

I wear cloth prefolds 24/7 ....

[kirababy]

My night diapers routinely go for 10-12 hours, including a couple hours in the morning during coffee and breakfast.   The biggest difference is the wicking ability.   Even when sitting or standing, cloth will wick up towards the waistline significantly more than disposables will.  For me it means that leaks are not as frequent, and it does not feel like I did not get the full value of the diaper - seeing all the dry areas in a disposable sometimes gives me that feeling.   That said, to get cloth to hold that much does take layers of good diapers and plastic panties.   My preference is for night weight prefold diapers, as the all in ones and pocket diapers don't have as much material in them.

[DLRider]

On 1/28/2026 at 2:40 AM, wetdiaper55 said:

I wear cloth prefolds 24/7 ....

...yep, pretty much in these 95% of the time too.