How to Prevent Diaper Leaks and Blowouts

As parents, baby poop and pee is a fact of life that we pray will stay contained in a diaper. We assume/hope/dream we can slap a booty wrapper on our baby’s bum and it’ll magically capture everything. But it’s not that simple. (Sorry!)

Yes, the quality of the diaper totally matters. But the optimal containment of numbers 1 and 2 is also dependent on your booty-wrapping skills. Just like you can’t randomly apply any bandaid to any booboo. Be prepared! Read through our pro hacks to get the low down on dealing with pees and poo.

Here are the pro-tips for how to prevent diaper leaks and blowouts.

Fluff the ruffles out.

Those ruffles around your wee one’s legs aren’t just there for ornamentation. They’re a vital part of preventing leaks. Just like a towel or napkin or any fiber, a diaper can only absorb so much liquid at a time. Pee comes fast and furious sometimes and even if the diaper core is completely capable of absorbing every last ounce, if it can’t do it quickly enough - you have a leak. It’s like flooding when there’s a downpour and the ground can’t absorb the rain fast enough.

Diaper ruffles help hold things in to give the core more time to absorb, but they have to be fluffed outwards. After putting on the diaper, run your fingers around these ruffles to make sure they’re pulled out. Ruffles being tucked inside are a common cause of leakage.

(NOTE: There are also cuffs inside a diaper -- don't touch 'em. You just need to make sure the ruffles around the edge of the diaper are fluffed outwards.)

Test and tailor the tabs.

Do you ever get frustrated about the sizing of clothes? The numbers on the labels are supposed to help you choose things that fit like a glove, but that’s not always the case. Diapers are no different. It’s just impossible to create universal sizing numbers for every body. Some of us are long. Some of us are thick. Some of us are both. Some of us are the opposite.

When it comes to the fit of your baby’s diaper, you are the tailor. Where the tabs land and how tight they need to be or the angle they need to be at for the best performance is based on you customizing the booty wrapping to your baby. And you don’t need a PhD. Your instincts are going to be awesome. Just know you might need to make some slight adjustments to the placement and snugness of the tabs in order to optimize performance.

Play with the panel.

Similar to the above, simple adjustments to the front panel can make your baby’s diaper more customized to their body. Here’s another easy tip: Fold about ½-1 inch of the front panel of the diaper towards the inside and then fasten the tabs. This creates a pocket that helps lock the pee in until the next diaper change.

Point the cannon.

For the boys...this is a super basic and not mentioned enough parent hack: “Cannons” should be tucked downwards. Point the cannon toward the absorbent core – not the waistband of the diaper which has little to no absorbency.

Size up.

Perhaps the best tip of all (if you’ve addressed all the tricks above): size up. Ignore the weight guidelines. Like we said above, sizing is based on more factors than just weight. And using too small of a diaper is a major, major cause of leaks. Diapers are not like onesies that stretch as your baby grows. When they hit their limit, that’s it. (Talk about healthy boundaries!)

In addition to ignoring the weight guidelines, ignore all of the marketing photos of babies in diapers that “look” like they fit them perfectly. Some babies do better in a size up that makes the waist of the diaper land much higher. It really doesn’t matter how it looks as long as it’s getting the job done, right? Just make sure that the leg cuffs aren’t too loose.

Do you have other tips and tricks? Or questions? Please share them in the comments!