Of all the Thirsties products currently available, pocket diapers are the most customizable. There are so many different ways to stuff pocket diapers as well as different strategies to accomplish different goals.

This Thursday's Thirsties Live was all about stuffing pocket diapers, which fibers to use when stuffing your pockets, and how to strategically place your absorbency. In this article, we will discuss which fibers absorb fastest, the wetness zone, adding absorbency and overstuffing your Thirsties pocket cloth diapers.

Fastest Absorbency First

When stuffing pocket diapers, you always want to place your fastest absorber closest to your baby and your slowest absorber furthest from your baby. Fibers absorb in order from fastest to slowest like this: microfiber, cotton, bamboo, hemp.

This means, if you are using a Thirsties hemp prefold with a cotton doubler to stuff your pocket, you would put your cotton doubler on top of your hemp prefold and stuff your pocket with the cotton doubler closest to baby's skin because cotton absorbs faster than hemp. If you were to use the Thirsties original pocket diaper, you would put your microfiber insert on top of your hemp/organic cotton blend insert and stuff your pocket with the microfiber closest to baby.

#ThirstiesTip A good way to remember which fibers absorb the fastest is My Cloth Baby is Happy: Microfiber, Cotton, Bamboo, Hemp.

Wetness Zone

When stuffing pockets, it can be beneficial to know where your baby's wetness zone is located. The wetness zone is going to be the area of their diaper that they wet the most. Little boys tend to wet more towards the front of the diaper while little girls tend to wet more towards the back of their diaper. Knowing where your baby's wetness zone is can help you more strategically stuff your pockets and customize your absorbency.

Start by adding a full layer of absorbency. Next, choose a top layer of absorbency and fold it in half. Place the folded layer on top of the full layer in baby's wetzone (this would be the front, middle or back side of your insert). Stuff your pocket while keeping both layers in place so that eventually, your baby's wetzone will have triple the absorbency.

Adding Absorbency

You can use all kinds of combinations of fibers to add absorbency to your pocket diapers. Some caregivers prefer to use only the Thirsties Duo Inserts that come with their one size pocket diapers. However, if you have a heavy wetter or you are using your pocket diaper for nighttime or nap time, you may need to add absorbency to your pocket.

Thirsties Cotton Doublers are a quick and easy way to add absorbency to your pocket. They are trim, absorb quickly and are narrow enough not to create any creases or folds inside your diaper. Another great option, which you probably already have at home, is a Thirsties organic cotton wipe. Folding a wipe in half long ways can give you a quick and easy boost of absorbency without having to purchase anything new.

For really long nights or naps or really heavy wetters, you may consider stuffing your pocket with a Thirsties hemp prefold in addition to one of even both of your pocket inserts. Hemp prefolds are stable absorbers and will hold onto liquids regardless of baby's position or length of time. If you have a flooder, you may consider a microfiber insert on top of a hemp/organic cotton insert or two. This is the combination that comes with the original Thirsties one size pocket diaper and adding an extra hemp/organic cotton insert to this pair will give you so much more absorbency without adding bulk.

Overstuffing

While all these options are great ones for really customizing your pocket diaper to meet the needs of your baby, you want to be careful not to overstuff your pocket diaper. Overstuffing will cause leg gaps in the gussets near baby's legs which leads to leaking. To ensure you aren't overstuffing, put baby's diaper on and run your finger along the edge of the leg elastics. If you can feel a space there or any sort of gap, your pocket is overstuffed and you need to rethink how much absorbency you've added to your pocket.

You may also need to swap out one fiber for another, trimmer fiber. For example, cotton prefolds tend to be thicker and fluffier than a hemp/organic cotton blend. Consider swapping out a cotton prefold for Thirsties' hemp/organic cotton inserts instead. They will absorb more and be trimmer as well.

#ThirstiesTip Don't forget that just by adding a Thirsties organic cotton wipe, you will have already added a decent amount of absorbency to your diaper. Sometimes just a little will go a long way!

#Momrealness™

Hemp and organic cotton inserts were what my fourth baby lived in for almost two years. The combo of fibers holds so much liquid and the trimness was just perfect for her. I used two large hemp/organic cotton inserts overnight and one small and one large for daytime. When she was a newborn, I used All In Ones, but still was able to add just an organic cotton wipe for lots more absorbency.

Pockets might be my favorite diaper style because they are just so customizable, so easy and your inserts will even agitate out in the wash. Not having to unstuff them before wash day was a huge plus and ultimately was the reason I added more pockets to my cloth diaper collection.

Do you have a favorite pocket diaper tip? Share it with us in the comments! Remember, you can shop Thirsties cloth diapers at your local retailer or online with Thirsties. For other cloth diaper tips and tricks, you can visit Thirsties on Facebook or join the online community, Thirsties Groupies. And don’t forget to checkout the Thirsties Instagram feed, @thirstiesinc.