Adult diapers are leaking. Is this normal? What can I do?

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Adult diapers are leaking. Is this normal? What can I do?

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My grandmother, who lives with me, wears maximum protection/absorption adult diapers 24/7. But at least once a week, she wets the bed to the point of having to change the sheets and her clothes (I do use a plastic bed protector). She never mentions the bedwetting. She just changes out of the wet clothes when she wakes up and puts them in the hamper. Sometimes she can go 10-14 days without an incident, but this week she's wet the bed about four days in a row.

I'm trying to schedule her a doctor's appointment, but some of the doctors (gynecologist and urologist) I called either don't take Medicare (!?) or don't deal with her specific issues (she has a pessary). Plus, she's had other issues that needed to be dealt with first (possible cancer).

Anyway... the point of my post is that I don't understand why these "diapers" are leaking. They have good reviews and seem absorbent. She doesn't drink that much a day. I'd say she drinks a minimum of 20 oz. to maybe 28 oz. per day. Some of her food has liquid like milk in her cereal or the canned fruit she eats. She eats about one 14.5 oz. can of mixed fruit per day. She usually doesn't drink within three hours of bedtime other than the sip of water for her pill. She does usually have a small snack between 9:30 pm to 10 pm with bedtime being between 11:00 to 11:30 pm. So it would seem that these "diapers" shouldn't be leaking. I'm sure she's pulling them up far enough and I've even tried a different size on her.

I guess I could try a different brand, but most I've seen are considerably more expensive. She's wearing Walmart's brand now which costs about $22 for 60 diapers.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

And if anyone has any tips for removing urine smell from clothes, please share it with me. I was using a pet enzyme cleaner which works, but I don't like the smell. So now I'm using distilled vinegar. First I rinse the clothes with cold water, then I let them sit in a water and vinegar mix for at least an hour. Then I rinse them, and if they smell ok, I then wash as normal. I just don't like using vinegar as I'm slightly allergic to it.

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Mom is tiny, so even the small size of Depend don't fit tightly enough around the leg holes, so she sometimes leaks through the leg hole. We put two Poise pads in her Depend, so that if she wets the top layer, we only have to remove that pad rather than change the whole set. During the day, she wears one Poise pad in a cotton brief, which is snug enough that she doesn't leak.

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The only diapers I've found that work overnight are Abena Abri-Flex Premium. My husband leaked with every other kind but these are great. I'm sur they make them for women too.

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Oh yes, if you can get a hold of a special shampooer with the attachments, they allow you to completely clean furniture as well as carpets

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My Mother was incontinent and always wore Depends or a pull up kind like them and sometimes she'd leak,so I put the biggest kotex pad I could find in the diaper also and that really helped with the leaks.LLater,as Mom lost weight,the diaper would cut into her back around her waist,so I put a kotex pad on the back of the diaper and that helped too.I'm sorry you are having this problem and I hope you find what works best for you and your GrandMother.Good Luck!

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Hello, my mom uses Depends from the time she goes to her room, about 3pm until the next morning. At 3:00 I put one Depends on her. Before bed I change her into 2 Depends. A caregiving assistant suggested it. It doesn't seem to bother her that she wears 2 Depends at night. I don't want her getting up to urinate (fall risk). The Depends are soaked by morning and her underneath protective pads are wet but it hardly ever soaks her recliner (she prefers to sleep in a reclining chair). If the recliner ever goes get wet I find febreeze spray works very well to eliminate the odor and has a pleasant fragrance.

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Cold water soak with baking soda and vinegar - hot water sets in stains and smell

Maybe at night try the wrap around diapers with tabs at the waist rather than the pulls up - for pull ups I like the Walgreens unisex store brand plus it's one of the few still in white - don't know why brands think anyone wants lavender pull up diapers

15 min after putting mom to bed last night she had to tinkle - good thing the seroquel hadn't knocked her out yet

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They shouldn't leak - but they do. Although I'm in general agreement that a key issue is - if the diaper/ pull-up - I personally like "brief" - has been peed in prior - even a little, the gel- like substance that is suspose to absorb - won't, a second time. So yes, nighttime is problematic and the laying down position doesn't help matters - gravity just doesn't work that way. I did the math recently and figure I've changed over 15,000 diapers in the past 23 years - probably a conservative figure. One of my sons teachers called me The Diaper Whisperer because of all my tips and techniques - plus I bet I can call it to within 10 minutes as to when a brief was wet, hours later. No sending my son home from school in a wet brief, claiming "but he was dry when we put him on the bus"! My conclusions? Some brands work better than others but they ALL leak. Doubling diapers are a waste of a diaper unless it's done while the person is not laying down. Pad inserts help best - esp for men when you can adjust and aim when putting on (sorry, you know what I mean). Money spent on a high quality water proof mattress protector is money well spend - and while pads and chux help, you really should have a full coverage mattress protector if you want to save your mattress and keep odors minimal. While limiting liquid after 6pm can be helpful, it also can present problems. According to my Ob/gyn surgeon - for that technique to be effective, one must stop liquids at 2:00 in the afternoon - which no one should do - ever! Bottom line - if someone invented the perfect, no- leak brief, they'd make a fortune. "Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door".

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My Mom had the same problem(she passed away this month). They make an item called a bed chuck pad. You put that under her and that way you only have to wash it. They also make disposable pads. As far as the urine smell I found that putting Downey Unstopables in the wash load and allowing the load to soak for about an hour worked fine.

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A Hospice nurse told us that laying down at night allows the fluids that accumulate in tissues during the day--think about swelled ankles, for example--to get to the kidneys for processing. This was her response to why dad would urinate more at night than in day time, and why it may seem like you have to go again when you've only been in bed a short
time. Trying to cut back on fluid intake doesn't help this, and can lead to dehydration.
Good idea to try two products at once! Why didn't we think of that?!

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Adult diapers shouldn't leak unless they're the wrong size, defective, too full, or damaged

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I am caring for my mother-in-law and urine incontinence is an issue. We limit fluids at dinner time and through the evening. I have been using the Sams brand women's briefs and yes they are soaked in the morning, as is the chux, but seldom the sheets. I'm using the SoftNit (??) chux from Amazon. They have a more cotton feel to them, but do a great job absorbing.

As for laundry, I use All fragrance free and a 1/2-1c of baking soda per load. If they don't pass the smell test then I will use distilled white vinegar. Seldom do I have to wash them 2 times these days.

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I had the same problem with my dad. My results are that brands carried in stores, store brands and name brands, will not do what we are wanting them to do. I searched the Internet and got samples from various brands. Some were free samples, some I had to pay a nominal fee, but getting the samples allowed me to visually see how they fit. We ended up with Tranquility Premium Overnight pull-ons. I usually order from Amazon or Ebay whichever is cheaper and get a case or two at a time. Tranquility also offers inserts which you could consider. They give an extra layer of protection used in conjunction with the regular disposable underwear. No underwear is going to be 100% leak-proof, but it is rare that dad leaks with the Tranquility Premium Overnights. It's worth the extra money.

There is a tendency to not drink as much liquids as needed/wanted when someone thinks they may have an "accident" that needs to be cleaned up. Please encourage your grandmother that it's better to clean up then to get dehydrated.

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I have tried just about every brand. All leaked. I now just heard of what is called Adult Diapers. The ones with a light plastic on the outside. They velcro on the sides. This is what was recommended for my mom at a Senior Home Share as her Always, that worked great, are leaking some. But that is because she had very watery stools as her C-Diff returned. She is in the hospital and when this issue is over I will go back to Always.

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In some perverse way, it's encouraging to hear so many people dealing with the issue that has so much potential for being "the straw that broke the camel's back" and gets even dedicated caregivers to give up and send loved ones to a nh. My experience: (1) Vinegar in the washer works for the urine smell--no pre-soaking unless something is totally drenched, and then it's just for good measure. (2) I also find the Tranquility overnight underwear that hold 34 oz to be very good. Mom's room is down the hall from ours, so I hear her get up every night. If she is getting up between 2 & 3 AM, she probably has a UTI and I call to get an antibiotic. Usually she doesn't get up and go to the bathroom until 6. Either way, I get up and help her to make sure she changes to a fresh one. They are so well made that she doesn't "feel" wet, so would wear the same one and swear it's dry if I don't help. Depends still work for us during the day. (3) On those oddball occasions where I start my morning with wet sheets and puddles on the floor, she has either taken her underwear off for some reason, or if I didn't wake up to help her, she may still have on one that needed changing. (That's a great motivator to be sure I do wake up to help her.) (4) As embarrassing as it can be for both of us, I do a routine and hopefully subtle pat-down to make sure she has a Depends on during the day. She is still independent enough that she doesn't always want me to help even though she still forgets sometimes to put one on -- and I am still independent enough that I no longer take chances. We haven't yet needed to try the extra pad inside the diaper. But she has on occasion just put a Depends on top of a wet Tranquility. We just take them both off next time she is in the bathroom and go back to a single. I don't know about you, but of all the issues I expected to be traumatic (for me more than for her sometimes), this one was not on my radar. I resisted it and handled it pretty poorly when it first started, but once we established a routine, we've been able to get a pretty good handle on it. There are definitely still extra washes - at least every 10 days, but no longer every single day. I saw a saying on Facebook the other day that I'll share just for grins. Mom's favorite saying was "this too shall pass". The FB post said "This too shall pass. It may pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass." That about sums up my foolish resistance and anger in the beginning -- it passed like a kidney stone, but thank Heaven it has finally passed. (And no, I really had not intended to make a play on bathroom words with that -- sorry.)

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Arm & Hammer had a detergent with Odor Blaster (cap of bottle is pink/lavender) that works very well. No extra soaking. We also use the washable bed pad - bought extras so can hang to dry. What brand or where do you get the bed pad that wraps under the sides of the bed? My dad has a double bed. So far Dad takes a shower every morning as part of his routine. We also have a no rinse product that we put on a wash cloth 1-2x a day for him to wipe himself after changing Depends and after having a bm (so far 98% he still goes to bathroom to do that). So thankfully no skin problems.

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My mom is in nh she went thru everything director of nursing apologized she has super absorbent diaper and liner. Accidents still. Happen i had hard time with urine smell she is very potent not that much prob with sheetx but clothes cold water is the key oxyclean with detergent maybe a little fresh scent crystal. COLD WATER AND I Never dry sets smell in. Good luck

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Try ordering from Amazon - I find that is the cheapest place to buy the pads for my husband. I use a pull-up type I get from Sam's, but the extra pad we put in I get at Amazon a lot cheaper. He rarely has leakage problems and there is no odor with the pads. Don't know what they did to the fabric, but I never smell anything even when they are full and need to be changed.

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I've just become resigned to having to do laundry most days, I'm actually more concerned when she hasn't wet through because that means she hasn't had enough fluids that day.
I have heard good things about Costco disposables, but then I have heard good things about Depends as well and they are probably the least absorbent brand we've used. Has anyone tried them?

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For our mom we used Walgreen brand Certainty 28 countXL sale price bogo about twice a month otherwise $19 per pack. These are not pull ups and they absorb well even thru the loose stool. Mom was a bed bound patient

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My mom leaks all day, and depends do not work anymore. She has found that Tena briefs work the best. Wouldn't it be nice if medical benefits/Medicare would cover these, since they are so very expensive, but medically necessary?

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I had the same problem with my mom. We started using real disopsable diapers no pull ups like depends at night and we never wet the bed again at night. I buy them online.

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You can try a rubber or vinyl pant to go over the brief your Grandmother is using that might stop a leak.
but if it happens so rarely that I am thinking it is just placement. Either she may move at night and the brief gets moved or it is not placed securely around the top portion of her leg.
this happens often with my husband. We are using tab briefs (diapers) for him and if I do not make sure that the leg is secure around the top of his leg it will leak.
And it will leak if he has had more fluids or if he just happens to urinate more at one point than another.
I just look at it this way...the kidneys are functioning and it is one less thing I have to worry about. (always have to look on the bright side of things or you go crazy!)

You can always place under pads down (brand name Chuck) that will take care of the leaks but if it not an every day occurrence you have to worry about them shifting and it is another expense.

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A couple of suggestions would be first set an alarm and get her up at least once a night to go and change. Also second use a maxie pad or adult protective pad inside the depends at night. Then when she get up at night you may just have to pull the pad out and not change completely. My mom would wet through if left all night, but she is gotten up during the night about 4 hours in and that helps a lot. Its better all around if she is not left all night in a soaking diaper. As for the smell, vinager does work well, you may also want to try a baking soda soak. Baking soda is great for a lot of smells. Also hang to dry if possible as dryer can set in any lingering odor. It not possible to hang dry, i know that takes a lot of time we dont always have then dry on a lower setting. So you dont have to wash sheets every time , use a washable bed pad not the paper type. The washable ones are much more absorbant so they never leak through to the bed sheets. There is a type of pad that wraps under both sides of the mattress to hold it in place, i recommend those so they stay in place and dont shift when she turns over in bed. I know this is a tough issue for many and i hope you find some solutions that work for you.

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For my mom, we have been using (at night) "Abena Abri-Form Comfort Adult Plastic Backed Briefs" or "Tena 67902 Super Stretch Briefs", and then put one "Tranquility 2105 Premium DayTime Pull On Diaper" on top of that just to pick up what gets through, but usually nothing does. I get all of these via Amazon. And I use vinegar in the washer to eliminate the urine odor.

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I have found that SAMs club has some that work the best. Depends are the worst

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"All Thru the Nite" by Tranquility. Best yet.

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We have the same problem with Mom. We use a waterproof matress protector
( mattress cover), on that a waterproof sheet, a disposable pad and a sheet. Two waterproof pads ( bluebottom type) on top of sheet. If she wets through we may only have to wash the pads. You need to get more expensive diapers / pullups that hold more liquid, they are expensive but worth not having to do extra wash. I have been using something called Unique Wellness Absorbent Underwear , they are a very absorbent pull up, look online you can often get good deals/ sales.We were using another brand that worked well but for some reason they started leaking. I usually soak the wet bedding in hot water in washer with some vinegar or tea tree oil before starting the wash cyclle. Good luck.

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Tena also makes a disposable like Depends. I find this brand has more stretch & better fit for my 99+ yo, 240 lb. dad & they're easier on my hands for pulling up.

Anyway, his loose bowels cause leakage in the back, even when I use the long, max absorbent overnight pads.

As for fluid consumption, too little can lead to UTIs, dehydration, symptoms of confusion, etc. 20-28 oz a day is far too little for even a 100 lb person.

Chux (bed liners fabric side up) definitely reduce soiled sheets. I use them on my dad's recliner where he sits & sleeps, one under commode because he floor often gets soaked/soiled (behind overflows).

As long as we're on the topic of elimination, to stop stool overflow on the back edge of the commode, a paper towel folded in half and place to protect the "seam" reduces soiling & cleanup in crevices.

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The diaper itself can only hold so much. I use a store brand and but a TENA MAX ABSORBENCY inside for my mom who has diabetes which means allot of urine. I weighed her diaper one day and it was over two lbs. however, lately she's been taking off all her close including diaper at night sonyouncan guess what that means. I also line the bed first with a bed protector when before the sheet goes down I used the disposable sheet sheets. (Paper). Just in case then a layer of three cloth three hundred washes cloth Then the sheet. Then goes her air mattress over all of that. So yes she has two mattresses. Then repeat
cover with the disposable then the cloth. Very seldom have to change the sheet of bed because of spillage of urine. But putting a TENA INSIDE HER diaper is very important

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My husband wore the Real Fit Depends and still soaked through. Only his was runny bowels. We finally had to stop going "out" because of this problem. It was an impossible situation. Just awful. I never found a solution. But I sure did clean up a lot. He is in a home now. They do a good job of keeping him clean and dry!

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Adult diapers are leaking. Is this normal? What can I do?

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