Q:

What to do about my 1-month-old boy peeing through diapers?

My 1-month-old baby is a big one, father comes from a family of giants. At night (more rarely throughout the day), he is peeing through diapers multiple times. Sometimes the diaper seems practically unused. Not constantly and not every day, but enough for me to be asking questions. He started in size 1 and we still have him in size 1. I believe I'm putting them on right each time, but maybe not, because I never went to a parenting class. I don't remember having this problem as much with my 2-year-old. Maybe because she's a girl and this is just more prone to happen to boys? Anyway love some tips or just a why it's happening.

A:

The most common problem with baby boys “leaking” is based on male anatomy. During a diaper change, you’ll typically have the baby on his back. The baby’s little penis may flop every random direction. If it’s pointing upwards when you put the diaper on, there’s a good chance that you get some spillage at the top and a mostly dry diaper, especially if a little erection causes the diaper to “tent” or pushes the waist band away a bit.
So always make sure it’s pointing down, that should reduce the risk of spilling and get better absorption in the diaper. If that doesn’t help, it may be time for the next diaper size.

A:

My experience with my son was this: every time he was experiencing a noticeable number of leaks, we went up a size and it addressed the issue.
It's true that, on a couple of occasions, his penis was pointing upward when the diaper was put on and that contributed to some over the waistband escapes, but this also correlated with the diaper being too small.

A:

I always avoided pointing my son's anatomy down because I didn't want it getting wedged into bending the wrong way in an uncomfortable position (during a REM sleep cycle the neurons in the brain that block an erection are not active - at least that is one theory - leading to an erection, and you don't want disturbed sleep due to uncomfortableness during REM sleep). I don't know if I was just being obsessive, but it's one thing to consider. And sure enough as Stephie said certain expensive diaper brands leaked out the top. Though they could leak out other sides as well.
I switched to Luvs after being given advice from other parents (I am in no way affiliated with Luvs diapers) and never had leakage problems again. Every time I saw that "Experienced parents choose our Luvs" marketing campaign I nodded along with the commercial. They're generally also less expensive than other name brands, or they were a dozen years ago. 
If that brand is not available where you live, ask other parents of young boys to see if they have any opinions of the brands available in your area.

