Fit Guide
How to fit a Little Puggles nappy
Most fit problems come down to three things: where the tabs land, whether the leg cuffs are sitting out rather than tucked under, and whether the size suits your bub's shape as well as their weight. This page covers all three, with a section on the tabs and a section on different body shapes, because those are the two that cause the most trouble.
The 30-second fit check
If you read one part of this page, read this one. Five things, every change.
- Cuffs out. Run a finger around each leg opening and flick the frill outward so it stands up rather than folding under.
- Two fingers at the waist. You should be able to slide two fingers between the waistband and the tummy. No more, no less.
- Tabs even, and landing on the front panel. Both sides at the same height, neither one near the panel's edge.
- Right way round. Look for the BACK marking, which sits on the half that goes underneath, with the tabs. The wetness indicator line runs down the outside of the front.
- Leg elastic in the crease. It should sit in the fold where the leg meets the hip, not up on the thigh.
One extra worth doing on a new size: check the fit again with your bub sitting up, not just lying on the mat. A nappy can look perfect flat on their back and gape at the front leg the moment they fold in the middle.
The parts of a nappy
Worth two minutes, because the rest of this page refers to these by name and because knowing what a part is for tells you what it looks like when it is not working.
The bits you touch
- Topsheet. The layer against your bub. Ours is a non-woven with silk protein (SeriPro™) for a soft, smooth feel. Its other job is to let liquid straight through rather than hold it at the surface.
- Core. The thick middle. It is where liquid goes once it is through the topsheet, and it is what gives a used nappy its weight.
- Backsheet. The outer layer, breathable, printed with Kate Smith's animal on the front.
The bits that decide the fit
- The leg cuffs, and there are two of them per leg. This is the part the fit check is really about, and the second cuff is the one people rarely know is there. An outer cuff runs along the leg edge, and a second inner cuff, the barrier cuff, is designed to stand up rather than lie flat. Standing up is its whole job. If it is folded under, it is not doing anything at all, which is why "cuffs out" is the first line of the fit check.
- Leg elastic. Runs through the cuffs and holds them into the crease where the leg meets the hip.
- Waist elastic. Gathers the back edge so the back waistband can sit up against the small of the back instead of sagging.
- Front panel. The wide strip across the front. It is the only surface the tabs will grip.
- Tabs. Two on each side, on the back half. The hooks are on the tab, the fibres they catch are on the front panel.
The bits that tell you something
- The BACK marking. Printed on the half that goes underneath. The tabs are on the same half, so the two confirm each other.
- Wetness indicator. A yellow line down the outside of the front that turns blue, so you can check without opening anything up.
The same nappy, both ways up
The one worth two seconds every change
Nappy pants, what is different
- No tabs and no front panel. A stretch waistband does the job instead, which means you cannot adjust the tension.
- Tear-away side seams. Designed to be torn open for a soiled change so you are not pulling a mess down two legs.
- Stretch side panels that let the pant move with a bub who will not lie still.
- A back pocket at the rear, which tapes do not have.
The back pocket, which tapes do not have
How to put on a tape nappy, step by step
- Set the cuffs before anything else. Open the nappy out flat and run your finger down each leg cuff so the frills stand up. Doing this first is far easier than fixing it once your bub is on it.
- Slide the back half under. That is the half marked BACK, and it is the half the tabs are on. Bring the back waistband up above the top of the bottom rather than letting it sit halfway down.
- Bring the front up between the legs and smooth the front panel flat. A panel that bunches in the middle lifts the leg cuffs out of the crease.
- Pull it snug before you fasten, not after. Fastening loose and then tugging the nappy into place is what drags the tabs off.
- Bottom tab first, angled slightly upward toward the belly button. Then the top tab straight across.
- Press each tab flat and hold for a count of three, thumb rolled along the whole tab.
- Go back and press the first side again once both sides are on. Fastening the second tab pulls on the first one and shifts it a little.
- Two-finger check at the waist, then one last run around each leg opening with a finger, cuffs flicked outward. This last step is the one most people skip and the one that matters most.
The tabs: where they land and what stops them gripping
How the fastening works
Our tabs are a hook-and-loop fastening rather than a sticky tape. Tiny hooks on the tab catch the fibres of the front panel, the same idea as the fastening on a pair of kids' shoes. Nothing about it is adhesive, so it does not lose tack the way a taped nappy does, and it will go on and off for a fit check without being wasted. It does behave differently, and a few small habits make a real difference.
Three things about the layout are worth knowing before anything else.
- The tabs are on the back half, the half marked BACK. That is the quickest way to get the nappy the right way round first go.
- Two tabs on each side, four in total, so each patch of hook is small and where it lands counts for more.
- The front panel is the only part that grips. The printed surface either side of it has nothing for the hooks to catch, so a tab landing past the edge will not hold however hard it is pressed.
The two halves of the fastening
Where they should land
- Middle of the front panel, not the edge. If a tab is landing within a centimetre of where the panel ends, it has half the grip it should have.
- Bottom tab angled slightly upward, toward the belly button. Top tab straight across. That upward angle is doing two jobs: it draws the leg opening in and up, and it gives the tab a longer diagonal run across the panel.
- Both sides at the same height. One high and one low twists the nappy and puts all the load on one tab.
- Tabs should never touch each other. If the two sides are meeting in the middle or overlapping, hook is landing on hook and there is nothing there to grip. It is also a useful signal: see the body shapes section below.
How to press them
- Land the tab flat in one motion. Touching down at a corner and rolling it on engages a fraction of the hooks.
- Press with the pad of your thumb across the whole tab, not just the middle.
- Hold for about three seconds. The hooks need a moment to work into the fibres.
- Come back and re-press the first side after the second is on.
What stops them gripping
- Cream, oil or powder. This is the most common cause by a long way, and it is the easiest to fix. The trick is the order you do things in: open the nappy out and set the cuffs first, then apply whatever you are applying, then wipe and dry your hands, then fasten. Doing the nappy setup before the cream means your hands are only near the tabs when they are clean.
- Lint. Resting a tab on a wrap, a singlet, a bunny rug or the change mat before you fasten it loads the hooks with fibre. A light fluffing can be picked off with a fingernail. A badly loaded tab is done, and that is worth knowing rather than fighting.
- Fastening loose and tugging. Covered in the steps above, and it is worth repeating because it is the single most common technique fault.
- Damp hands. Wet fingers transfer onto the hook face and dull it.
Repositioning a tab
- Peel straight up, slowly. Not sideways and not with a quick tug. An angled pull drags fibres out of the front panel, and that patch of panel will not grip as well again.
- Land it in a slightly different spot, a centimetre or so across, rather than back onto the patch you have just pulled at.
- Once or twice is exactly what refastenable tabs are for. Five or six times and you will feel the difference, so if a nappy has been on and off all through a wriggly change, start the night with a fresh one.
What the tabs are telling you
The tabs are the most honest fit indicator on the nappy, because they show you the difference between the size of the nappy and the size of your bub.
- Meeting near the middle, or overlapping. The nappy is roomier than your bub needs. Check the weight against the size guide, and if they are near the bottom of a band, look at the size below.
- Barely reaching the front panel. Time to move up.
- Held fine, then popped an hour later. This is not a grip problem, it is a peeling problem. The nappy is being pulled downward by its own weight and by movement, and the tab is lifting from its lower edge. Fasten snugger, angle the bottom tab up, and if it keeps happening look at the size.
- The same side popping every time. Usually how your bub lies or which hip they lead with. Fasten that side second and press it twice.
Fitting different body shapes
Weight gets you the size. Shape gets you the fit.
Two bubs the same weight can be built completely differently, and the fit that works on one will not work on the other. Nothing here means anything is wrong with your bub or with the nappy. It just means the standard technique needs a small adjustment.
Chunky thighs and deep leg creases
Very common from about six months. The leg cuff sits on top of the thigh roll instead of down inside the crease, and once it is sitting on the roll it is not sealing against anything.
What to do: after fastening, run a finger right into the crease on each side and draw the cuff down into it. Flicking the frill outward is not enough on its own here. Resist the urge to size up for thigh chunk alone. A bigger nappy puts more bulk between the legs, which pushes the cuff further out of the crease and makes it worse.
Slim thighs and long legs
The opposite problem. The waist is right but there is daylight at the leg opening.
What to do: angle the bottom tab further up than usual, which draws the leg elastic in and up. If there is still a visible gap when they are sitting, and their weight allows it, the size below is worth trying. On a slim-legged bub, sitting in the middle of a weight band matters more than usual.
A round tummy the nappy slides under
The waistband ends up below the widest part of the tummy, and once it is under there the whole front drops away and the leg openings open up with it.
What to do: bring the waistband up so it sits at or above the widest part before you fasten, and angle both tabs up rather than just the bottom one. If the front panel is completely filled out and it still slides, that is a size signal rather than a technique one.
A long body, or a short one
Long in the body: the nappy tends to sit low at the back and you get wet up the back rather than at the legs. Bring the back waistband up higher before you fasten, above the top of the bottom, and angle the tabs a touch flatter so the back is not pulled down.
Short in the body: the front comes up over the ribs and bunches at the waist, and bunched fabric at the front means bunched fabric between the legs. Fold the front waistband down neatly before you fasten rather than leaving it to concertina.
Rolls at the waist
The waistband disappears into a roll, which feels snug and is not.
What to do: smooth the roll flat with the back of your hand and sit the band above it, then do the two-finger check on skin rather than through the fold.
Boys and girls
Wetness tends to arrive in different places. Boys are more likely to wet toward the front and the top of the nappy, so the front waistband being snug and the front panel lying flat rather than folded matters most.
Girls are more likely to wet toward the middle and the back, so the back waistband height and getting the cuffs down into the crease do the heavy lifting. Same nappy, same steps, just a different one of them to be fussy about.
Crawlers, climbers and cruisers
From around seven or eight months everything gets harder, because a nappy that was fitted on a still bub is now being worked on by a moving one.
Fasten a touch snugger than feels necessary, expect to check it once mid-morning, and remember that the fit which looked right lying down is not the fit they are wearing while they are pulling themselves up on the couch.
How to fit nappy pants
Pants pull on like undies, so there is no tab to set the tension for you. That makes everything else more important, not less.
- Both legs through, then pull up in one movement.
- Waistband at or just above the navel, with the same two-finger check.
- Run a finger around each leg opening and flick the cuffs out, and on a chunky-thighed bub draw them down into the crease the same way you would on a tape nappy.
- Smooth the front and back panels flat once it is up. Pants bunch more easily than tapes and there is no tab to pull the bunching out.
- For a soiled change, tear the side seams rather than pulling the pants down. That is what the seams are for.
Blowouts and poonamis
Let us be straight with you, because you will find out on your own soon enough. Some of these are not preventable, by us or by anyone else. Every parent gets them and every brand gets blamed for them. It is worth knowing why, so you do not spend money chasing a nappy that will fix it.
Three things decide whether a poo stays in the nappy, and none of them is really about the nappy.
- Volume. A newborn on breastmilk can produce a genuinely large volume in one go, and the amount that arrives has nothing to do with the size of the nappy it arrives in.
- Speed. It arrives fast, and a young baby's poo is liquid. Liquid moving quickly takes the shortest way out, which is along a seam or an edge, before anything has a chance to take it up.
- Position. This is the one people miss. Lying flat on their back sends it up the back, every time. Sitting upright in a car seat, a bouncer or a carrier compresses the nappy and pushes it out at the legs. The nappy did not change; the direction of least resistance did.
What actually improves the odds. The back waistband sitting up above the top of the bottom rather than halfway down it, cuffs out and down in the crease, and a size that suits your bub rather than one bought big. Going up a size to stop blowouts usually makes them more likely, because a bigger nappy has a bigger gap at the back.
What makes them stop. Time, mostly. Poo firms up once solids start, and the up-the-back years quietly end. Until then, a spare outfit in the nappy bag is the practical answer.
And the trick worth knowing. When it does happen, take the singlet or bodysuit off downward, over the shoulders and down the body, rather than pulling it up over the head. The envelope folds at the shoulders of most bodysuits exist for exactly this reason.
How much a baby actually wees
Worth knowing, because it changes what you look for when something leaks.
A baby's bladder is small, and it grows gradually rather than in jumps. Babies make up for the size by going often.
The Australian Breastfeeding Association gives parents a feel test rather than a number, and it is the more useful version: from day five, an exclusively breastfed baby's nappies should feel heavy after use, about the weight of a large egg.
So a single wee is tens of millilitres, not hundreds. Overnight the total climbs, but it arrives in instalments across the night rather than all at once.
The practical upshot. When you find a wet leg at ten in the morning, the total the nappy could have held is very rarely what decided it. Liquid found an edge before it found the middle. That is a fit question, which is why this page spends its time on cuffs, tabs and sizes rather than on numbers.
When the fit is not right: what to try
| What you are seeing | What it usually means | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Tabs will not hold at all | Cream or lint on the hooks, or they are landing near the edge of the front panel | Set the nappy up before you touch the cream, dry hands, aim for the middle of the panel, press and hold for three |
| Tabs held, then popped an hour later | Peeling under load, not a grip problem | Fasten snugger, angle the bottom tab up. If it keeps happening, check the size |
| Tabs meeting close together in the middle | The nappy is roomier than your bub needs | Check the weight. Near the bottom of a band, the size below is often the one that fits |
| Tabs barely reaching the panel | Time to move up | See the size guide |
| Wet at the front, around the inner leg | Cuffs tucked under, or sitting on a thigh roll rather than in the crease | Cuffs out, then draw them down into the crease with a finger |
| Wet up the back | The back waistband is sitting too low, or a long body | Bring it up above the top of the bottom before you fasten |
| The nappy slides down through the day | Fastened loose, a round tummy, or roomier than needed | Waistband above the widest part, both tabs angled up, pull snug before fastening |
| Red marks at the thighs or waist | The size is tight | Time to move up. The size guide covers the signs |
| Wet almost straight away, on the first few changes | The nappy may be on back to front | The half marked BACK goes underneath. The tabs are on that half and they fasten forward onto the front panel |
Fit problem, or size problem?
Fit and sizing are the same conversation, and sizing is the more common answer of the two. Weight is more reliable than age, the bands overlap on purpose, and a bub in the middle of a band fits that size best. Our size guide has the full weight tables and the signs it is time to move up.
One thing the tables cannot tell you: if your bub is at the very bottom of a weight band, the size below is often the one that fits, whatever the number points at. Build counts for as much as the reading on the scales.
If you are caught between two sizes, there is a trial pack for tape nappies and one for nappy pants, which is a way to try a size before you commit to it.
Newborns
While the cord stump is still there, fold the front waistband down so it sits below the stump and the area stays open to the air. Everything else is the same as above, just smaller and more often. Anything to do with the cord stump itself is one for your next check-up rather than for us.
Questions we get asked
Why is my baby's nappy leaking?
Usually it is one of three things, and all of them are on this page. A leg cuff folded under instead of standing out, the back waistband sitting too low, or a size that suits the weight but not the shape. Work through the 30-second fit check first, then the table above, which lists what to try for each thing you are seeing. If you have been through both and it is still happening, email us with your bub's weight and the size you are using.
How tight should it actually be?
Two fingers between the waistband and the tummy, flat against skin rather than through a roll. Snug enough that it does not move when you pick your bub up, loose enough that you are not leaving a mark. If there is a red line still visible at the next change, it was too tight or the size is too small.
Should the leg cuffs be in or out?
Out. The inner cuff is built to stand up against the leg, and folded under it does nothing whatsoever. It is the single most common fit fault and it takes two seconds to check.
The nappy still feels light, but there is wet on their leg. What is going on?
Almost always a cuff sitting the wrong way, or sitting on top of a thigh roll instead of down in the crease. If the nappy is not heavy, the liquid never got to the middle of it, and that is a seal question rather than anything else.
Why don't the tabs feel sticky?
Because they are not sticky. Ours grip rather than stick, which is what lets you undo them for a fit check without wasting the nappy. They want a flat landing and about three seconds of pressure. See the tabs section, which is the longest part of this page for a reason.
My bub is between two sizes. Which way do I go?
Look at their build, not just the number. A bub at the bottom of a band with slim legs is usually better off in the size below. A bub at the top of a band, or one who is filling the front panel out completely, is ready to move up. The size guide has the weight tables.
Can I re-use a nappy if it has only been on a minute?
If it is clean and dry, yes, and the tabs are made to allow it. Just land the tabs a centimetre or so away from where they were rather than back on the same patch.
Do I need a bigger size overnight?
Try fit before size. A nappy that gaps at the leg at ten in the morning will gap in exactly the same place at two in the morning, and going up a size widens the gaps rather than closing them. If the fit is right and you are still finding wet, then it is worth trying the next size up and seeing.
Should I switch to pants?
Parents tend to switch to nappy pants when changes stop happening on a mat and start happening on a moving target, usually somewhere between six and twelve months. Plenty of parents use tapes at night and pants during the day. There is no rule.
There are red marks on the thighs. Is that normal?
A faint line that fades within a few minutes is elastic doing its job. A red mark still there at the next change, or an indentation you can feel, means it is too tight and it is time to move up.
Are blowouts a sign I have the wrong nappy?
Usually not. See the blowout section above. Volume, speed and position decide most of them, and a bigger nappy makes them more likely rather than less.
Still not right?
Email us with your bub's weight, the size you are using, and a photo of the fit if you have one. A photo tells us in five seconds what a paragraph cannot. We would much rather help you get the fit right than have you give up on us over something a size change fixes.
Our satisfaction guarantee sets out the ways we can sort it if the size is wrong, and the FAQ covers the questions that are not about fit.
hello@littlepuggles.com.au