Special Needs Children and Teens - Parent's Guide to Diapers and Underwear
Finding diapers and underwear for special needs children can be like looking for a needle in a haystack
Do you care for a special needs child with changing bladder or bowel requirements? Is your child moving from toddler-sized diapers and pull-ups into the new world of incontinence products for larger children and teens?
If you find it all a bit confusing, perhaps even overwhelming, you aren’t alone! Every day, we hear from at least one mother, father or grandparent of a child with special needs.
"She has grown so quickly and the pull-ups we used don't fit and they leak like mad. Can you help?" "I am so frustrated because my son is always wet but he's too small for adult sizes. What can I do?"
My Liberty understands how incontinence products work and fit across all kinds of size requirements, and we have come up with what we hope is a useful solution.
One Less Thing to Worry About
Our Parents’ Guide to Diapers and Underwear for Special Needs Children and Teens makes finding and choosing the right product for your special needs child fast and easy.
Recently updated, our guide brings you the best, the latest and the most innovative products that speak to your family's needs.
This visual chart helps you - at a glance - find incontinence products right now and it will continue to work as your child grows and changes.
We carry over 120 products and like you, we've found that no manufacturer has the same quality standards or levels of absorbency or capacity as the others. It makes it darned hard to compare and contrast what you need without spending lot of time and effort while you hunt.
As an online company, My Liberty has no restrictions on what we make available to our customers. This allows us to bring you the biggest selection and range of sizes available—regardless of where you live in Canada.
We know that between searching for care, support, medical assistance, schools, activities and the demands on the rest of your life, there’s not enough gas in the tank to sit down at 10:30 p.m. to begin looking for the right underwear for your child.
So, sit back and relax, because our team did the work for you.
Quality. Fit. Capacity.
That’s what it’s all about.
- Quality — The brands we've chosen for you have outstanding construction, unbeatable absorbency, first-rate odour control, overall capacity to contain leaks and an ability to be good to your child's skin.
- Fit — When your child graduates out of store-bought diapers and pull-ups, you move from buying according to weight to buying according to waist size. Where appropriate, all of our products are available in a wide range of sizes.
- Capacity — Once you know the output of urine produced (we have an simple formula below that will help you figure it out), you simply choose a product that can hold that amount. Easy!
Urine output calculation: children versus adults
As promised, here’s an simple way to figure out how much urine your child is passing.
Option 1 (in ounces): Take your child’s age and add 2. That’s how many ounces of urine the child is passing. A five-year old, for example, will pass 7 ounces (age + 2 = 7).
Option 2 (in milliliters): Take your child’s age, add 2 and multiply by 30. That’s how many milliliters of urine the child is passing. A five-year old, for example, will pass 210 milliliters. ([age + 2] x 30 = 210 ml)
Compare those numbers to adults, who pass an average of 8 ounces (1 cup) of urine or 237 milliliters at a time.
As your child grows, it's critical to find products that are based on capacity, or how much the product can hold before needing a change and before leaking.
It's no longer about picking products based your child's weight alone
Unlike baby diapers, it's now time to find products that meet your child's volume of fluid output, over time.
Are you protecting your child during an active daytime, or are you looking for longer, overnight coverage to ensure the maximum amount of comfortable sleep time? Or both?
At My Liberty, we are committed to helping you get what you need quickly and easily.
Since the product manufacturers don't use the same language to describe their products, it can be difficult to understand the difference between "moderate protection" compared to the "heavy protection" described by others.
To help you sort it out, we’ve developed a standardized Total Capacity Rating system that we use across all the brands and incontinence products we sell.
Our Parents’ Guide to Diapers and Underwear for Special Needs Children and Teens is especially tailored to help you match up products easily for your child.
Caregivers need love, too
We all want our children to be happy, loved, safe and nourished. Without a good night's sleep—for them and for you—the work of caring for a special needs child can be more difficult than it has to be.
The daytime protection you choose for your child may not be enough to prevent overnight leaks. We've looked at all of the products available and found some wonderful options that lets the entire family sleep undisturbed. Just imagine!
Learn more about the connection between incontinence and sleep from our friends Judy and Robyn at Tranquility, who joined us for a webinar on 5 ways to get a better night’s sleep.
Every child is unique
As parents and grandparents ourselves, we understand that some children are sized differently, and that you need options.
We have found some wonderful manufacturers who know that tummies can be large while legs can be tiny. The world of research and technology has made wonderful advances in modern incontinence products—they've figured out how to create soft, cloth-like materials and reduce bulk and odour, while increasing capacity.
You don't—you shouldn't—have to struggle with keeping your child dry with training pants.
Did you know that a mobile child can use pull-ups with great capacity and absorbency that will see them through a good part of the day?
Today's technology offers useful options
Never worry about running out of critical incontinence supplies again. We offer a flexible subscription service so that you won't be caught short. Save 5% on all orders, year-round, when you set up a subscription with us.
Subscriptions allow you to schedule future deliveries of incontinence supplies when it suits you best. Three days before your next order date, we'll email you a reminder in case you want to make any changes. You can change the order date, your product choice, size, quantity - everything. It's all under your control.
You can easily pause, postpone or cancel your subscription at any time with zero penalties. We'll provide you with your own secure, password protected online account to track past orders and download receipts. Did you know you can claim incontinence supplies as a medical expense on tax filings?
Think of it as your personalized delivery service. My Liberty's Subscription Plan saves you money and worry.
Use our Parents’ Guide to Diapers and Underwear For Special Needs Children and Teens to find the right product for your subscription. Join our money-saving subscription program at checkout for peace of mind.
We want you to understand the broad range of products available as your child grows and matures, so we've grouped them into categories for you:
Booster Pads to 'boost' capacity of the outer pull-up or diaper
Booster pads are different from shaped pads. They do not have any waterproof backing. Instead, these pads are used together with another product such as pull-ups, to 'boost' or reinforce overall absorption levels of the pull-up.
The booster pad will absorb some liquid but also allow the outer product to absorb a further amount, thus increasing overall absorption. For example, a booster can extend the use of a pull-up for travel.
Disposable underwear (pants, pull-ups, pull-ons) for day or night
Pull-ups are available in moderate to heavy to maximum levels of absorbency. Most disposable underwear have tear-away sides for easy removal after use.
Briefs / Diapers with higher capacity options for your child
Bed and chair pads to help manage incontinence challenges
Underpads, otherwise known as bed pads or chair pads can provide additional discreet yet absorbent bladder leak protection.
There are great eco-friendly washable bed and chair pad options to choose from - in different sizes. Machine washable and dryer-safe, these can reduce stress between changes.
And when laundry overwhelms, there are plenty of disposable bed pad as well.
These pads protect your furniture and mattress while helping your child sleep comfortably all night long. Save time, money - and your furniture!
Cleansing Wipes and Creams—better than soap and water
Your child's growing body calls for greater awareness of skin irritation and infections. A lack of airflow, damp conditions or stale urine or feces can cause the skin to break down and result in painful and dangerous rashes, sores and yeast infections.
Incontinence cleansers for skin care are developed specially to allow them to be rubbed gently into the skin to dissolve urine and feces left on the body without the more aggressive rubbing needed with soap and water.
When it comes to incontinence wipes wipes, it’s good to know that you can move from baby wipes to extra large ones. As time goes on, a good skin-care wipe makes it easier to cleanse without the need for baths or showers.
This can be extremely useful if you are dealing with more severe forms of incontinence. Did you know there are bathing gloves? Like wipes, these are pre-moistened with cleanser, but offer a better grip to make cleaning easier and more convenient.
And, like wipes, bathing gloves can be warmed ahead of time to reduce cold shock!
We can help you find the right incontinence solution for your special needs child
As the parent of a child with special needs, you can count on MyLiberty.Life to work with you to provide an array of solutions for your child's incontinence needs.
What if you could give your child the chance to enjoy a pool without worrying about about bowel leaks? Guess what? There are excellent swimwear options created by companies here in Canada—who've figured that out for you.
From adult diapers or briefs or disposable, protective underwear in smaller, hard-to-fit sizes, swim briefs or swim diapers, bed and chair pads, skin cleansers and wipes, we invite you to browse our selection that includes some of the best products on the market today.
These products offer a range of protection levels—from Light to Maximum—to ensure that you have one less thing to worry about.
Our Parents’ Guide to Diapers and Underwear for Special Needs Children and Teens makes finding and choosing the right product for your special needs child fast and easy.
