One common problem people have with cloth pads is slipping/sliding. Fixing this issue depends on where the pads are slipping, but it’s almost always a case of the pad not working with the underpants or the pad being too short or not the right shape. It’s often all about that lovely word – the CROTCH :D
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Slipping sideways/rotating
Sliding side to side (and some degree of slipping forward/back) are generally caused by the snapped width of the pad being too wide for the width of the crotch of your underpants. Second to that, underpants that aren’t snug enough or the pad is the wrong shape.
Your underpants need to be fairly substantial to hold the pads securely in place! Not only do they need a wide enough crotch to hold the pad, but they also need to be snug enough that they hold the pad firmly against your body. If the underpants are too baggy the pads have more room to slide around.
It’s best to have the width of the crotch of the underpants being wider than the snapped width of the pad and definitely not the other way around.
So if you like pads that snap to 6-7cm (2.5-2.75inches) wide, then you’ll ideally want the underpants crotch to be about 8cm/3inches. If you normally wear underpants with a narrower crotch you may need to wear different underpants with your cloth pads to what you’d normally wear every day. Only if you are having issues. Everyone is different and has preferences for different reasons. 👌👍 There are pads that have 2.25", 2" and 1.75" snapped width.
These underpants have 3cm (1.8inches) of fabric in the crotch (not counting the flimsy lace), so they really are not suitable for using with a cloth pad. As you can see in the image, if I tried to use a 7.5cm snapping pad with these, the sides of the underpants don’t come out to the edge of the pad. So there is nothing stopping the pad from sliding forward and back, or even rotating around. This pad would slide around like crazy in these underpants.
With these underpants you can see that the underpants crotch width is wider than the pad would snap. So when the pad snaps around, the extra fabric of the underpants “bunches” up. This is actually beneficial – as it creates more friction to help keep the pad in place.
Another problem happens with pads that are straight with no flared ends, worn with narrow crotch underpants. If the pad isn’t flared to the same sort of shape the underpants, and aren’t snapping firmly around the crotch, then they are more likely to slip sideways or the longer back end can slip out of where the leg hole is. Flared end pads not only give more coverage for leaks, but they also have more surface area to be held in place by your underpants and are less likely to slip around. They are also less likely to give you a “wedgie”
This pad has flared ends that match really well with the curved shape of the underpants. You don’t want a pad to overhang outside of your underpants. So if you want a pad with flared ends for more coverage you should find underpants that have a similar shape. If a flared end pad is too short for your underpants you’ll get overhanging pad.
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Slipping forward/back
If pads are sliding forward/back then it could be the underpants or it could be the length/shape of the pad. Usually where the wings of the pad go will naturally want to be right between your legs, as that’s the narrowest spot of your crotch – the underpants/crotch sweet-spot. If you position the pad further back or forward (for comfort or better coverage), you may find the pad slips back into that crotch sweet-spot.
If that’s the problem then you may need to look for pads that have the wings off-centered (closer to one end of the pad than the other), and perhaps overall longer, so that you can still have the wings in that sweet-spot, but you get the length coverage where you need that without needing to have extra length where you don’t want it.
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If you’re using the extra fabric panel they sew into underpants as a guide to where to place the pad (by assuming that the center of that panel is where the wings should go), you may find that where that panel is located is not optimal for your body and that it’s actually further back than it should be. Sometimes that panel ends at that sweet-spot position – have a feel when you’re wearing the underpants without a pad in them to find out where that sits on you. If that panel is further back, then try placing the wings at the front of that panel, rather than in the center of it and see if that is a better position for the pad.
