Mad about materials

We talk to Night n Day Managing Director, Michael Lakiss-Smith about continence product innovation.

Thirty-seven years ago, changing a baby’s reusable nappy in Australia meant complex folding and safety pins. Rose, a fashion designer, had just given birth to her son Michael and her husband challenged her to come up with a better solution than safety pins. And so, the Minappi was born. The first reusable cloth nappy with snap button closures in Australia, and no fancy folds or safety pins in sight.

Almost 40 years later, Rose and her family have continued innovating to help other families. What started as a baby product has now grown to include products for older children and adults who also need the support of continence products.

“Our family business wants to make your life easier and we want our customers to live life with comfort and dignity,” Michael (Rose’s son and Managing Director of Night n Day) tells Bridge.

“We make reusable continence products that look like underwear for children and adults in larger sizes and different styles and absorbencies to suit different bladder or bowel conditions and levels of incontinence.

“We design everything from the material specs to the patterns, colours and fit. And we manufacture it all in house. We get our fabric made from scratch specifically for us to our specifications at fabric mills in NSW and overseas. We have a transparent supply chain and we visit our fabric mills in person.

Once the material has been made, we have it independently tested to check the tech specs are correct and that it is colourfast and doesn’t pill/bobble excessively. Some of our products have up to seven layers of material going from most absorbent on the inside to most waterproof on the outer layer. When creating a new product we get feedback from our professional network and experts in the field as well as the families that use our products — the development is always driven by demand. Although we do also provide fully custom orders for people who need something very specific.

We offer a 2-year guarantee on all our products, but it is still a good idea to take care of them as best you can. As well as being better for the environment, they also save you money. We accept NDIS, Aged Care packages, and CAPS funding. We also figured out that each product takes roughly three months to pay for itself, so that gives you 21 months of guaranteed financial savings, but hopefully the products will far outlast the warranty.”

“We want our customers to live life with comfort and dignity,” says Michael.

The future of continence products

“Looking to the future, we are currently developing more products using natural materials. This has come from requests from our customers who are concerned about their children who ingest the continence products for various reasons. But it also helps with landfill as they are 100% biodegradable. We always take into consideration fashion and function, we want these products to give our customers confidence.”

Innovative continence products

Continence swimwear:

“Many people that experience incontinence, whether it is temporary or permanent, want to use the water. Our continence swimwear goes from age 2-3 up to 6XL and can be custom made to the specifications needed.”

Adults’ and children’s reusable continence swimwear is available at www.nightnday.com.au.

Bodysuit:

“The bodysuit is customisable and stops the wearer from taking off their continence aid or nappy, spreading the contents of their nappy, or ingesting any continence products or the contents of the nappy. It is non-restrictive but also non-removable, it has a zip at the back and is waterproof for leaks.

“It can be used for many stages of life and situations such as autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and sensory processing problems. Ultimately it helps stop germs and mess. Customers can use them short-term as part of a behaviour modification program, or long term if needed.”

Tips for reusable continence product care

• Don’t use fabric conditioner because it clogs up the absorbency over time
• Don’t use chlorine/bleach because it destroys the waterproofness
• Soak in baking soda and white vinegar for odours
• Wash on a delicate cycle at <70 degrees.

Find continence products to suit your needs using our product database: Find a product provider.

Also in this edition

• Carer of the Year
• Finding a group to support you
• A day in the life of someone with neurogenic urinary retention
• What is neurogenic urinary retention?
• Looking after your bowels in hospital
• Disabilities: talking to your GP about incontinence
• Is health advice from TikTok or ChatGPT better?
• Alcohol and incontinence – what’s the connection?