R.C. asks from Lake Stevens, WA on December 29, 2008
Cloth Pull-ups for Heavy Wetters...
First off thanks to all your help in finding the right potty chair. I plan on purchasing the little baby biorn ptty chair this week. Now I need help in finding a good cloth pull-up. I've had my son is cloth diapers since he was like 3 months old and it has worked great for me. I use regular prefold diapers (pinned) with eva pull-up style bloomers. Like I said this has worked great for us up until potty training. It takes a minute to remove shoes, pants, bloomers, and then unpin a diaper before placing him on the potty. Half the time he's just frustrated by the time I'm done or he has already gone potty by the time I get it all off. This weekend I went to babies r us and purchased Gerbers eva all in one training pants. It's basically like the thick potty training underwear built into a pair of plastic (eva) bloomers. i didn't think it would be absorbent enough so I tried putting them on over a pair of training underware and he still ended up with wet clothes and shoes. Then I thought I'd try taking a regular cloth diaper and folding it in thirds and putting it inside kind like a diaper doubler and still had leaks. Not quite as bad as with the underwear but still wasn't a good solution. He's a very heavy wetter (drinks a lot of water!) I don't mind investing some money into the right product but I'm just not sure what that might be. He's also very small for his age and so it's hard to find the right fit. Most potty training stuff starts at 2T he's only 16mo. and in like the 20th percentile. Any suggestions are greatly appriciated! Thanks again everyone!!
So What Happened?™
Thanks to everyone for your advice eventhough I don't agree with it all. I know some of you think its terrible that i'm trying to potty train my son at 16 mo. and at one point in my life I probably would have been saying the same thing. But my son has consistantly been dry all night for 3 months! He pulls and tugs at his diaper when it's dry...sometimes 10 minutes before he'll actually pee. He shows great interest in the bathroom and sitting on his potty and he can and does pull his pants up and down, just with the pins it's hard to get the diaper. This is why I was asking for advice on decent training pants. Anyone who's used cloth diapers knows that even a diaper that absorbs all the pee still feels very wet on their little bottom. Anyways, thanks to those of you who answered my question and and gave sound advice.
More Answers
J.K. answers from Seattle on December 30, 2008
I own a cloth diaper shop and am at the end of potty learning with my son. I highly recommend Knickernappies pocket diapers. They have elastic at the front and back, so they can be pulled up and down just like disposable pull-ups. Since they're a pocket diaper, everything is held in place nicely and you can stuff with whatever you'd like! I recommend a hemp inset along with the Loopy-Do insert that comes with the diaper. This will be no thicker than the prefolds you've been using, but will be infinitely more absorbent! These also unsnap at the sides to make stuffing easier and clean up of messes easier. Given your son's size and age, I'd recommend size medium. You can find Knickernappies on my website: http://www.simplecloth.com Also, feel free to write me at ____@____.com!
2 moms found this helpful
J.R. answers from Seattle on December 30, 2008
If your son is really ready to potty train, I would skip all forms of pull ups and go straight to training pants. I used the book Toilet Training in Less Than a Day for potty training, and my kids had very few accidents before being fully trained. Good luck!
1 mom found this helpful
D.L. answers from Seattle on December 30, 2008
We had gotten vinyl training pants for our little girl (around 16-months). The best deal I found was on eBay, much like these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-12-PC-SOLID-WHITE-Waterproof-Trai...
I will tell you however, that when she wasn't ready, she wasn't ready. I thought she was at 15-months. She peed on the potty once at 16-months and then not again for almost a year. It wasn't until she was 26-28 months old (can't remember) that she was really ready and things went quickly. The training pants did their job, but she didn't "get it" until she had peed on her potty semi-regularly (at which point I made her a potty chart for her to put stickers on) and I started putting her in the gerber cloth training pants (like thick panties):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Boys-Gerber-Potty-Training-Pants-3-Si...
The great thing with the cloth pants is that they still have leaks. She did that for a few days and HATED it and quickly started running for the bathroom. Within a few days she was mostly potty trained. She still needs pull-ups at night, but other wise we RARELY have an accident (usually only if she's playing and doesn't stop in time before running for the potty).
Hope that helps. The main thing to remember is that when they are ready, it usually goes quickly. Don't push them and make it fun. If it's not happening, back off and come back to it in a month or two. It will happen. :-) Oh, and the mom I know who used cloth diapers exclusively never needed training pants/pull-ups. Because her little guy could always feel the feeling of wetness, she just went right to the gerber cloth undies.
1 mom found this helpful
L.U. answers from Seattle on December 29, 2008
R. - Is there a reason you are trying to potty train your son at 16 months? That is SUPER early, although I am sure there is a mama out there that was able to potty train her child that early, there are not a lot I can guarantee!
When you are potty training the whole idea is for him to NOT pee in the pants/underwear, you probably don't want to get something that is going to keep him dry if he has accidents. So, if he does he will be wet and uncomfortable and learn not to do that again. You may be cleaning up a lot of messes (and even more since your son is so young).
I believe a child is ready to potty train when they can pull on and off their own pants, sit or stand at the potty by themselves, and when they wake up dry. I don't know if children are even able to "hold it" when they are that young. You could be doing a disservice to yourself and your son and be setting yourself up for 6 months to a year of accidents!
Good luck with whatever you decide. L.
1 mom found this helpful
A.Z. answers from Portland on December 30, 2008
Hi R.,
I have xsmall training pants that are designed to be quick and easy to pull up and down. My daughter was fully potty trained by 2 years old and we simply introduced the idea of potty training to her at about 15 or 16 months old and allowed her to make the mind body connection and slowly worked with her until she let us know she was ready and then we did the full Potty Training in One Day system. It was great. As cloth diapering parent and the owner of www.punkinbutt.com I have dealt with many younger children that show signs of readiness for potty training because they pick up on the signals that a wet or messy diaper is uncomfortable and it is better to be clean and dry.
You are welcome to come by and I can show you the training pants and we can check for sizing and fit.
A.
Ph: ###-###-####
Punkin Butt
7845 SW Frobase Rd
Tualatin, OR 97062
C.M. answers from Seattle on December 29, 2008
This may help, although it was some time ago that ours was this age. We gave our son his last drink an hour before bed and had him go potty 1 hour, then 1/2 hour before bed, gave him a sip of water (using 3-oz dixie cup half full) and had him go again at bedtime. Then we woke him up to go potty an hour after he'd gone to sleep. We sat him on the potty chair and he went, still pretty much asleep, then put a diaper back on him and put him back to bed. If he'd had much to drink that day, we'd also wake him up around midnight to go agian. He was a good sport because he liked waking up nearly dry and soon could wake up totally dry. Soon we transitioned to training pants with a diaper cover over as extra insurance, which is by the way what we did during the day. When first training, we switched him to training pants with a diaper cover and no pants/socks/shoes so we could do the "try to go potty" routine every half hour or hour. The day and night routines worked very well as long as we were calm, matter-of-fact about it, and consistent. We said this is what most every kid does at first, until their muscles get trained to do the routine on their own. He was day-trained in 2-3 weeks, and night trained in a few months after that. Best wishes for dry days and nights!
M.H. answers from Seattle on December 30, 2008
I don't have a really good solution for your problem, but, i have purchased some things from babycottonbottoms.com - they've been great to me. One reason i mention it is that they have different kinds of doublers that may help. I also got training pants from them that seem to fit my smaller than 2T daughter. Maybe its worth browsing along?
I have seen pull-up pants at Kids Zone (??) in U-village - don't know how they compare to what you have.
A.M. answers from Portland on December 30, 2008
You may want to try diaper free...he's alittle old to start, but it's possible. Check outhte diaper free portland website & their meetings are great & informative. It's not as hard as it sounds, my 16 mo old is almost trained.
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