Best Training Diapers?

If you go with disposables, make sure you get the pull-ups with the sides that open. It makes changing a poopy one much easier! I know some brand has a "cool alert" feature that is supposed to make it feel cool when the child has urinated.

None of them work with our 2.5 year old who has been "interested" in potty training for a year now, but also doesn't want to fully potty train. I think deep down, she likes the attention. So we work on it, then back off, then work on it. The reason I'm telling you this is because at 17 months I was absolutely convinced she would be potty trained in a few weeks. It just didn't happen, and whenever I start to "push" it, it just devolves. Her daycare provider said she'll get there before she's three (dec.). As of now, she could wear a wet disposable or cloth underwear all freaking day and not care---arrgh! ;)

That said, what cleaning products are you using that he was sensitive to when you tried cloth? Charlie's Soap (available online) is what we use for our laundry and cloth diapers and it rinses completely and is all natural. I highly recommend it for training underwear if you go there.

Good luck! Good for you for encouraging your little guy!

We used and are now using this method if you can call it one. It works for us. We put our kids in a pair of underwear on and throw a diaper on over. Yes a tad bit messy with poopy diapers but I think it is worth it. We tried pullups when we went on vacation with our daughter (this was a while back) after her going 6 months in the toilet because we didn't want her to have any accidents at relatives friends house and that was a big mistake she eventually realized she could just go in them like diapers and we spent a couple weeks getting her back to having no accidents. Anyhow that is just what worked for us! Best of luck with this process and keep your cool with the accidents and he should do great, boys tend to have a rougher path with this as we have learned. It took 3 weeks with our daughter and she was trained. Our son has been going now for 4 months (he turned 2 in April) at least 4 times during the day particularly in the morning and at night in the potty but not consistently through the whole day. He just doesn't have as much interest in it he knows when he needs to go just doesn't want to take time out to do so.

I really recommend cloth for that purpose. A close second would be underwear under regular diapers, but, unless he is very leaky, it seems like you could just go with cloth. (Still have to wash them, etc.)

Cloth diapers can be washed with only baking soda and vinegar, which shouldn't irritate his skin. As a slightly older kid, he may also be less bothered by an allergen free detergent than he used to be.

At 16 months you certainly can start potty training. You could, for example, work with him whenever you are home. When he pees and poops in the potty, start putting him in underwear at home. You could stick to the other diapers while you're out, then. Progress from there. I think training a kid this young is likely to take longer than if you started at a later date. However, even with a longer training time, it may come naturally if he is really interested, and he may still finish than if you waited until he was ready for an expedited training at 2.5 or so.

I'm not sure if I understand. Cloth is one of the best ways to diaper train since he'll feel the wet immediately and most cloth doesn't wick away the same as a disosable. One of the better ways to deal with the cleaning product buildup that can happen on cloth is to "strip" them every so often. You can just add vinegar to the load of laundry or even just sun bleach them.