Cloth Pull-ups for Heavy Wetters...

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!

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

If he's only 16 months I would hold off on potty training for a while. I know it's nice to try and get a jump on things but that is really early to potty train, especially for a boy. You could end up making more work for yourself by trying to do it all too soon. Good luck.

I've used Blueberry trainers for night-time with my then 3yr old daughter with good success. There were a couple nights that the trainers did not hold up, but was better than nothing. It really encouraged her to not go at night. After about 3 weeks she was both day & night trained.

She was in a medium and it was a snug fit. I think the small would be fine for your boy.

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.

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!

Hey there,

With my cloth diapers we use velcro covers so no pins are needed. Still, if you want something more like underwear definitely call Zoom, as an earlier poster wrote and also check out Imse Vimse. It's a Swedish company, I think, and they make smaller sized underwear and training pants.

I wish my 2-year-old was as ready as your little guy. He'll talk about the potty, but sitting on it is a complete no-go!

I never used pins (I used the velcro-around diaper covers, which eliminate the need for pins and come off VERY fast) ...

I'd say, see if he can move alright in the bloomers with the folded but not-pinned diaper. If he's trying to pee fairly regularly, they probably won't get in a bungle.

Make very very sure that he only wears loose elastic-waist everything, so the 'down' can be achieved in one fell swoop :). (I got rid of a bunch of cute but impossible-to-pee overalls, for instance ... )

16 months is "early" by recent medical standards, but there are a bunch of families trying 'diaperless' baby-raising now, and they certainly would expect by 16 months a toddler to have a pretty good ability to find and use a potty/toilet, so ... cool for you that he is into it :)! Yay :)!

I had a lot of luck talking with the owner of Zoom Baby Gear in Portland. She has a website. I'd email or call her and tell about your little guy. To me, she seemed like an expert in giving advice on cloth diapering and heavy wetters. I went with wool, which she also makes and sells. She's extremely knowledgeable and helpful!

www.zoombabygear.com

Good luck,
K. T