Hello Cloth Diapering Moms!
My daughter is 2.5 years old and (finally) showing interest in using the potty. She mostly wears Bum Genius 3.0 diapers, which are fairly absorbent and wick away moisture. What do you think about switching over to cloth training pants? Or should we just go back to prefolds (we have a bunch, but we'd need some covers that would fit)? I would really appreciate your advice.
Many thanks,
R.
I went from cloth to training pants but that was 21 yrs ago. I know they have new items now that didn't exist back then but the potty pants are quicker off and cut accidents down. when they say they got to go they mean right now not in 2 minutes or even 30 seconds until they get older they can't hold it.
What has worked for us is to just go with bare bottom or use regular panties and set the "peepee bell" for every 15-20 minutes in the beginning of training. If you are going to potty train you have to ditch the diapers except for outings, nap and nighttime. I never made the connection with my kids that diapers=baby so we never had problems switching back and forth.
My 25 month old has been interested and training since she was 17 months old. We never use diapers except for the above situations. And there are times when we are out that she stays dry so I'm encouraged! Just harder for her to remember all the time when we are out and busy.
You could always put a regular diaper cover on over the panties if you want to avoid a mess. But them feeling the sensation and making that connection really made a huge difference with mine. And yes, there were messes for the first week then it improved. Wasn't perfect of course but it improved.
I didn't see any reason to buy the training pants when I already had covers and pocket diapers(without stuffing) that I could use as protection. But I never used them at home with training.
Training pants are hard to get on and off and don't hold a full pee.
We went either bare bottomed or the cloth training pants from walmart. I noticed recently they have ones with the cover now, before I bought the underwear and used my cloth diaper covers. Both of mine did better in the beginning with nothing on. Of course those options are best if you are at home, I would think your cloth diapers would be fine to go out in.
I don't think you need to change or waste any money. If you want something, but the cheap Gerber training pants. You can get them at Target. I put my daughter in those at 18 months. My daughter, btw, wouldn't let me put a cover on her. I even bought a few expensive one's, and she refused.
You can use the prefolds and then just use the BG as a cover, not a pocket. Way to go on the cloth! My LO was 2 years 1 week when he completely potty learned and I attribute it all to cloth!
Hi R.,
We used BG's with my son too. We didn't switch at all, didn't need to. He potty trained very quickly- 2 weeks, when he had just turned 2 years old. Play it by ear, see how it goes. You might not need to switch. We never used training pants- just went straight from BG's to undies. We continued to use them for a while at night, but then he started holding it, so we kept him in undies. I really do think he trained so quickly partially because he was cloth diapered! When she gets going on the potty reliably, ask if she wants big girl undies and go buy some special ones. What we found really worked for my son was rewards. He would do anything- even poop on the potty- for a Matchbox car. So find a highly desirable, but cheap reward that you can use to motivate her.
Good luck!!! I hope you don't need to go the prefold route, and that it goes as smoothly for you as it did for us. :)
T.
Barefoot Books Ambassador
www.ReadandGrow.com
