Thursday 18 April 2013

Potty Training a Cloth Bummed Toddler #RNW13 Guest Post

potty training a cloth bummed toddler


Kate is a mum of two, soon to be three and blogs over at Family Fever, Below she shares her experience of potty train a cloth bummed toddler....


For both my children, I have religiously used cloth nappies from birth, and loved them. Not only are they super efficient, soft on delicate skin and good for the environment but they are also amazingly cute!

So when it came to potty training my cloth bums, I was a bit lost at sea! 

How do you go from fluffy nappies to a fully fledged toilet trained kid in one easy move?!

The real answer is – you don’t. 

Potty training any child, whether they are in disposables or real nappies is never going to be a walk in the park.

It’s still a slog, with lots of accidents along the way.

However, having used cloth from birth, I knew I didn’t want to go down the disposable pull up route, so went in search of washable potty training pants. After some research, and recommendations from the real nappy community we went for the Bambino Mio training pants.

Like real nappies, these are totally natural and much more normal to me than disposable pull ups. 

I find the problem with disposables is the fact that they are so absorbent that they immediately wick away all the wetness so quickly that the toddler doesn’t know they have had an accident – I think this must make it hard to learn the difference between wet and dry. 

Kate's cloth bummed toddler playing with bubbles!

The Bambino Mio training pants have an inner pad for absorbency so that if the child does have an accident while you are out you don’t need to panic about drenched clothes. The real benefit in my eyes is that they also have a waterproof layer that allows the child to feel wetness – so they can understand what it feels like to have an accident. I believe this then encourages the child to want to stay dry as they dislike the uncomfortable feeling of wet pants. 

As with real nappies, they can also be machine washed and tumble dried, so you only need a few pairs to get you through the transition period whereas buying disposable pull ups can cost a small fortune!

From here it’s just a small step to big kid pants. And that’s when it gets really tough, as the beautiful, soft, fluffy nappies have to be packed away forever.... 

Sad times.

Sad Times Indeed Kate! I am getting ready for my 2 year old daughter to potty train and I'm going to be lost with out my fluffy stash! Thank you for sharing your experiences Kate. Does anyone else have any tips for Potty Training a cloth bummed toddler? Or any questions? Please do show Kate some comment love and remember all comments get entered into our prize draw

22 comments:

  1. Aaaawww, lovely post!! I found my 3 year old potty trained a lot earlier than the other two, not sure if this was because she wore cloth nappies or not x

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  2. I don't even want to think about potty training zach yet! Will be so hard to say bye to our beautiful nappies!

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  3. Love this! Even though Mason isn't a cloth bummed baby, we have bought 2 pairs of the bambinomio trainer pants for the exact same reason that Kate mentioned! I don't think disposable pull ups are the way to go with potty training but 'big boy pants' seem too much of a big step to begin with so the trainer pants are perfect for us! We havnt tried them yet as we're not attempting potty training until June time but its great to start stocking up early =)

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  4. Our daughter has been in disposables for the last year, and I really wish we'd stayed in cloth as I think she would have potty trained earlier. Off to buy some bambino mio pants.

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  5. OOoo this is so interesting, I have a toddler who I think will be ready in the not too distant future and was wondering whether to go for trainning pants or just go the whole hog, think i will have to give trainning pants a go as it give me an excuse for a little extra fluffyness!

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  6. im not looking farward to potty training chelsea she has lots of pretty fluff that will be realy hard to say goodbye too, and shes my last baby

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  7. This was fab to read as I'm in limbo of potty training my almost 3 year old,I think I will be buying some cloth training pants to help him along! Thank you!

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  8. Having had no issues training any of my 5 I can honestly say that keeping calm is the best way to do it. Don't make it too tricky or stressful or your child won't want to participate or will rebel against you. It's one of the only things very young children have complete control over, and they need to see the benefits to training.
    Cloth is definitely easier and quicker than trying to train a child wearing disposables - they actually realise straightaway that they've wee'd and make the association and gain control much more quickly :)

    (If I win this prize I have a blogging friend who is just moving to cloth from disposables for her daughter and I'll pass it over to her).

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  9. good to hear about training pants recommendation - lianne jones

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  10. Great post. Bug is nearing the time to start potty training and I've been wondering what I will do to move from cloth nappies to being potty trained. I will be having a look at the Bambino Mio training pants as the idea of using disposable pull up pants does not appeal to me and these look like a great pant to use during the transition from cloth nappy to potty trained.

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  11. My little man is a little way of being ready for potty training (he's 17mo), but he has on occasion told me when he is (and once or once even prior to) dirtying so perhaps in the next few months....? I'd be interested to know how many parents go for training pants, and how many go straight to pants! The one thing I do know is that so many parents say cloth-bummed kids are easier to potty train. At nursery they think my son will be good at potty-training as he goes from dry to very wet, rather than lots of little wees, haha! Anyway, time will tell....

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  12. a long way off potty training yet ! but interesting read :) thanks

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  13. Still a long way off but great post, I hope one day Beboo is a cloth bummed baby! I think the transition might be that much easier then. Great post :) x

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  14. My little boy is only 14mo but I'm already thinking about potty training. My previous experience with cloth bummed boys (as an au pair) was what convinced me to switch to cloth with him and I haven't regretted it.
    I think the best tip for potty training any child is to do it when they're ready and not when you think it's time. Make it exciting with fun underwear and don't confuse them by returning to nappies at the first accident :)

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  15. Isn't it always interesting how these little ones are all so different? I'm currently going through 'training' with my almost 3yr old. We started months ago with Bambino Mio training pants but she just treated them like a nappy so I have Freecycled them and carried on with regular pants.. LOTS of them! After a massive turn around we went back in nappies for a couple of months but she's leading the way at the mo and is doing well. Slowly slowly potty catches peewee ;-)

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  16. We have this to look forward to!

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  17. We have this to look forward to in a couple of months. My son is 17 months and he'll sit and play on his potty. Taking it one step at a time - one say he might do an accidental pee in it and we will take it from there

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  18. Good luck! I'm going through it with mason as well and totally agree at disposable pull-ups are not the way to go.

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  19. will have to try those when the time comes, not to soon though i hope I've just ordered more fluff.

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  20. Do you have any recommendations for new born cloth nappies?

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  21. Having just been through a hellish period of potty training my now three year old I'm always interested to read other's accounts. I wish I'd seen these training pants before we started and I think they would be a brilliant solution whether your child has been cloth, or disposable, bummed before training!

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  22. Dreading potty training...

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