First, let me apologize in advance to those who you who are already well along the green path. While my husband and I have not been totally ignorant of the environment, we have mostly done the easiest things, e.g. taking recycling to our apartment complex's station and using cloth shopping bags more often than not.
What we have not done is use cloth diapers. I admit to being ignorant of the advances on this front and thus shunned the very idea. (Please, don't judge. I'm learning.) My daughter is potty training now. I have decided that not only are the disposable pull-ups not earth-friendly but also slowing her progress. So today I am stating that I am done buying pull-ups. So now I need help!!!!
I have cloth training pants for home but what do I do at night and when we go out? I have a few remaining pull-ups that I am saving for these times but what do I thereafter? I bought a couple of pairs of terry-lined rubber pants but they are very bulky. Any suggestions? I know that there are cloth diapers out there but I don't know where to start at this point. So I am counting on you, green mommies everywhere. Help me keep my pledge to be done with littering the earth with my daughter's accidents.
If you know of specific products, websites, whatever that will help, please share. I look forward to your insight. :-)
Posts
Spotted Dog
7 years ago
8 comments:
We used pullups for awhile at night (nothing else really worked all night, iykwim?) and as far as i am concerned, nighttime training is a 'grown into' thing vs a learned thing. When they are physically ready, it'll happen. My daughter actually was just turned off by wet diapers in general, so she detested peeing in it at night. My son is starting to show similar signs.
BTW, i am a moderator with Baby Whisperer. So i 'semi' know what i am talking about---lol---do ANY of us truly??
Trust me. Getting a good nights sleep is needed to deal with all the accidents! LOL Daytime takes a bit of work for some, but leave the nighttime worries for now.
Only my opinion.
Oh, and if you want, i know a lady that runs a cloth diaper service and she tried everything out there. I can give you her contact or you can ask me the questions and i'll find out here opinions. ACTUALLY, i'll just point her to this post.
Here is a link to a post from my friend from high school Emily's blog. It talks about the choice they made in cloth diapers. Hope it helps!
http://cafegilliam.blogspot.com/2008/10/cloth-diaper-run-down-with-leak.html
Hi there,
I'm the friend Samijoe is talking about...
How old is your baby? Most of my thoughts stem from me using cloth all along with my boy and that he's only two and isn't quite at a full understanding point yet...I've had some clients and friends who use cloth try switching over to the training portion of life and some have reverted back to just diapers and some are moving ahead and doing well...it really is all about your child and how ready they are. It could be a slow process and it might not be! Be gentle, positive and honest with your child and they'll figure it out when they are ready. This is something you don't want to force but you want to make available to them!
Here are some of my thoughts on cloth diapers and potty training...
a) In the beginning of training, I agree with Sam and also feel that nighttime training is something your baby grows into. I would focus on daytime training and let your baby grow older to work on the night. My boy is really good in the day but he's not quite ready to work on the night time training yet so I just put him in the usual cloth diapers for now. (We use Mother-Ease one-size diapers with Bummis covers or organic prefolds with Bummis Super Whisper Wrap or Super Brite covers) We'll work on the training pants at night when he's a little bigger and can understand more about it. (He just turned two a couple of weeks ago and I think he’s doing great so far!) He’s close to night time training since he only pees once sometimes twice and sometimes not at all but I think it’s just a matter of time before he consistently doesn’t need to pee at night and then will feel the need to pee while he’s asleep and wake up to go. He is learning this during naptime already…
b) There are some great reusable training pants out there. I prefer the Bummis Training Pant as they are easy to pull up and down, they still have a somewhat reasonable absorbency if there is an accident and they are not plastic pants so they don't crunch crunch when a baby walks or moves around in them. They also aren't super bulky or super expensive and they are waterproof.
c) you could use reusable training pants at night too but understand that they are not meant to have a lot of absorbency and your baby WILL feel it and/or leak if they have a big pee while they are asleep.
d) If you don't think you are ready to start the night time training you might want to invest in some cloth diapers for nighttime...for a great diaper at a reasonable price you could try the Mother Ease all-in-one diapers (www.mother-ease.com) or something like that. (I am a big fan of Mother Ease diapers!) Having not used cloth diapers all along I would suggest an all-in-one just for the ease of use. You will want to purchase a few diapers as one will not get you through the night. That said, don't get too many since you really aren't going to use them for long. To figure out how many, you will need consider how many disposables your baby goes through at night and add a few because with disposables your baby isn't feeling ANY of the moisture and with cloth they will so you will undoubtedly have a few more changes at night than you are used to (if you are used to any changes at all, in fact...if their diaper is wet in the morning then you can be assured that you will have to change your baby for now until they get used to it. this will probably help with the nighttime training though)
Remember that with cloth your baby feels it when he/she pees. There are ways to make it a little less wet feeling by using liners of some sort. I suggest to my clients to try lining their diapers with strips of fleece or those sporty fabrics that wick away moisture. This will help with the feeling too wet but they will still feel it a bit.
e) hmm, after writing that 4th point you might want to try just training pants at night and see how it goes...it may be super frustrating for your little one though to have a wet bed AND a wet diaper if they are a big peer. It all depends on your baby really...
One of the benefits of cloth and potty training is that children can feel the wet every time they go. This may be super frustrating to your baby and help you train faster or this may just annoy them and make them mad. Keep an eye on him/her for when they pee and remember to be super positive about it all!
Good luck! I hope I helped some…
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and websites. That's exactly why I started this blog was to learn from others. I like that she can feel the wet during the day because it seems to be helping with the training. I really appreciate the thoughts about the night. It will be change for her to feel wet at night -- we don't do nighttime changes with the Pull-ups. I will definitely be trying these things and will report back.
So much response for your new blog. Keep going . Its a nice thought. Being eco friendly.
hd-wallpaper
ovsn x % mx 61
I didn't do the cloth diaper thing so I'm no help with that.
I just wanted to say that I've been trying to commit to being green and I'm following your new blog.
Post a Comment