cloth toilet training pants

[~*Jodie*~]

So glad you posted this. I was just coming to ask a similar thing since I would rather Ethan be in pants than nappies. He does so love his Cars pull ups though, but they don't seem to be doing much to help with the toilet training. Gonna go look at some of the links and things now.

[~*Jodie*~]

So, it seems like most of you ladies suggest undies rather than training pants. Ethan usually seems to know when he needs to go but just won't let us put him on the toilet. Do you think that would still be ok to put him in undies? Also, he always has a really wet nappy in the morning so would it be an idea to keep him in a night nappy until he gets the daytime toilet training mastered?

He will be 3 this Saturday and I would really like to get him toilet trained before we have this baby so it is one less thing to worry about.

[Sheree Scott]

Hi there!
I have only had two children, but in my experience you can't make a child toilet trained until they are ready for the "training" bit (ie how to use the toilet/potty instead of a nappy). They need to have achieved the physiological (including knowing about a wee, being able to hold on until he gets to the toilet etc) and then the cognitive (understanding of the whole rigmorole) and then the motivation/confidence side of it, first. Sometimes we can influence or guide the motivation/confidence.
Toilet dislike: I have one who doesn't like toilets without a potty insert, but is happy to use it with an insert or use a potty, if the toilet itself is the issue and not something else, then I'd just stick with a potty or insert or both.
Night times: in my experience night pull ups are not as absorbent, so if your son is happy with nappies at night - go with it. Most children aren't dry over night until quite a while after day toileting is achieved.
Is he ready for undies/trainers: My immediate reaction is that he is not quite ready and in my experience (but only one child for this bit, so not a big enough sample size to generalise!) if he is expecting another baby in the house, he may want the security of being a baby and using nappies and not be ready until after the baby to have more independence from MUm. (My girls associated toileting with growing up and being more independent.) OR perhaps if he wants to be a big boy and not one of the babies he could be convinced that toiletting is part of being grown up! This is only useful if he actually can gain confidence in knowing when to go to the toilet.

If you prefer to have him in pants and not nappies, then I would go for pull up nappies as distinct to trainers and as he gains the ability and inclination, work gradually to trainers then undies as the number of wet nappy/pants gets less. For this I'd look at Bongo Baby PUll up nappy, HOney Boy Pull Up, Blueberry Trainer pants (and add an insert if needed). But if he is happy in nappies, I personally would just do that and wait a bit longer.

Hope you find a strategy that works for you and Ethan soon,

cheers,

[Baby Blossom]

Jodie, will he use a potty? If he refuses to sit on either then it will be hard and you will just have pee everywhere. But you need to start somewhere so if you are happy for lots of accidents, go with a bear bum or undies. When my boys were first learning they thought if they had anything on their bums that they could wee in it so bare bottoms work best.

Matt has been day trained for about 6mths and we haven't even considered night time yet. He still is happy to wear his night nappies at night but pulls them off as soon as he is awake.

But we did use training pants when he was learning and we would go shopping etc.

[~*Jodie*~]

It isn't really that he doesn't like sitting on the toilet, more that he thinks he has better things to do. When we ask him if he needs/wants to sit on the toilet he will say no but if Kai sits on there he will kick up a fuss and say it is his turn now. We did buy him some cheap undies today so we might give them a go tomorrow but how knows. A little bit scared too and definatly don't want to force him to be toilet trained. I am a little worried that he will be getting to kindy and still not be toilet trained though. If it doesn't happen yet, then it doesn't happen yet but though reading the success stories of putting them in undies that maybe it might be worth a go at least. I am not so worried about the night side of things either, that isn't really a big deal to me until he maybe starts getting close to school but day trained would be nice.