The proud smiles coming from this tiny little guy as he walks with his heavy little toddler feet from the potty makes my heart warm every single time. “Mama? Go pee? Me do.”
And yep, little brother has a handle on the whole thing. He knows exactly where to put the stool, lifts both seats up, pees (mostly) towards the hole and manages to press the right button for the #1 flush.
Cloth diapering has definitely been part of the reason for my boys potty training early (always before age 2). It’s not exactly a nice feeling to sit in a wet cloth diaper or go poo in one, and they figured that out in a hurry. I also have no problem letting my kids run around with no clothes in order to be more aware of their bodies. There have been lots of puddles to clean up and *ahem* other things, but it’s worked!
But like you, as a cloth diapering mama, I’ve had my own diapering issues. Sometimes I let them sit in the dirty laundry waaaaay too long even though I knew I was risking having a perma-stinky cloth diaper. Or I just couldn’t muster up the energy to throw in another load because I knew they had to be stripped. Or I just didn’t feel like cloth diapering AT ALL and have taken 3 month long hiatus’ because I felt like I already couldn’t get a handle on my everyday laundry.
And sometimes? Sometimes I’ve even thrown out a perfectly good cloth diaper straight in the garbage because peeling it away from a tiny poop covered body/onesie/snowsuit was already enough to send me over the edge.
It’s horrible, I know!! Tell me I’m not the only one.
That’s all part of the “extra work” that comes with cloth diapering but for the most part it’s relatively easy. And, most of us have a disposable stash too. We need them for traveling, in between wash days, or sometimes we need them just to get through the day a little easier. But we usually don’t talk about that because *gasp!* not disposables!?!?
Huggies has been our go-to brand when not cloth diapering since the boys were born. Since we lived in the North, I would stock up for in between days and nighttime use with a costco sized box everytime we took the 3 hour trip to the nearest city!
My little guys are beyond all day cloth diapers now so undies and once in a while disposable slip on diapers are what we do while we transition into big boy undies full time. The Little Movers Slip On diapers have been a great option for Ethan. When we’re planning on being out the majority of the day, especially with a lot of driving, they’re perfect for when we can’t pull over to stop at a bathroom. They’re super easy to get a busy toddler to step into and step out of without any fighting, back arching or writhing :) We’re obviously not reaching for these constantly during the day because Ethan is learning to go potty, but when we do it’s nice to see him able to slip them up and down by himself and I’m happy to have a clean car seat and a little guy who’s not embarrassed if he couldn’t hold it through the night.
You’re doing great, baby.
Huggies® Slip-On® Diapers have stretchy sides to let you quickly slip on the diaper for a close, comfy fit and trusted leakage protection. Plus, they have easy open tabs so they are easy to take off – making changing easy for you and your squirmy baby. Got a Squirmy Baby? Take the Easy-On, Easy-Off Challenge at HUGGIES.COM/CHALLENGE
Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Kimberly Clark via Glam Media Canada. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Kimberly Clark.
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About Amanda
uuuuuuggggg….Huggies as always been our back up from cloth as well. And with Bryce being daytime trained and 8/10 nights all good too, I still want a pull up of sort on. Bryce found the Diego ones at WalMart the other day. I caved and bought them instead of Cars (Huggies) and now 6 days and no pee later, he has the worst bum rash. I just emailed pampers…but I may be stuck with a 72 box that still has 66 in it and I can’t use them :(
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That’s too bad MaryBeth! I’ve never had rash problems with Huggies either and the second I switched my boys were rashy. I definitely think it’s mostly due to Huggies being scent-free. Are the pampers pull ups scented like the diapers? I haven’t bought them before. Maybe it’s that dry-max stuff in them that was causing all the rash/burns?
And by the way, thanks for commenting on this post :) Usually chatting about disposables among cloth diapering mamas is unheard of even though we all use them! Or at least 99.5% of us ;)
I called Pampers and they are refunding my money. Its such a shame. They say it is because of the perfume :( Mr B just really wanted Diego!! Oh well. His bum is doing much better now with them.
was 100% cloth with Brae, but she was out of them at 19months…Bryce, I had to sposie part time…i’d lose my mind if I didn’t! Especially with travel! But its like all mommy shame, everyone feels they have to be one or the other and are ashamed to admit using anything else…its sad :(
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That’s too bad MB…glad he’s doing better and you at least got your money back.
I had lots of mommy shame emails coming in over this post. I figured it would be better to be honest about how I diaper my boys instead of pretending to be the 100% cloth diaper queen but I can’t please everyone.
Yep, I use both too. Disposables at night because I tell myself that maybe he’ll feel dryer in them and therefore won’t wake up as much and also for the 3 days/week he spends at his dayhome. I would feel guilty asking the dayhome lady to use the cloth diapers because, let’s be real here, dealing with a poopy cloth diaper is a whole different ballgame than dealing with a poopy disposable. I’ve never thrown one out though – but I laughed when I read that, because I can sure understand what would drive you to that. I’ve frequently left poopy cloth diapers for hours and hours and hours because I just couldn’t muster up the courage to deal with it. But even part-time cloth diaper use saves many disposables from ending up in a landfill.
Anyway, you should do a post on starting potty training before age 2 (if you haven’t already?). I’d be interested to read any tips/tricks you could offer. Again, the earlier they’re out of diapers, the less going to the landfill!
Tara thanks so much for sharing. I’m not sure I would expect a daycare or dayhome to use cloth either unless it was something they were already used to doing, obviously, because it is definitely a little more work!
And yes, I agree with you about part time cd’ing – even if mamas are only doing cloth part time, it’s still a HUGE savings financially, better for the environment and safer for little bums.
Aaaand since I’m being totally honest about my diapering practices, I’ve thrown out a cloth diaper TWO times. That was right before I took a little hiatus from cloth…. *hanging my head in shame*. LOL
Tricks for potty training: let them run naked so they don’t have the option to poop in a diaper, not freak out about pee on the hardwood (or carpet), and bribery is really all it comes down to ;)
Carter was in disposables when we was born and when we first brought him home because there wasn’t a cloth diaper that would fit him (he was preemie). I learned from the nurses in the NICU that Huggies are the way to go. They used Pampers, because they were free and donated to the NICU but Carter would have the worse rashes, it was so sad. Turns out Pampers uses scents and other stuff that doesn’t always sit well with babies.
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Randa your little boy is so sweet :)
The smell of pampers is so nostalgic for me because that’s what they put on our boys in the hospital too! I wasn’t brave enough to start cloth until my boys were a few months old! When did you start?
We use cloth full time even at night. I’m lucky enough to have a hubby who does all the diaper washing! We haven’t taken any big trips yet but if we did I would think about using disposables ESP if there were no laundry facilities wherever we were staying. I love cloth diapering & am hoping it also helps get my little guy potty trained early like yours:)
Oh wow! I can’t even trust my husband with regular laundry let alone cloth diapers! Lucky mama! I haven’t had too hard a time with potty training…only thing is they tend to forget they need to pee until the very second they can’t hold it anymore! They get busy playing and all the sudden “I HAVE TO PEEEEEEEEE!!!!” and it’s too late. Walking to the bathroom never happens. It’s full tilt running all the time!!
We used cloth on both kids right from birth and they are 18 months apart so we had 2 in cloth for a bit. I never bought disposables so never gave myself the option to use them. We did lots of travelling including flights and trips away but everywhere we stayed had laundry so it was no problem. We don’t have a dryer at home so I have to make sure I get diapers washed and dried in time for them to be used again. But, as I said, I never had any disposables on hand so I never considered the other option. But my youngest started getting irritation from the cloth diapers in the spring and it took forever to clear up so he went naked all day and had to wear disposables at night. We didn’t have to use that many and b/c we were letting him go naked in the day he started potty training at 16 months and has done awesome with it. And finally I successfully stripped the diapers so he’s no longer irritated. :)
I’m a 99.5% cloth diaper-er. We do cloth at night as well, just with a double. And it’s funny, two nights I happened to have a disposable recently (left here by a neighbour) and he was wet through the disposable, worse than with the cloth! I found that funny.
I don’t cloth diaper on a brand newbie – more for me than the baby. I figure, coming home from the hospital having just given birth, the last thing I want to do is wash diapers. I stick with the Huggies Pure and Natural for brand new babies, up until about 2 months. Then we switch over to cloth.
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Similar to what I did…I found it was just too much to think about with a new baby….especially if you have a toddler to look after, are breastfeeding, etc! Those itty bitty newborn cloth diapers sure are adorable though!!!
Any tips on cloth diapering? In due in Feb and looking into using cloth but so overwhelmed by it all!!! Where do you even start?
It’s really not that difficult once you figure out what works for you! I always used prefolds and all in two’s…I found those to be the easiest and least expensive. I could never wrap my mind around paying $30 & up for a cloth diaper!
I’ll start working on a post about this because I get a ton of emails asking about how I made cloth diapering work, what brands I used, etc. :)
Hey Brianne,
I strongly recommend finding a local store that sells cloth diapers and that has a good variety (ie: not just one type of pocket or AIO etc). Lots of them are really really helpful and will give you a really good overview of the whole thing. If you’re anywhere near Saskatoon I could give you the name of one. :) The other thing I did when I was starting, was I ordered a starter package that included a variety of different types of dipes: AIO, pocket, prefold, etc, then it gives you a few options to play around with to see what works for you and what you like.
Good luck, CD’ing is lots of fun because there are SO many cute cute diapers out there now!!! :)
Great suggestions Leanne! Thanks for chiming in :)
Thanks but Im in NJ! I dont think there are any stores that sell them. Well a few sell bum genius and thats it. I had a lady say she would give me some info on them if I bought some of her used but it kind of grosses me out to buy them used? Although I know a few who have! So are all in twos easier than AIO? Easy and not crazy expensive is the way I want to go!!
Looking forward to your post! Soon I hope! ; )