Cloth Diapers and Early Potty Training

Day 11 – Early Potty Learning!  That’s right – cloth diapering can lead to early potty learning compared to babies in disposable diapers.

It’s hard for me to grasp that my little baby girl will be turning two on January 4th (2011).  My baby is no longer a little baby; she is a full blown toddler.  We’ve had the potty seat out for quite some time now so she is comfortable with it when the time comes.  For a few months now she’s let me know that she’s peed or pooped but hasn’t really been able to tell me before it happened.  It’s not usually hard to tell when a toddler is in the process of pooping – sneaking away to be alone, standing completely still, making strange faces, holding their breath, and just a few other obvious signs.

The last few days we’ve made some great progress though – mostly on the poop front.  About once a day she asks to go to the potty where she will mostly just sit there and read her books and wait for someone to give her a mini-marshmallow (her little prize for trying to potty).  This week alone she’s actually made it to the potty and pooped successfully three times!  The only time she ever pee’s without her diaper is following her shower/bath time when she’s running around the house all nakey.  She never catches it before hand and we end up having to wipe up the wet mess on the floor before she slips and falls.

For one more week she is in an in-home day care where the only potty trained child is a three year old who is still learning.  Her caregiver hasn’t really begun working with her because she’s never seen a child potty train this early.  Most studies show that between 2-2.5 yrs old children can successfully learn to control their bowel movements – my own son (now 7) was fully trained before he was 2.5 yrs old and he was in disposables.  It’s becoming more common however for parents to wait until later in the second year or early in the third year before they begin potty training.

Once she turns 2 yrs we are planning on registering her in the education center (day care) where her big brother went.  While they don’t normally begin potty training their until 2.5 yrs the teachers have always been very proactive to work with the children at their own pace.

The key with potty training at any age is consistency.  It’s difficult to be consistent when she is away from home for several hours each day.  Even if you didn’t use cloth diapers on your baby you can have success with using cloth training pants during potty training.  Cloth training pants are designed similar to cloth diapers in that they have a water proof outer shell and an absorbent liner.  The main difference between cloth diapers and training pants is that training pants are easier for the child to pull on and off.

The problem that I’m finding with early potty training is finding cloth training pants that are designed to fit the smaller child.  Have you tried cloth training pants?  Which ones have you found that would fit a toddler around 25 pounds? 

Some of my favorite cloth diapering retailers that sell cloth training pants:

• Kelly’s Closet (affiliate)
• Diaper’s Etc
• Franklin Goose (affiliate)