Selfsufficientish.com

Hi,

I've been using terry squares with nappy nippers and Motherease outers with my daughter since she was a few months old, and have always got on really well with them - found them very versatile as she's grown and her diet's changed etc, plus the obvious fact of not needing to buy any new ones as she grows! However, she's now 20 months and I'm having a bit of a problem. She's starting to use a potty for some wees and poos, but isn't quite ready to go into training pants yet (we've tried a couple of times) as she doesn't manage to hold onto wees for long enough to get to the potty. Also she's quite young and I don't want to push her. The trouble is though that she can go such a long time between wees that, when she does one, it's quite substantial and makes the nappy so heavy it falls down round her ankles. Obviously only a problem when she's in a dress, but that's quite a lot of the time as they're the easiest clothes to fit over bulky nappies (not sure what I'll do if the next one's a boy...). I've tried doing the outers up tighter but that doesn't seem to help. At the moment she's just in leggings because it removes the problem. Other things I've considered but not yet tried:
- go back to using pins (having done this since she was quite tiny (with muslins) and not sure she'll stay still enough)
- put her in training pants with the Motherease outers over the top (have done this before, but only have 4 pairs of washable extra-absorbent pants and don't much want to buy loads more, or to wash them as often as I'd need to)
- hurry up with potty training (I'm reasonably keen to get this done before the next is due in February, but don't want to push it before she's ready)

Anyone else had this problem, or got any ideas about what to do?

Thanks,

Emma

I have heard lots of stories of toddlers who stop using a potty when a sibling is born, they can regress in many ways and I would imagine the last thing you want with a new baby in the house is to deal with a wet toddler all the time too. So I personally wouldn't try to hurry potty training.

I use terries with motherease wraps too and I know your problem (E is 23.5 months, and shows no signs of wanting to use the potty) But TBH I have had the same happen with disposables. The way I get round it is that I put a vest on her with poppers under the gusset, I buy the next size up of vest (difficult at this age) so there is enough space for the nappy. I also have old-fashioned plastic pants, they stay up better but they seem quite jaggy and noisey.

HTH... a little...

Beth is 2 and 8 months and part potty trained but we are not hurrying up the next bit for exactly the reason Annpan says - her little brother/sister is arriving on the 16th Sept (by c-section, hence the exact date...of course that is assuming it doesn't put in an appearance earlier..) and I don't want to push to get her potty trained fast to then have problems when baby arrives, I would rather have two in nappies for a few weeks and then start to complete the potty training once things have settled down. We have a deadline in the form of nursery, she starts nursery (at school) two mornings a week in January so she needs to be potty trained by then.

I must admit I have not had this problem with either disposables or cloth, they do sometimes get very heavy but they generally stay up - I suspect this has to do with both the volume of wee and the shape of the child (Beth is fairly chunky so stuff usually stays up fairly well on her). I must admit she is in eco-disposables at the moment as I cannot find a cloth nappy big enough for her as she is very tall as well as stocky and is in all 3-4yr old clothes, plus it seems pointless forking out for a load of nappies and wraps to use for only a few weeks.

Some nice braces perhaps?

hahaha that picture keeps cropping up!!!

I used pins. I stuck my hand down inside the nappy to lift it slightly away from sophie's belly before jabbing th pin in. within 3 weeks of switching to terries from disposables she was dry during the day and we only had them at night. I had a leaking problem which forced us eventually to give up on the terries, but within aother week of giving up on terries she was dry at night too. every child is different.

Ahhhhh let me get hold of my sister she was telling me there is a trainer pant that will hold a big wee if needed but they still feel wet if that makes sense.

right on the phone to her now it's the "blueberry" ones

Thanks everyone - right now the weather's so bad she's in trousers all the time anyway, so no problem. It was just handy when it was hot for her to be in a nappy and dress and nothing else, so if she did ask for the potty we could get there quickly and if she didn't, it didn't matter. Sounds like it's worth trying pins again, I'm working up the courage... My husband reckons it's maybe because of the fold we use, which has got a big pleat in the middle that can get looser (http://www.thenappylady.co.uk/public/ar ... spx?id=172), but I can't find a better-fitting fold at the moment.

And incidentally, I'd quite like to get her some braces! Anyone seen any? They don't really crop up in our usual bags of hand-me-downs and I don't think my sewing skills will stretch to them (although thinking about it they can't be that hard). She's very skinny, so once she's out of massive nappies her skirts & trousers won't stay up.

You could try H+M for braces, I don't think they will be for sale in regular shops but H+M often have weird stuff, and if you go to one that has had kidswear for ages they might have some in the back... worth phoning ahead for actually.....(can you tell I used to work there?)

I use the kite fold, E could barely walk with other folds (too bulky in-between the legs I think)