Silas is almost three and he's been all about the potty bit. At first he could have cared less, but something clicked and he was learning pretty quickly. He went from the kid who didn't care about a soiled diaper to the kid who refused a diaper ("Pull Up Mommy! No dipe!"). I'll be in the kitchen and he'll bolt past me, yelling, "Gotta go pee!" Ah! OK! Let's go! And now he'll just go on his own too - give him a Pull Up and elastic waist pants and he's in there on his own. It's pretty awesome. Now if I could just get him to do #2 on the potty. But he'll get there.
After he started demanding Pull Ups I started looking into cloth diaper trainers. Granted we use fewer Pull Ups but they're still expensive and they're still waste that I'd rather not create. So I asked aroud a bit and started getting some different trainers to try.
You may be wondering what a cloth trainer is. Well just like cloth diapers, there are different types (but fewer different types, no worries). Some are basically thicker underwear (so they'd be better for kiddos who have the whole pee thing down but just need a little extra help sometimes) and some actually have a waterproof layer like many cloth diapers so they're less likely to leak than type 1 but aren't absorbent enough to be a diaper really. Some have elastic sides for easy down/up while others are just like underwear (stretchy but not fully elastic sides). They run anywhere from $9ish to $30ish depending on the brand and the materials.
When I first started CDing I didn't know of any trainers on the market but now there are about 10 major CDing brands that have some and there are a couple of companies that focus specifically on trainers. There are also numerous WAHM-made (Work At Home Mom) trainers on Etsy and other places. I've looked around for some good review sites and haven't found many, so I figured I'd document my trials. One thing to keep in mind if you read my reviews - my son is tall and has a long rise (the measurement from below the belly button to the top of the butt). What may not work for him due to this may work for your child if they're not in the 98th percentile for everything like Silas is. I'll document the price, type, size we're using, and my observations. Hopefully these reviews will help other CDing families choose which types to try. If you have a suggestion for one I don't know of, email me! I love trying new types of diapers/trainers.
