Cloth Trainers: The Final Frontier

If you are like me, you are relishing the day that you no longer use the diaper sprayer for poopy diapers and no longer have a diaper bag to carry around. This means putting the stash of cloth diapers on the shelf for friends to borrow or for any other babies we may have. It also means stashing a wet bag for wet swimsuits after the pool not for wet diapers. Fortunately my daughter is approaching potty training much like she has everything else -- wait...wait...wait...and why are you so far behind me? Catch up! She is on the early side of the trend (only 20 months), and apparently she doesn't like the feel of wet or poopy diapers anymore. Until about two weeks ago she cared less -- I mean, we're talking hated having her diaper changed because it cut down on playing time and was happy to pee in them until it came down her legs. But now if you ask her she'll tell you she is wet and she refuses to poop in her diapers anymore. She regularly runs to the potty and we have to catch up as she tears out of a room. After she sits on the potty she is very proud to tell you what she did, in the way only an almost-two-year old can, complete with a face splitting grin.

Now we are regularly sporting the cloth trainers. They have fun prints and actually fit her. Plus if she likes a pair it isn't like we are throwing them away -- I just have to wash them and she can wear them again, almost like she is training for the underwear she will soon wear. All of the underwear I have found falls off of her little tush, since the cloth trainers tend to be slightly adjustable or with more elastic around the legs and waist, this helps with keep them on her tush. She is also learning to manage getting her pants up and down, which the elastic bands on the cloth trainers help with tremendously. She will occasionally pee enough to wet everything down to her toes when she has a trainer on, but that's to be expected since the trainers hold almost nothing compared to a diaper.

As with diapers, different brands of trainers do different things. The Blueberry trainers are almost exactly like underwear, just a bit thicker. They have most of the same fun prints from the Blueberry diapers that my daughter loves, so she prefers those. The smalls fit her perfectly. They are also a bit more absorbent than the other brands we have tried.

We also have a few of the Fuzzibunz trainers that I found on clearance somewhere. These snap on the sides, which make for quick changes in an accident. However, if there is an accident changing the whole bottom part of an outfit is to be expected, so the snaps really offer a bit of adjustability more than functionality I have found.

We have ones from several more brands -- but they are the same brands we used for diapers like Kushies and Thirsties. Since we still have cloth diapers in our laundry rotation, we just wash the used trainers with our diapers. Overall if you cloth diaper your child and they need a bit of transition from diapers to underpants, then cloth training pants make the most sense. Most of the brands will have them, and of course look for the clearance sales or slightly used ones.

Bio: Carolyn and her beauty in training live in mountainous NC. Find other fun stuff at http://theccdad.blogspot.com.