Diapers and Potty training

I cloth diaper. I do this for all the reasons that you think. I probably do this for a few you don't know or think of. One of the reasons that I use cloth diapers is that in a previous life as a drug and medical device investigator, I inspected a major manufacturer of diapers. This is open record and I would share the name, but I don't want to push anyone away from probably one of the better diaper manufacturers in spite of the large number of violations the company had. The point is that I would encourage people to use cloth diapers over choosing an even more violative firm than the one I inspected. Also, one of the example device manufacturer that device inspectors are shown is a manufacturer of the plastic beads that are the absorbent material in a diaper, and they could show no studies about the affect of this material on babies and avoided any further questions on the subject. Another reason would be that I read all the studies that point to fertility problems being linked to diapered boys (of course, I only have girls, but still). The third reason you probably wouldn't think of is that they are easier than disposables, or at least they were. That is because I used a diaper service. All the ease of disposables except I didn't even have to shop for diapers or ever have an issue throwing them away.

My diaper service was picking diapers on Wednesday and dropping me off a more than sufficient supply of clean diapers for the next week. About a month ago, they still hadn't picked up the dirty diapers Wednesday evening, but there were occasions were they picked up and dropped off diapers fairly late, so I didn't think too much about it. Thursday morning, they still hadn't picked up the diapers. So I called them. The number was not in service. I used the Austin number. It was also not in service. I went to the website. They are out of business. There was no warning. I had just spoken with them two weeks before to cancel Nerdlet's diapers, and they hadn't mentioned anything. So now I'm washing diapers.

My MIL very disdainfully (that makes her sound like a bitter woman and she really isn't) says that babies under a certain age aren't potty trained that the mothers are. She and I don't agree on a lot of things regarding diapering and potty training. I will say that a lot of Bug's continual potty training relies on the adults around her. She is mostly non-verbal so if you don't take her, often she isn't going to tell you. Also, she is a 20 pound 2 year old with all her clothes on, so the big toilet is scary for her and she will only rarely use it. This means I cart a potty around with me in the trunk of my car. A trip to Six Flags means a potty in the underseat compartment of the double stroller. It also involves my getting up in the middle of the night if she decides she needs to go. I still find that having her potty trained this early is preferable to my changing diapers, cloth or no.

I'm wondering how early I am going to be able to potty train Bear in a similar manner. She can hold it and often wakes up dry, and she also pees for attention and to get out of therapy, so I know she has the control already. She also absolutely hates being wet or dirty, which is what I credit as the number one motivational factor in Bug's potty training. I was fine thinking Bug would be in diapers for a long time when I didn't have to wash them. I'm less fine with it now. Washing diapers isn't as bad as I thought it would be when I was surprised at being stuck with a weeks dirty diapers on my front porch, but it still isn't something I'm wanting to do for another half decade or so.