our third boy just turned one and i wonder if he will train sooner than our other boys, which were dry during the day with about 3-3.5 yrs. but both still need a night time diaper. One gets cloths the other not. to be honest, i don’t expect the 3rd one to get trained earlier. but only time will tell. i have friends that force their 1 yr olds to sit on a potty, which i find very sad. the children are screaming, yet have to sit there (for nothing). i will definitely wait until he shows interest. Although I have enough laundry to do with a 5 people household plus the diapers and never get home before 7pm from work, I would never start the training if I see, the child is not ready yet.
I think it’s a combination of waiting for signals but also not waiting until baby turns, let say, 4. For sure the commercial disposable diaper companies are benefiting for kids staying in diapers longer, plus using their expensive training pants. But yet, I will not start before I see the first signs or willingness to stay on the potty.

I have heard those facts before and find myself constantly spouting them to anyone who will listen! I am always hearing people say that trying to potty train too early will not only not work but will TRAUMATIZE the child. Really? So NOT going to the bathroom in your pants is traumatic? That seems backwards to me. I am sure that it is the result of tricky disposable diaper marketing. It is really messed up that a BABY company doesn’t have the best interest of babies or parents in mind at all.

My son is 16 months old (and in cloth). At this point, he lets me know when he realizes he needs to potty a lot of the time. He also ‘tells’ (We do signing) me when he is wet and uncomfortable so that I can change him. There is no reward or punishment either way, yet he chooses to go in the potty. Clearly it is his instinct/preference NOT to soil himself. All we did was give him the OPTION not to go in his diaper and he does the rest – I can’t really even take credit for it.

We potty learned in only cloth. As she was my first child, I was waiting for ‘signs’ that never came. Around 22 months I started anyway and it was h-a-r-d. I decided to try for at least 5 days with underwear, then put her back in cloth. The day I put her back in was the day she started to tell me when she had to go. It still took several months for things to be good. With the occasional regression. Even at 3 she has gone through regressions of just not making it and wetting in front of the toilet. However, we don’t have night time accidents ever. I kept her in cloth at night until she was almost 3 just in case.

Our first child (who we had in disposables) was day-time trained by the time he turned two and completely dry before his 3rd birthday. We communicated early on (starting at 18 months) what his bowel movements were all about and once he understood what he was doing we just put him in underwear. It took two weeks for him to be dry. His brother (18 months now) is in cloth. When our washer broke 2 months ago, we just started putting him on the toilet to cut down on diaper laundry (it’s easier to wash pants by hand then hemp inserts…). Now he wets (on average) one diaper during the day and one at night. Solids almost always go in the toilet. He has not started telling us ahead of time when he needs to go but we have picked up on his “schedule” and watch for cues.

Both our girls were very different. The first trained very easily right around 24 months. She would stay dry all night, so we put her on the potty in the morning, and she’d go. She quickly decided she liked to be dry, and would hold it for hours until I got the hint and put her on the potty. She still has a bladder of steel. My second, we put on occasionally in infancy, so she always knew what the potty was for. However, she was resistant to the idea of using it in toddlerhood. Sometime after she turned two, it because obvious that she was perfectly capable of using the potty, but chose not too. Little brother was born when she was 2.5, so we didn’t push it until she was almost 3, at which point we put her in (nonwaterproof) trainers and told her she was too big for diapers (we talked it up for a few weeks beforehand, so she knew it was coming). She took to it well, with the help of some M&M’s, and was day trained a week later. She just turned 3, and has been night dry for a week now as well. Interestingly, since she’s older, she’s much more reliable than big sis was when newly trained. It’s only been a month, and we can already pretty much take her anywhere without worrying about it too much.

We used disposables on my daughter. As an infant, she stayed dry all night. Around 18 months I started buying Pull-Ups because she seemed ready to learn, but we were lazy about working with her to potty train. She learned to poop in the potty before she learned to pee in it. She wore them until 2.5 years when we switched to panties fulltime. It took no time at all once we switched for her to stay dry all the time. I tell everyone that Pull-Ups are glorified (expensive) diapers that do nothing to motivate a child to use the potty. I could have had her fully dry by 2 years if we had switched to panties sooner.

We use cloth diapers on my 11 month old son. “They” say that boys take longer to potty train. I plan to not waste my time and money with Pull-Ups. Time will tell whether cloth diapers get him trained sooner.

My oldest daughter where disposables becasue i was unaware of cloth diapers as an option or a reality i just assumed every did disposables and well she did potty train at 22months it was because the disposables where causing chemical burns on her ultra sensative skin. she would be the diaper would burn and she would sceam from the pain the doctor told use to try to potty train after one time each of peeing and pooing in the potty she was trained that being said how many parents want there parent in pain in order to potty train. My second daughter was cloth diapered from birth and cloth potty trained at 2 years old it took alittle longer but in all no longer then a week to get the process down and 4 weeks for her to be considered her fully potty trained. i see kids at the age of 3 and 4 still in diapers and i just shocks me that a kid could be ok whereing a diaper at that age.

I started cloth diapers when my second was born and immediately switched his 23-month-old brother into them. My older son was potty trained (day) in two days at 26 months. From the first time he realized he didn’t have to poop in a diaper he never pooped in one again! Pee took a little bit to get used to. We did not use Pull-Ups either, although he eventually refused to wear diapers “like the baby” at night and I had to buy those for night-time use (2 weeks solid of changing sheets at 2 AM convinced me he just wasn’t ready to sleep in underwear).

My youngest is now 21 months and starting to show signs of readiness, only going through 4-5 diapers in a 24-hour period and staying dry all night. I’ve been trying to get him to use the potty, but can’t get him to go for the first time. I doubt he’ll train as easily as his brother did, but I’m hoping it will be earlier!

And this is exactly why 4 year olds with lazy/passive parents are walking around happily content in Pull-up diapers. We have a relative who claims her child refuses to potty train. It’s quite pathetic how disposable diapers have helped to influence parenting today.

We did disposables with our first daughter who showed early “signs of readiness” around 17 months. We potty trained a couple months later and she was day trained by 20 months. She was nap trained by about 24 months. We are still working on night training (she is 2 1/2), but she keeps her diaper dry about half the time (and has been for about 5 months) and the last few nights she has actually woken up, and asked to go potty in the middle of the night. For us, I think a huge help factor was using real underwear in the potty training process. I would say that PULL-UPS more so than disables are what makes potty training at an early age REALLY difficult. Once they have a few accidents in real underwear it connects even if they were in disposables, but pull-ups feel exactly the same so there’s no incentive to change their habits.

I definitely am not a fan of waiting until the child is “ready” to potty-train him or her. We are trying to get the process going now for our 15 month old daughter because her diapers are NASTY to wash and I’m looking forward to no more of those. We found a grape in our washing machine the other day (a raisin that she swallowed whole and then was rehydrated in the machine).

I had wanted to do cloth from the beginning, but my husband lost his job before we could buy anything so we never had a big chunk of money to spend on them. We started Elimination Control training when our son was about 6-7 months old. We had just learned about it and we plan on doing it again with the next one. Going on the potty was never a new thing to him. He would go in the potty often, but still used diapers. We weren’t consistent later on and by 2 years old he was doing ok, but again we still were using diapers. A friend gave us a few covers and prefolds. When we started using them, I noticed a big difference right away. He is much more aware and although he still has accidents occasionally, for several months now, he’ll go 3-4 days sometimes without wetting his pants. He’s in undies during the day and we’ve even left the house for several hours many times and he’s been great. We still have to diaper when he sleeps, but other than that, huge improvement. I highly recommend cloth for potty training. We only have 2 covers and about 5 prefolds, so it’s not even that much extra laundry.

There are a lot of factors involved in whether it’s time to potty train a child. There are also a lot of definitions of “potty-trained.” In my opinion, a child is not potty-trained until he or she can recognize the need to go, go to the bathroom and pull down his pants, and go by himself, and he does this consistently. I think we are doing a disservice to each other if we criticize mothers who haven’t potty-trained their kids at an early age. Mothering is hard enough, and potty-training is often a stressful and difficult time. The problem is compounded by the fact that we are supposed to get our kids potty trained during the most difficult time of their lives–the terrible twos! There’s something to be said for toilet-training a little later–the child can communicate better, and they are more physically capable of taking their own clothes off and climbing onto the potty and washing their hands. Yes, you have to change diapers longer, but I’ll take a dirty diaper over poop all over my carpet any day.

That’s very interesting and very true. I am cloth diapering our first when he/she arrives, and I do believe that cloth diapering helps potty train the child faster.

I potty trained three boys after using disposables. My daugther is turning 2 in April and I am hoping that since we’ve used cloth that we might have an easier time. She already asks to be changed when dirty and sits on the potty (when she asks to even tho nothing happens). Wishing you luck!

My first son potty trained at 19 months. He was fully trained by 24 months. He was cloth diapered. I loved cloth training pants. He would pee in regular underwire and keep going like nothing happened, but with the cloth training pants, he would stop and run to the bathroom!

my grandma always tells me how she used cloth on my uncle and he potty trained at age 2. my mother on the other hand wore disposables and potty trained closer to 4

I am a FTM and I have not even begun to think about potty training, but I hope to read up as much as possible so that I can help our DD transfer from cloth to toilet easily.

I am currently helping my 26 month old learn to use the potty. She is our fourth baby but first in cloth. She has been going #2 on the potty since before she was two and since then would also occasionally pee on the potty. She has definitely shown interest in using the potty MUCH earlier than my other three kids, and I am sure the cloth diapers have had at least a little to do with that.

I’m expecting my first and plan to CD. I think that in theory it makes sense that cloth diaper babies would train sooner. Although I think it will still depend on the child. Personality seems to always play a role and I’ve heard so much both ways that I’m not so certain this isn’t strictly theoretical. I do agree that diaper companies want babies in diapers as long as possible. Just one more reason to CD

At this point I think I’ll do as much as I can to inform my kid what the potty is and what it’s for. Hopefully they will understand it early on and we can speed up the process. It’s helpful to hear other mom’s inputs. Thanks and good luck with Cooper!

I just have one baby, he is almost 12 months and I thank you for writing this article! It is interesting to see how potty training went down the “crapper” in such a short time! (pardon my pun, but I had too!) I am actually considering switching to more prefolds and fitteds in stead of stay dry pockets to help speed up the potty training process! Love that my son could be potty trained well before his disposable diapered cousins!

Great article! I do have to say those who didn’t diaper in parts of the world had the right idea’s about potty training. My daughter made great “potty training” progress on a camping trip. Since I have heard many moms say their kids also became interested in peeing outside of a diaper in the great out doors.

My first was partially cloth diapered, until I just stopped buying diapers one day! BEST DECISION EVER! My second has been in cloth since we brought him home from the hospital. We are a while from potty training, but I feel confident that cloth diapering will prove to be a GREAT contributor to my child’s readiness to use the potty!

We are just entering this stage. I am excited and nervous to see how the transition goes. My son is 17 months and going potty on the toilet pretty well so far. He has been cloth diapered since birth.

This is one of the benefits I tell people. I just hope my daughter is in the cloth potty learning early crowd.

My twins wouldn’t potty train until they were 3 and it was still really hard. They were in disposables unlike DD who I switched to cloth. I do think that disposables made it easy for them to just go in their diaper. Still at 3 1/2 we are having issues with BMs with one of my boys. I really do think that disposables take away the drive to potty train – they stay dry and get extra special attention from mommy or daddy during diaper changing time. There is really no consequence to going in their diaper, like feeling wet and uncomfortable.

This reminds me of a recent report about the sleep needs of baby (and children). While doctors still say that children “today” don’t get enough sleep, they get more sleep than doctors 50 years ago recommended — who (at the time) also said babies weren’t getting enough sleep. The lesson? Children always need more sleep — and time passed does not always spell out “human progress”.

Is it sad that I don’t even want to think about potty training for the simple fact of loving my son in his cloth?!

Thank you for this post! We are currently trying to get our daughter interested in potty learning, this info has been helpful!

This is a great example of how we don’t think about the effects of seemingly simple, small, or negligent choices. If only most of the people reading this were the peeps who weren’t using cloth!

I have been talking to my son about being poopy since he was 12 months. Now at 16 months he’ll pull up his shirt to show me his diaper once he’s messy. I’m hoping that these early trainings will help him potty train soon! I just need to get the guts to try it.

I love the potty training article! i cannot wait to start with my little girl! yeah cloth!!!

I’m still incubating our first child, but I look forward to cloth diapering and this is one more reason why it’s worth while!

OMG I know, there is a girl I know who does cloth diaper and she thinks you can’t and shouldn’t potty train your kid until they are at least 2. My son is 14 months and we are working on getting him on the potty and we dont cloth diaper yet

I am now potty training #2, and have found this all to be true. Both my little guys are train way faster and I’m loving the savings in time, energy, and $.

My oldest was a disposable diapered baby and wasn’t potty trained till she was 3 and a half. My middle child was partial cloth diapered and started training at 18 months and was almost fully trained by 21 but baby sister was born and she reverted back a bit at night but was fully potty trained by 3 using cloth trainers not disposable.Hopping that my 17 month old will show intrest soon but also kind of hoping she doesn’t as I love my cloth and she is our last.

Being an older woman I have both potty trained in cloth and disposables. It was hardest with my oldest because he is disabled so it doesn’t really count. Next was my daughter. I used cloth on her. She seemed to potty train herself, early. My third I used both and he potty trained or so it seemed then went behind furniture to leave “surprises”! My fourth was totally disposables and I didn’t potty train him til 2-1/2 and he made no effort earlier. My cloth diapers needed folded and rubber pants put over them. Also the disposables were not what they are now for my granddaughter.
Gladys P

My {cloth wearing} son completely potty trained himself with very little effort from me at all. Just encouragement. I wonder if wearing cloth had anything to do with it or if he was just easy. Guess we’ll see when #2 is ready!

I helped potty train my stepdaughter who was 2.5 before anyone even started to train her. Luckily she trained fairly quickly but would still look at her mother and ask for a diaper when it was time for a bowel movement. I think part of what helped train her quickly was the fact that we started using training panties (cloth!) and not pull-ups. I think pull-ups confuse a child…”it still feels like a diaper so I’ll continue to pee/poop in it.” We never bought pull-ups for her. I’ve just recently started CD’ing my 6 month old son and am anxious to have him potty trained early and hoping that cloth helps!!

It really seems like kids are staying in diapers longer now than they used to. I had my daughter in big girl panties by 18 months during the day and totally out of diapers by just around 2. I did use disposables as I was not even aware that cloth was still an option. I was really young when she was born. Now 10 years latter with number 2 on the way I am going cloth all the way. I wish I know then what I know now. Would have saved me a lot of money and diaper rash hassle.

My son was in disposables up until the time that we started training at about 21 months (he was day time trained at home by 23 months, as long as he didn’t have pants on). Even when he was a baby he LOVED diaper changes, he could be screaming bloody murder, and when that soggy diaper came off, all was right with the world again. I hoped it meant he would train early (I basically trained myself at 19 months, my mom used cloth). While, he may have not trained as early as he would have with cloth, I think he did potty train early compared to what kids typically do these days. I will have to see if the fact that my daughter is in cloth makes her potty train more quickly, but I think that will be a couple months.

I have not started potty training yet, but my son will definitely potty train in cloth i have talked to so many mother who switched over to cloth just because they were ready to potty train!

We’re nowhere near potty training at this point. However, I was recently talking with a friend who potty trained her daughter at around 20 months. She used those thick, padded underwear that you can get at any baby store. I’d totally forgotten that they sell those. Of course, the first thing I wondered was, why wouldn’t you use a trainer made by a cloth diaper manufacturer that has a waterproof layer on the outside??? They still feel the wet but it saves you from changing their clothes everytime they miss the potty… or at least I think it will. Let you know when I get there!

We have just started to make the shift to cloth diapers with our son at 25mo. Our laundry situation was WAY less than ideal, so cloth diapers weren’t something we were willing to add to our stress pile at first. Now our situation has changed and laundering is no problem, plus we have another little one on the way who will benefit from CDing. Within a few days of CDing I noticed our son was telling us more often that he needed to go pee in the potty, completely taking the initiative on his own. WOOT! We’ve definitely followed up with him and taken some initiative on our part now as well. But it seemed clear that the CDs gave him motive to use the bathroom on his own. Definitely a benefit I never saw coming. I can’t describe how happy I’ll be if our little man is out of diapers by the time our baby girl arrives!

Great article! I used disposables with my girls and they all potty trained between 18 and 22 months. It will be exciting to see if I can get my son potty trained earlier. He does not like being in a wet diaper!

I purposefully changed to cloth diaps when my first son was 18 months old–just for the purpose of helping him potty train. I figured that would help him to “feel wet” and uncomfortable compared to ‘sposies. It still took him a long time to train fully–probably not until he was 2 1/2. But it sure saved us a LOT of money, as we didn’t have to buy pull ups, etc. We just used cloth trainers…. very smooth transition

wow, very interesting! i always thought we tend to wait too long.

part of the reason we are choosing to use cloth diapers is because I feel it would have a positive effect on the speed of potty training. I think there is something backward about disposable diapers and “stay dry technology”–sure, it is convenient and I’m sure it’s more comfortable, but it seems it would really hinder the process. I look forward to seeing whether or not there is any effect!!

I knew that cloth diapered children usually potty train faster, but this was a very interesting article. Good to know.

I potty trained in disposables with our first, although I don’t know if it made any difference. He didn’t mind being wet or even pooping in trainers or underwear for a long time. He wouldn’t even tell me if he did… he’d just go on playing. Our second is a girl and in cloth, so it will be interesting to see the differences.

We’ve used cloth for our daughter since she was born, and we’ve just started potty learning at a little over two years old. The process doesn’t seem to be going faster than her disposable wearing peers, but I think you’re right that our parenting philosophies have changed since cloth diapers were the norm. That’s an intriguing idea that disposable diaper companies were behind the idea to wait to potty train until the child is ready. I’d love to see some research done on that – it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

This is a very interesting post!! I always wondered about the history–moss?!–and how diapers got their name (I’m a word nerd, so love learning that lol!). We’ve only recently begun introducing the toilet to DS, who turns 2 in a wk. I’m hoping all goes well. We got a fancy toilet seat w a built in kids seat. Ironically, for all the poo and pee I spray in the toilet from his cloth dipes, the thought of cleaning out a plastic potty chair grossed me out severely!

We have been trying to potty learn for almost a year now. DS will go several days with good potty tries, with our prompting and setting the timer, then will resist sitting on potty for a few dsys. He’s not quite 3, but #2 is due in May and it would be so nice to have him day trained by then! If I was at home we would go cold turkey, but I can’t do that to my daycare provider – too many kids to watch for accidents, and not safe to have pee on the floor. She does have him sit on the potty every diaper change, as we do at home.

This is a good article. I never knew where the word diaper camefrom till now!

I really think it’s a kid-by-kid process. I am interested to see how it works out for my little girl. At 14 months we started sticking her on a little potty pretty routinely. For a couple of weeks, she was a pottying rock star and nearly every poop was in the potty. Shortly thereafter, she flipped the script and would go as soon as she got off the potty (in her diaper or otherwise). Nowadays, we put her on the potty before the bath and she uses it 99% of the time. My goal wasn’t to potty learn her at 14 months, but to make her comfortable with it to avoid a traumatic experience later. Now at almost 18 months, we’re nowhere near potty learned, but I feel confident that we’ve planted seeds to make the potty learning experience a positive one.

I use cloth diapers on my 28 month old daughter, and she just is not interested in potty-training. Wet/dirty diapers do not phase her one bit- she’ll sit in them for as long as you’ll let her. It’s gross and frustrating, and I’m tired of cleaning poopy diapers, but she’ll just scream if I put her on the potty. My husband and I have tried talking it up, and offering bribes of cookies for successful pottying, but, as she’d say while sitting on her little seat, “not working!”

I am hoping that using cloth diapers speeds up the potty training process. All my boys have been around 4 before they were fully day potty trained (my daughter was 2) and this last child is 4-1/2 months and a boy so if we could bring it along sooner that would be great! I am currently trying to potty train my 3-1/2 year old boy who has been in disposables until now. He has absolutely no interest. Thanks for sharing!!

Who would have thought diaper history would be so interesting? I love practicing EC and using cloth

Very interesting perspective!

My two oldest boys were both in disposables and were both around three before they potty trained. I’m hoping cloth will encourage earlier potty training for my littest one.

Cannot wait to do it better w this one!

I found that my second daughter, who we used cloth on, potty trained 6 months before her sister had! Makes me Sadi didn’t mow about cloth diapers with my first….but everyone has to start somewhere. Thanks Thirsties for great products! Those first Thirsties I bought for my daughter my son is currently using and our baby on the way will use them as well!!

As a FTM – potty training makes me nervous! Hope to learn more as I go along!

Hmm. I have heard of EC, but really don’t think it is right for us. PapPap is the primary care giver and there is no way this is happening. I am not looking forward to potty training with him.

I have a 2-month old in cloth and am curious to see how she will do once potty-learning begins. Very good article.

This is awesome – love this post! So happy to hear that people started potty training much earlier than we do now – glad that it’s possible. I’ve heard from so many moms that Pull Ups (and similar) kill potty training because they really prevent the child from feeling wet and uncomfortable – so, no motivation to go on the potty. Looking forward to using cloth trainers on my little guy when the time is right!

I haven’t potty trained yet but definitely thinking cloth will help potty train earlier than “normal”.

I am very happy to know many moms who trained thier children much earlier due to cloth diapering! Good article!

great article! It’s sad how many parents are putting off potty training because they feel “their child isnt ready” Too many toddlers are running around in diapers these days, 4 years old is too old!

My mother in law was trying to convince me this weekend that cloth wouldn’t make a difference in potty training, I disagreed-like I expect will be happening a lot when we have our first child soon

DD is 20 months old and for the last 5 months she has been interested in the potty. she has been in cloth from day 2. She sits on the potty when she wants to but it is not required of her at this point. DH and I have been discussing when to really work with her on it and whether or not to use trainers. Is there any real difference (beside possibly ease of removal) between CDs and trainers?

Seems to me that allowing children to be aware of cause (pee) and effect (clammy wetness in my pants) is a critical first step in teaching responsibility.

We tried potty training our DD when she was 2.5 by using Pull Ups, which was an epic fail. She didn’t feel when she was wet, and there was no “consequence” to peeing in her pants. After a week or so, we decided to forget the Pull Ups and suede underwear. She was PT in 2 days. Glorifed diapers are what I call Pull Ups now. I can definitely see how CD children PT sooner. They have to know when they are wet or it is next to impossible.

I HOPE cloth will make a difference with potty training. I think it’s interesting that children keep being potty trained later and later. I wonder if the children of our children will be going to kindergarten with other kids still in diapers? Ha!

not even close to potty training yet but I have heard all this before. just another argument in favor of cloth

I just had a conversation about this with a couple moms at work. I’m very interested to see whose munchkins PL first, those in cloth or those in disposables…

As a culture we view EC as something so out of the norm and I just don’t understand why when this is the norm in so many more other cultures.

I know my mom used cloth on me and she said I stopped using them by 10 months!!

Our son (just turned 3) has almost no interest in potty training. He’s always worn disposables but we’re going to cloth diaper our second (due next month). I purchased some cloth for my 3 year old too in hopes that it will help him develop some interest in potty training. We’ll see!

My daughter is only 2 months old and she is already very aware of her diaper being wet or poopy. I try to change her as soon as she looks or sounds like she has gone so when it is time to learn how to use the potty it might be a bit easier.

Thank you for these thoughts. My cloth-diapered daughter is 21 months old and she has peed in the potty 4 times on different days. I’ve been wondering if I should just offer her the potty at regular times even though she doesn’t ask for it, but it just seems so much earlier than all my friends’ kids. I have a fear of starting too early and then it back fires and she ends up potty training much later – is this an irrational fear? I’ve been interested in EC, maybe I could start now? Well, thanks for giving me confidence to keep trying the potty with her … I think I will try it all the more!

Istarted potty training my dd at 20 months and people thought i was crazy, she was completely trained by 2 (even at night).

my friend potty trained her Clothdiapered daughter at 18 months and just kept correcting her to the toilet everytime she was wet! seemed to work with a few months!

my daughter 2.5 has no interest in potty training. We used mostly dispoable on her til recently we switched to cloth in hopes of her wanting to potty train. My youngest 3 months who will be using cloth once I get rid of all the dispoables we were given we hope will be easier

Very interesting. It’s kind of scary how much fluid a disposable diaper can hold. My son definitely gets more “fussy” when he needs a change since switching to cloth. Probably because he can actually feel when he’s wet now!

I was able to potty train my oldest 2 kids by about 2 1/2 without too much drama. We used disposable diapers with them, but I refused to buy the pull-ups. Even then I knew they were just glorified EXPENSIVE diapers and it didn’t seem worth it to me. All my girlfriends with kids would ask me “Why don’t you get pull-ups? They’ll help with the potty training.” But then my son was trained in about 2 weeks (we went straight to underwear from diapers) and their kids were in pull-ups for 6 months to a year or even longer. That’s a lot of wasted money, and from what I saw with my friends’ kids, they just delay potty training. Seems like a lose/lose to me! I use cloth on my youngest, she’s 21 months right now and is at about the same place her brother and sister were at at her age. I expect her to train at the same age, but I have no desire to push her. It was much easier for me to wait til my kids were ready, but I’m only willing to wait to a point. I’m not changing diapers on a 3 or 4 year old like some of my friends have! (This of course would apply to typically developing kiddos only. Totally different rules come in to play if your child has developmental delays =)

Haven’t been there yet, but it’s going to be bittersweet…

You’re totally right about the disposable versus cloth. I worked in a daycare where I potty trained kids and used disposables (and some in cloth). The kids in cloth didn’t like the wet feeling and of course the kids in disposable ones it seemed like a diaper. My son is cloth diapered and we’re attempting potty training now. It’s a slow progress.

I don’t know if sposie children PL faster than cloth children as I am PLing with my first but she definitely started this process a lot earlier than I thought she would (18 months) and I think the cloth has had a lot to do with that.

This is sooo true! I have not started potty training yet with my little guy, but I know so many babies or should I say little kids that are still in diapers at 4 years old!!

I haven’t even begun to think about potty training as my boy is only 5 months old. I was surprised by the article saying people used to start potty training at 11 months. How do you do that? And is it detrimental to start that early?

I hope it works for you!

Planning on using cloth to help potty training (using Grovia AIO) with stretchy sides. Thirsties are my fav for overnight!

I ever realized there was such a huge difference disposables vs cloth. This is very good to know!

I just potty-trained my 2 1/2 year old boy. From the minute we started training (he was giving me signs of readiness at least a half-year before but I was too sick to handle it) we eliminated diapers/training pants and it took him no time at all! I’m interested in using some ec-ing for if we have another one… think of being able to eliminate washing CDs that much earlier! Novel idea!

Oh how I wish it were true that cloth diapers made potty training/learning go faster. My first baby, now 14 y.o., took FOREVER to get the hang of it. I remember being especially frustrated with the #2 accidents in old fashioned cloth trainers. Not fun! We have now potty trained six children but some have quite prolonged night time wetness issues. Since there have been issues of this nature on both sides of our family, we are not too terribly surprised.

One tip that worked well for most all of our children during the day was to have them wear no diaper or trainer when at home. We found long t-shirts for our boys or simple knit dresses for our girls really helped. Of course, there were some unpleasant accidents to clean-up. The hardest thing about that was trying to keep our cool and not yell at the child while cleaning up poop off the floor. =)

As a preschool teacher I always steered parents away from pull ups telling them they weren’t really aiding in the potty training process. Now as a mom, I am so glad to be CDing and to have found so many options for trainers.

I think potty training has as much to do with the kiddo as anything. Some kiddos just train faster than others. But a mamma who uses cloth diapers isn’t going to be scared off of undies on a new pottier as quick as a mom who uses disposables.

My grandmother told me that she potty trained my mom at 9 months. At the time I thought she was crazy or that my mom had just been an exceptional child, but after more and more cloth research, I’m sure that was absolutely the case (and probably the norm back then)

Glad to be in cloth with my last since I didn’t know any better with my other babies. Hope to see potty training easier.

This is so true. We were struggling with pullups, but when we went to underwear cold turkey my son quickly trained.

I really like this article. We’ve been ECing since our little one was born, most casually at first and pretty much full time over the last 2 months. We’ve having great success with 2-3 ‘misses’ a day and 8-10 ‘catches’ a day. It’s a wonderful and gentle approach, not at all as crazy as it sounds. The whole idea is that eliminating (ie. peeing and pooping) is just another need that babies have. Just like they let you know when they are hungry or tired, all babies let you know that they have to go.

I just started doing elimination communication (just when we are home) with my 4 month old son. Between introducing the spotty early and using cloth, maybe he’ll be out of diapers earlier than average. Either way I figure I’ll save a few diapers here and there from needing a wash.

We started around age 2 with my older two kids introducing them to the potty and if there was one thing I hated more than diapers, it was pullups! Who wants to wears underwear when you can be lazy and have fake underwear? By about 2 years 9 months they were each sick of diapers as I made them help out with changing their clothes each time and were totally ready to make the switch. Now my third child is in CD and is 2 years 8 months, but is super stubborn so even though I think he knows when he is peeing and pooping, he will not signal me or sit on the potty until after and I am trying to encourage him as much as possible without pushing. I’m thinking by summer I may just leave his bottom half naked until he decides he is ready for underwear:)

I loved the potty training article and hope it goes well for us once we get to that point!

Loved this article, looking forward to using some of these tips once we get to the point of potty training!

I was watching that show babies, and the lady from Africa did a sort of elimination communication thing with her baby, he poo’ed, she wiped it on her knee and then used a corn cob on her knee to get it off. It was pretty fascinating. It makes me with I was an anthropologist.

I also think the introduction to pullups is bad for potty learning…I think just like disposables they are a crutch for toddlers and parents!

Hope cloth helps me train my second son. My first was actually very easy and learned very early, but it took almost a year to get him to poo in the potty

This is very promising! I just switched to cloth and hopefully this is just another benefit.

My older two kids didn’t potty train till 3. Both wore disposable, except my daughter wore cloth at almost 3, to help with potty training. My 16 month old son is a cloth baby and he is already interested in the potty starting at 15 months! He is now 16 months and likes to sit on the potty.

We’ve used cloth on both our daughters, but our potty training experiences with them were still night and day. Our first (now almost 4) wasn’t out of diapers until her third birthday. She was incredibly resistant, and still to this day will not go on the toilet unaccompanied. She literally needs her hand to be held. Our second (now 13 months) has been toddling to the toilet on her own for two months now and tries to climb up it by herself whenever we ask her if she has to use the bathroom. Night and day!

guess we will see how it goes.. i am planning to have the new baby in fluff from day 1!

My son was a cloth diaper wearer and was potty trained at about 2. My 1st daughter was 18months old. (cloth, too) It came easy for her. I am in the process of training my 2nd daughter (22months) and it is going a bit slower. She is in disposables since she breaks out in a terrible rash when she wears cloth. She just can’t seem to handle the moisture against her skin. (we tried different diapers and laundry soap- nothing worked) I am due with #4 and am really hoping to be using cloth with this one again!

very interesting to know how potty training has changed over the last century. definitely makes sense with disposables being a big factor in that. tricky companies like to make a profit and convince us we need something longer than we do.

I am currently using a more hands-off encouraging position. He knows what to do and when he’s ready he will. Learning and doing new things can sometimes be scary especially if a child feels they can fail. I don’t think cloth has much to do with it because he’s at the same age as any other non-cloth diapered kid I’ve known.

It also has to do with how much the parents push for it. Anyone can potty train their child if they really are determined to make their child’s life horrible. But then they also set themselves up for future accidents, constipation, urinary tract infections. etc.

That’s my two cents though.

We recently started CDing our 2 yr old. Before we started she showed some interest in starting to potty train, but even with our encouragement, she went back to business as usual in her disposable. We’ve had her in cloth for a few weeks now, and she is so ready! She knows when she wets and tells us! I truly believe that it is because she can feel it now.
I’m due with #2 in 3 weeks, and I’m so excited to have this baby in fluff from day one.

I wouldn’t say across the board that this is true b/c I think it still depends on the temperment of the child. My 2nd daughter took awhile to potty learn just b/c she didn’t want to take the time away from whatever she was doing; I now have seen this in her daughter as well. I think it would be that way for her no matter what type of diaper she was in. I def like cloth over disposables tho’!

I used sposies with my first 3 kiddos the first 2 pottyy learned around 3 and my 3rd around 2. With baby#4 weare using cloth(love it) and hoping to do my own form of EC during the summer when I am home more I really hope she potty learns a bit faster….only time will tell.

My LO is only tree months but I’ve seen this in my friends’ kids. I hope my will train early because I’m not looking forward to having to deal with real poops.

I absolutely believe that disposable diaper companies have manipulated the general public into thinking they need to use diapers and pull-ups for longer and longer. It is shameful, in my opinion, considering how disposable diapers are so damaging to the environment and potentially dangerous to babies. I’m sure glad that cloth diapers have become so much easier to use and are so CUTE, so that more people will be convinced to give them a try.

Love this article and completely agree!! I potty trained by first child completely by the age of 25months. She was in disposables. My son is in cloth and I can’t wait to train him! Hopefully it will go just as well!

I’m a huge believer in early potty learning. Our first three used disposables but #4 was cloth diapered and were potty trained at:
#1 boy 3 years
#2 girl 2 years, 2 months
#3 girl 22 months
#4 boy 2 1/2 years
Cloth diapering definitely gives you an incentive to get you teaching early.

So happy that cloth diapers are an option and I don’t have to use leaves!

I switched my daughter to cloth diapers at 17 months. She is now 18 months and I’m hoping to start potty training around 20 months. We have a potty chair, read potty books, and talk about what’s going on when I change her diaper or use the restroom. Hopefully it’s all sinking in!

exactly why im glad im cloth diapering my son when he gets here

Woo! I always heard that cloth diapered babies potty trained sooner than babies in disposies but never actually read why. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

I started disposables on my daughter by 6 months but then she was potty
Trained very early.all my friends said for boys it will take a long time to be potty trained I don t want to delay his potty training at any cost so I thought cloth diapering would be the best way because many of my relations have done cloth diapering and their kids were potty trained earlier .

I’m glad that we’re not to the potty training stage yet.

I think my son trained quicker because we used cloth. He had already started to try to get me to put disposables on instead of cloth diapers (I assume because they felt wet). I never even considered using Pull-ups–what’s the point there?! lol
We used toddler briefs and a few cloth training pants.

Awesome blog post. My son is showing signs that he wants to potty train already (he’s only 15 months). We’re playing it by ear though, I think it’s way too soon but at the same time I obviously dislike that he holds his pee in until we take his diaper out and then he pees everywhere. I think he’s mostly curious about it though.

very interesting.

I agree with this article in theory but have not experienced this personally. My second born (female) was not cloth diapered and yet was potty trained with very little effort on my part around 21 months. My third born, also female, was cloth diapered up until a few months ago when she outgrew all of the diapers I have. She is now 2 1/2 years and I have reluctantly begun to purchase pull-ups. Admittedly, I think she is ready now to potty train but I just wanted to say the cloth diapering is one factor in the equation, each individual child still has their own developmental timeline.

I can’t wait to find out how CD influence potty training with #4, as #1-3 were all in disposables :/

This is all very interesting and it make so much sence. But I have cd’ed my oldest from birth and potty training a was a fight the whole time. He just suddonly got it. I’m currious what the twins will do… I think the big factor between back then and now is the time we have to devote to potty training. Friends of mine that rarely leave the house have had a quicker time of it all. Great article!!

My wife Kathy and I have 4 children Aaron (7), Samantha (5), Thomas (3), and Bret (2) all were in or are in disposable diapers. In some cases because the absorbency of the new ones babies train later, Aaron the oldest is still in them 24/7 but this is only because he has Autism but yet he lets know about 40% of the time when he has to poop yet because the new diapers absorb so fast and hold so much he doesn’t remember wetting, Samantha is fully potty trained and has been since she was 3, Thomas is in pull-ups and wets them 50% and messes about 15%, Bret is 24/7 and screams when my wife tries we are going to again in March 2013 he birthday. The problem is diaper companies know diapered kids are money for them so they will start making bigger and bigger diapers for older and older kids.

We’re ordering cloth trainers soon. Can’t wait for our “adventure” to begin!

Just starting out with cloth for my second child but potty-training would’ve been easier if I’d switched earlier…I started him on the potty at 9 months just to save money on disposables!

Aside from the financial benefit of CDs, easier potty training is another reason my husband and I chose to use cloth. Baby B is only 5 weeks old now and we have a while to go, so we’ll see…

We are not at potty training age yet, but this article was ironic because my mom and I were just talking about this a few days ago. Both my sister and I wore disposables, but I started using cloth on my daughter at 5 months. I am loving cloth and even if she doesn’t potty learn earlier, at least her bum was cute and free of chemicals!

My niece absolutely refused to go in the potty when she was 3 because it was so much more convenient to go in the pull-ups. My sister started putting regular underwear on her and she trained quickly.

We CD so I’m hoping my daughter trains easy, but she’s only 7 months now, so will probably be a while yet.

I have enjoyed reading this article and the comments as well. My daughter is 5 months old now, so potty training is a distant thought. My hope is that cloth diapering will help speed up the potty training process.

I am looking forward to potty training just because of the cute trainers out there, like Grovias!

Very interesting
With my oldest I used disposables (diapers and trainers) and she was fully trained by 2.5 years. But she had showed interest around 18 months. With my youngest I’ve used cloth diapers since he was 4 months, at 17 months he shows no interest in the potty, but he is still young. It will be interesting to see if he picks it up easy since he’s in cloth.

I’m a FTM and I really hope CD helps my son potty train early! Because pretty soon I’ll have two in diapers, lol

I love this article. My mom swears by this, and she has for years. She said she had me totally PL at 11 months, even dry at night, and she attributes that to cloth. She says I just hated to be wet.

I’m curious about this topic as well. My girls were in sposies and both were day trained at 2 and night trained around 2 1/2. We EC with my 3 month old boy and he seems to get it. Honestly I think I’ll be a little sad when he’s trained because I love his fluffy butt.

I love my thirsties duo wraps, and I’ve noticed my 5 month old is often dry in them because she feels wet in her liners, and doesn’t like the feeling. She has been known to make a mess while I’m changing her though, because she knows it will be cleaned up right away!!

I am not sure that I believe that children being PTed early is better. (Not talking about EC, but rather the strict parent-led approaches that were prevalent before.) My first, who wore cloth almost all of the time, took FOREVER to be completely out of diapers. I used EC principles, which never took, and continued to try all the other methods I could find after he was over 2yo. Still was a couple more years till he was completely dry. His little brother did much better and was PT’ed by 2.5 largely on his own. He was in cloth as well.

Interesting read! Thanks for writing this up! We’re still a long way from training but hope to do it in cloth!

Just starting potty training with a cloth-wearing toddler. He just turned 2 but not sure he’s completely ready. Will be interesting to see…

my baby’s in cloth! but she’s still just a few months old, so no thoughts of potty training yet.

Good thoughts

It just makes me so happy that more and more people are getting back to using cloth diapers.

My sister is dealing with toilet training and disposables right now. I’m encouraging her to use a cloth option.

We are just starting to train our 2 year old and can’t imagine trying to do so with disposables!

This blog was perfect and was super informative, I have been thinking about potty training and how cloth diapers would play into that. thank you for this awesome blog

Very well written and interesting read. I currently have 3 kids (8,6,4) who are PLed and 2 (28 & 6 mo) in cloth. I’ve only been doing cloth for a year so it will be interesting to see if that effects PL or not.

My first told me at 23 months he wanted to go to the potty. I put him there, he peed. That was it. We just took him to the potty every couple of hours. Right before he turned 4 he said he wanted to wear underwear to bed. That was it. He was in disposable diapers and trainers. We didn’t even get through one package of trainers.
Number 2 is fast appoaching potty training age. He will probably be a nightmare, given our first. He is in cloth diapers.

You made some very good points that I hadn’t thought of before! My DS #1 is 2 years old today! I think its time

Great post!! My daughter is 18 months old and I’m starting to think potty training… Or maybe not yet

hope this helps my little boy train faster. i know boys have a harder time most often so any extra help would be awesome.

There are some interesting points! I am hoping my DD is easy like my mom says I was! We cloth more then disposables, just trying to use what all we got for baby gifts! Hope to not have any next time around!

My son is only 14 months and he poops on the potty 90% of the time. We are still working on peeing in the toilet but I think for 14 months he is doing amazing! His willingness to use the potty corresponded with me switching from disposables to cloth.

These comments are VERY INFORMATIVE. Thanks!

Super interesting

i had potty training issues as a child but im not sure how the training process went. my parents where very parent centered so im guessing my cues where ignored but thats how it was back then, which wasnt all that long ago.

Just trained my 22 month old DD2 out of cloth diapers. We haven’t used any disposable pull-ups either. It’s been a totally different (and MUCH better experience than training my DD1 with disposables pull-ups.

my little guy is not quite 7 months so we’re a long time away from potty training.. but this is just another reason why we decided to go cloth. Can’t wait to see how it works out

Awesome article, really hope cloth does make a difference when we get to that point

With several years of being a teacher in daycares for ages 1-2 I’ve got a pretty good amount of experience with potty training. I love to potty train! I love everything about seeing that accomplishment reached by a little one. I am very much looking forward to potty training our daughter (and it will be sooner rather than later) That being said I do think that most people wait far too long to potty train. I do believe it is because disposables are easy and parents don’t have to think about the mess, they just throw it away. Pull-ups did not work for one single child I encountered over the years (and that’s a lot of kids). Sure they are great for nap time or night time if your little one wets while they sleep. But for daytime you may as well save your money and continue using regular diapers. I’m interested to see how potty training from cloth will work out since she does stay dry in it. I’m already stocking up on trainers for our daughter so when she big enough to pull her own pants on and off she’ll be in them and potty trained in no time!

This was one of my leading reasons to begin cloth diapering. Just another of the great benefits of cloth. Quicker potty training!!

Great article! I am excited about potty training this time around now that we are cloth diapering. I really think it’s going to make it much easier!

I really don’t understand how people think a Pull Up is different from a disposable diaper–what a waste of money!!

We switched to cloth when my oldest was 2.5 and had just started using the potty during the day (so she only wore cloth at night) and my youngest was 6 months. My youngest started using the potty at about 12 months since she always wants to do everything her big sister does, and because I believe that she understood more of what was happening thanks to her cloth diapers. She was out of day-time diapers by her 2nd birthday.

I think it depends on both the parent and child. I do agree that the child will feel more wet and that’s good. Potty training is a team thing and hopefully all care givers will be on the same page! I think children should start potting by 18 months, at least sitting and not being scared of it. My boy does poop and pee in the toilet now at 24 months, but since his sister was born when he was 22 months that interupted his potty training. He is doing better with going but I’m looking into switching him to cloth and then underwear, it just seems to make more sense then pull-ups

thsnks for writing this series! my daughter is in cloth but can’t imagine starting to potty train next month when she is 11 months!!

our oldest did disposibles for the first 2 years and was happy to marinate in his messes all day! After many training fails we made the switch to cloth, he was day and night trained in literally a week! Might be coincidence, but we will never go back to disposables!

My older son used disposable diapers and my younger son is in cloth. I’m curious to see at what age my younger son will be ready to use the toilet…

11 months! My DS is almost 11 months, I can’t even imagine starting to potty train him…of course I have a bad habit of forgetting how old he really is lol

I can totally see where this is coming from, but I really don’t think my 18 month old or my 26 month old are really ready for potty training. Neither one of them are very good at feeling their wetness. My oldest feels it afterwards but only sometimes. I just can’t imagine potty training at such a young age!

We did disposables with our first and he was day trained at 21 months. He still wears a diaper at night but more because he gets anxious and doesn’t sleep well if he doesn’t have it on. He wakes up dry about 95% of the time at 2.5 years old. I’m curious to see if baby two who is in cloth will be easier or harder.

My parents say this all the time! They say that all three of us kids were potty trained before 2years old. We were cloth diapered because disposables were just too expensive. And here we are now with kids well into their 4th year still not fully potty trained.

My DS is 26 months and he knows he’s wet or poopy and asks me to change him but refuses to sit on the potty without his diaper on. Not sure where to go from here I guess we just wait.

Heading into the potty training stage, just introducing the potty, but not forcing it. We’ll see how it goes.

My son (now 4) seemed to potty train faster since wearing cloth diapers vs. disposables. I know each child is different and develops differently but I honestly believe that cloth-diapered babies potty train earlier!

I love my cloth diapers, but I’ll gladly trade them for no diapers at all!

I cloth diapered all 4 of my kids (one is only 3 months, so I have so far only potty trained 3). The laundry is not a big deal to me, so I was not in a rush to get anyone to the potty. 1DS PLed daytime just before he turned 3. He wet at night for about another year. 2DS PLed at 3 1/2. He is my autism spectrum kiddo, and communication was a bit of a challenge. He is very high functioning, though. I have a funny story about him, because DH was deployed at the time, and I thought I’d make it easier on myself by training him in sposies. Well, it worked until the first time he peed in the sposie (about 1/2way through the day). He realized it didn’t make a mess or feel uncomfortable, so he just stayed in it. After that, he didn’t take the sposies seriously, so I had to use cloth to train him, anyway. He actually still needs overnight help. 3DD PLed sometime around age 3. I know I hated it with her, too, but don’t remember any specifics. Bonus for her is that as soon as she figured it out for day, she has also stayed dry overnight.

I love this article. I am hoping that cloth will help with potty learning. She already hates being in poopy diapers and wants to take them off and she’s only a year.

Great post! I plan on using this article for reference in the future!

Lots of good information here, thanks. My older boy potty trained at exactly 2 1/2, even in cloth. He just wasn’t ready to do it at the 11 month mark, and that was okay with us!

My first used disposables and didn’t potty train until late. With my second, we are doing cloth and I’m hoping it will be fater!

We are doing EC with my daughter, and I love it. I love that I rarely change a poopy diaper. The best though is when my 4 month old daughter looks up at me with the biggest smile after she uses the toilet.

Awesome info! My daughter is not quite old enough for potty training, but I’m anxious to see how it plays out because she’s been in cloth since she got home from the hospital. One thing I’m wondering about, though…. since my daughter has extremely sensitive skin, we’ve always had to use diapers with a stay-dry layer like fleece. I wonder if feeling less wet will mean that she’ll potty train more like a baby in disposables??

My two-year-old is mildly interested in the potty. We shall see if cloth makes a difference! My nephew, who’s almost 3, is in disposables and still not potty-trained…

Interesting! My mother-in-law have been talking about potty training recently. My niece is approaching 4 and is almost reliably potty learned. It will be interesting to see how my cloth diapered son does.

Interesting stuff! Very curious to see how this one pans out, as my LO is only 3 months old still.

We have been ECing our daughter since birth and we use cloth diapers to help with that. They allow us to know very quickly if we have missed and allow our daughter to feel wet.

We will be potty training from cloth soon & this article has some good points. I’m nervous about the whole process though.

We started doing Elimination Communication with my daughter when she was 1 month. We started cloth to help support our EC. I’ve found it to be very natural for us. We actually had to change a poopy diaper today and we both were totally disgusted. Lol, we are so spoiled now.

I had hoped that cloth diapers would help my daughter potty train early, and so we started around 14 months old…but it never really took off and now here we sit at 19 months, and I just put the potty up for the next month to hopefully give us a fresh start at 20 months. My husband and I were both CD babies are we were PT around 17 months…

I think that disposables let the child be in diapers longer because the manufactures are all about comfort. Which is a good thing but if a child isn’t able to feel uncomfortable why would they want to be changed? When my child had to be in regular underwear, it didnt take long for him to decide that was no fun and was potty trained in a few days.

Kids in countries that don’t have disposables and don’t use diapers aren’t walking around peeing and pooping willy nilly after age one, and aren’t traumatized by the fact that they have to control their bodily functions. Why should ours be?

Thats so true! I used disposable the first 5 or so months will all mine then switched to cloth. Cloth is much better. And I went straight to undies no pull ups all my kids were trained by 2- 2 1/2.

Mine was in cloth at home, disposables at daycare. She was out of diapers completely during the day by about 23 months, and at night 3 months later.
We started lightly at a year, with putting the potty seat out so it would be familiar, and we started reading books about the potty. We started young enough that she was done with diapers before she realized she had much of a say in her own actions.

I made two attempts to potty-train my oldest son. He had been in cloth since he was a few weeks old, with disposables at night (though we did go to more and more disposables toward the end because he seemed to be leaking more and more). The first time he started showing signs of readiness, he was a few months past his 2nd birthday, and I was 8 months pregnant with his little brother. I went cold-turkey, determined not to look back. It was a disaster. I stubbornly stuck with it longer than I needed to, and in the end with a baby on the way we pulled the diapers back out. The second time, at just over 3 years old, he was ready. In fact, he was DETERMINED to start using the potty like a big boy. He was 90% “trained” within 2 days. I couldn’t believe how much easier it was. The thing is, he was NEVER one to feel uncomfortable in a wet or poopy diaper – cloth or disposable. So, I don’t think in his case it really would have mattered much. What made the biggest difference for my stubborn little guy (see? it runs in the family!) was readiness and willingness.

Training a now two year old, but we began around 18 months. My first two were trained at 18 months. This child is stubborn! So we’re trying to stay positive and move forward. I’ve only used disposables for the first two weeks of my first child’s life (too small for cloth) and no subsequent children used them, so I can’t comment personally on their use. It does follow logically that if a child can sit in a diaper and feel dry even though they’re wetting themselves they have no impetus to use the actual toilet. The marketing of stay wet disposables is attempting to remedy that issue, but the fact that all the disposables ever used are still sitting in landfills somewhere is disastrous.

We potty trained our first daughter with the help of her Montessori preschool program at 18 months. She was a cloth wearer and it was really easy. Nights took longer.

My older son was a little over 3 and we were still waiting for signs that he was ready to train. So, we went ahead and started the process, having him run around half naked. He caught on quickly but after a couple of weeks regressed at night. Anxious to see how it will be different this time around with my younger son who is in cloth part time and gets annoyed when wet.

I sincerely hope that my last baby, who is mainly cloth diapered, trains faster than her older sisters.
My second baby, it was her FOURTH BIRTHDAY before she got out of diapers. Sure, it was as if a switch flipped when she got into panties & we never had any accidents, but I do NOT want this baby in diapers until she is four.

Is it sad to say that I will be sad to see the adorable cloth diapers go when my little one potty trains?

This was one of the things that sold the idea of cloth diapers to my husband. His older daughter (my step-daughter) was not fully daytime potty trained until almost three-and-a-half, despite being very bright and developmentally ahead in many other areas. We’re both hoping that the cloth diapers will help us potty train our baby much earlier than her sister!

I’ve actually noticed the opposite. My two oldest, that were strictly disposable diapered potty trained earlier and faster than my my middle two that were cloth diapered.

We started EC with our daughter because we were using cloth and I think big kid poop is terrible! haha so I started with her early in hopes of avoiding that nasty stuff. We made it for about 4 months, grandparents visited and her 8 months of work was deemed pointless… oh well, we had 4 months of no poopy nasty diapers… no plopping and spraying… it was lovely. We will get back to that place again eventually. For us it is mostly just nice knowing she is comfortable using a potty. So at least we are ahead in that department. She loves sitting on her potty! haha

Interesting. And how are all the siblings different…

I have a baby book from 1963 that recommends always feeding your 1 year child at a regular time so that they have bowel movements at a regular time. Once you know their schedule, you just sit them on the potty to have a bowel movement. So babies were potty trained to poop first, and pee followed -very interesting!

Very interesting, some of my older friends find it hard to believe that we are going to CD our baby..

I totally agree! My CDed babies PLed much faster than my son who was in sposies!

my 2.5 year old is not ready, she’ll occassionally ask, but I do’nt think the cloth diapers are exactly pushing her to do it. I don’t mind doing the laundry so we have been taking a hands off approach, letting her lead the way. She is on track in every area.

Thank you for sharing this! I have always been interested in the history of diapers and this was very interesting to me. Although we have not yet conceived, I have potty trained many children due to my career as an early chidhood educator. I have seen a pattern in children who wear disposables and pull-ups vs those who were cloth diapered. I have also seen a difference in those who were potty trained using pull-ups, which are basically just diapers, and those who were put in training pants. Those in training pants or who were cloth diapered, train much quicker and with less regression!

My 28 month old is still not potty trained. We used primarily disposables and now we have switched to cloth completely during the day. This gives me some encouragement that the end of diapers for him may be son! I’d like to see a post about the different training pants- a really thorough one!

I hope that cloth makes a difference. My baby is only 5 weeks old buy it was one of the many pros that went into the decision to use cloth!

Our child started to want to be changed as soon as he hit 11 months. He is 18 months and knows what he has to do to pee, but he is not really collaborating with the peeing in the toilet. He was doing fine for a few days, but then dad had to leave for two weeks and he started to show anxiety when I would sit him in the toilet. I think there is a combination of factors, yes, they do need to be led to potty train, but at the same time we need to be patient especially when they are too young or they show anxiety.

I have heard that cloth diapered babies potty train earlier than one’s who wore disposable diapers. My little one is cloth diapered and has been indicating she was wet/soiled since before she was a year old. Now that she is 20 months, we are trying to learn more about potty training..not quite knowing the best way/time to start. Thanks for this read… it helps to hear what other parents have experienced!

My daughter is 21 months old and we have not started potty training yet. I feel like I do not want to push things on her if she is not ready, as she doesn’t usually tell us when she has gone in her diaper. But she has also been a child who has been ahead in physical development and (although I know the comprehension is there) has been slower coming along in the verbal department. I know her cues most of the time, but I have heard that it takes much longer if the child is not ready and just adds a lot of frustration for both child and parent. I will be interested to see if our switch to cloth from disposables a few months ago will help with the transition into potty training.

So true…hmm…I have to say that it is super hard when moving and trying to potty train and having a lot of cloth diapers to wash is not fun…it takes a lot of time and patience. I am so ready for potty training…I think I should have started earlier, and not have waited so long. We are beginning to potty train now.

So interesting – I’ve heard children were potty trained much earlier but never really thought about the correlation between disposables vs cloth! Thanks for sharing the insight

I did not use cloth with my first child and honestly cding didnt occur to me as even a passing thought, hind sight is 20/20. I believe that disposable pull ups made me lazy to try and potty train him. it gave him the illusion that he was being a big boy to pee in pull ups and in fact I think that it was a contributing factor to bed wetting. I wish I could have a do over. My next baby is Clothing it all the way!

Makes sense to me!

All three of my kiddos (one boy and two girls) were potty trained by two or quickly after. Only the third (a girl) was in cloth diapers. With each one I had a few really terrible days but then they would catch on because I stayed consistent. I was so ready for each of them to be out of diapers (during the day at least) that I was determine!

I am not yet a parent, but I have LOTS of friends with kids and we’ll be the only couple in our circle to use cloth diapers. This explains A LOT and I am hopeful that the extra work in diapering will pay off in less time in diapers and more fun with our future kids!

Great post! As a new mom I have wondered if the cloth diapers will help with potty training since you can feel the wetness more!? I guess we’ll see

I have potty trained 6 kids, most in cloth, but a couple in disposables. I honestly did not see a lot of difference. Any difference seemed more of a child personality thing. Most have trained around age three, with varying degrees of difficulty.

This story is probably so true. My siblings and I were all cloth diapered and we potty trined very early. My kids use disposable and they seem to not want to start until about 21 months.

i have had this idea for along time- which is why i have tried going cloth so many times, but the place that i live it is just now becoming a thing that you can find more products for and i find i still shop online to get just what i was looking for.
baby e. is now 5 months and has only been cloth diapered so we will see

I totally think this is true. Same with Pull-Ups, it’s basically a diaper. We used them for my son at first and then it was counterproductive!

I started ECing with my 5 month old, but as he started to crawl and pull up on things he became less interested in it. He was not afraid of using the potty so I decided to go ahead and EC…we have taken a break and I have switched to cloth diapering but once he is walking if he is interested I plan to EC again with him. My goal is to have day time potty training pretty well mastered before 2 years of age but I will not force him I will only if he is interested in it

THis is one of the reasons I chose cloth. The idea that my son would be comfortable sitting in his own feces is not ok. I am hoping that when the time comes potty training will be easier because he is aware of when he is wet and dirty and not kept too comfy by disposables.

I’m going to be writing a post on this soon. I read all the same stats from various sources. I can’t even say “I” my son potty trained himself and I guided at 23 months. Do you have a source for the 1950s disposable diaper trend. I’ve been looking without luck.

I never knew the history of diapers and that they started out being made of those things. thats really interesting. and Im so glad diapers have come such a long way! i would like to PT early but im not sure how thats going to go. Itll be neat to see if the kind of diaper a kid wears affects how quickly they learn to PT.

Very informative, thanks for sharing this!

I think it depends on several different things how long it takes to potty trian every child is different they do need to be able to certain things to potty train like be able to pull pants up and down and to realize they have to go before rather then after i agree that pull ups are treated as diapers by many kids and feeling the wetness is helpful.

I don’t think the laundry is even as much an incentive for me as not having to change the diapers anymore! Though on the child’s end it seems like the wet feeling from cloth diapers would give them better feedback and help them get training early. I still have a long way to go before I find out how this goes!

Thank you for this post, I have been trying recently with my daughter to do just straight training pants (changed from pull-ups) and the results have been great, but messy at times. I certainly am a convert to the benefit!

We potty trained in disposables the first time around, and my daughter was almost 4 before she was fully potty trained. A lot of that had to do with some physical (painful bowel movements) problems and her personality, but it did seem that disposables were just too easy for her to care if she was going in her pants or not. This time around, we’re working on switching over to cloth (this dd is 11 weeks) and hoping that potty training goes more smoothly and quickly.

My older son potty trained by two and was sposies. Im CDing number 2 and I think it may actually be a draw back because after spending all the money Im in no hurry to get him out of those cute cloth diapers! Lol

I’m wondering if switching to cloth diapers will help my LO potty train, as pull-ups are too comfortable. =( I’m waiting to see if my son will be faster to train than my dgt because he’s been in cloth since birth…

Very interesting. Both of my kids (19 months and 3 months) are in cloth. My oldest hated having a wet diaper and started using the potty at about 15 months. He is not fully potty trained…he tells me that he has to go potty after he went in his diaper.

This article is sad and I’m so glad I switched over to CD

Thanks for the history lesson! I’m hoping going cloth makes baby girl potty train earlier!

This is so interesting! I had never considered the role cloth diapers played in the timing of potty training…motivates me to try potty training our 15 month old!

The comments all of the parents posted on this thread are so helpful to a mom who is getting close to potty train her first. Thank you for all the input, everyone!

Elizabeth I am going to respectfully say that it does not matter that children are potty trained at a later age. Do you really think a kid will care if they are potty trained at 3 or even 4 as opposed to 2? No they will not and the parents should not either. The parents should respect the childs pace and comfort level regarding toilet training. It is their process they should not feel pressured one way or the other. As long as they eventually gain continence it simply does not matter when they train.

We used both cloth and disposables during potty training towards the end. I was only using cloth at night and only had three diapers to wash… Decided to use pull-ups… but hated spending the cash for them.

I think this is right on the money!!! Very true and one of the reasons I am using cloth.

I am about to be a new Mom in Sep (first time) and I have made the decision to cloth diaper. I have read many places that it helps kids potty train faster and one of my friends ho did CD has also confirmed this a her experience. I hope it would be my experience as well.