My 4 1/2 yr old has been potty trained for two years but has only been dry at night a handful of times. Especially now that my two-year old twins are potty trained during the day, I have been looking into cloth pullups. Even after reading the reviews and some of the other similar questions on this site I am so confused! The nightime ones seem to be bulky and for kids who are really wet at night and the lighter ones really seem diaperish and I don't want her to feel like a baby. Does that make sense? To be clear, she wears regular pullups (not nightime pullups) at night and they are never completely soaked.
I am not asking for help on training her, just seeing if someone in a similar situation found cloth pullups they like. I am looking at mother-ease, ansty-pants and super undies so far. I've always used disposable. Thanks!
I didn't use cloth pullups, but I did find that UnderJams were more clothlike than pullups and made less noise. My kids liked them.
My thoughts on cloth...Do you realize the clothes you wash with cloth diapers/pull ups smells like pee and/or pooh? Do you realize that the load you wash afterwards will smell like that too? If you don't run a wash load of hot water with bleach after that load then the next load will have stuff in it too?
I was sitting by a lady at church one day and kept smelling pee. I figured her little one must have missed and got her on her clothes. I smelled this smell on her every time I was at play day with her, every time she came to any church activity, etc...she ALWAYS smelled like pee or a faint pooh smell.
I found out she used cloth diapers. Once her youngest was potty trained she didn't smell anymore. So I KNOW that the smell gets on other clothes if you don't sanitize your washer after each load of cloth diapers or pull ups.
I can't afford the extra hot water, bleach, detergents, etc...plus the electricity for running the machines then the gas for the heat. It adds up to be more than a box of disposable pulls ups from Walmart.
Plus you'll have more sheets and bedding to wash since cloth almost always leaks. Talk about adding to your costs. It's so much less expensive to do disposable.
Here is an update on December 31: we have decided on GroVia training pants. You can get plus-size side panels for 3T through 5T. There is a pocket so you can add doublers for extra absorbency. I don't know if they will fit a 6-year-old, or even if we will need them to. Our daughter has used them three nights and she likes them (so far) and can pull them down and up without trouble.
Original post:
J., I wish I had some experience with cloth pull-ups. Unfortunately, we have only ever used cloth diapers. I will be checking into cloth pull-ups since you have mentioned it. My 3-year-old is definitely not night trained, and I refuse to spend money on disposable pull-ups. I would like it to be easier for her to go potty during the night; our cloth diapers are bulky and hard to get off, especially when in a rush.
Mostly I wanted to respond because I disagree strongly with Gamma G. We have used cloth diapers for five years and have not had the problem of smelling like pee or poop. It is not fair for you to make such broad claims based on one experience; perhaps this woman's washing machine was old or had some issues. We sanitize our current front-loader once per month because that is suggested in the manual, not because I wash cloth diapers in it every three days. All you know, Gamma G, is that you KNOW that this particular woman smelled like pee. You don't officially know why and you don't officially know that every family using cloth diapers smells like pee. I also strongly disagree with this statement: "Plus you'll have more sheets and bedding to wash since cloth almost always leaks." Wow. No it doesn't. I have tried using a disposable at night on my son, and I have had more leakage issues with a disposable than I have had with cloth.
I'm not usually one to contradict others' opinions; I typically run from confrontation. But the statements made by Gamma G are outrageously inaccurate based on my five years' experience.
In contrast, I have found that I use a better detergent (for our skin, for the environment) now than I did before in order to reduce detergent buildup. I use less than a teaspoon of detergent per load (rather than the 2 tablespoons recommended) because detergent buildup is bad for clothes and washing machines, and detergent manufacturers grossly overestimate how much detergent is needed. We have washed about 14000 diapers, which means there are 14000 fewer disposable diapers in a landfill somewhere around here. I'm not sure how much money we have saved in the process, but not putting plastic in the ground to not decay is reason enough for me to keep it up. I'm immensely and incredibly glad that we opted to use cloth diapers and stick it out. They are awesome.
I am looking forward to answers on this one!! My 5 year old still wears pull ups to bed and cloth sounds way more economical! Never even thought of cloth pull ups just diapers!! Good luck and thanks for asking a GREAT question!!
p.s. it helps to know I'm not alone with an older one still wetting the bed :)
