Real Nappies (Merged Discussion Thread)

lynneinjapan

I'll try - but on the other hand I may abandon the idea very early on!

pdoff

would be interested to hear from anyone that's managed it. now it's warm enough ds2 (6 months) is naked sat on prefold nappies & towels to get air to the excema on his bum, which is better for it. can't say as i notice when he needs to wee though. i keep looking!

fannyadams

How could it work at a nursery or childminders, say?
or is it strictly for SAHMs?
IMHO 'potty training' for any child less than 2 years is not training but fortunate timing. They have no control over their bladder or other bodily functions, and cannot 'tell' you when they need to go.
Trying to 'do' DS#2 ATM - he loves sitting on the pot but won't perform! Luckily we are having a heatwave.

SusanCarter

fannyadams wrote:

How could it work at a nursery or childminders, say?
or is it strictly for SAHMs?
IMHO 'potty training' for any child less than 2 years is not training but fortunate timing. They have no control over their bladder or other bodily functions, and cannot 'tell' you when they need to go.

Thank you for giving your opinions, I was hoping to get discussion for/against the idea.

According to the information I've read, lots of people in Africa/Asia do it and often the whole extended family does it so in theory it could work with nursery/childminders if they were willing.

Of course, the information I've found on the internet could all be made up and as I don't yet have children of my own yet I cannot comment on it's validity so I was just hoping to see what other people thought and whether anyone here has done it.

lynneinjapan

fannyadams wrote:

How could it work at a nursery or childminders, say?
or is it strictly for SAHMs?
IMHO 'potty training' for any child less than 2 years is not training but fortunate timing. They have no control over their bladder or other bodily functions, and cannot 'tell' you when they need to go.
Trying to 'do' DS#2 ATM - he loves sitting on the pot but won't perform! Luckily we are having a heatwave.

Given the cultural climate in this country, I think it is really only an option if you're a SAHM (stay-at-home mum for anyone who doesn't understand the acronym), and a bit of an earth mother to boot. This is one reason I'm not confident of success, since I'll be going back to work after 8 months or so. From what I've heard, nurseries and childminders are often a bit iffy even about using reusable nappies... and you'd have to know a young child very well to be able to read that particular child's signals, so I think EC is a bit too much to ask of them!

However, I don't think it's necessarily true to say that a baby under 2 has no control over their bodily functions and isn't capable of communicating their needs. According to what I've read, infants (human or otherwise) instinctively don't like to "soil their own nests", so by putting them in nappies - particularly disposable ones that keep them feeling really dry - we're actually training them AGAINST their instincts. Then two years later we have to go back the other way and potty train them! The ideal time to start EC is supposed to be before the child is 4-5 months old because by that age they're "nappy trained", i.e. they see pooing their pants as quite normal, and are barely aware of it, and of course it's difficult to reverse this.

EC is bound to take practice and some tenacity, and some accidents are inevitable (but then so is the odd leaky nappy!), but it must be possible to learn to read your baby's signals. And just as a baby gets familiar with bathtime and bedtime routines, they also get to understand that if you hold them over some kind of receptacle and make the appropriate cues then it's OK to "go". If you read the EC websites that are linked to from the Wikipedia entry, you'll see repeated mentions of babies being able to hold on for a couple of minutes when they understood that their needs were being attended to.

Incidentally, I was talking to someone yesterday who was saying that her two children were potty trained relatively early (by 2) because she put them in reusable nappies and they didn't like the wet feeling of them, whereas a friend of hers, who only used disposables, had a child who was still in nappies at 4. Only anecdotal evidence, I know, but it does seem to make sense to me - if the child feels dry & comfortable in a nappy then why should (s)he want to use the potty?

pdoff

ds1s playgroup insist on disposables - if they won't even deal with reusable nappies i don't think they'd entertain this idea! to pick up on the clues i guess u would need a 1 to 1 situation anyway. very interesting thread!
btw ds2 (6 months) has been having nappy off time earlier & i did notice when he was about to wee so directed him towards the towel on the floor - only a couple of seconds though but i was quite impressed with myself! maybe if u had the time to give full attention to baby & nothing else it could work.

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

pdoff wrote:

i change him every 2 hours btw so he not sat in it for ages.

A baby sat in urine for two hours is going to have bad skin. A baby should be changed immediately (or as soon as possible after, definitely within 15mins), not at some arbitrary time.

swampytiggaa

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule wrote:

A baby sat in urine for two hours is going to have bad skin. A baby should be changed immediately (or as soon as possible after, definitely within 15mins), not at some arbitrary time.

ah - but you don't know when a baby has done a wee - if you did they would be potty trained

pdoff - have you tried fleece liners? they pull the wetness away from the skin - have worked well on my babes

plus with wraps - motherease rikki wraps are the bees knees - the velcro fastening ones. If your baby is past the explosive poo stage then you would manage with 2 of those - you can hand wash them and they will dry really quickly. Personally i buy them new then sell them on - just cos second hand ones aren't much cheaper.....

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

swampytiggaa wrote:

ah - but you don't know when a baby has done a wee - if you did they would be potty trained

Thats why you should check regularly.


Personally I don't like velcro wraps, I find popper fasteners much better. Velcros' only real advantage is that you can fasten it to any size (but if using a popper wrap with a variety of fastener points it's usually not an issue anyway).

flea72

pdoff wrote:

i'm using shaped terry nappies with plastic pants at the moment. tried prefolds & various allinones but they all leaked. these don't but baby (6 months) has excema & is worse round hip/groin area. doc says is infected & says we should use disposables instead. really don't want to but if they are gonna help his excema i may have to. anyone else had a similar problem? i change him every 2 hours btw so he not sat in it for ages. think it might be the plastic pants making him sweat but any other things i tried leak after an hour max! roll on warm weather so he can be naked on a towel!

the only way to know what is causing this is gonna be trial and error, but you need to clear it up before you can start to work out why your child is getting this rash.

as its quite warm at this time of year, i agree, let them go without a nappy for as much of the time as possible, apply something like metanium to the sore parts, or if you know they are not allergic to eggs, a whipped egg white works wonders on nappy rash.

then start a process of elimination to find out what is causing the excema to flare up. it could be the washing powder, the liners, vinegar, napisan, etc. Personally i found fleece liners to be the culprit

Also it might be worth going back the Drs. alot of babies get thrush in the nappy area, so you might need a dose of caneston to clear things up, or maybe just try a bit of natural yogurt and see how it goes

hth Flea