Sunday, April 18, 2010

They Don't Make Diapers in that Size...

I’m fighting a losing battle these days, and it’s all because of the diaper making companies, who refuse to admit that a child can be larger than a size six diaper and still be a “baby.” I’ve been putting off buying pull-ups, because at just under 21 months I have a very quick toddler who shows no interest in using her little princess potty as anything other than a step for climbing.

I’ve also been worried about the practicality of pull-ups. When it’s time for a diaper change I have a tiny person who sprints around the house trying to avoid me (and it’s not exactly easy to catch her now that I’m feeling gigantic and am rather slow moving). I don’t think that tossing something that doesn’t to have easy to pull tabs into the equation is going to make life easier.

Lastly I’m a bit nervous because I’ve always thoughts of Pull Ups as diapers that were used to catch “accidents.” Will they really work as well for a baby who is using them as a diaper?

So far the diapers are still working during the day (and will hopefully continue to work for a bit longer) but they are no longer working for more than an hour or two at night.

I even looked at cloth diapers in one of the baby catalogs we receive, but their XL size was way smaller than Sadie’s weight (she was three feet tall last time I measured and while I’m not convinced our scale is accurate, she repeatedly measured 43 lbs the last time she stood on it). Besides with our water shortage issues here, and with silt and mud pumping up out of the well for the majority of the year, upping the amount of laundry would hardly be a popular idea here.

All these reasons combined explain why this morning after Mass I’ll be trekking over to CVS to examine their night-time Pull-Ups. Sadie is wearing a 3T these days with most of her 2T clothes being too small.

I imagine we’re not too far away from potty training, and she is very interested in the book we read together on using, but it’s also not something I want to push with all the other changes that are going on (weaning, moving as soon as a spot opens up, and the new baby arriving before too long).

Now if she’s still not interested after she’s turned two, I might have to bring home that Potty-Elmo she always giggles at when we go to Target… and start buying every “use the potty” book that I find…

8 comments:

  1. Pull-ups has tabs if you buy their brand and not the off brand. They're on the side rather than stretch across.

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  2. That's really good to know before we go shopping today! Thank you! I thought they were all just stretch across!

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  3. My daughter is 2.5 and wearing a size 4T. She still fits nicely in a size 5 diaper. She's proving to be the most difficult to potty train yet. I do buy pull-ups when we're ready for the final push for a couple reasons. They do hold quite a bit so accidents don't get out. And they do pull up and down like underwear making potty access easy. The primary problem I have with pull-ups is that, for whatever reason, they are extremely irritating to little bums. Maybe it's just my kids but we've had severe rashes with pull-ups that we haven't had with regular diapers. It has happened too often to be a coincidence. So I never, ever use them at night or for long stretches.
    Just a thought...Sadie is still young for potty training. I know it would be nice to have her out of diapers when the baby comes but I've experienced some back-sliding with little ones whose lives are somewhat disrupted by baby anyway. You might have a much easier time of it if you wait just a wee bit longer until she shows more interest. Between 2 and 3 is very normal. Before 2 is less common.
    I don't mean to busy-body around here...Just thought since I'm potty-training my 5th, I could offer some help with the pull-up situation:).

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  4. Hi Melody-

    I wish Sadie was still fitting nicely in a size 6! I don't know what it is but they just leak right away like the other sizes did when she grew out of them. I can still stretch the little tabs across, but after an hour she wakes up crying and the bed is wet.

    I wondered about the pullups being more irritating too, because I always had the idea that they weren't supposed to wick the wetness away as much because that's supposed to encourage potty training. At this point that's definitely not what I want...

    I definitely don't want to push the potting training thing (I've seen friends do that and it just never seems to work out!). Hopefully she'll show an interest and I'm definitely going to encourage it with books and stuff, but I think waiting until she's interested is the way to go.

    She'll be two before the baby arrives, but I do doubt we'll start before that time (unless she suddenly becomes obsessed with learning about it on her own, which is probably very unlikely...).

    Unfortunately I don't think we have a choice on the pullups since the others aren't working... We tried pampers, which never worked because of the shape of her body and then huggies, which worked for a while and we finally have ended up with the CVS ones, which worked better than anything we'd found up until now (their shape is a lot like huggies).

    And I do appreciate all the advice anyone wants to give on this one! Anything that makes the process easier in the future is appreciated!

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  5. I did have a child who did not fit in diaper sizes. The actual size was fine but output was so huge that leaking was an issue, just like you're experiencing. With the pull-ups, just make sure you keep them dry. It's hard because you'll go through a lot more of them but maybe that'll help her train more quickly!
    Glad you don't mind the input:).

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  6. Cam just a thought......have you considered cutting down on the evening drinks for Sadie? If she is well hydrated throughout the day there wouldn't be a problem in cutting drinks out after dinner time for example. I've found this to be a huge help with mine for leaky dipes and potty training. HTH!!

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  7. Welcome. I learned at the daycare that the Pull-ups brand is much easier to change because you don't have to remove shoes, socks, pants, etc. The other type I would rip off and then have to remove clothing to put on.

    Also Pampers makes a size 7 but I imagine that they are more difficult to find in the stores.

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  8. The pulls ups are way easier to change. We use them with my son who is 20 months and out of size 6 diapers (he's over 3 feet tall, and they just aren't made for tall kids). They just rip at the sides. The trick is to catch the poopy ones quick, and change them on a regular basis. We change them every 4 hours, unless there is a poop.
    That's my 2 cents.

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