Potty Training Update

Doesn't this make give you a warm, fuzzy feeling about wanting to potty train your child?

I'm feeling pretty dense right about my potty training situation with Caleb.  Why didn't I change my strategy sooner?  Honestly, I think it was laziness.  But my recent success has motivated me to make a better effort.

I finally decided to put Caleb in cloth training pants instead of expecting him to want to use the potty while still wearing disposable diapers.  

It seems that there is little motivation to use the potty when using the diaper is so easy and comfortable for Caleb.  The diaper absorbs quite well and keeps the moisture off of his skin.  Not much chance for discomfort.  As you may have read, we have already taught Caleb how to use the potty and we've used a potty chart to motivate him to do so.  This was helpful, but didn't really do the trick.

Cloth training pants will absorb some, but if Caleb decides to really go for it, he's got quite an uncomfortable mess on his hands.  This seems to be a much more realistic motivator for him.  We've been sporting the Gerber cotton training pants since last Wednesday and I think he's doing pretty well with his potty training now.  At least I feel that there's some real progress.  Wednesday afternoon he had about four changes of clothes, but Thursday and Friday were much better with only one accident each day.  Saturday was flawless as was Sunday.  He even did well during church and my BSF leader's meeting this morning.  

We are still putting him in a diaper/pull up for bedtime.  I'm not sure yet how to tackle this next challenge, but you can know that I won't be tackling it for a while.  I want Caleb to be truly comfortable with going potty before I try to instruct him on how to handle bathroom trips in the middle of the night.  And I don't even know if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  Or does he sleep right through because of the diaper?  Perhaps when the time comes, we'll just put him in cloth underwear and let him wet the bed a few times so he can experience the sensation and begin to know when he needs to get out of bed to go the the potty.