Saturday, January 26, 2008

Diaper Disillusionment

We switched to cloth diapers when Caleb turned two. It took me that long to decide that I could do it. While I've always hated the idea of filling landfills with my child's excrement, when Nikki was born, cloth diapers were not at a point in their development where I even considered them. Caleb's godmother did it so easily, though, that I became convinced I could do it. I've been okay with the Happy Heinys and flushable liners. The wash load is not that bad, and the process itself is easy. The problem is my son. He poops at least three times a day, sometimes more. With Nikki, we fought constipation from the time she started cereal to the time she was potty trained, so cloth would have been no big deal. But with Caleb, it's bad whether we use disposables or cloth. It's just bad.

To make matters worse, Caleb is pushing four and has no interest whatsoever in learning to use the toilet. He did poop on the toilet twice last summer (weeks apart, mind you), but not since then. Nikki, at 2 1/2, decided she wanted to wear underwear. I sent her to school in training pants on Monday, and by Friday she was done. No accidents, day or night. I'm not expecting it to be that easy this time, especially with a boy, but I know that without him expressing any desire to do this, it would be like trying to herd cats.

I went to the book store to find books about potty training. They were inane and disgusting. I HATE reading bad children's books, and they were ALL bad. I suppose I could check some out from the library and make Scott or Nikki read them to him. I just can't bring myself to do it.

I've read all the books and suggestions. I am reaching out to whomever may read this blog, or whomever reads YOUR blog, for inspiration. Please help. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Now you'll have to excuse me. I just changed Caleb into his last clean diaper, so I'd better go do some wash.

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