Very big 2yo

[peaceloveandbiscuits]

My 2y 7m DS is enormous. He is around 18kg and about 1m tall (not overweight, just bloody massive). He wears size 6 nappies, though only the Pampers pants fit him properly - the ordinary nappies with tabs don't do up very well.

He is totally saturating them in an hour or two, and if I don't change him soon enough, he gets sore thighs (for example overnight he will wear a nappy for about 10-12 hours depending on how long he sleeps, and if I change him immediately upon waking). I also have an 8w baby so I can't always see to DS1 immediately.

He's worn cloth in the past but grew out of terry squares (can't find bigger ones anywhere) and size 3 Little Lamb fitted nappies don't do up as well as they used to (same issue as with disposable tab nappies). Besides, he still gets sore.

He categorically isn't ready for toilet training - he can't tell me when he's weeing, and will wee in the bath and only notice when he sees it happening. He does know when he needs to poo, but is very anxious about it and does that toddler thing of running away and doing it by himself.

But what can I do? I'm sure I could force the toilet training if I wanted to commit months to it, but I've got a tiny baby to care for as well, and I've always been adamant that I'd rather wait until he was totally ready, to make it easier on both of us. He's just too big for nappies.

Have you thought about using the huggies drynites pants? You only get about 10 in a pack so it's pricey but they go up to age 8-15. We had to use the size 4-7 ones for DS a few months prior to potty training because he outgrew nappies! Also check different brands, some of the own brands come up a lot larger and might buy you some time.

Thank you for replying. My mother accidentally bought the Huggies training pants, but they say they're not absorbent and allow the child to feel wet, which I think would exacerbate the sore patches he gets.

I would say that if he is hiding for a poo then he's ready - it's a good sign that children understand what is happening and that they need privacy.

He won't know about the wees because he's not needed to...because he's in nappies Have a look at Oh Crap, Potty Training - she makes the point that the idea is to take kids from utterly clueless to understanding they are weeing to them recognising that they need to go

You might be surprised; we started DD2 last weekend and she had no signs of "readiness" and she's had just two accidents all week, including at nursery. It's a good time with a newborn because you can stay in for a few days without too much drama

The Huggiestraining pants are different to the Drynite pyjama pants. The pyjama pants are designed for bedwetting, not potty training so don't make the child feel wet. They come in 3 sizes (3-5, 4-7, 8-15) and are absorbent as they are designed to last overnight. I work with children with additional needs and many of them wear Drynites.

Alternatively Pampers do sell a size 7 nappy - if they're not available in any of your local supermarkets they can be bought online. They might be worth a try if size 6 aren't doing the job.

Kosikare might be worth trying - they sell on ebay I think. they certainly used to make bigger ones if you want terries. They had 68cm, 75 and even 90cm ones when we bought ours. We found when we tried disposables that they leaked at the side whereas with a terry you could fold them to go where they were needed most and always had some absorbency at the sides as well as back and front. (Our eldest told us disposables were "not very comfy cos there's lots of plastic and they're hot".) Plushpants do a 70cm bamboo one too which is quite absorbent and both Twinkle and the Nappy Lady certainly used to stock bigger terries - we bought some from Twinkle HTH - good luck.

As Mickey said, 'Oh Crap!' is definitely worth a read. It completely changed my opinion on readiness so IMO, it's worth reading and either discounting potty training for now, or giving it a go. I know it's not something you'd probably like to do at this stage with an 8 week old, but I did it with a 6 week old because DD was refusing nappies (no idea what she was supposed to do in the potty/toilet) but it really wasn't that bad. And once the first week was over, so much easier than 2 in nappies.

I'm not trying to say you definitely should train, just that you should read some of the book because it's such a good book on toddlers and toilet habits!

Libero Comfort XL on Amazon. Or dry nites. And train soon. But you still need a solution for overnight so worth trying the above in any case.

If you're happy to use cloth again there are bigger ones out there than LL size 3. If you have a local nappy library they should be able to hire you some options.

Keep him in the pull ups if that's what keeps him dry, however I thought ds was no where near ready when we started training and he picked up pretty quickly 😀 so it may be worth a shot

Thanks all for replying. I've downloaded the Oh Crap book so will have a read of it.

Have you tried Tesco own brand nappies in size 6+?

The + is extra absorbency rather than extra size, but may help with the soreness. DD is also very tall for her age & we found Tesco to be the most generously sized nappies available.

Pampers came up the smallest!

We don't have a Tesco locally but I'll have to try and find them!

Meant to say we tried 6+ Pampers but they're not much better.