Noodle is our third child, and also our third baby that I have use cloth diapers with and followed Montessori style potty learning with. For these reasons, all three of my kiddos have been potty trained before 2 years old. I don’t want to say I am an expert, I am far from perfect in my execution, but even still it has worked! . Yes my kiddos do still have accidents from time to time after 2 years old. I do not night potty train at this point either, I would say that happens more around 2.5-3 years old but basically when they no longer fit in our diapers.

Noodle is 22months old now and is very aware of when he goes potty. He will tell me 80% of the time before he goes potty, but doesn’t always make it to the potty if he’s naked or in pants. So mostly he still wears a diaper and we take him to the bathroom hourly, and in between when he tells us he needs to.

Our set up is pretty basic. In the top of the cart I have wipes, diaper liners and plain diaper covers (these I just use after all the other diapers are in the laundry). The middle shelf is daytime diapers—mostly All in Ones with a few pocket diapers. The bottom shelf is for bedtime diapers. On our towel rack we have two diaper bags. An open white bag for pee diapers, and a zippered bag for poo diapers. We have an Oxo potty (Just got it to replace our old Summer Infant potty that broke, the Oxo is super nice and Noodle seems very comfortable with it — Amazon) in the corner of the bathroom, between the vanity and bathtub. On the end of the vanity (facing the potty) we have a 12×24 acrylic mirror (Amazon) which I have adhered using large command strips (Amazon). I also have a bidet sprayer on our toilet, a flip down toddler seat (Amazon) and a squatty potty stool to help him get up (if/when he chooses this). I also have a toddler urinal, which I just put back up again (found it at a consignment sale last year, you can find it on Amazon — both boys enjoy using it, Apple uses it all the time now). Also, Upstairs in our bathroom (near where he sleeps) we have our oldest potty, which is our much loved Baby Bjorn Smart Potty (Amazon).

Our routine is pretty simple. We go to the bathroom, I sit on the kids stool and help Noodle take off his diaper. I turn the sink on to warm up the water, then get his wipe wet. He uses the potty. He wipes himself (I help if it’s #2). I ask him to pick out a diaper (he usually wants several, but we settle on the first one he picks unless he insists). Then he takes his diaper to his white diaper bag. Hand washing and done! We have taking him in this little nook since he was about 1 for standing diaper changes. Until more recently he was not interested in sitting in the potty at all. Then around 20 months he became very aware of when he was peeing and when his diaper was wet, and especially it being soiled. Suddenly he was eager to use the potty and so we began to do it more, and he began to ask for it all the time. He doesn’t stay dry between pottying right now, but he does tell me as soon as he feels wet, and we are moving in the right direction. He is becoming more aware, and as his body becomes more sensitive he will know sooner and will have more success.

A few things I want to note:

1. Our diaper cart doesn’t always look like this. Sometimes our diapers just end up in a laundry basket on top of the vanity. Sometimes (yes it’s real life) I just pull them straight out of the dryer (it’s next to the bathroom) until I MUST use the dryer again (I’m trying to get better at this though).
2. I don’t keep books in the bathroom (it is a perpetual mess with three kiddos, to be honest), but we have read a few with him and will continue to revisit them. We haven’t read a ton of different books, I think sometimes we (people) get a bit excessive about having many books on the same subject. But we do have three books I’ve read to all of the kids, we love and enjoy. It helps inspire their interest in the potty. These books are: Potty by Leslie Patricelli, Going to the Potty by Fred Rogers (that’s Mr. Rogers himself) and Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel (Boy | Girl)

Overall, my biggest advice, as is my advice with parenting in general, is to follow your child. Hope this helps you on your potty journey! If you have any questions about potty learning or cloth diapering, I’m happy to give my personal insight. Though all children and families are different and I’m far from an expert. Sometimes it’s just nice to have another person to hear your situation and bounce ideas off of!