Will stay-dry liners help or hurt EC?

[lucy_v]

After reading about EC on here out of curiosity, I gave it a shot when DD was about 2.5 months and put her on the toilet. I was surprised at how easy it was to catch her first pees & poops of the day, and so I've kept it up. I have been catching some others during the day as well. I've noticed that she now seems to be upset when her diaper is wet, whereas she didn't seem to mind it a couple of months ago. This is great, for the most part, except for when we're in the car. She already isn't a big fan of the carseat, but now it seems that she especially hates it and freaks out/cries hysterically when she has a wet/dirty diaper in the car. I can understand this, and i'm glad she recognizes it and dislikes the feeling. However, it's making for some very stressful car trips. I use prefolds & covers on her. I was thinking that if I got some fleece stay-dry liners/doublers, maybe that would give me a little time in the car. But then I wonder if doing that would be counterproductive to my EC attempts? e.g. Will peeing and not feeling wet make her less likely to go on the toilet?

(And, is it possible the car seat is making her go more? She seems to pee almost every time she's in the car, even if I just changed her diaper before getting in.)

I hope this made sense... I can't keep my eyes open! zzzz.....

[pixiepunk]

generally stay-dry stuff is counter-productive to EC. but i live 45 minutes from the nearest town of any size and so when we do get in the car we are in it for a while on country roads with nowhere to pull over. and my youngest *hated* being wet and would just scream miserably anytime she was. so there was a short period of time when she hadn't developed enough bladder control to hold it for that period of time when we used pocket diapers for exclusively that purpose (and also while we were in a store when it wasn't always possible to get her to a potty or to change her within 30 seconds of her peeing), and it did help. since it was the only time we did that, while it might have been slightly counter-productive to the EC process, it was well worth the peace of mind for us both, and in the end it was a short-lived phase. eventually she was able to pee before we left and hold it for the duration of the trip, then pee in the little potty i kept in the car whenever we got to our destination, and hold it while we shopped or ate or whatever, then pee again before getting in the car. so at that point i stopped using them unless we were going on a longer trip, like the 2.5 hours to my mom's house.

[lucy_v]

Thanks for your reply. I think the peace of mind might be worth the trade off for us too. I only have to go 10-20 minutes for most trips, but even those are unbearable!

At what age did your LO develop the ability to hold it?

[hrsmom]

What pixiepunk said!

My dd started to hold it while out and about fairly early on... although I don't remember when. 6 months? 5 months? 8 months? It was pretty cool!

[pixiepunk]

i don't recall the age either... but i think that will vary a lot depending on the kid anyway. all my kids inherited my "camel bladder" (that's what my mom called it when i was a kid ) and thus developed really good bladder control for long periods at a very early age.

[lisavark]

Honestly, I don't think it'll make much difference in the situation you describe, when you're only using it for temporary/short-term situations. I used fleece pockets on car trips and at night and for a while when I just wanted to get through dinner without thinking about it, and now in retrospect I really don't think it affected my DD's awareness at all. Also, stay-dry cloth diapers still feel a little wet--they're not like disposables.