This was one of the most specific, but USEFUL! tips we got from a fellow adoptive parent (thanks S!)
They toilet-train kids pretty young in Ethiopia (but breast-feed much longer,) which makes total sense if you think about it. On one side, kids get proper nutrition longer and a safer liquids-source. On the other side, they are toilet-trained quickly because who can afford diapers? Disposables are really expensive and even cloth ones require a ton of effort and available water, too. Plus there is the whole sanitation problem.
Anyway, the result of the toilet training is that lots of younger kids who are 2 and 3 years old who come from Ethiopia to Canada are 1. toilet-trained and 2. very small little kids!
At the risk of incurring wrath of other moms, I will comment that late toilet-learning/training really is a North American thing; perhaps all these millions of kids in so many other cultures aren’t scarred for life by learning earlier toileting. Maybe something our culture could learn from?
Anyway, if you have a younger kid coming, THE ONLY (I swear) underwear that fit girls as tiny as ours were are the Disney Princess panties (size 2) found a Walmart. Who knew? No other store remotely sells this small of panties. They are so tiny.
Some kids do end up needing some pull-ups at night, but I can count the times on two hands that our girls have had an accident (total for both girls) and some of those were in their warm and toasty snowsuits (they are like pee cultivators, or something.)
The good news is, after 8 months, our girls have officially graduated to size 3 underwear! They still are wearing the Disney Princess ones because any other brand size 3 is too big. So carefully check the weights on your kids and compare them with the package. Sorry, I don’t know the boy equivalent, but I’m sure someone could add it as a comment.
