Are Pull-Ups SO Awful?

DD is very interested in going potty on the toilet. She asks at home and has been at school with her teachers. I have bought underwear for her but she has a lot of accidents (to be expected!) Yesterday I forgot to send her with underwear and the teachers put her in a pull-up (saying "I know you don't like pull-ups but she was doing so well and we wanted to keep encouraging her to go..." which of course I am supremely happy about!) My thoughts on pull-ups come mainly from others who have gone through the potty-training experience...that it's best to go from diapers straight to underwear. I do put the kids in underwear at home when we aren't going anywhere, asking them consistently to tell me when they have to go potty, but their accidents don't seem to bother them too much at this point (we are also in the earlier, very laid-back stage of potty training)...I'm trying to decide if I should run out and buy pullups for DD today. So my question is: Did anyone go from diapers, to pull-ups, and then to underwear with success? Or do you wish you'd gone cold turkey to underwear?

 

Well, we haven't had success yet with Roycie, but he's been in pull ups for about 4 months now. But with Alice, they worked. She was only in them for 2-3 weeks while she completely potty trained.

 

My main thing with them is that they are so expensive, and if you're going to help them in the bathroom anyway, you can just take a diaper off, you know? Can they really tell the difference between a pull up and a diaper?

Anyway, I'd order them at amazon, it's much cheaper with amazon mom.

 

They are great for the purpose they are intended--small children can put pull them down and go potty by themselves then pull them back up again--and they generally can't up a diaper back on themselves. Which is exactly what my kids did. My daycare center didn't approve of them, but had them where shorts (warm weather) and flip flops with no socks so accidents were easy to clean up--at home I prefered to use a pull up and NOT clean up accidents!

 

There is really no difference in a pull-up vs a diaper, they still absorb and make it less likely for them to understand that they are wet. After experimenting with them with my first son, I decided they weren't worth the money and frustrations. So with the twins I used an all in one cloth diaper that allowed them to feel wet at night. They got the idea and trained very easily. We used underware during the day right after doing naked training. I never went back to diapers. It kind of defeats the purpose (IMO). My oldest DS trained by 3 (but still had a few accidents at night until 8- small bladder), and the other 3 boys were day and night trained well before.

I didn't want a long drawn out process of keeping them in pull ups for at least a year. I'm sure MANY moms have trained successfully with them, probably some in short periods of time too. But for me, if I was going to bother training them, I wanted it done quickly.

 

I used Pull-Ups only when we left the house those early stages of PT and for bedtime. Other than that it was just underwear.

 

I had one kid that pull ups worked fine for (my DD) and one kid who treated pull ups like another diaper, so they were an epic fail for DS. I would say it really depends on your comfort level with them. If you feel using a pull up will not hinder your DD's progress, then there is no harm in giving them a shot. Good luck with PT-ing.

 

I read a tip on here, and that's what I did.

When we left the house I put a pull-up over their panties. That way, they definitely knew they were wet, but if they did have an accident it was very easy to clean up in the restroom of wherever we were--no big drama needing all new clothes and having to carry around wet pants--wet panties fit in a little bag. (Also, if the pull-up was always over the panties and didn't get wet, I could reuse it for the next trip out because it hadn't touched their skin.)

 

Genius thank you!!!!

I was just going to post for help too bc for me, I did NOT want to use pull ups but my kids seem to keep them dry (which is nice on the wallet bc I can use 2/day for each) and don't seem to care about wet/poopy underwear?! I think I might try the underwear underneath so they can feel it better if they do have an accident but for right now pull ups seem to be working bc they do keep them dry. I think they are just an overpriced diaper. I like the cloth diaper idea too!!!

 

Great idea! I have yet to put mine in undies, and that was a concern of mine! I was not looking forward to bringing a bag of new clothes x2 with me everywhere!

For the OP: I have mine in pull-ups. They do ok. Better in school than at home. Mostly cause they see the other kids using the potty so they are encouraged to follow their lead. At home, they do watch us use the toilet and that usually does encourage them to try. They do great for bath times. Lately, Cameron has been asking to use the toilet even though he has his pull-ups on. I remind both of them constantly that I don't want pee or doody in the pull-ups. They are not diapers. I don't, of course, get upset if they do make accidents in their pull-ups, but it's just a constant reminder for them that pee and doody go in the potty cause I'll nag them. I'll cheer like crazy when they do use the potty especially on their own request. It's still a work in progress though. I had started before Christmas and just when we started construction on our house. That was a bad idea, but they really seemed so ready to use the potty at that time. I jumped on it. But with all the changes going on around them and the plane trip and visit to FL, none of us could really keep up with the training. We would of course still encourage them to use the toilet if they needed it, but we were very relaxed about it. We also had to go back to diapers cause of the amount of outdoor activities we had in FL. It just seemed to be easier for all of us if they used their diapers and not worried about potties (unless requested).

Now, Kiefer will request to use public toilets and use the toilet at home on request during bath times. Cameron will request occasionally during the day (with accidents still) and use the toilet during bath time (though he recently had a couple of pee accidents in the bath which did upset me (I was having a bad day) cause I just told him to use the potty/toilet if he needed to go. I felt bad I got upset, but I didn't yell. I just expressed my disappointment a little more strongly than I normally would....I guess you could say I lost some patience?

So, to answer your question, there's no reason to worry about using pull-ups. Take them to the potty every hour as you would with undies. Treat them like undies. Just feel secure knowing that if they do have an accident, you don't need to worry too much about it. Just remind them to let you know they need to go before they go.

 

I haven't read the previous posts so please excuse this if it's a repeat. Pull-ups worked for my girls when I was just trying to teach them to go on the potty. There was a 6 month time period that they wanted to use the potty but were not able or ready to grasp the concept of holding it until they got to the potty, and that's what the pull-ups were great for. Once I started noticing that they were able to hold it I moved them to panties and it took about 2 weeks and they were pull-up free. They still use pull-ups at night b/c they are not consistent with waking on their own at night to use the potty.

 

Our school doesn't allow pull-ups, but they are happy to help diaper-wearing kids use the potty. So we just went straight to underwear, but not till around age 3 when they were FULLY trained.

We did (still do, for Sarah) use nighttime pull-ups just because they seem more comfy for the kids, and it's easier for them to change it themselves when they wake up wet. But if we were going through more than one per day per kid, I would have thought about sticking with regular diapers.

 

Thank you for the great tip!

 

I also did the pull-ups over underwear thing and it worked great!

I also did the pull-ups over underwear thing and it worked great! Then I used them at night but mine night trained quickly and the pull-ups I had left I was able to sell on Craigslist so I got some money back

 

I tried pull ups when I was training my oldest. He just thought it was a diaper and it completely backfired on me. Went to underware and he was fine. I think it really depends on the kid. Good luck!

 

we used pull-ups because I wanted them to feel like bigger kids...in my book yes it was another diaper but I guess I don't consider it an epic fail, just another step in the training process...with DD once she decided she was done with diapers/pull ups that was it...she decided she wanted to wear panties, I told her she couldn't pee on the princesses and that was it...

my son pee trained in a week but poop was a completely different story - with or without pull ups...

 

I just wanted to say thank you.... fantastic idea... i am starting this today!!!

OP: I had not started potty training because pull ups just didn’t work w/ oldest DS 10 + years ago… and these guys don’t seem super interested in the potty… and w/ all the schlepping I do i haven’t done my part… but w/ this idea I went out and bought some pull ups and will give it a whir…