How do you feel about pull-ups? Does it hinder the potty training process?

Barb - posted on 07/26/2012

Pulls up are ok for sleeping with, but underpants are the only way to go during the day even if there are accidents and messes. My daughter is pretty much potty trained now! So happy!

Amber - posted on 07/25/2012

My daughter has thick thighs and regular diapers dig in really bad---even the biggest sizes I could find in the stores around here. I put her in pull-ups instead of diapers and they work just the same for her. The only difference I see is that they can be pulled off and put back on easier so they can use the potty if they want to.

Gloria - posted on 05/18/2012

i feel like they do my son was going to the potty for two days without pull ups then i decided to try them and he completely stopped going potty ! now we are restarting all over but it's a slow process.

MARGARET - posted on 05/02/2012

I agree with your day care think fist our parents did not have pull up and we all use the
bathroom right ... I have three boys one with asberger and i never use a pull up my
sister used them and I found it was worst my sister girls stayed in them another year
think you just put extra underware and colths and they feel all wet and they don't like
that feeling my three year old is no sleeping through the night and not peeing the bed
we use rubber underware at night over his underware that keeps him warm eought so he
dose not pee and watch what he drinks

Glynis - posted on 04/29/2012

I never liked " pull ups". Although they were available. It took my now 18 year old two days to figure out that he didn't like being wet. I used the extra thick cotton training underwear with the plastic underpants ontop. This is the best and quickest way to potty train a child. There wasn't a transition for those over the age of 25, and we faired fine. Why enable kids with an extended transition diaper, it only prolongs potty training. Not only that, disposable diapers cost way to much for all that enabling...

KATY - posted on 04/29/2012

yes but great when you need to stay dry for important events or super long drives

Susan - posted on 04/29/2012

Hello Alicia,
Some children sleep very heavy and have accidents.
If the child is dry every night than stop with the pull ups.
Otherwise, I think calling them big kid pants is good idea.
I think you are doing a good job ! Sue

Sue - posted on 04/29/2012

try cloth pull ups. They are available on ebay cheaper than you would pay in the shops. They are a lot more like normal pants but have some protection from small accidents, as they have a waterproof section in them. Disposable pullups are a waste of money and are not much different to a nappy. As I used cloth nappies, it was a natural transition for me. I know people who have not used cloth nappies may dislike having to cope with no.2 accidents, but all this entails is scraping the solid into the toilet and then soaking in nappy san if you need to get stains out, and then it goes in with a normal wash load. As his younger brother is still in nappies, I chuck them in with his brother's nappies.

KIM - posted on 04/29/2012

Pull ups are just expensive bigger diapers made by diaper companies to keep kids in them longer & have the parents spend more money. Find some old fashioned training pants or make your own....easier & cheaper. Plus, don't you hate having to take all the clothes off just to change your child? I refused to do that.

Betty - posted on 04/29/2012

Pull ups are great!



But eventually you have to bite the bullet and quit using them, and maybe clean up a couple messes.



When to switch to underpants 100%? depends on the kid.



I just know that I with I did it a couple months earlier than when I did finally switch.

Rebecca - posted on 04/27/2012

I could see the use of them for long trips. Most stores have a public bathroom so before you actually get into your shopping you could take your child to the bathroom to try and go. if the child has no problem during the day going to the bathroom then save the pull ups for nighttime use.

Anaquita - posted on 04/27/2012

It varies per kid. Some kids it's helpful, some it is a hindrance. I personally didn't try for night time training until we had the daytime down pat. And even then ... it took a few years for at night so we kept to pull ups. My son was one of those kids who slept too hard, and too soundly to wake up at night to go to the bathroom if needed. (Which according to our pediatrician is common and normal up to about age 10. Just so you know if your child ends up being one of them.) My kid is 8 now, and whatever signal gets sent to the brain to wake him up for the potty has been working the past 3 or so months.

Courtni - posted on 04/26/2012

We used pull ups for my son for a year before just quitting and putting underwear on him. He peed his pants twice before he tried the potty and took 2 days to poop in the potty. We spend 20 bucks on each package of pull ups over that year. We bought them at least twice a month. More during the last months. A lot of money spent with zero results. We dumped the pull ups, and he was trained in a week. He started pre school the next month. He has never once wet the bed either. I couldn't be more proud because I expected accidents. I realize all kids are different, but pull ups were a waste of time, money and contributed to a ton of frustration.

Jennifer - posted on 04/26/2012

I only used pull-ups when it was nap time, we were going on long trips or bedtime. The rest of the time they didn't have anything on. It didn't take long and they were all potty-trained.

Leigh - posted on 04/25/2012

For me with my daughter, it hindered the overnight process. During the day I introduced her to silk panties and she loved the feeling of them but HATED the wetness when she pee'd, so she learned very quickly to use the toilet during the day. At night however, she always woke up with wet pull-ups in the morning. I began to notice that the babysitter wasn't needing more pull-ups to use at naptime so when I asked her if she needed more, she stated that she wasn't putting my daughter in them at naptime and she was always waking up dry. Turns out, she was just being lazy at home. She knew she wouldn't get in trouble for peeing in her pull-ups, so she just let it flow, lol. But as soon as I began putting her in panties at night, we never had another problem.

Diane - posted on 04/25/2012

I found with my daughter that, even when she was trained during the daytime if we put her in pullups in the evening before bedtime she would go in them even before she went to bed. There does seem to be something in their psyche that it is a nappy so it is OK,



That said we still use them at bedtime. She is struggling to be dry at night whether in pullups or not and she sleeps so soundly that she doesn't always realise when she has wet the bed and carries on sleeping through.



I've found that for long trips she could cope remarkably early, especially if she was given plenty of opportunities to stop whenever we passed a motorway service station. So I've found that although pullups haven't worked for us during the day, they are a complete godsend at night and I can see us being in them for another year or so at least!

Danielle - posted on 04/24/2012

do they forbid his diapers? if not teach him how to take off the diaper or loosen it so that he can pull it up and down. I've been a toddler teacher for 11 years now and have potty trained many children. personally i choose underwear but i also allow the parents of my students to choose what they put their kids in. check to see if the "forbidding" of pull ups is a teacher decision or if it is a policy of the day care. also check into the department of early education in your state for the regulations, i'm not sure that daycares are allowed to "forbid" something like pull ups. I have always left the ultimate decision to the parents as they know their children best.

If your son is able to use and stay dry in underwear then great continue with them. However if he is continuing to have accidents weeks (about 6 or more) then maybe he is just not ready. his teachers should be able to tell whether or not he is truly ready. (if he can pull up and down his pants and change them, get on and off the potty himself, staying dry for hours at a time, regular patterns for bowel movements).

some kids also take awhile to stay dry overnight. so keep using the pull ups or diapers overnight until he consistently keeps it dry (a week or so).

Barb - posted on 03/23/2012

I use the pulls up with my daughter she doesn't seem compeletly ready to not have them. We've tired it a few times and there were messes all over. She gets confused when you put the real under pants on her. When I know she is completely ready we will go to under pants, but till then pull ups are great and she is doing great peeing less in her pulls and going more. So proud!

Michelle - posted on 03/22/2012

i started potty training my daughter quite early she wasnt far off 1 and i pretty much had it in the bag til i tried pull ups for out and about. It put me right back to where i started with her and actually made the whole process harder and longer. The pull ups had princess designs on them so they were prettier and more exciting to her than the cheap knickers i bought for disposing of and so i was forced to buy peppa pig knickers, as in her eyes that was even better, and they werent cheap either for starting out. I finally got it sorted with lots of praise and persuasion and lots of asking if she needs the toilet esp b4 going anywhere and whilst out and about. I reffered to nappys as for babies and encouraged her by telling her what a big girl she was for wearing big girl knickers which worked a treat and when she had moments where she would wee for no reason i would tell her im getting the baby nappy out for her to wear if she continued and that helped too. As for night time i must have been one of the lucky ones as i thought that was easier than day time. I made sure she went toilet b4 bed and had a small drink b4 going up no drinks upstairs!! Then if she wakes up thirsty she must have a wee b4 getting a drink and when i started at night time with her i used to wake her up and take her toilet b4 going to bed myself. Now she is completely dry and has been for a long time she comes and tells me if she needs the toilet at night as our toilet is downstairs.

Amy - posted on 03/19/2012

I personally think pull ups are horrible. Several people told me not to use them but as a first time mommy I was like whatever and used them anyway. It took forever to potty train my son, once I decided no more pull ups during day at all took a week of accidents and he was trained.took him only a few days not to go potty at night. I say no pull ups . Good luck.

Alicia - posted on 03/19/2012

i recommend waiting untill your son has gone at least a week with no accidents in the pull-ups at night then try underwear but make sure if he is not in a toddler bed that his bed has a waterproof mattress cover cause it may take a couple of tries with the underwear before he is successful. My daughter just turned 3 and she is still in nighttime pull-ups... she understands that in order to wear underwear at bed she needs to train her bladder to hold longer.



As for daytime pull-ups my daughter was in them for almost 6 months and it did hinder her alot but she has a half-brother who is a little older and when he came over about 3 months ago he was wear big boy undies and we were so proud of him that it made our daughter jealous and so she decided that day that she wanted to be big too so the pull-ups went to only nighttime and she wore undies during the day.



But it did take about 4 days of accidents before she was really good a going potty and we put a potty in every room she spent alot of time in. She has one in her room, she had one in the playroom and one in the livingroom. Of course we have only one bathroom so that was the best option for us.

Brittney - posted on 03/17/2012

I think they are more like diapers, I personally used cloth training pants unless we went out and at bedtime. Bedtime is still a problem but we don't have to use them when we go out anymore. She can use regular underwear anywhere we go. She knew when she peed (she would say uh oh) and hurry to come get me to fix it, with the training pants (disposable) she would pee, and almost not care, it took 6 pees in it for her to know she was wet.

Bernadette - posted on 03/14/2012

I found them to be a hinderance. We started and stopped potty training so many times because the pull-ups just weren't working for us. We'd go out, so I'd put her in pull ups and then that'd be it. She'd just use it like a nappy. She wasn't yet able to tell me that she needed to go before she needed to go, so would just do it in a pull-up. Even if I kept taking her to the toilet while we were out, it didn't work because she hadn't yet learned that she had to hold on until she got there, and if I'd tell her to do a wee she'd just look at me not really understanding what I wanted her to do. And since we go out practically every day, it just wasn't working using the pull-ups, she'd just use it like a nappy. When I decided it was time to try again, I just decided I was putting her in undies and that was it. The first time she wet her pants, she looked down in shock and started to cry. So I put her on the potty. The next time she started to wee, then stopped. I put her on the potty, but she was holding on by then and couldn't bring herself to let go. Ten minutes after getting off the potty, she wet her pants. But each time she'd need to wee, she'd start and then stop. She was learning how to hang on. We stayed at home all of the first day, then the next day I really needed to go out and get some things and I was tempted to put a pull-up on her but decided against it. I just put her in training pants, with the plastic lining because they do contain a lot of the mess so we weren't going to leave big puddles on the shopping centre floor. We went armed with plenty of spare pairs, and she wore a skirt so that while she was walking, it wouldn't get wet and we wouldn't have to have complete outfit changes. Then we went to the shops and bought another potty, in the shape of a tortoise. The shell is a lid so that it converts to a stool. This was to be our travel potty, to keep in the bottom of the pram so that if she suddenly said she needed to go, and we were nowhere near a toilet, I could just pull it out and put her straight on. The lid meant I could keep it contained until we got somewhere I could empty it. Anyway, while it was very tempting to use the pull-ups, I decided against it since we were just making no progress. Going straight to undies and sticking with it, we were done in three days. She was completely daytime potty trained for wees. It took a few more days for poo, but it was less than a week. And she was still wearing nappies to bed as I'd decided I wasn't even going to try to night time train her yet. But after a couple of nights, she started waking up during the night and yelling out that she needed to wee. Since she was waking up, and refusing to do it in her nappy anyway, and I was still having to get up to take her to the potty I figured we might as well get rid of the nappies altogether. I was amazed at how fast she was toilet trained, and I put it all down to not using pull-ups. We made no progress at all when we used them. Then suddenly she got it wearing just undies all the time.

Tammy - posted on 03/13/2012

i feel that pull up are just like diapers. im in the process of training my 2 year old and i just have him in underwear while home if we go out i put a diaper on him. i have tried pull ups with my older son and he was making it seem like they were diapers and not having any interest in potty training

Amanda - posted on 03/11/2012

My son potty trained at 18 months. I only used pull ups as a back up when we were going out and at night. I still made sure to offer him potty frequently while we were out. When he didn't have any accidents while we were out, I went with underwear full time.

Night time was another story all together. I had a gigantic financial crisis and just did not have money for pull ups. He was in underwear full time except at night. I bit the bullet when the last one was gone and started putting to bed in regular underwear. I would wake him up a 2-3 times a night at first. Then it went down to once a night. Now he is usually dry in the morning and goes potty as soon as he wakes up.



Another Pull-up tip: I went with a size or two larger than what it said on the box, because I found that if I bought the 2T size when he wore 2T clothes, they were too tight for him to pull down by himself. The bigger ones really didn't leak too much.

Catherine - posted on 03/11/2012

Pull-ups are just diapers without tabs that are more expensive than diapers. Don't use it. They don't help with potty training.

Bonnie - posted on 03/07/2012

I think it's weird that the day care is making that decision as my day care follows what I set for my child. I found with my oldest son he would not use the potty while in pull-ups because he knew that he could pee without a mess. If I put him in trainning pants he would get upset going in his pants as he hated the mess so I made sure to use trainning pants as much as possible. I never let him sleep in underwear at night until he went a month with no accidents and willingly went to the toilet in the middle of the night when he needed to. Right now, he is 4 and still uses pull ups at night some times as he does still have accidents. When he was potty trainning I did use pull ups while traveling or during shopping trips if I felt that chances were good that he would go in his pants.

My youngest son will be 2 next week. He is voluntarily potty trainning and is still in diapers. He only goes on the toilet 1 to 4 times a day but it's a start. I would not put him in underwear as I know he would still go in his pants either way.

I think that as a mother you know what works and what doesn't for your child. Each child is different (even my two are totally different) and you need to do what is right for your child.

Good luck.

S. - posted on 03/06/2012

Firstly well done to your son :) Secondly I'm shocked that your day care is "forbidding" pull ups, I would have thought the choice of what underwear your child wears is up to you! However I do personally agree with the day care but i have my reasons as my little girl was totally dry for a week untill I for some reason put a pull up on her on a short trip out and put her back to square one :( I felt so guilty and upset that I had confused her (before that incident I was putting a night nappy on her) so I binned all Nappies and pull up and bought extra bedding and water proof sheets, I was lucky she had a few wet night but took to it very well and was dry in know time! The thing is every child is different nephew wasnt dry on a night till he was five and my friends boy was seven, if your son understands how to use pull ups then why not use them if it works for you!!