Pull-Ups And Potty Training

Personally I think pull-ups are a huge waste of money and in my opinion that actually prolong the potty training process and cause kids to have more accidents. I have been doing daycare/nannying for over seven years and have helped train no less than 20 kids--boys and girls. Whe your daughter is ready to train put her straight to underwear day and night and you will be done in a week at most. I have given in to parents in the past and gave pull-ups a try as that was what the parent wanted to do. All it taught the child was how to be lazy. When they feel like going potty or really want a reward they do, when they are busy playing or forget, they just go in the pull-up. No big deal for them-it just absorbs like a diaper. They need to feel they are wet to learn. The kids I have trained using underwear trained in a week or less and have had probably 1-2 accidents total since training over a year ago. The child that used the pull-ups dragged "training" out for months and still has accidents now and then. I really think the pull-ups are partly to blame. The kids who used underwear knew right away that they needed to make it to the potty when they had to go---the diapers were gone. I also never really used "rewards" like treats after the first week of training. After that it is just lots of praise and the real reward is that they are a big girl/boy and you are so proud of them. If your daughter is three she is probably more than ready unless there is some underlying medical problem. Put her in underwear, take her to the toilet constantly the first couple days, use plastic covers for night and a plastic cover to protect the mattress. Start on a weekend when you have nowhere to go for a few days and can stay close to the bathroom til she gets the hang of going and telling you. Throw out the diapers . If you are consistent and she is ready you'll be done by next week.

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I would not buy them. Expensive and just a fancy diaper to the kids. Instead invest in a bunch of underwear and those plastic covers so that the accidents are not as bad!

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We tried pull ups with my son in the beginning. At first they were novel and I thought they were just terrific. We soon learned that they did not help him with potty training...since they were like diapers they were "permission" to pee in the pull up instead of the potty. After much frustration, a friend convinced me to take a potty training break and start again without the pull ups. We went straight to undies. I am sure it helped that I was more calm and lowered my expectations and he had a little time to mature, but the second time was much more successful. (And it was a little messier, but I don't have carpeting in a lot of my house, so it wasn't too bad :) ) We then used pull ups only when we left the house when he was still potty training. We also used them at night, but only because after daytime success, my son REFUSED diapers, he said they were for babies. So if your daughter is ok with diapers, I would save the pennies while you can. GL!

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Pull-ups are definitely a waste of money. I agree with Kristin pick a weekend or a few days where you'll be home with nothing to do and switch to underwear. Make a big deal about throwing out the diapers and just run her to the potty every 20 minutes, and give her a reward everytime she goes pee and something slightly more special when she goes poop. Its exhausting but it should work. Just a tidbit of info but if you do some research you will find since the invention of the disposable diaper in 1964 the average age for a child to be potty trained rose for 18 months to 36 months. I

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I would avoid pull-ups for potty training. They really just think that they are diapers and go potty in them. Try just using them if you have to leave the house (in the begining) and at nap or bedtime. With my son I just jumped into undies, yes there were a few acciedents, but he has really gotten the hang of it! Best of Luck... Potty training is a challenge!
Oh and I always used the Walmart White Clound type pullups. They are less expensive, were easier on my sons sensitive skin, and still had the reclosable sides like the pull-up brand has(Target are designed after pampers easyup which don't have the reclosable sides).

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well i got my daughter potty trained at two,and what i did was just let her go naked during the day,well just with a shirt,it helped with making her realize that,hey i dont have anything on my bottom thats not right,and that helped to make her pause til i asked her if she needed to go,(which i did all the time!!)then once we got into that for a while i went to the store with her and got her whatever panties she wanted,that way she was kept interested in it.soon after,she started wearing them for her naps and then onto her bedtime.as long as you keep it fun,new and exciting she should be fine,oh plus(i know its kinda weird)everytime she went on the potty i would do a little dance and squeal happy things at her,she thought it was the funniest thing in the world!!and made her feel so so proud,i still see her throwing her little fist in the air saying"i did it!!!"potty training should be fun for both the kid and the parents...and i tried the pull ups with my son and he just went in them,so i def. wouldnt reccomend them. well good luck in however you do it!!!

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I don't really know how much pull-ups actually help in potty training. They make it easier for the child to pull them down and sit on the potty themselves and I think that's about it. My daughter is 3 and she treats a pull up like a diaper. The only thing that really makes her go on the potty is wearing panties. I got the thicker training panties from Target. I guess it also depends on the child. Maybe pick up a pack and see how she does with them. There are usually coupons for them in the Sunday papers.

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I think pull-ups delay things because they are simply another diaper. Go straight to underwear! When you have a couple days that you know you are going to be home, put her in underwear and have her sit on the potty every 20 mins. As she gets better with figuring out when she has to go you can go 30 or 40 mins between having her sit on the potty.

Nice weather is the best time to potty train because it doesn't matter if she has an accident outside!

When my son goes pee in the potty he gets an M&M; when he goes poop he gets a Hot Wheels car.

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I think Pull Ups are pretty useless for potty training. OTOH, they are SO much easier to put on a toddler who is doing his best to stay NAKED! I really like the Wal-Greens brand and they're CHEAP!

We were in pull-ups for a while. She just wasn't all that interested in using the potty--being independent is an issue for us. My daughter is disabled, she has mild cerebral palsy (waist-down spasticity). So, the whole mantra of "look mommy, I can do it myself!" was absent for us.

You know what sealed the deal? We were out with her friend (same age) and I took them both on a bathroom break. We were all in the stall together, and she saw her friend do it, needing minimal assistance. She was amazed. She didn't know it could be like that. It was like a light switch. She wanted the whole thing--big girl underwear and all.

If I had known that, you bet I would have invited her friends over for a potty party from the get-go.

A.

www DOT elenadoodle DOT blogspot DOT com

Yes they do work - pull ups don't hold as much liquid so it may make your daughter want to take the initiative to go to the potty on her own due to not wanting the wetness on her. I introduced potty training to my daughter at 3 and I have let her progress at her own pace also, however, we as parents still need to introduce it to them and encourage them as much as possible without forcing the issue - I would also recommend the DVD "Once upon a Potty" (ordered it from Borders Books online) - I had never heard of this DVD and was concerned about my daughter transitioning from diapers to the potty so a friend of mines told me about this DVD and we BOTH loved it... it worked wonders as I was introducing her to potty training (to this day she still loves to watch the DVD and sing the potty song) ..My daughter will be 4 in August however she has playmates that are younger than her that are already fully potty trained and have been since they were 2 years old - one parent chose to skip pull ups altogether and she went straight from diapers to underwear (some parents are lucky that way-I was not) although my daughter is almost fully potty trained she only uses a pull up at night or if we are taking a long trip in the car somewhere. So I buy a pack of pull ups maybe every 2 weeks. Pull-ups are VERY expensive which is why I use store brand pull ups - it may take you a while to find one that works for you and your budget - but I am happy to report that I found a cheap but good store brand that I can afford and that works well for me (White Clouds WalMart brand) I like them because they do not leak (for me) and that's major because my daughter IS a liquid baby- (she loves water & milk). In addition, I prefer pull-ups without the velco sides - I'm just not a fan of the velcro sides (which are on most pull ups) being that my daughter would constantly undo the sides and take the pull up off... and she couldn't put it back on - this is very irritating to me so dealing with pull ups WITHOUT the velcro eliminates that problem for me - I'm a parent that would recommend pull ups for the transition stage but I can also see why some parents "opt out" of doing the "pullup thing" in between 1) it CAN be costly 2) for me pull ups are my security blanket and it's been hard for me to ween my daughter off of them - 3) doing without pullups can save you money - as all you would need to do is buy a few backs of underwear and wash them as needed that by itself is a money saver when you look at what it would cost you to buy pullups that you only end up throwing in the trash anyways on a daily basis. Good Luck!

we used pullups from an early age just because my son was such a nightmare to change lying down. They are a diaper with a fancy opening. I think that they actually hindered potty training more than they helped. I swear that there is something in them that makes the kid pee into them. Your child cannot feel wetness with a pullup which makes it difficult to train them. We still use them for naps and bedtime, but I wouldn't get them to start potty training. Make a big deal of her being a big girl and go straight to thick underwear (we liked potty scotty pants, I think they have potty patty for girls), videos, and a good reward. I found with both of mine that the best way was to figure out when they really had to go and then put them on the potty and they got the idea of the feeling to go. Good luck to you.

You're right about pull-ups being more expensive. Try getting regular cloth training pants. The problem with pull-ups and diapers are that they absorb the wetness and the child doesn't have any reason to want to use the potty. With cloth pants, the wetness is realized and the desire to use the potty is increased because of being uncomfortable. When I say cloth training pants, I'm not talking underwear or even the thin trainers, see if you can find the thick triple layer cloth pants and plastic pants to go over them. This is what I used for my daughter and it greatly increased her desire to not go in her pants.

I had a different view than those I've read, so I thought I'd throw it in. My daughter isn't really ready to be trained. We've worked with her for a few days and then the next day we'll try to get her to go on the potty and she'll say no and scream. My son did that too, and I fought with him, and it took him forever, and there was a lot of frustration on both sides, so I decided I'll roll with my daughter's attitude instead of going against it. On days when she's all excited about the potty and willing, we do pullups b/c they're so much easier. If she's irritable or at night we just do diapers. With my son even the underwear didn't work-we'd go through 10 pairs of underwear in 1 day and still end up with him in a pull-up or diaper by dinner time, and I had an extra load of laundry to wash each day. And no, I didn't make him drink that much-he just peed a lot! It wasn't until his preschool teacher told him he had to do it that he did it. But if he was in the pull-up he'd pee about half as much. I think he just wanted to control us, or it was about getting attention after his sister was born. He just wouldn't be reasoned with, and anytime we talked about it he got visibly upset and withdrew, so we quit that, and refuse to do it with our daughter. It wasn't that we punished him, and we'd reward him for going on the potty, but he just wasn't ready. For us, for my sanity and to keep me from getting frustrated, we do pull-ups, and they help. My daughter is thrilled that she can do it herself, and then I don't have a mess when she has an accident. I never thought I'd get that frustrated, so maybe you should try without and then if it's becoming a daily battle or if she's tempermental about it, you should get pull-ups. Good luck!

In my opinion, pull ups are for nap and night time sleep once you have potty trained. Go from diapers to
underwear but don't use pull ups during the day. Your daughter will need to feel wet in order to understand and pull ups don't really do that. I started by ALWAYS changing my daughter's diapers in the bathroom and putting her on the potty once a day with lots of books. Then I rewarded her with m&ms and it was smooth. She didn't really show interest but had readiness signs.

I agree with all of the other posters !!!!!!

I'm a teacher in a 2 year old classroom and eager moms ask me if it's time to buy pull-ups yet all the time....

And every time I tell them....don't waste your money !!!!!

If I see a child is interested in potty training I talk to the parents.....

I like to suggest to try underwear or going bare on the weekend and see how they are doing....

If they seem to get the concept of it I even suggest to bring 3-4 changes of clothes and diapers only for naptime.....

At some time we've only had 2 kids in diapers and 18 kids in underwear....we noticed the potty training worked out a lot better with underwear....because pull-ups DO feel like diapers.....

Anyway....if it HAS to be pull-ups I recommend Pampers Easy Ups (even though I HATE Pampers diapers !!!)....they are soft (don't have the scratchy velcro straps) and they are easier to pull up.....they also hold more pee that for example Huggies do.....