When to Use Training Pants?

I think potty training is a full-time job. I keep my almost 3 year old in underwear until bed. I think you need to show consistency with all that you do. If you use training pants, I say use them at night for now.

When I pt mine this is what I did. First training pants (just thick underwear--not pullups) all day at home. Then training pants on outings but with a plastic diaper cover so they did not wet their entire clothing or seats. Then after that was fully mastered they went to potty at bedtime, I woke them up at their worst time (you have to do trial and error to find this) and had them go potty. I set my alarm for 2-3 a.m. with the first kids. But the youngest it was more like 1 a.m.

After some time they were waking up all by theirself and coming to get me to help them go potty. By school age they were doing it by themselves half the time.

If they refused to wake up to go potty then they get the joy of helping me change their sheets in the morning. ;-) LOL

Good luck

We used Pull-ups, as a convenience for me and underwear. We tried the training pants. My son did not care. He could run around naked for hours with no accidents at all. The second we put on something (diaper, pull-up, training pant, underwear, it didn't matter what) he'd go potty. He would sit on the potty, but he would go in his pants. We tried rewards. We tried parties. We finally quit. We had talked about it, read books with him about it. Then my husband got transferred and we were making a multi-state moved. We dropped it completely, no potty-training talk at all. In the middle of moving, our son went in, set up his potty and used it. He's been "trained" ever since. Long story short, make everything available to him and then when he's ready he'll do it. Personally, I wish I hadn't spent the money on the training pants, they were a waste. We used the pull-ups, but again, for convenience more than training.

with both my son and my daughter we use underwear during the day and pullups at night. my daughter has been trained for almost a year, so with her once she got the going during the day down really well we switched to panties all the time. she still wets the bed sometimes(once every 2 weeks or so) but it gets less and less. good luck! poitive reinforcement and consistance!

I also have special needs children (VERY premature triplets), so potty training really scared me. We had great success. I went to the dollar store and bought several $1 presents and wrapped them, then we talked about getting a present for going peepee in the potty. They were so excited. We put on big boy pants when we woke up and just kept reminding them. It really only took a couple of days. We still used diapers at night until they were dry in the morning. They did not seem confused at all. I think a tangible reward really helps motivate. It doesn't have to toys. It can be stickers or M&Ms, whatever motivates your guy. Another hint... Cheerios for "Target Practice", your bathroom floor will thank you.

We potty trained our 2 year old by mostly keeping her home for week and sitting her on a little training potty as much as possible. We had her sit on the potty to read books, eat , watch tv, etc. After a bit she could recognize when she had to go. sometimes she would still go before making it back to her potty seat, but they are also developing the muscles to hold it in, so this improved quickly. Then I used the training pants when I took her out shopping and to classes. At first she would just go in the training pants because she was having too much fun in class, but after a couple of weeks she began telling me when she needed to go during classes. She wore diapers to bed for quite a while, until we noticed she wasn't going during the night and stopped using them.

I don't recommend training pants. Other mothers may love them, but I have never found them useful with any of my children, and I have four. I've tried them, and like you said, they just go in the pants. Even with the ones that they feel cold when they pee, my kids would still pee in them and just tell me it was cold. If you are a stay at home mom and prepared for a little work I would suggest going straight to training pants, which are the underwear that are a little thicker than regular underwear. Just take him to the potty about every 30 to 45 minutes to try until he gets the hang of it. Just stick with diapers at night until they get the hang of it during the day. Some kids don't pt completely until around 4 y/o. They say boys are a little harder, but I haven't seen a significant difference between the two. My neice has two children with downs and her oldest didn't pt well until about 5 y/o and her second is only 6 months. Good Luck, and remember every child is different, and no matter what you decide to do, it will work out. Don't get frustated. If you try it for a few days and he doesn't seem ready yet, just stop worrying and try again in a few months.

Hiya A.!! I'm in the same boat as you...only my son is 3 yrs old. I potty trained all of my girls within a month....no problems at all!! But my son is being really difficult in his potty training! I use the training pants during the day, but only if we are out in public, like the school, or store. But I always ask him a million times if he needs to go potty...and even when he says no....i still take him to the potty(when i think its been long enough) and ask him to at least try to go, for mommy. Sometimes it works...sometimes it dont. Now, at home...I use his under pants. I tell him that if he goes in his pants...they will be all wet, and feel yucky....so he needs to keep them dry. He usually tinkles a lil bit...but then stops himself, and does the pee pee dance all the way to his potty chair, to finish!! hehe(so cute) But he always boo boos(poops) in his pants. Havent reached a solution for that just yet, lol!! ugh. Anyhoooo....at night, he wears the training pants again because he is a hard sleeper. But if he doesnt soil his training pants, I always reward him in some way....so he knows he has done a great job, and will more than likely try to do well again, later!! Maybe other parents have had a much easier way of potty training their lil man...but mine has been crazy hard!! I have always found that the more you use the training pants...the harder it is for them to "feel" the difference between diaper and undies....so they just potty in their pants, and expect you to just give them another one to soil. Hope this helps!! If not, lol, just know that ur not alone!! :)

Personally, I'd say save your money. We never used training pants and did use pull ups and regular underpants. I don't know anyone who used training pants and their kids are all potty trained. Underpants are so inexpensive these days and I think we've only thrown away 3 pairs since we started last May.

I would mention that I think it may be a bit early to start though. Most boys (and many girls too) are closer to 3 or older before they're ready. Mine was 2 1/2 but he was apparently ready (he potty trained himself more or less). Save yourself the added stress and wait would be my advice. Be open about the potty, educate him about it but do not push. It seems like the parents who push it are the ones who have the greatest struggles and who end up taking the longest. Buy the books, seat, etc. but realize it will only happen when he's ready.

Good luck!!

First of all, your "little about me" that you wrote...HOW WONDERFUL IS THAT!

Anyhow, back to the question at hand. I have six little kids. Potty training the last one...WHOO HOOO..no more diapers! But I do not use pull-ups. I figured that out after trying them on my first kid and it just confused the heck out of him. They feel like diapers, so what's the point. I used underwear, and if I was worried about messes, I used the plasic underwear over the underwear that you can buy at most stores.

Kids DO NOT like the feeling of wet underwear (who would?) and that always encouraged my kids to use the potty and not their pants. I did use pull-ups at night, just for added protection, and if they woke up dry they would get a sticker or some small treat to show them that dry is better.

Hope this helps!

Ok I am pretty opinionated on this subject but I have potty trianed 4 of my own and about 10 when I did daycare. So take what you like and leave the rest lol.

I didn't have any success until my kids were 3 years old. Maybe it is just me so don't get frustrated if it doesn't go smoothly before age 3.

Don't use pullups they feel just like a diaper. I think kids are confused all of a sudden they are told not to do what they have been doing their whole lives.

DO go to the store with your little one and pick out big kid underwear. Make a big huge thing about BIG KID Pants. Then while you are there pick up some plastic pants the old fasioned kind they still sell them at walmart. You can even still find the taining pants that are super thick and absorbent. Put on underpants and plastic pants and when they have an accident talk about it in exerated tones. Oh my wet pants oh that is not good let's sit on the potty pee goes in the potty. We have pee-pee candy at our house every time you go in the potty you get pee-pee candy. If you have your child in day car do not worry to much Ask the child care provider what they do. It is actually not too hard to train a child in a childcare setting because by state law they must change their diapers every 2 hours so ask them to put your child on the potty before they change their diaper. We always had more than one child potty training at a time so it was actually easier. Oh look "sally put her pee-pee in the potty do you want to try. OH sally gets pee pee candy...yeahSally. Everybody caps everybody gets pee-pee candy yeah it is a party.

Oh sorry you asked about night time just like me to answer the question that wasn't asked....sorry. I don't think it confuses a child to sleep in a diaper. Daytime dryness and nighttime dryness are 2 totally different things. Some kids are not able to be dry at night until they are much older. bed wetting is not even a problem until a child is 7. YES it is problem when a child wants to sleep over but it is not considered a medical problem until about 7 years old.

Good luck

To me training pants and pull ups are a waste of money, my son didnt feel the difference (at least i think he still did his bussiness in them), so here is what my aunt told me to do. Take him to walmart (or where ever you go) and let him pick out his own undies, we bought the briefs and boxers he did not like the briefs at all, and thats it, he wont want to mess up his big boy undies expecially if you make him excited about it. Of course we had accidents along the way and are still working on it (only at night he takes sleeping pills and cant wake up) so take extra clothes and wipes and things with you to clean extra socks too (had a couple of those)!! I asked him about every 30 min if he had to go potty, and if he said no i would tell him mommy has to go, and he would try to beat me there so he could go first, he didnt like the potty chair either, or the attachment for the potty he would just climb up there backwards on his knees and go, worked for him till he was tall enough to stand up (still does this sometimes if we are out and the potty is too tall!! I know this is more than what you were asking about sorry!! Dont forget to reward him jump around and Make your self look goofy when he goes (it will make him want to do it again)!!!! Good Luck with the Potty Training Adventure!!!

I used this method called "toilet training in less than a day". I loved it because I felt confident because I had a type of "game plan". I wasn't just making it up as I went along. A little tip from the book: they have you first let your child teach a doll how to go potty and they see the doll getting treats for going potty and they want to do it too. It's great because what is the best way to learn something? By teaching! The other thing was that you make sure you have a whole day where you can just attend to your child with no distractions, and you basically hang out around the potty the whole day, giving them lots of salty snacks to make them thirsty and lots of yummy drinks like COKE with caffien (if you're ok with that for a day) so they have to go potty more. It was a blast for my daughter! I had a whole thing of her favorite chips, a bottle of coke, and her favorite candy for her treat for every time she peed. Good luck!
Oh yeah, definitely just use the pull ups at night. You're right about it confusing them. It only confused my daughter. She was doing so great with the potty training, but I guess I didn't put enough confidence in her when we would go out places, so I'd put a pull up on her, and that's when she'd have accidents.

Hi,
I recommend only using training pants or diapers at night! If you can stay home for 1-2 weeks with him, let him wear underwear all the time. My daughter is 35 months and she is still not potty trained. I think the mistake I have made with her is letting her wear pull-ups when we go out and stuff, of course, you don't want them to have accidents. Also, we are never home, so that makes it hard too. Good Luck!

Hmmm...everything that I've been told is to NOT use training pants (by those, are you talking about "pull ups"?) during the day. My daughter was potty trained at 22 months. Luckily, I had an AWESOME home daycare lady and she really helped me learn to potty train. I did get some reprimanding, though, when I stuck my daughter in a pull up during the day and I remember Nancy's words of, "Once you start, you need to be in this 100% and not go back...do NOT use pull ups" So...I didn't put her in pull ups again (except at night) and it took about 5 days. She had a couple of accidents and once she didn't make it to the bathroom when she had to go #2. Otherwise, all was well.

For my son, he was a different story. I had my dr tell me that she had 3 boys. The first one she started trying to potty train at 18 months, and he wasn't trained until he was 3. The 2nd son, she started at 2 years old and he was trained at 3. And the last one, she said she waited until he was 3 and he was trained w/in a week. :) With my son, he's sooo small for his age, therefore, I waited until I KNEW he was ready and evidently, I waited LONG enough. He was trained at 3 and 1/2 years old w/out any real "training". I literally stuck him in underwear one weekend and he's been great. Also, he doesn't use training pants at night. I think I used them for the first few months, and he woke up dry every morning. So, I just make sure he doesn't drink too much after abotu 7pm and that he goes potty before bed. No accidents.

Sorry if I don't really have any advice...the only advice is to NOT use the training pants during the day. Even though they have the "coolness" band, etc...the bottom line is that it keeps them dryer than if they were to have an accident in underwear. I believe they sell those plastic underwear to place over their regular underwear to help keep some of the moisture from getting everywhere. But truly, I feel like the key is to start when they seem interested and somewhat ready.

unless using cloth training pants, I wouldn't bother with pull-ups, especially with a boy, they are just glorified diapers. The pull-ups absorb urine and don't really encourage the child to use the potty. Wet pants are a much bigger push to the potty then a comfortable pull-up that wicks away all moisture.

Hi A.,

Potty Training...what fun!

I started letting my son where undies around the house when we were home (skipped the training pants all together). Lucky for me, he hated wet undies!

We had the potty chair in front of the tv, and every 30 minutes or so we would put him on the potty chair for a few minutes (for as long as he would sit). In additon anytime I would notice his undies were wet, I would put him on the potty.

This seemed to work for us, along with lots of praise for sitting on the potty even if he didn't go.

Best of luck!

C. Roeschen
The Trinity Group
Keller Williams
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www.TheTrinityGroup.org

I tried training pants for one day! They are just awful to try and change if there is an accident! and he thought they were just another diaper. I just bought tons of underwear!