In my incredibly laissez-faire potty training adventures, it recently came to my attention that perhaps we're doing it wrong. Of course we are. After all, we're not consistent, we're kind of letting our boy lead the way, kind of blackmailing him into staying on the potty, and kind of leaving it up to his pre-school to get the job done. Not particularly effective for getting that pee-pee in the potty.
But when I went to the store and bought some Pull-Ups, I thought I was getting ahead of the game. "Look!" I said to my perplexed 2 1/2-year-old. "Big boy diapers." He nodded, but was really just stoked about Diego on his pants. It wasn't until later that I found out Pull-Ups were not the preferred undergarment for potty training. Not at his school, anyway.
Apparently there's a whole philosophy that Pull-Ups actually delay potty training instead of helping things along. That they keep your kiddo dry so they don't get uncomfortable and therefore race to the potty to avoid that situation. Additionally, people have said that kids just don't know the difference between a Pull-Up and a diaper. I would agree, except for that whole Diego scenario. My kid totally knows when he is, or is not, wearing Diego on his crotch. He prefers the former.
Still, enough people have warned me away from the Pull-Up road, or rather explained it in a way that makes me realize who the Pull-Up is really for, that I think we're skipping it. Even though my daughter wore them religiously, even though I can see the other side of the argument. We're just going to have to take the next long weekend and let that kid put on underwear and hope for the best. Just in case, I'll have a carpet cleaner on standby.
Did you use Pull-Ups to potty train your child?
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Comments 40
it's been recommended by multiple people (for potty training girls) to do it in the summer and basically just put them in a dress and no diaper at all. Obviously you'd have to be at your house and be prepared to clean up or stay outside (hence the summer) but what I've been told is that as soon as they feel the pee on their leg they do not like it AT ALL and want to use the potty! Worth a shot!
Pull ups are partially evil. Every time we used them, it was two steps back. They are way too much like diapers. As soon as we stopped using them she potty trained in two weeks (she was 25 months when finished potty training) My son is now 25 months and we haven't even started yet though....he just doesn't seem as ready.
Use cloth training pants. They feel all the wet and there are waterproof ones that can be worn under clothes. We use these: http://www.snap-ez.com/Shopping.html#Trainers
I never used pull-ups with either of my kids, under-wear from the beginning. I felt the pull-up was to much like a diaper, and I think it made the process of potty training quicker. A pair of wet or messy under-wear are ALOT more uncomfortable than a diaper or pull-up would be . Since you are potty training a boy this time you might try the cheerio trick, put one in the bottom of the potty and it gives him something to "aim" and it is safe to flush, my son loved it.
What worked for my kids was to pick a time when we were going to be at home and to let them run around in a dress (for the girls) or a long shirt (for the boy) but nothing on underneath. They would have accidents in pull ups or underwear, but were far more aware of their bodies when they were naked. Once they had it down at home, we would start putting the underwear on and seeing if they could maintain it. Both my girls were very easy to train, but my son required several 'bare bottom refresher courses' to be consistant with the potty. We did use pull ups for situations where accidents were more likely to occur or would be highly inconveniant to deal with, like nighttime, naptime, or long car rides where it would be impossible to pull over for a pit stop at a moment's notice. Once they got into underwear, my kids flat out refused to go back to diapers, even for nighttime, but they were willing to wear the pull ups which saved me a lot of wet sheets.