I've never bought pull-ups, so I have no clue what kind of diaper/undies they are?? Do they catch pee or just poop like the water diaper sposies? Can toddler feel the wetness in them? If they can't feel the wetness, what makes them different from diapers? I just have my little guy runnin around in undies or his cloth diaper with one insert and no dry barrier so he can feel the wet. TIA.:-D

We've not been big fans of pull-ups here, but I know many that use them. For us they seemed expensive and my children did not think of them any differently than diapers, so that totally defeated the purpose.

We used the old fashioned, thicker, training pants made of cloth. They don't look quite like underwear, they have a lot of extra thickness in the crotch. I must be getting older, because this time around they were hard to fine and no-one seemed to know what I was asking about. I finally found them at Walmart by Gerber, but not where the other undies were. Then we progressed to undies with a favorite character once we had a dry day or two.

We've used pull-ups on occassion for a few situations, at church because they won't take a child in diapers to the potty, but will offer it to a child in a pull-up (silly policy IMO) and for our first few trips around town before we were quite ready to go it alone. Other than that we use regular diapers which are so much easier to change and put on without undressing. Our 2 1/2 yr dd still wears one for naps and at night.

IME, disposable pull ups are just expensive diapers. If I had it to do over again, I would have bought cloth pull ups for when we went out and then done naked or undies at home until training was better established.

Pull ups only seemed to hinder us. I know that some people have great success with them, though.

We loved them. They worked well for our kids and were worth the money. By the time we were using them, accidents were down to a real minimum. We went totally cloth diapers all the way with all four kids (other than when we had babysitters because they could never figure them out, lol...and for extra long days out of the house), but pull-ups were awesome for us.

One note: Personality wise, people who know me understand I'm sooooo not okay with pee on the floors or rugs. I just couldn't do it at all. I had my boy in thick cloth underpants, and when he would wet himself, he'd soak his pants, his socks, and the floor, too. I had just had a baby (Carissa and Scotty are three days short of two years apart in age) and I just couldn't do the wet floor/carpet thing. Pee in a carpet pad? Ugh! Seriously the things nightmares are made of for me. Turning green just thinking about it.

Anyway, that played a huge part in my decision to go the pull-up route after being totally and completely all about the cloth diapers. Potty training when the kids were ready went really quickly, so one pull-up would last for days. :mrgreen:

Just my input, and most definitely a reflection of my style and personality. :razz:

[loveflag]

Joy [welcomewave]

I don't think they are great (in my experience) for the bulk of your training time. For my son, he would pee in them and not care one bit. Regardless what kind we bought. ("feel the wetness" kind or "pictures disappear" kind.) That said, we did use them for going out while training, and the peace of mind while out in the car/doing errands was worth it. We still made sure to have frequent bathroom trips and such, but I just didn't want to deal with accidents when we were not at home.

Now, ds1 uses them at night. And they are great for that too. He's not night trained yet (obviously! ) and for him to be able to wear something that is not a diaper is really important for him.

Oh and FYI...I've only used them with ds1....never had need to with dd. So my experience is only with one child. :D

I'm not a fan of 'em either. As the others have stated, glorified, expensive diapers.

I totally 'get' the yucky floor thing, but, well, I just be more diligent and invest in carpet cleaner, using it quickly. That's all I can say.

Pull-ups just haven't worked with mine. Made poo messes even harder to deal with, honestly. Sure, the sides rip away so you can take them off like that, but, really, it's more work than you'd care to deal with at that moment LOL

So, I say, no, they're not worth it. You can accomplish the same thing with diapers.

You can accomplish the same thing with diapers.

I agree with this. We did keep our kids in diapers until they were actually already going on the potty and ready to be dry all day. In fact, that's why Scotty's accidents were so dramatic. He'd learned to hold it for a long time, and then he'd forget to get to the potty and it was a total flood. And yes, the times I was imagining when I panicked about our carpet pad, I was right there to see the floodgates open. Thick shag/frieze carpet soaked and a deep puddle. :shock:

This is just my experience, though. Whatever works! I have to say, all things baby/mommy are my passion, but the one thing I really, really, really disliked was potty training. I took the easy route, and that may be the only time you hear me say that about anything parenting related. LOL! :lol:

[lovingsmiley]

Joy [welcomewave]

Loved them with both my boys!

Matt was harder to train and we were in marriage/new home/live with grandparents stages too...so it took longer but still, pullups helped all of us with him.

Cash - well at about 18 months he stopped pooping in his diaper and always asked to go to the "big potty". But pee was another story. I guess right around his 2nd birthday he started wanting to sit on the potty and pee...within a few weeks of this, he was definitely learning the feeling and diapers wet less and less. I bought pullups...and he was fully day trained within 2 weeks. He liked they were like underwear and he could pull them on/off himself...and I like Joy...HATE cleaning stuff like that off floor/carpet...so it worked well. Also our daycare really frowns on sending not fully trained kids in undies. They ask for pullups/diapers until good and solid trained.

He wears a pullup at night still. Although most often he doesn't wet at night. Laziness on my part there - I HATE cleaning wet pee sheets and mattress!!! Would rather buy a few pullups than have to get up in night and change/wash sheets. Lol.

I have never really found anything I truly liked. I like the convenience of pullups and never really had any trouble with cleanup if they did go in them but my kids have always used them like a diaper which defeats the purpose of them. On the other side I used panties, training pants (which you can't find at Walmart anymore, at least not here) and even a cloth pullup with no success. Training pants make a huge mess if they go poo. The cloth pullups leaked horribly for me. So in the end I just sighed and put the punks in disposable pullups and prayed they would get it quickly. It was better and when they were truly ready they just stopped going in them all together. They are a money waster though. We only buy Pampers because it's the only one I've found that really holds the moisture in overnight.

Joy, I'm with you. I cringed and wanted to cry every time a mess was made on my floor. I did buy a carpet cleaner because I have kids but still I don't want to haul it out every couple of hours because a kid wet the floor. Also the wet spots attract a lot of dirt. Eww.

Thank you SO much for all your input girls!
Well, I decided that when at home, DS would wear his unders and as soon as he gets the hang of holding it a bit, then I will have him wear the pull up when we are out. I bought one pack this morning and since I only plan to use them when he has learned some control and we are out for long periods, they should last quite a while.

I hate cleaning the pee too, but luckily we have travertine floors throughtout the house AND a 'shamwow'.
Yes, I designated one of our shammies for potty training and so far it's been great!

I can see that this potty training is going to be the worst part of the toddler stage for me too, Joy. ugh.

Thanks again! :-D

We used them with all of ours. They can vary- we liked huggies brand. They have some that feel wet and others that feel cold when they get wet (those are the ones that worked best with our kids). There are some with drawing on them that fade when they are wet-not really sure why that would help kids but lets you know when they went.

I tried pullups but Rhiana didn't care or notice that they were different from the diapers. We are in the middle of potty training and the only time we are using pullups is for night and naps. I wasn't getting any where with the pull ups. Rhiana knew that she could pee in her pull up and not do much on the potty.

With four of our kids we used the cloth training pants. Ack! With our youngest son we used pull-ups. They were so great, but I think they delayed the process with him. I agree with some of the gals that nothing is universally ideal; whatever works for you is the ideal. :mrgreen:

They worked with Hannah but not with Ethan (he just saw them like diapers so defeated the purpose). I guess it depends on the kid.

You know...reading all these threads about potty training, I really must take a moment to thank Jesus for giving me such an easy fella to potty train. Cash really trained himself. I can honestly say that other than a few accidents here and there...I didn't have to even bother with it...he did it himself.

Wish I could send of that "easy training" vibe your way!!!

This is a very timely thread for me.

I used pullups with my first and I think that it delayed the process. But I also don't deal well with accidents on my carpet and furnishings. He used them like diapers for a long time. He didn't seem to feel the wetness in those ones that promised to do that. There is no substitute for really feeling what it is like when there is nothing to soak up the pee. I went straight to underware with dd just over a week ago and she quickly learnt to keep dry (or at least stop and head to the bathroom as soon as she started to get wet) because it feels unpleasant to be wet. So we haven't had as much pee mess as I expected. The wetness indicators on some pull-ups may be useful initially to get an idea of how often they wet when you are starting out. However, if they are introduced too early the child will probably just treat them like diapers - probably best for those children who are using the toilet sometimes and are motivated to learn but haven't quite got it yet (and being able to pull them up and down easily helps the child's growing independance).

Poos are a completely different matter though. Although I started out saying that I wouldn't use pull-ups at all with dd I am now at the end of my tether with cleaning up after poo accidents. SORRY TMI TO FOLLOW...With children like my dd where the bm is not very solid (doctor tells me some kids are just like this) the mess can be horrible in underware or training pants. I just can't imagine dealing with the accidents like this while we are out. So until she starts progressing with the poo training I may have to resort to using pull-ups when out. Her preschool will probably request that she wear pullups if she is not fully poo trained by the time she returns there in just over a week - then at least she can easily get them up and down when she takes herself to the toilet but the teachers don't have to deal with really horrible messes. I definately won't put her in them much though - because the potential for her to regress with her pee control is too great. I will also continue to put her in underware at night as she has had no accidents at night so far.

I will also try using her pocket diapers without the stuffing for times when she is more likely to mess her pants. These work better than underware because they contain the mess better and I can undo them at the sides if she makes a mess - but she can also pull them up and down like undies if she takes herself to the toilet. Without the stuffing it feels like underware to her. It works with her though because she doesn't view them as diapers because we didn't use them much.

We only used the day time pull-ups a few times. I didn't like them, they didn't help Em, and were more expensive, so I went back to diapers. She trained pretty quickly once she got it, so we went to undies soon after that. Now nightime peeing is a different issue. My family has a long history of weak bladders, especially at night. We have tried everything except withholding liquids (I cannot bring my self to deny my child water if she is indeed thirsty. Our bodies need water, and if her body is asking for it, she needs it.) and she just floods at night. We now use the underjams (if we can find them) or the goodnights at night. We only use one a night so one package lasts a good while, but we are just waiting for Em's bladder to mature. Even with the pull-up, she still floods through them most nights (good kidneys PTL!) and we have to wash her sheets as it is, I cannot imagine what it would be like if she didn't have anything on! Oiy!

So, I am on both sides of the fence! ha!
Blessings,
Amber

I found an offbrand that was almost as cheap as diapers... and I really liked them. Since I didn't have to keep undoing the sides for him to go potty they didn't "wear out" like diapers would. And like Joy they might last a few days if he was doing really well! And I can't stand pee or poop on the floor!!! That was just too stressful for me. I've cleaned carpets.. I've seen what that does to the pad underneath.. . and just too disguisting for me to think about lol. Once I started this, I was way less stressed.

I think Pull-ups are just glorified diapers, much like sippy cups are glorified bottles. If you and the child are ready to kick either one to the curb then do it IMO. If not, then wait :)

I have purchased Pull-Ups for other people to use with my kids...

We use the thick undies - cloth trainers. Gerber makes them. For a waterproof, we use cloth trainers made by Happy Heiney's. They snap on the sides so you can take them off like a diaper but the kid can pull them up and down.
Cloth is great because it doesn't have all the chemicals like disposable. And the cool alert ones - what makes them cold anyway? A chemical reaction... in the genital zone... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/941174.stm
Disposables tied to both testicular cancer and low sperm count.

We use the thick undies - cloth trainers. Gerber makes them. For a waterproof, we use cloth trainers made by Happy Heiney's. They snap on the sides so you can take them off like a diaper but the kid can pull them up and down.
Cloth is great because it doesn't have all the chemicals like disposable. And the cool alert ones - what makes them cold anyway? A chemical reaction... in the genital zone... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/941174.stm
Disposables tied to both testicular cancer and low sperm count.

I never liked the Happy Heiney's. They leaked horribly for us. :neutral: Maybe I got the wrong size but I checked before buying them and was sure I didn't. Hmm. I do know that there are a couple others out there. Don't know specific brands but I never got around to trying them.