Toilet training without pullups

Gold Member Joined: Feb 24 2009 Posts: 1983

Hi all! I'm going to start toilet training my DD, its my first time toilet training (she's my oldest) so I need advice from other Moms who've been there done that. She's going to be 2.5 very soon. I just bought her a potty to go on top of the toilet in our bathroom and she's so excited about it and keeps asking to sit on the toilet. I feel bad because this weekend is not a good time for me to toilet train as we are going away but she keeps asking about it and pulls of her diaper (this is how I know she's ready, right?) but I am gonna have to push it off another week or so. Anyways, I've also been asking people and doing some online reading about toilet training and it seems that pull ups just prolong the process of toilet training, and the most effective way of doing it is to just cut out diapers cold turkey, is this true? If so, please tell me what do about nighttime (she's still in a crib, can't get out herself), going out on errands or car trips etc... I'm all ears, please tell me how you succesfully toilet trained your child without using pullups.

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 17 2008 Posts: 3555

We didn't use pull ups.

Nighttime is for diapers. Most kids whoa re toilet trained during the day are not trained at night for a WHILE. Hold off on that for a while.

LONG car trips (half an hour or more) I would put a diaper on. Explain it to her beforehand, and don't do this during the actual training process. For those first few days until she really gets it, stay as close to home as possible. Once she's pretty trained, you can take her to the potty right before you go out, visit the potty once wherever you are (and don't stay long), and expect her to hopefully make it.

HTH!

My experience: pullups are like diapers. If they don't experience the uncomfortableness of being wet (which is what happens with peeing in the panty) they have less incentive to stay dry.

That being said, 2 of my 3 girls, as well as my foster son, did not day and night train at the same time. Meaning, I trained them for the daytime but used pullups for the night (really just for convenience - so that if they put on a pull up at bedtime, but then told me they need the bathroom, I could pull it down like underwear and they could go to the bathroom). A couple of weeks, or even months, after they day-trained, I took the pullups away and night-trained them.

You can also use pullups on a long car trip, if you don't want to give diapers once they are trained but are not confident that they will stay dry. OTOH keep in mind that once you use pullups, they are likely to get 'used', while wearing panties encourages them to try to stay dry...and success breeds success.
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Chayalle

We also never used pull up either. I never saw the purpose of pull ups and they are very expensive here so I never even thought to use them.

At night we used (and still do) diapers.

In the beginning when she was not completely trained, we put on diapers for long car rides (anything over 5 minutes).

I dont see a reason why one would need pull ups for toilet training at all.

Also, just because your child is pulling on her diaper does not necessarily mean that she is ready to make in the toilet. It may be that it is beginning to get uncomfortable for her, but when she is ready, the toilet will look very attractive to her.

Good Luck!!!

Consider 2 or 3 pairs of cloth "pull ups" for long car rides. We went straight to underwear, but spent the first week or so walking everywhere. (This was DS#2; he got it within about 3 days.) DS#1 took longer, but we never used pull-ups (cloth or otherwise). I worried about sending him on the bus to gan (about 45 minutes! with all the stops) but I never heard about an accident on the bus, even right at the beginning.
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Beginner Joined: Nov 20 2011 Posts: 1

My toddler wears regular underwear under the pull-ups, which minimizes the mess, yet still has the feel of underwear.

Silver Member Joined: Jun 12 2011 Posts: 701

We also went straight to regular underwear. For the first few days stay as close to home as possible. I actually liked letting my kids go completely bottomless for the first day or two, as much as possible. I found it easier then for them to have to deal with the on and off of underwear while first starting out -- but obviously some people may be uncomfortable with that.

I did put on pull ups if we were going on a long car ride, or I knew that we would be away from bathrooms for a while. A diaper would work just as well, but they felt better about the pull ups then to go "back" to diapers, even for a short time.

I always kept them in diapers at night for much longer (certainly at least until they were in their own bed and not a crib).

I am very against pull ups. I trained my kids at 2.1 or 2.2 for day and night. I don't do bottles so the drinking in the crib wasn't an issue. Pull ups means pee in your pants at your conveneince. I stay home three consecutive days and they go bottomless at that time. Once they full grasp the concept, I go out for very short amounts. Then I slowly increase the time being out as they seem more ready to hold it in for longer. I don't give drinks right before going out if going in a longish car ride. If I go anywhere I know we can always stop at a bathroom on the way. The first few nights I do put on a diaper once they are sleeping just to be safe.
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Silver Member Joined: Dec 30 2010 Posts: 737

We put on a diaper over her underwear for trips to the park, shul, the stroller, the car, etc for the first little bit. As another mom mentioned, that way she feels like she has underwear on, but just in case, I don't have a mess.

At night, DD wears a diaper, but she gets a prize in the morning if it is "So-so dry!" We've been using small pieces of a chocolate bar (which ironically I craved 24/7 while pregnant with her) as a special treat.

Platinum Member Joined: Mar 24 2008 Posts: 6528

I try to night train at the same time as daytime training, a few people suggested it. Using pull ups helps because if they have an accident there is no mess but if I take them at night its easy to get it up and down and they can go to the bathroom themselves before falling asleep.

Same for car trips. We sometimes drive through the night so I'll put on pull ups. Its easier then diapers because when we get to rest stops they can still use the bathroom.

I've always found a diaper over underwear leaked.

Senior Member Joined: Oct 17 2011 Posts: 231

I only have the experience of toilet training one DD, and it's still in progress, but, I agree: pull-ups are just the same as diapers! My DD would not respond to pull-ups at all, but as soon as we gave her underwear ONLY (except for nap and nighttime), she literally had THREE accidents, and that was IT.