Do You Pull Up?
The other day, I was working. I really was. I was doing some research, and I happened upon an article about Tori Spelling. She talked about her son, Liam’s, potty training process. Here’s a bit of the article:
He’s in the trenches and started his potty training, People say how do you know when your kids are ready to potty train, and I knew because he would come up to me and go ‘poo’ and just hold himself…His new thing is that he likes to greet people, and he loves the movie Cars. So, he wants to show you cars on his Pull Ups, so he pulls down his pants, and he’s like, Cars. The other day while shopping at Barney’s, a fan came up and recognized me and said hi to Liam, and he dropped his pants and said, ‘Cars’!
I don’t know about you, but I hate it when Peanut pulls her pants down in Barney’s. Really. Isn’t that a Nordstrom type of thing to do?
What I wanted to talk about was pull-ups though. When Peanut was potty training, we were willing to try anything. So her grandmother got her some pull-ups for their house. Now, I know the draw of these special diapers is that they are more like underwear and encourage toddlers to pull them on down and go potty. Well, that was not the case for us. Pull-ups weren’t for us for a few reasons:
* They’re more expensive than regular diapers. That’s something to consider when you’re going through them in the potty training process.
* They’re a pain in the butt to change when the kid does soil them. For some reason, I hated changing pull-ups. I think they smell funny…does any else think this? It would help to know I’m not crazy.
* I didn’t find they helped Peanut much. She was not more likely to go to the bathroom if she was wearing them. Basically, it was an overpriced diaper with Dora designs. I don’t want to pay extra for Dora. Lo siento, Dora.
*It was just as easy to get a regular diaper on and off. Peanut always asked for help so it was moot.
* They keep your toddler dry. This is a great quality in a diaper, but not for a toddler. Sitting in a wet stinky pair of undies is motivating. Not having to stop playing to pee and still being completely dry is not. Peanut got the point when she could feel the wetness.
Randi, who is my source for both entertainment news and parenting advice, said they skipped them altogether and went right to underpants. For Peanut, I agree. It was only when we dived right into wearing underpants ALL THE TIME that the potty training took off. She peed through several pairs, but hey, you can reuse underwear! It only took a few days for her to get the hang of it. I was amazed at how quickly she took to it, because we’d been working on potty training for quite some time. Then all of a sudden, it clicked.
I’m not anti pull-up though. I am all for trying anything that you think will work for your child. If it’s wearing underwear and having scheduled bathroom trips, that’s fine. If it’s pull-ups, fine. Rewards, good. It is really up to you. There is no right way to potty train. Randi’s children both wore underpants, and I think once her son peed or pooped (I love having a parenting blog because I get to use the word “poop” without feeling quite so stupid) on the floor. He didn’t have an accident - he intentionally went. So they disciplined him. I had always heard that you never say a harsh word during potty training, but then I realized, Yeah, he went on the floor. On purpose. He didn’t even attempt to get to the potty. I know she would never have disciplined him for not making it. Accidents happen - a lot of them! They still do. But bad behavior is bad behavior. So I felt a bit more free putting Peanut in punishment for just going without even trying to get to the toilet.
Anyway, the point of that is to do what is right for your family and which follows your parenting philosophy. That was kind of unrelated to pull-ups, wasn’t it? Well, back to pull-ups then. I typed in “Should I use pull-ups?” and there are a ton of sites that help you decide. A good one that has the pros of pull-ups can be found here. One good reason would be that before Peanut was really ready to use the potty, we were still encouraging her to go. Pull-ups are good in this stage because potty training was so inconsistent. Also, nighttime is a good time for pull-ups, even if your child is in underwear during the day (although, again, I found regular diapers easier).
What do you think? Did you use pull-ups? Are you now? What is working for your child?
February 21st, 2009 at 6:17 am
Pull ups don’t work for us. I’ve been trying with my 3 year old for nearly a year to get her fully potty trained. She’s potty trained when we go out. “Mommy I want to go potty”. At home not so much she’s too busy to go, and the pull ups just facilitated her go in her pants. We still use them on occassion, like yesterday when I knew we might not be near a potty all day cause we were going shopping and out to eat and all that fun outside stuff lol. Or when we are at her grandparents and we run out of panties to wear. We have many accidents, and we did try pull ups but they really were our answer. Rewards seem to help and a musical potty chair helps but we still don’t go every time. We are moving forward slowly.
February 21st, 2009 at 9:15 am
That must be frustrating. But you seem like you’re doing a great job. A lot of parents wouldn’t be as patient. Keep up the great work and soon, you will be rid of all sorts of diapers.
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Alicia - a good tip? Have her go on a schedule. For instance, for a few weeks, have her go potty every 1 1/2 - 2 hours or so. This way she’s not too busy and gets into more of a habit of going to the bathroom when it’s time.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Yeah, I’d give that a try. Peanut also likes to keep playing. Sometimes even know she’ll wait too long and have a little accident, so I learned to recognize her “pee pee” dance and tell her when to go.
December 17th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Very informative article. I’m finding out more about how to potty train my toddler from reading the info on your website, then I’ve ever did from the advice given to me by my own mom. Hope it’s ok that I share this post on Digg?
March 10th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
thanks for that