Pull ups - are they worth it?

[Alih]

My dd was two last week, and for a good two or three months, has had control of her waterworks. By this I mean that she can produce a wee on the potty and/or toilet on demand.

I have not pushed it, thinking she is still quite young, but recently bought her some pretty knickers, which she likes.

I have also been using pull-ups, but she seems to treat these as normal nappies, and 'forgets'. When she is wearing her knickers (most afternoons after her nap), she will use the potty, (with a lot of reminders from me).

Has anyone else had good results with pull ups? Am I wasting my time and money using them, and should I just go for it with knickers?

Any views?

Well, I did think they were a waste of time with my son as he did just treat them as if they were nappies. He needed to wear pants (even if it was real mess for a while for me) just to know that whole business of going to the loo is different from before. I think with dd, who is now nearly 2.5, I will give them a miss.

Alih - I used to use pull-ups at night because I dreaded the thought of getting up in the night to change sheets. Like your daughter, my daughter just used them like nappies.

I was told that once they were dry in the morning then she was ready to do without. However, they were never dry in the morning, she seemed to just rely on them. It was only when staying somewhere for a few nights without them that I, or rather, she was forced to do without - and she didn't wet the bed. In fact, she's only done so a handful of times in the last 6 months.

I wish I'd given up earlier really instead of being so lazy. I'd go with the knickers for a bit and see what happens.

Agreed - I thought they would help, but they don't! I've still got one and a half packets sitting in the cupboard (great for the kids when they want to play babies). I think I bought them for my son to help at night time, but as others have said, he just equated them with nappies (and used them as such!)
Should have learnt my lesson the first time round with my daughter - it did not help with the toilet training there either.
Best to save your money.

I've bought some washable training pants but don't know how many I would need per day. I guess I could wash them through at night and they'd be dry in the morning. How many accidents a day should I expect?

I'm at exactly the same stage with dd as you Alih and I've been using pull-ups, but not from the potty training point of view, just purely for the fact that they are easier to get on a toddler going at about 35 miles an hour down the hallway than a fiddly nappy! I wish I'd used them sooner for that reason but had never seen the point of them for training as they are so absorbant and I thought the idea was for them to realise its no fun sitting in wet knickers so use a potty!

Well I reckon that you've all confirmed it - yet another marketing gimmick to entice us.

We are going away next week, and so I've decided to leave the 'full on with knickers going for it' until we come back. Interesting times to come!

I found them useless for potty training but they are handy for using at night. My son doesn't always wake up so uses them like a nappy - but when he does wake up in time he trots off to the bathroom by himself.

They were also useful for long journeys when he was newly potty trained. A lot more convenient than having a screaming, wet child in the back seat I can tell you!

Bought some pullups for my daughter but she has always had a large waist and she couldn't get them off by herself. So for us they were a total waste of money. She wasn't overweight or anything but she's bigger around the chest/waist than average for her height. Makes clothes buying difficult too.

I bought them for my dd, and thought they were quite cumbersome. You have to take off tights, or trousers completely when changing the baby and to me that was a real hassle.
Most of them ended up on her teddies!

I loved them - both mine could tell if they had had a wee and wanted to change them. Great for long car journeys/ trains / planes! I could go shopping in peace, knowing they weren't going to wee all over the trolley! It made no difference to the amount of time they took to become dry, I'm sure.
Have also used the night time ones. When they were dry every night for two weeks, took them off and there was no problem.

I used pullups for a while but my two kids seemed to go in them just like they were diapers. I finally gave them up at home and used cloth diapers and plastic pants. When they went they hated being in wet pants. I did not mind using the cloth because I was a stay at home mom. I used the pullups when I went out and at night time. With pullups you dont even feel the wetness until your really wet. With the cloth my kids wanted to be changed right away which helped me get them on the potty faster.

The only time I used pullups was when ds and dd were already trained but before they had learnt to 'hold it'. I found them very useful on long car journeys, trips into town (small town only one public loo!!) or on a coach or plane trip. This way if they could get to a loo you could just pull them down but if you couldn't a little mishap was no big deal and no inconvenience. Also when ds was 2 he refused to where a nappy to bed (already dry during day) so these were a good compromise. In other words absolutely no use for actually training!!!