period pants- no pads? do you need to change them?

[lu9months]

im buying period pants for my 11 year old. plenty of prople say you can wear them without pads-, is this your/your daughters experience? no leaks? some people need to change the pants in the day-if they stay dry, how do you know when to change them? thanks!

You buy period pants according to your period. DD (normal flow) has invested in 2 thicker ones for the first two days and thinner ones for the rest. She changes once per day, no smell, no leakage - she tested them when she was on vacation to get a feel for them.
After wear rinse in cold water, hang out to dry and wash at 40° together with your other 40° laundry. Sport is much easier, they are comfortable and feel safer than pads. Good qualitiy is expensive but it is a good investment.

My eldest wears them without pads (SN means she can’t cope with pads). She gets through 3 pairs a day - one in morning, another in afternoon, then a third for overnight.

Younger daughter uses pads as well as doesn’t want the faff of changing pants midday.

I do both - use pads for heavier days or days when changing pads would be a faff, or just pants on lighter days/don’t need to change. I thoroughly tested without pads initially (to make sure they’d be ok for dd1), and they do hold up well - I have very heavy periods and needed to change by lunchtime, but no leaks at all.

I find I need to change mine 2-3 times on the first days as heavier flow, although looking into different ones who could handle this, then once a day thereafter. You know when to change as you'll start to feel wet/see that it's no longer soaking away. You can wear a tampon/cup etc with them but don't think a pad would work with them.

DD has been getting periods for around a year now and is still ok to use one pair of knickers with no pads for quite a long time. I've told her to change between day and night (so 2 pairs in 24 hours) for hygiene reasons, but in terms of flow she could get 2 days out of them.

I only wear mine as extra protection as well as a cup, because I have very heavy flow, and they last a whole day for that. But if I didn't already have a cup I think I'd be able to wear just the knickers for a good few hours, and I'd be comfortable going out in them. I wear them overnight as well as the cup and there's no leaking (before I had them I would use a cup and Always pads, and pre-cup a tampax and Always - there was nearly always 2 nights of leaking with the tampax, and not monthly but still occasional accidents with the cup and pads, I've never had any leaking with the cup and knickers).

My DD wears hers with pads so she feels secure re leaking. She refuses point blank to wear them as is and tbh I wouldn't either but that's just us.

I change mine day and night. So roughly 12 hours per pair. Never had a leak.

I tried them but had to change hourly then first 3 days and they were the highest absorption too so I went back to pads

I think this is where quality makes a big difference.

My dd is 12 and had a year of period pants. She's never worn pads with them.

On the first day she likes to change them half way through but otherwise she just changes at night. The good quality ones are excellent.

They are so easy to use. I was worried about the mess with worn ones getting cleaned as dd isn't great with practicalities. She just rinses them when she has a shower and leaves them wrapped in her towel. Then they go in the wash as everything else does.

Again it's a personal thing.

Wish I'd had them at secondary when I had me period. The pads caused me so much worry.

What I will say is get enough. They take a long time to dry! (We don't have a tumble dryer though).