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Home » Parenting » Start Potty Training: Don’t Use Disposable Pants Like Pull-Ups

Start Potty Training: Don’t Use Disposable Pants Like Pull-Ups

Posted by Marybeth | Read 8 Comments

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disposable potty training pants

I apologize. I know that’s not a very encouraging title! I do think that the information I’m sharing about disposable potty training pants will lead to a more successful potty training experience!

I’ve potty trained two little ones, and I even successfully started potty training at 18 months with my daughter. With both of my kids, we focused on using the potty training seat all the time during the day first, and kept them in diapers at night.

Since we concentrated only on potty training during the waking hours, I had pretty strong feelings about not using disposable potty training pants like Huggies Pull-Ups or Pampers Easy Ups. Aside from the fact that not buying them are great for potty training on a budget, I wanted to share how I feel about disposable potty training pants.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Disposable Potty Training Pants

 I really think that Pull-Ups, Easy Ups and other brands of training pants are simply diapers that little kids can pull on and off. It’s my opinion that there’s no real difference between disposable potty training pants and diapers.

Why do I think that? Let’s look at the products from a child’s point-of-view: disposable potty training pants look like diapers. They smell like diapers. They feel like diapers. To your child, this kind of potty training pant is a diaper!

Disposable diapers work so well because manufacturers are constantly perfecting them to keep baby as dry as possible, even with a soaked diaper. The materials within a diaper work to draw moisture away from the part of the diaper closest to baby’s bottom, because a dry bottom is the best defense against diaper rash.

Plus, those diapers offering 12 hour protection also present a benefit to parents: less leakage, and less-frequent diaper changes!

When you label those same diapers as  “potty training pants” they still works to wick moisture away from the skin. Little ones generally do not feel wet when they urinate in disposable potty training pants.

Let’s look at this from a child’s perspective again:  Wet pants are uncomfortable. Dry pants feel nice. If a child goes in her training pants and can’t feel it, where’s the motivation to stop doing that and start using the potty? 

The best Disposable Training Pants

I do want to share that I’m not for boycotting disposable training pants completely. Both my son and daughter reached a point where they were just done with diapers. They’d take them off at night or cry because they were “too big” for them.

I shouldn’t have been surprised; I did nothing but encourage them to wear underwear and ditch the diapers all day long!

When they both reached that point of refusing to wear diapers, we used disposable potty training pants at night for both my son and daughter until they consistently remained dry all night for several nights in a row.

Pull-Ups and Easy-Ups were great products for that transition since they went on like underwear and helped my kiddos avoid the trauma of waking up in a puddle in the middle of the night.

I’ve used all sorts of disposable training pants while potty training and I can definitely tell you which ones are the best:

  • Pull-Ups Cool & Learn Training Pants for girls are the best disposable training pants for girls during the day.
  • These Pull-Ups Cool & Learn training pants are the best disposable training pants for boys during the day.
  • Pull-Ups Learning Designs training pants for girls are the best disposable training pants for girls at night.
  • Pull-Ups Learning Designs training pants for boys are the best disposable training pants for boys at night.

Pull-Ups Learning Designs Training Pants for BoysPull-Ups Learning Designs Training Pants for BoysBUY NOWPull-Ups Learning Designs Training Pants for GirlsPull-Ups Learning Designs Training Pants for GirlsBUY NOWPull-Ups Cool & Learn Training Pants for BoysPull-Ups Cool & Learn Training Pants for BoysBUY NOWPull-Ups Cool & Learn Training Pants for GirlsPull-Ups Cool & Learn Training Pants for GirlsBUY NOW

&

Why are the Best Disposable Training Pants different for day and night?

 It’s not always easy for parents, but potty training should be a great, positive experience for your child. No one wants to be woken up with cold underwear in the middle of the night, even if your child is learning how to control their bladder.

That cold feeling of the Cool and Learn training pants is a good reminder during the day, but it’s not suitable for night time use. Believe me, your child will start to hate waking up with a wet bottom, so don’t make it worse with cooling disposable training pants at night.

Both of my little ones wore disposable potty training pants starting at bedtime for a few months until they remained dry all night for 3 or more nights in a row. At that point, I knew they had learned to hold it all night and were ready to wear their underwear!

Finally, you may be thinking: If we shouldn’t use Pull-Ups, what should we use? Read what to use instead of disposable potty training pants.

Readers: Do you think disposable training pants are beneficial to potty training? Have you used them? 

potty training readiness checklist on a clipboard

Read more of the Start Potty Training series!

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: lifestyle, Potty Training, potty training pants, start potty training

About Marybeth

I'm Marybeth - Mom of 2, wife to 1, pet mom to 3. I love finding fun activities to do with my kids, going on adventures, watching movies and baking delicious treats! I used to climb the corporate ladder, now I spend my days caring for my family and spoiling my handicapped dog.

Comments

  1. daisy says

    2013-06-10 at 10:30 am

    You may be right. I potty trained my son, but then he regressed once he went to daycare and has this awful aversion to the potty. It makes me want to cry because I’m so frustrated and worried about him getting kicked out of preschool since potty training was a requirement. I’ll try anything and maybe you are on to something that he associates diapers with being allowed to pee in them.

    Reply
  2. Beeb says

    2013-06-10 at 12:32 pm

    I don’t have children so I’ve not had to do the potty training thing yet, and I have no idea what my own parents did. (Did they even have Pull-Ups in the ’80s? LOL) It certainly sounds like you worked out a good method for your kids!

    Reply
  3. Dawn Lopez says

    2013-06-10 at 3:16 pm

    Ya know, this just makes too much sense. It’s definitely worth trying to do without.. of course it would really depend on the situation. Thanks for the great read! Will share this with my SIL!

    Reply
  4. Angela says

    2013-06-10 at 3:53 pm

    Oh gosh, I wish disposable training pants had been around when my son was potty training over 20 years ago.

    Reply
  5. Melanie Roberts says

    2013-06-10 at 6:24 pm

    Honestly my now 5 year old did not wear ONE disposable training pants; I had her in cloth diapers (best decision EVER!!) and then when it was time to train she would NOT wear the disposable she did not like them, she was 21 month and woke up one day said no more diapers; took her cloth diaper off and put on an underwear (I had the heavier cloth training pants) and she is 5 now, never had an accident and was potty trained… NOW that was easy.. don’t think she would have been that easy with disposable… I never liked them and will not recommend them to anyone..thanks for a GREAT article…

    Reply
  6. JulieK says

    2013-06-10 at 10:10 pm

    I agree with you overall… as a cloth diapering mom I used cloth training pants also… even so, the concept that the training pant absorbs the accidents, even though he could feel the wet – he still felt it was acceptable to pee in his pants. I’m very curious to see how you managed it 🙂

    Reply
  7. Marina says

    2013-06-11 at 5:55 am

    While potty training my son, we had him in his underwear at home but when we went out he was in disposable training pants. He had an accident once but never after. The feeling was too uncomfortable and I personally thought absorption was more with regular diapers but with training pants not as much, to encourage kids to actually go use the potty. In our case, what we did worked for my son.

    Reply
  8. Kristyn says

    2013-06-12 at 7:06 am

    i used these for my daughter but for my son on the way I want to move to cloth diapering instead of diapers and training pants.

    Reply

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