Potty Training/pull Ups/taking off Pull Ups

I C., my daughter (now 31/2) exhibited similiar behavior- I too got tired of buying a pack of pull ups to go through them so quickly or to find them soiled and being carried to me-I got her some panties and the plastic bloomers that go over them- after about the 3rd accident- she began to go to the potty on her own and call me from the bathroom to assist her- I could have kicked myself for waiting In 2 weeks she was completely potty trained- her dad& I would get her up at midnight ever night for a potty run-(she had her eyes closed generally- when she woke up- she would call and 1 of us would take her to the potty- now she goes independently! keep trying- it will happen

I also have a 2 1/2 yr old boy and a 14 month old son. and I am having a time with his potty training, but I have not been consistent. I was told that the key to potty training is being consistent, let her sit on the potty every hour. Sometimes she will go and sometimes you will get lucky. This will then become the norm and she would tell you she has to go. I am going through with you hang in there.

I have found the pullups to be mostly useless . My daughter is 2 years and 4 months. She would just treat the pullups as diapers. I let her run around with nothing on for a little bit then got her some underwear and asked her a lot if she needed to go to the bathroom. She hasn't been wearing any diapers during the day for about a month now. she has some mistakes but she is doing really well. It was a slow process but the pullups were no help.

I might suggest that aside from keeping her from taking off the pullup/diaper...maybe it's time to move to a big girl bed? You have to decide what's right for your family, but maybe if she could get out of bed and go to the bathroom on her own, she would do so. (Maybe she is not ready to be in the bathroom on her own yet?)

I was always worried that when we put our son in his big boy bed that he would get up and wander around, but he didn't. If he got up, he would come wake me up.

I would get one piece zip-up jammies and put them on backwards!

Hi C.,

I guess there are so many ways to potty train children! I transitioned my daughter to pull-ups in December since she was turning 2 in January. I taught her to go to the potty whenever she has to pee instead of trying to pee in the pull-up. I never used the traditional potty, she knows how to use actual toilet - I simply set up a Dora toilet cover and stool for her to step up to the toilet on. In January, I started putting panties on her during the weekend so she would know what it feels like if she urinated on herself - of course she didn't like it! After this, I put her panties all of the time. Maybe you can try switching your daughter to panties now, especially since she is comfortable taking pull-ups off. You can also encourage her to always go to the potty as soon as she feels like she needs to pee or poo poo. This was not an easy process for me, but my daughter now tells me whenever she has to pee or poo poo and she only wears pull-ups at night - which I am beginning to phase out. I think consistency is the key when potty training! You have to encourage her to pee in the potty and not in her pullups or panties, and make sure she tells you when she needs to go the bathroom. Initially, I also took my daughter to the potty after every 1.5 hours so she could get used to going to the potty. I hope some of this helps - I'm still finding my way :-)

Diapers at naptime and bedtime unless she can take those off too. Good luck and she'll be potty trained before you know it.

I had the same problem with my son taking off diapers at naptime. We saw "The Sleep Lady" who gave us the following suggestions. We bought him a sleep sack and put it on him backwards.... he got out of it with no problem. We put footed pajamas (with the feet cut off) on him backwards, and he promptly got out of those too. We even tried duct tape on his diaper, got out of that too. The only thing that worked was leaving him in his regular clothes and using a diaper safety pin to pin his shirt through his diaper and/or pants (not a Sleep Lady suggestion). In reality he could have easily gotten out of this too; however, I touched the pin to his arm and told him he'd get a pinch from the pin if he took clothes off. Seemed to do the trick.

As a grandmother I would suggest that you stop putting pull ups on her. Buy some pretty panties for her and applaud those times that she goes in the pot. Diapers are too comfortable for them when they wet. As a "big girl" she won't want to wet her pretty panties. Potty training is about training parents to take the children to the pot frequently. This requires discipline on our parts and it is harder than letting them wet diapers.

My daughter did that too. We had to repeatedly tell her not to do it. She got in trouble a few times. We would consistantly tell her to call for mommy or daddy and not take it off. She would take it and her clothes sometimes even when things weren't dirty 30 minutes after putting her to bed. She eventually stopped but it took awhile. I know it is frustrating. It is however a good sign for potty training. Later I had to think.....well, I would probably take it off too :)

Pull-ups are nothing more than diapers that can be easily taken off and I would never use them during the day. I would put panties on her first thing in the morning and keep them on her all day. She will have accidents, but that is the best way for her to learn that she needs to use the potty. Don't punish her or let her see your frustration when she has an accident. Just have plenty of clean panties handy and tell her it's ok and that she will do better next time. It's ok to use pull-ups at night if she normally wets while she is sleeping, but you need to be there the minute she wakes up and immediately take her to the potty, hopefully before she even has the chance to soil the pull-ups, and definitely before she has the chance to take it off. Even if you have to set an alarm to make sure you are literally waiting for her to wake up, it will definitely be worth it in the end. If you are very consistent with this, she will soon be able to wait a few more minutes and learn to wait for you. Before long, when you find that she is normally dry when she wakes up, you can get rid of the pull-ups completely. But I must stress that consistency is the most important thing. If you put a diaper or pull-ups on her at any other time just to make your life easier when you have to go out or something, she will be totally confused and you will probably have to start all over. Like someone else said, it's as much a matter of training yourself as it is a matter of training your child and, if you stick with it and praise her profusely when she goes on the potty, I'm sure it will all fall into place very quickly. Good luck!

My kids were all in big girl or big boy beds when the next baby came (23 months apart) a gate on the door and a potty chair in the room in case she has to go may help. She obviously doesn't like to to messy. She may be ready for the next step. We did not have pull ups in the old days and our kids were trained very easily!

My kids both did what your daughter's doing and eventually stopped but I'm not sure what helped that along other than more consistent potty training so we could get out of diapers completely. Try to figure out when she usually poops so you can get to her before then and put her on the potty since she's telling you that she doesn't want that on her.
I too felt like pull ups were just expensive diapers and never used them on either of them. As long as she knows how to get the diaper off she can potty train from diapers to underwear, but you'll have to help her get it back on (wathching my son attempt on his own was hilarious!).

A Mamascource mom told me just the other week to cut off the feet of the footie zip up PJ's and put them on backwards. they cant get to the zipper, you can continue with regular diapers, and you are not tied to the washing machine doing laundry all day. best of all you keep your sanity.