We switched to pull-ups on the request of our daycare at about 2 years old. They were helpful for my son because they helped him be able to go to the potty himself and get practice taking his pants up and down. We switched him to underwear at about 2.5 for the day; he's still in a pull-up at night (almost 3).

At first, I was really anti-pull-ups because of the hatred of them on DCUM, but they've served us well.

We potty trained our nearly 2.75 yr old daughter over Memorial Day weekend. This is what we did:
- talked for a week about how the diapers will be all gone pretty soon, and then it's time for putting pee pee and poop in potty and wearing underpants.
- the night before the big launch day, I removed ALL diapers from anywhere they could be found.
- in the morning when she woke up, we looked for the diapers, discovered they were all gone, then got out the underpants.
- careful parental vigilance and dash to potty whenever pee started (along with helpful siblings who did a great job of play acting: "I need to go potty!" and taking themselves to the bathroom)
- bribery with M&Ms for using potty.

On the first day, she had one big pee accident and 2-3 "uh oh it's started" pee accidents. One poop accident during first day nap. On second day, no pee accidents, one poop in underpants. She accidentally pooped in the potty while there to pee, so we have her a cookie. After that, she rushed herself to the bathroom and happily accepted M&M/cookie payments for delivery of the product to the potty.

She was totally day/nap/night trained by day 4 and was forgetting to ask for M&Ms by day 5 or 6. It was AMAZING.

I have four kids and she's the last. We used pull-ups for the other three and oh how I wish we'd tried this first! It was so fast and so easy and we did not spend three to six months dragging it out with pull-ups (which I agree only serve to confuse kids and convince them that peeing in underpants is a-okay).

Good luck!

I hate pull-ups. They send a very mixed message to the poor child. I know a lot of kids need them for bed wetting but during the potty training phase I never even used them at night (for fear DS would withhold poop until he had his pull up on as so many kids do) I just dealt with the wet bed a few nights.

No pull ups. They will just become an expensive diaper. Speaking from experience here. Pain in the butt to clean when they poop in a pull up. They are ok if you are in underwear but want something to use during naps and bedtime.

We never used them. We started at a little before 2, encouraging the boy to sit on the potty every at regular intervals. Once he got the hang of that, we just moved to padded underpants and figured we'd deal with accidents as they happened. He rarely had big accidents, but would start to pee, feel the wetness, stop, and insist on running to the potty. We'd still have to change the underpants but it wasn't this huge mess.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - Thanks, that's what the pediatrician said... I kind of envisioned just telling her its a new diaper rather than making it into a training diaper.

Also, DD is starting preschool in September (she will be 31 months) so we were planning to wait to train her until after because we were worried the transition/separation could make her regress and have accidents.

Not sure what makes the most sense.

If you think she is ready, I would do it now. In my experience, training during school is hard (you aren't there to really maintain it/go at it hardcore during the day), and that "transition" period can last longer than you think. Summer break (or any extended break) is a good time to do it and you may not have any transition/accident issue (we didn't with either child - one we trained prior to preschool starting, and one over Christmas break his first year.)

Pull ups are effectively diapers, so they're pretty useless IMO. I find them good for nighttime because you can sort of bill them as "night time underwear" once they're day-trained, and when they're night trained but not 100% there (or you aren't sure if they're 100% there) it makes it easier for them to just pull down to go potty if needed.

But in terms of the actual potty training aspect, useless.

I hate pull ups, and the kids did too. Diapers are for babies (according to the kids as they potty trained) and pull ups were also diapers. We only pulled them out for long car trips, just in case, even though we took the potty chair with us.

Pull ups didn't help us at all -- only confused the distinction between undies and diapers. Personally, I'd just stay in diapers because they are cheaper. The only benefit I saw to pull ups was that they were easier to get on because my DS wouldn't lay down for diaper changes anymore.

When it was time to really potty train, we went to undies, and that was the only thing that worked.

If you do use pull-ups, get cloth ones so at least they feel different to your DD and she will make the connection between peeing and being wet.

I think it's more about when you are ready at this point than when she is (and how tolerant you are of accidents) -- most 2.5 yr old girls will be able to control their bladder most of the time during the day, the main thing at this point is that some are more stubborn than others! If your nanny is willing to help potty train, I say let DD pick out her own big girl undies and go for it!

That said: I use (disposable) pull-ups for my 2.5 year old at night, switched her over because I want her to be able to put them on and take them off herself even though she is nowhere near staying dry at night (it seems). If she weren't potty trained during the day, I can see how I'd prefer to use pull-ups so that she could manage her wet changes by herself!

We are only a week in with 2.5yr twins. We chose to go straight to underwear, let them pack up the diapers and leave them outside for the diaper fairy. Didn't want to confuse them or have them try to hold it in and wait for diapers to do everything. They have done remarkably well.

One time saver for us was to put dog pee pads under the fitted sheet over the mattress protector. That has been less trouble than double making the bed (mattress protector/sheet/mattess protector/sheet).

Good luck!

OP here - Thanks, that's what the pediatrician said... I kind of envisioned just telling her its a new diaper rather than making it into a training diaper.

Also, DD is starting preschool in September (she will be 31 months) so we were planning to wait to train her until after because we were worried the transition/separation could make her regress and have accidents.

Not sure what makes the most sense.

we used them only when she was day trained but not night trained, and also when we didn't want to risk an accident - in public , parties, etc, in the "early potty trained" stage.

I -- or my kids rather -- found them confusing. Why is it OK to pee in pull-ups but not in underwear? How are they supposed to learn the difference?

My DD is almost 2.5 and we're getting ready to potty train but I don't think she is there quite yet. She watches me go to the bathroom and likes to sit on her potty without her diaper on... but has only actually peed on it like twice in 3 months. Most of the time she just sits there for like 20 minutes and then runs away to do something else.

My nanny is suggesting that we get her pull ups, but our pediatrician said not to bother and just use regular diapers until we are really to fully train.

What do others recommend/do? And, how do you know when your kid is really ready?