training pants - Stuff Parents Need

Layah is just shy of 15 months, now. And that means the potty chair has come down from the attic and we are officially potty training!

Early Potty Training

I’m guessing that right about now you are thinking that I either made a typo about my daughter’s age, or that I’m a little bit crazy! I’ll actually be writing a post in a month or so about the process of potty training we go through in our home, but suffice it to say that it is a laid-back, though LONG process. We potty trained Darah for 7 months before she got the hang of it. She was all done at 20 months and we never purchased a single package of Pull-Ups.

We did, however, use cloth training pants, and we endured our fair share of accidents! We wanted to get Darah out of diapers as fast as possible, but we also wanted to be realistic about expectations for a young toddler, and we didn’t want to have to put our entire lives on hold while we taught her how to use the potty. Our method might not be for everyone, but it worked great for us, and now we are starting the process again with Layah.

Super Undies

Right now we are just at the stage of training where we put Layah on the potty first thing in the morning and right before bed. She hasn’t actually used the potty yet, and she’s most definitely not in training pants. But when we reach that point (hopefully around 19 months), we’ll be using a gift from the heroes of potty training, Super Undies .

Super Undies, first and foremost, are absolutely adorable. And they add an element of fun to the potty training experience. I think this is especially true if you are potty training a slightly older child (2 1/2 or 3). Kids wearing Super Undies can feel like a big kid, as well as a super hero, fighting for dry days and nights! They also offer extra-large sizes for children experiencing bedwetting later in childhood, as well as for special needs super heroes in training.

The images above showcase the two types of products in the line. The pink pair represents the snap-on training pants. These are the pants we’ll be using in a handful of months. Unlike the potty training pants we used with Darah, Super Undies have a completely water-proof “wet zone”, which makes life a lot easier for the potty training parents, I have to say! They have some built-in absorption, though not as much as you’d find in a diaper. The child will feel when s/he is wet! And there is also a pocket where you can add some extra inserts for additional absorption. This is key for nighttime and for the earlier stages of potty training, when you anticipate more frequent accidents. I love that Super Undies are able to be customized for exactly where you are in your potty training journey.

The orange pair in the picture is an example of the pull-on training pants. These are great for the kids who feel really excited about wearing big kid underwear. They slip on and off and they also have a pocket for increased or decreased absorption, depending on your needs.

While my child hasn’t used either product yet, I have spent some time inspecting these products and pulling and stretching them so that I can report back on their overall quality. And I have to say, I’m impressed! These seem VERY well made, and very thoughtfully constructed. Speaking strictly visually, they are the coolest reusable training pants I have ever seen. I am really looking forward to getting to use them with Layah.

Are you in the middle of potty training or will you be potty training soon? Any fears or concerns about the process?

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win TWO pair of Super Undies (one snap, one pull-on!).
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Be sure to enter my other current giveaways found on the sidebar of my page.

Thanks to Super Undies for providing the training pants for review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

I’ve mentioned this a few times in recent posts, but in case you missed it, Darah is officially 100% potty trained (even overnight!). She has been in underwear full time for about 7 weeks now. Overall, it has been AWESOME (said by the person who does most of the cloth diaper laundry!).

But let me tell you about what has NOT been awesome: the search for underwear that fits and that stays put.

Yeah, pretty much that has been a disaster. Darah is on the young end for being potty trained, and she is also on the small end for kids her age. She can still wear 12-18 month clothes. There’s just no such thing as that size underwear, at least not that I could find, and even size 18-24 months is really tough to find.

As a result, most of Darah’s underwear has to be rolled to stay put, and even then it is very big on her, and looks awkward under her fitted pants. There’s just too much material bunched up!

But then I heard about Girl Gotch, which was started by a fabulous mom named Rebecca who ran into similar problems when potty training her daughter in the summer of 2008. Her little one always was pulling and adjusting her underwear because it kept riding up on her. While having a playdate, her daughter had an accident but didn’t have a change of clothes. In a pinch, she borrowed some little boys’ underwear. They worked like magic, providing full coverage and staying put! Light bulb!!!!

So Rebecca designed a line of underwear modeled after those boy styles with the thicker elastic bands, but put a girly spin on it by offering them in bright, bold colors. She also created a line of little boxers for girls (I’d say they are close to boxer-briefs).

You guys. This underwear is SO STINKIN’ CUTE. And perhaps more importantly, it does exactly what it claims! It stays put! And Darah absolutely loves them. The day they came in the mail, she saw them and immediately took off the underwear she had on, right there on the spot, and asked for her, “new yellow underwear, please.” She knew they were going to rock, I guess!

Any time I give her a choice of which pair of underwear she wants to put on, she ALWAYS chooses a Girl Gotch, and since she has both the boxers and briefs, I can tell you that she picks the boxers first! 🙂

Buy it!: Girl Gotch underwear is available online. They are sold in packs of 3 for $15.99. Most size 2T underwear currently falls off Darah, but Girl Gotch 2T fits her perfectly, so that may mean that they run a little bit small. Sizes go from 2-6!

Win it!: One lucky winner will win a 3 pack of Girl Gotch underwear in your choice of briefs or boxers! The contest will run until June 25th at 11:49pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States and Canada. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Girl Gotch wants to be friends with you on Facebook, so follow them and then come back here and tell me you did!

Additional entries:

1. Sponsor love: Follow Girl Gotch on Twitter

2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.