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Transitioning to Underwear
Tips for the Transition
By Katherine Bontrager
"We are currently at a standoff with our son," says Shannan Boyer of Cincinnati, Ohio. "He's successfully transitioned to underwear but is hesitant to fully let go of his [training pants]."
Recently Boyer and her husband thought the time was right to discontinue the use of training pants because their son had been successfully using the bathroom – without any reminders – for two months. But when they presented the idea of wearing underwear to their son, he just wasn't interested, Boyer says.
Boyer's struggle with her son is a common one. Sometimes little ones get so comfortable in training pants that they're reluctant to move on to cloth underwear. So how can parents tell when their children are ready to transition to underwear full time?
Michelle LaRowe has been a nanny for 12 years. She says a child is ready to make the transition from training pants to real underwear when he is consistently aware that he needs to use the potty and can express it in an appropriate way.
"I'm a firm believer that your child will gauge his or her attitude about the toilet training process from you," LaRowe says. "If you're stressed, your child will be stressed. If you approach the process with a casual 'this is the next part of growing up attitude,' your child will adopt that same mindset."
According to pediatrician Dr. Cara Familian Natterson, the best way to minimize accidents is to wait until your child tells you she wants to train. "If you push it, your toddler will know you care," she says. "And it's much more enjoyable for a little one to push his parents' buttons than it is for the toddler to comply with a whole new way of doing things."