How to Potty Train Without Pull-Ups

I have nothing against Pull-Ups or anyone who uses them.  I use the brand name here as a general term for all training diapers because it is the one with which we are all most familiar.

When it came time for me to potty train Superman he was 3 years old and not showing the slightest interest in the subject.  I had been waiting for him to show interest - like the books tell you to do - but he was as content as a pig in mud to keep pooping in a diaper.  However, this Cheap Mama was sick and tired of changing those diapers and so I determined that the month he turned 3 years old we would begin potty training.

See, completely adorable with his bubble beard but absolutely no interest in the potty.

I also knew that after changing about a zillion diapers over three years I didn't want to spend the next year changing poopy Pull-Ups.  I decided to go old school and potty train cold turkey.  No diapers.  No Pull-Ups.  Just a boy and a toilet.  I wanted to do it to save both money and time in the potty training process.

I began by scouring the internet to see what tips I could find on the subject and came across a website that I used with complete success.  It's called the 3 Day Potty Training method and it's the brainchild of a woman named Lora Jensen.  I have absolutely no affiliations with Ms. Jensen other than the fact that I used her method and would highly recommend it to anyone beginning to potty train.  It is very positive for the children, encouraging for the mothers and offers online help.  I realize that there are probably other methods out there that work well also.  The bottom line (get it - bottom line?) is you don't have to spend a year using Pull-Ups while trying to potty train your child.

Now as a disclaimer, we did have the normal setbacks associated with potty training such as little accidents here and there and an occasional poopy pair of underwear, but I can tell you that we never once had to use a training diaper.  I may have had to replace some of those poopy pairs of underwear but the savings of never having to buy a single pack of Pull-Ups greatly outweighed any extra money I had to spend on underwear.  One word on buying underwear - don't get sucked into buying your kids the expensive character underwear unless you're using them as a prize in the potty training process!

Hopefully this will help you become a potty training Cheap Mama and save on your bottom line too.  Sorry, had to get that pun in there just one more time!

Good luck Cheap Mamas!