Potty-training backslide when changed to underwear?

[alo]

I am at my wits' end. My daughter is COMPLETELY potty-trained in pull-ups. Has been for 7 months. She even gets herself up overnight and takes herself to potty. No problems at all except for a very rare accident (which happens, and I have no problem with).

But when we move her from pull-ups into underwear? All hell breaks loose. She completely forgets everything, and starts peeing her pants every 15 minutes. Seriously. We've moved on to underwear for a few weeks at a time, and done everything right (not making a big deal out of accidents, cleaning up without being upset, talking about potty-training and what it means, etc. in case she's just forgotten) and so on. And every time, we end up taking her back to pull-ups, thinking she's just not ready.

But it's been SEVEN months since she's been potty-trained in pull-ups. So we decided once again to make the transition to big-girl underwear. We let her pick them out, we made sure she was excited about them, etc. And, just in case the pull-up was security, we tried putting the big-girl underwear on with the pull-up over it.

And? She's STILL peeing her pants. And I'm taking her to the potty every 15 minutes, and she's STILL somehow peeing her pants.

The thing is? She knows how to do this. She knows the whole control thing, she knows how to tell when to go potty, she knows exactly what she needs to do. There's no extra stress on her, changing into big girl underwear. So we can't blame it on anything the books blame potty "accidents" on. At this point, these are not accidents. Not when she's peeing her pants 5 times a day, when she knows better.

She's 42 months old, and there is nothing to the "she's not ready" explanation either, as she's completely fine in pull-ups. I can't figure out how just changing the fabric she's wearing is causing THIS MUCH trouble.

So now what the heck do we do? We are seriously at our wit's end.

[nancy drew]

what happens if you let her go naked? does she pee on the floor or go in the potty? my daughter had similar issues, where she was dry in pullups but she would pee in underpants. i let her go naked on the bottom half for a few hours a day and that seemed to do the trick. when she was naked she knew she had to get to the potty.

if she uses the potty when naked, i would say going back to pullups is the mistake here, but i could be wrong. i think that was our problem for a while. if she knows she has the option of wearing pullups maybe she just will continue to have accidents as long as she knows the pullups are there waiting for her. i say do a "bye bye pullups" party, where you prep her by talking about how you dont need the pullups anymore (you can claim the pullups fairy will take them to another child who needs them, or if you actually know another child who will be potty training soon you could have her give them to that child).

honestly i would try the naked thing and see what happens first, though. with a girl you can put a skirt on her and let her run around outside or at home. for some kids that helps things "click" into place.