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Only 4% of 2-year-olds in America are fully potty trained today. But in the 1950s, that number was nearly 100%. What changed? Disposable diapers. And I'm sitting here absolutely furious because I've been buying diapers for my 3-year-old when kids her age used to be trained for over a year already. — So for the past 10 months everyone kept telling me "just wait until she's ready." My pediatrician gave me this whole list of readiness signs to watch for. Stays dry for 2 hours, shows interest in the potty, can pull pants up and down. So I waited and watched while she stayed in diapers. And every few weeks I'd think "okay maybe she's ready now?" But there was always something holding me back from trying so I'd tell myself just wait a little longer. Month after month after month. Meanwhile she's 3 years old and my neighbor's 2-year-old daughter is already trained. And I'd think "what am I doing wrong?" But everyone said don't rush it, she'll tell you when she's ready. So I kept waiting. For 10 months. — So last week I was scrolling Reddit looking for advice. And I saw this comment: "Only 4% of American 2-year-olds are fully potty trained today. But in the 1950s, over 95% of kids were trained by 24 months." Then: "By 1999, that 95% had dropped to 4%. That's not a typo. We went from nearly all kids trained by age 2 to almost none." And I'm staring at my phone thinking... wait, WHAT? My daughter is 36 months old and I'm being told to wait for readiness. But in the 1950s, kids her age had been trained for over a year? So I kept reading and the next line actually pissed me off. "The shift happened because of disposable diapers. They were introduced in 1961." "Within 40 years, the percentage of 2-year-olds trained dropped from 95% to 4%." Like an entire generation of kids staying in diapers longer because of a product? And I've been sitting here waiting for readiness for 10 months while the diapers were the problem the whole time? So I went down a complete rabbit hole that night. I found data showing in 1980, the average training age was 26 months. By 2003, it had climbed to 36.8 months. That's nearly a full year longer in just 23 years. And today? Only 24.3% of 2-year-olds are out of diapers during the day. That means 75% of 2-year-olds are still in diapers. When in the 1950s, 95% were already trained. These are all legit stats I found, like what the fuck??!! The timeline didn't change because kids changed. It changed because diapers changed. — So the next morning I posted in the group asking "why do disposables delay training so much?" And a psychologist who specializes in toddlers replied within an hour. She said "modern disposables create something called sensory erasure and that breaks operant conditioning." And I'm thinking okay, explain that in English because I haven't got a CLUE what any of that means. So let me try to explain it simply: So she said operant conditioning is how all learning works. You do something, you feel a result, your brain connects the two. Touch a hot stove, feel pain, learn not to touch it. Pee in your pants, feel wetness, learn to use the potty instead. But disposable diapers remove the "feel a result" part completely. When toddlers pee in a disposable, it absorbs in seconds. They never feel wet, never feel uncomfortable, never feel anything. So their brain never connects "I peed" with "something happened." This is sensory erasure — the learning signal gets erased before the brain can process it. Like imagine trying to teach a kid not to touch a hot stove that never gets hot. They'd touch it forever because there's no consequence to learn from. And THIS is why we're told to wait for readiness. Without sensory feedback, kids genuinely don't develop awareness. But it's not that they're not ready — the diapers are blocking the signal that creates readiness. So she said in the 1940s and 50s, kids wore cloth diapers that stayed wet. They felt it immediately and their brain made the connection fast. So parents didn't wait for readiness — kids developed it naturally through sensory feedback. She also said "the data proves this. In 1980, before super-absorbent technology improved, kids still trained at 26 months on average. " "By 2003, with better absorption, it jumped to 36.8 months. The better diapers got at keeping kids dry, the longer training took." — So I'm reading this absolutely FUMING. I've been waiting 10 months for my daughter to "show signs" she's ready. "So what do I do now?" And she said you can't go back to cloth diapers because at age 3 that's just chaos. But you can't keep waiting hoping she magically develops awareness they're blocking. So you need training pants that restore the sensory feedback. When kids pee in them, they feel it immediately. Pee → Feel wet → Learn to stop doing that. The learning loop finally gets completed. So she recommended UpAiry training pants. They're designed with Feel & Learn technology that creates immediate sensory feedback. Like they restore the learning signal that disposables erase. She said most training pants are really sh*t, especially the ones on amazon. But these ones were specifically designed for this exact problem. These actually let kids feel wetness long enough for their brain to make the connection. "That's what kids in the 1950s had naturally with cloth. This recreates it without the mess." — So I ordered them that day because I was done waiting. Day 1 she had 5 accidents but came to tell me about every single one. That had NEVER happened in disposables because she couldn't feel them. And each time she looked down like "wait, what's happening?" The sensory feedback was finally reaching her brain. Day 2 she had 4 accidents and noticed all of them immediately. Day 3 she said "Mommy I'm wet" BEFORE I even noticed. We didn't make it to the potty in time but she recognized it while it was happening. That awareness I waited 10 months for appeared in 3 days. Week 1 she started walking to the potty on her own. No prompting, no reminders, just responding to her body's signals. Week 2 she had 3 accidents total. My husband came home and said "wait, is she actually using the potty now?" I said "yeah, once I stopped using something that erased the learning signal." Week 3 we went to the grocery store for 45 minutes and she stayed dry. She told me once she needed to go and we made it to their bathroom. LIFE CHANGING.... — Also!!! I posted about this in the original thread. Four other moms messaged me — all waiting months for readiness, all using disposables. I sent them the link and three weeks later all four said their kids trained faster than expected. One said "my son went from zero awareness to fully trained in 18 days." Another said "I didn't realize 2-year-olds used to be trained. My daughter is 3 and she trained in 2 weeks once she could feel it." The sensory feedback did what 10 months of waiting couldn't. — So if you've been waiting months or years for readiness signs that aren't coming... What they're wearing might be erasing the sensory feedback that creates readiness. 95% of 2-year-olds were trained in the 1950s. Today only 4% are. That's not genetics. That's diapers blocking the learning signal. Because we're using something that breaks the learning loop. Hope this helps someone else who wasted months waiting like I did. EDIT: My bad I didn't even send the link, so my DMs are full of questions. Here's their link: https://www.upairy.com/pages/training-underwear This page should answer all the questions you have about them too.