Remembering Goodnites Tru-Fit

[Riddy]

Long time Goodnites fan here. I was thinking back on some of their old products, and I was remembering their Tru-Fit line, which didn’t last very long. I’m not sure why they were discontinued (that seems to have been the fate of a number of their more gimmicky products) but if I had a guess, I figured it was because it was a bit of a hassle getting the absorbent pad into the “underwear.”
I actually quite like them, because I could really flood them more confidently than regular Goodnites without having to worry about leaks. I figured the rubber exterior was more waterproof than the backing on a regular Goodnite. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enjoy them as much as I could have because when they were out, I was going through a series of binge and purge cycles.
Anyone else have thoughts on them?

 

[DanElmontan]

They were too small to fit me. I think the whole concept flopped because not only would the child or parent have to insert and remove the pad, but also wash the undies. The product was simply not a good value and somewhat inconvenient to use.

The absorbent inserts they introduced a few years later also failed for two reasons. They were little more than overpriced Depends guards, and didn’t provide enough protection for most bedwetters. I also believe that the inserts would have sold better had they been marketed for daytime accidents instead of providing nighttime protection.

 

[patrick1776]

I don't think they worked very well at night for most kids. They really were a great daytime product because of how discreet they were, but for anyone laying down and especially side sleepers, they just couldn't contain liquid very well. I think they might have been meant to be used as a mostly daytime product, much like the inserts/gaurds, but they didn't advertise it that way and the market demand for daytime absorbent products might not have been sufficient.

Looking at their prices online after they were discontinued and the continued demand online for them despite not fitting adults or abdls pretty much at all, tells me that there was some demand by kids/parents and not just collectors or abdls.

There is a version of them in germany for older kids that seems to be doing fairly well, but they are very difficult to get in North America.

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[12srepaid]

I just thought it would be rather gross to remove a soaked pad, especially was stuck in the pockets.
As far as Goodnites go, I don't see them as only for night time only, despite its product name.

 

[backups205]

I still have a few pair, they are super useful when stuffed with size 6-7 diapers, but I understand why they flopped in the general market.

Super discrete tho, If I didn't already wear goodnites every day, I might do truefit, but still a cool product.

 

[adam]

I still have 4 pair of the pants and a couple of packs of pads. I occasionally use them when I feel like a bedwetting 6 year old

 

[Riddy]

I don't think they worked very well at night for most kids. They really were a great daytime product because of how discreet they were, but for anyone laying down and especially side sleepers, they just couldn't contain liquid very well. I think they might have been meant to be used as a mostly daytime product, much like the inserts/gaurds, but they didn't advertise it that way and the market demand for daytime absorbent products might not have been sufficient.

Looking at their prices online after they were discontinued and the continued demand online for them despite not fitting adults or abdls pretty much at all, tells me that there was some demand by kids/parents and not just collectors or abdls.

There is a version of them in germany for older kids that seems to be doing fairly well, but they are very difficult to get in North America.

Waschbare Inkontinenzunterhose für Kinder - kiwisto Kids ActivePants | kiwisto.de

Kiwisto Kids ActivePantsUnbeschwert Kind sein, trotz BlasenschwächeFarbe:grauMaterial:Hose: 84 % Baumwolle, 10 % Polyester, 6 % ElastanGrößen:3XS, XXS, XS, S, M, L (siehe Größentabelle unten)Bitte beachten Sie die Verfügbarkeitshinweise untenSaugein…

www.kiwisto.de

Fair. I usually wet standing up.

 

[grst]

I still have several pairs of the underwear and nearly a case of the pads. The Meijer store near me ended up clearancing them out for like $4 and I bought every last one they had.
The Tru-Fit would have definitely done better if marketed for daytime accidents.

I usually don’t talk about my foster kids publically, but since this story is relevant I will share. Around the time they came out, I had a 7 year old foster son come to live with me. His mother went to prison when he was two for a non-violent offense and he had been living with his abusive/neglectful grandma. He was never fully potty trained, at least for urination. He never had poop accidents, but he struggled to recognize the feeling of needing to pee. When he first came to live with me he would wet his pants and not tell anyone about it. Apparently he was beaten and degraded by his grandma and her boyfriend when they found out he had an accident. He was having a terrible time at school with kids making fun of him because he always smelled like pee. His teacher had given up sending him to the office because it happened every day and his grandma would never come to take care of it. When one of the kids would rat him out, the teacher would just have him sit in his wet clothes on a towel.

Right after he came to live with me, the social worker and I decided to have him start wearing Pull-Ups 24/7 and worked with his therapist on the process of getting him fully potty trained. The Pull-Ups and not constantly having wet, smelly clothes helped his self-esteem. The problem was, he was super embarrassed to wear the pull ups to school (2nd grade) and especially if he had more than one accident and needed to change himself at school. He was already under a microscope with his classmates and after about two weeks one of the kids noticed he was wearing a pull up. The next day I got a call from the school saying he had an accident. I was confused since I dropped him off wearing a pull up. Apparently he had taken it off in the bathroom after he got to school so the kids wouldn’t see it and make fun of him.

I had recently gotten some Tru-Fits for myself and got to thinking if I bought some in his size, the kids wouldn’t know he was wearing protection, and if he had an accident he would just have to change the pad and not a whole pull up. He would only have to carry a pad with him to the bathroom and not a whole pull up. I figured it might be a great idea. We went to Meijer and I ran the idea by him. He agreed it was a good idea. He wore the Tru-Fits every day for the next four months or so, and the kids at school stopped teasing him. After 3 full weeks of not having to change the pad at school AND coming home with a dry pad, we talked about it and he felt comfortable wearing regular underwear to school again. Even at home he was completely dry except at night. He was starting to catch up academically and starting to make some friends.

Shortly after his mom got out of prison, I invited her to live with me as well, and I worked with the social worker, attorney, and parole officer on reintegrating them and helping her to legally regain custody of him. She got a steady job and was able to get an apartment. She was finally awarded full custody and was released from parole. Last I knew she was married and had two more children, and the boy is now in high school taking advanced placement courses and playing every sport he can.

Long story short, the Tru-Fits were the right product at the right time. In the situation I described, they played a critical role in helping that child regain his confidence and self-esteem. Had Goodnites marketed them in this way, especially to parents with developmentally disabled or autistic kids, they could have had a game-changing product. As an autistic kid myself, I would have LOVED having a product like that. To ease the anxiety of having an accident, but wearing what actually looked like normal underwear (I don’t care how much they try, Goodnites will always look a giant pull up), would have been so great. It’s a shame Goodnites doesn’t bring them back as part of their autism partnership.

 

[KenworthW900b]

I think the Tru fit and the later underwear inserts were both a good idea but very poorly marketed, almost no stores around here stocked the Tru fit underwear and very few stocked the pads that went inside them so that didn't help. I also never saw them advertised anywhere, same with the underwear inserts and no one had them in stock so it's a wonder anyone even knew of their existence. I wish they'd kept making the pads for the Tru fit because they made excellent boosters for adult diapers.

 

[Aquasailor]

I bought the Tru Fit XL underwear when they were on clearance for 2 bucks. They actually fit me quite well and I have been using them off and on for 8 years now. Yeah, it is a shame that they got discontinued along with the sleep shorts and the absorbent pads. They do make a good support for stuffing pads or diapers in them though and they do give a nice snug fit.

 

[CodyBaby]

Parents quickly realized they could stuff the pant with a size 5-6 baby diaper of their choice instead of spending hard money on their pads, the results were very good, even better than with the pad, its what I've read on some boards that care for special need kids.

 

[AJFan2020]

Parents quickly realized they could stuff the pant with a size 5-6 baby diaper of their choice instead of spending hard money on their pads, the results were very good, even better than with the pad, its what I've read on some boards that care for special need kids.

This is exactly what my mother did (with regular underwear in my size) when I was in preschool at age five-and-a-half. I am on the spectrum myself and I only finished training after I finished preschool and started kindergarten at almost age six.

This was in the early 1980s so pull-ups and Goodnites did not exist yet. Therefore my mother had to improvise. In general this worked fairly well (aside from some occasional leaks here and there) even though the Pampers of that period were not nearly as good as today’s products. This was before superabsorbent polymers so these were basically just paper and plastic. But even so they at least worked better than one might expect.

 

[DiaperGirly]

Parents quickly realized they could stuff the pant with a size 5-6 baby diaper of their choice instead of spending hard money on their pads, the results were very good, even better than with the pad, its what I've read on some boards that care for special need kids.

I still wear tru-fits from time to time and this is what I do. Not only did you not need their pads, you didn’t need their diapers either, generic versions from any store work just fine.

 

[patrick1776]

Parents quickly realized they could stuff the pant with a size 5-6 baby diaper of their choice instead of spending hard money on their pads, the results were very good, even better than with the pad, its what I've read on some boards that care for special need kids.

Why bother with the tru-fit at all then? Stuff a baby diaper in regular cotton briefs to get the same effect: discreet, waterproof, and just as effective. If you test those pads out, you would realize they were actually a lot more absorbent than any baby diaper.

 

[CodyBaby]

Why bother with the tru-fit at all then? Stuff a baby diaper in regular cotton briefs to get the same effect: discreet, waterproof, and just as effective. If you test those pads out, you would realize they were actually a lot more absorbent than any baby diaper.

I tested them out for sure, I still have 2 True-Fit Pants, they fit me quite good but a little tight, its true that theses pads can absorb a lot, but in most scenarios a baby diaper was as effective for most kids that needed them, so stuffing a baby diaper (the Huggies overnights was mentioned) was as effective, yes someone could try to stuff regular kids briefs with theses, but since they don't have a pocket, it would be quite obvious to the kid that you put a baby diaper inside his big boy undies, while when stuffed inside the Goodnites True-Fit even if they know its thicker and aren't idiots, you can fool them in believing its the normal pad inside them.

 

[AJFan2020]

I tested them out for sure, I still have 2 True-Fit Pants, they fit me quite good but a little tight, its true that theses pads can absorb a lot, but in most scenarios a baby diaper was as effective for most kids that needed them, so stuffing a baby diaper (the Huggies overnights was mentioned) was as effective, yes someone could try to stuff regular kids briefs with theses, but since they don't have a pocket, it would be quite obvious to the kid that you put a baby diaper inside his big boy undies, while when stuffed inside the Goodnites True-Fit even if they know its thicker and aren't idiots, you can fool them in believing its the normal pad inside them.

The reaction to which type of diaper is in there will vary depending on where the child is developmentally (especially in terms of social skills and the ability to feel embarrassed).

For example, when I was younger this distinction probably would not have mattered to me because I was level two on the autism spectrum when I was growing up (I’m now level one). From what I remember with the exception of one time around age seven when I had severe chickenpox and was running a high fever I only experienced embarrassment starting at age nine.

Therefore the desire early on to prove to peers that I was not a baby was not really there. For example when I was in preschool at age five-and-a-half (in the early 1980s) I was not bothered by the fact that I had a diaper inside my underwear. I would sometimes use the toilet if reminded and I was at the point where I enjoyed using the toilet most of the time (aside from the flushing noise). But if not reminded I was also just fine with the alternative. For someone in my position a pocket in the underwear might help to keep the pad from falling out but it would likely have few benefits beyond that.

I would later learn that I was actually not an idiot (despite what my special education teachers thought). By high school my IQ tested in the 120s. Earlier on (in Elementary School) my IQ tested much lower (it varied each time but usually came out below 60). Did my intelligence really double (or perhaps even triple)? Probably not, most likely I just didn’t test well back then. I have read that this often happens with people who are on the spectrum (especially if they are at least level two). This shows that having special needs does not always equate to “being an idiot”. With certain conditions a person’s IQ could be at any level (high or low) and a person might need quite a bit of support early on and less support later. Sometimes he or she can eventually function without any extra support at some point during adulthood.

 

[littledreamers333]

Long time Goodnites fan here. I was thinking back on some of their old products, and I was remembering their Tru-Fit line, which didn’t last very long. I’m not sure why they were discontinued (that seems to have been the fate of a number of their more gimmicky products) but if I had a guess, I figured it was because it was a bit of a hassle getting the absorbent pad into the “underwear.”
I actually quite like them, because I could really flood them more confidently than regular Goodnites without having to worry about leaks. I figured the rubber exterior was more waterproof than the backing on a regular Goodnite. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enjoy them as much as I could have because when they were out, I was going through a series of binge and purge cycles.
Anyone else have thoughts on them?

with they would bring then bck