When Cleo graduated from pull-ups, I grabbed a pack of toddler underwear from Target and called it done. She wore them for one day. The seams were scratchy, the fabric was weirdly thin, and she kept tugging at them. For a kid who just learned a major new skill, the last thing you want is underwear that’s annoying enough to make them want a diaper back.
Evan — who approaches household purchases with the energy of a consumer research analyst — went down a rabbit hole. He read reviews. He compared fabrics. He ordered samples from four brands. This is what he does and honestly it’s one of my favorite things about him.
Bottom Line Up Front
Lucky & Me makes the softest, best-fitting toddler underwear we’ve found, and it’s not particularly close.
Who This Is (and Isn’t) For
If you have a newly potty-trained kid (especially a girl — the Target options are rough), these are worth the slight price premium. They’re soft, the seams are flat, and they actually fit toddler bodies instead of just being scaled-down adult underwear.
If your kid is already happily wearing whatever you grabbed at Target or Costco, there’s no reason to switch. Underwear is underwear. But if you’re buying for the first time and want to skip the “these are itchy” phase, start here.
What We Actually Did
Evan ordered from Lucky & Me, Hanna Andersson, Primary, and Cat & Jack (Target). He washed them all, had Cleo try them all, and ranked them. I am not making this up. He has opinions about gusset width.
Lucky & Me won. We’ve since bought them for Mouse too. They’ve held up through two kids’ worth of washing, which is the real test.
The Case For / The Case Against
The fabric is noticeably softer than anything else we tried. The tag is printed, not sewn in. The seams are flat-locked so there’s nothing poking or rubbing. For a newly trained kid who is hyper-aware of what’s touching their body, this stuff matters more than you’d think.
They also fit well in the waist without being tight, which is helpful when a toddler needs to pull their own underwear down in a hurry. (This is a design consideration I never thought about before potty training and now think about constantly.)
The downside is price — they’re more expensive than a Target multipack. We’re talking maybe $5-6 per pair vs. $2-3. For something that gets washed constantly and will be outgrown in a year, I get the hesitation. For us, it was worth it because comfortable underwear meant fewer battles during an already transitional time.
The prints are also a little more muted than the character-plastered options at Target. Cleo didn’t care. Your kid might.
The Disagreement
Evan says: The Cat & Jack boys’ underwear from Target is actually decent. Thicker fabric, reasonable seams. I wouldn’t tell anyone to avoid it for boys. The girls’ options are the problem.
Our Pick
Also consider: Cat & Jack (Target) for boys — the quality is notably better than the girls’ line.
The One Thing Nobody Tells You
Underwear fit matters for potty training in a way you don’t expect. If a kid can’t pull their underwear down fast enough, they have an accident. If the waistband is too tight, they avoid going. If the fabric is scratchy, they associate underwear with discomfort and pull-ups start looking appealing again. The underwear is downstream of everything else, but it can quietly undermine the whole process if you get it wrong.