www.incontinentsupport.org

I hope the following tips will help those of us that use Gary or Leakmaster PUL pants.

The problem I was having with my Gary and Leakmaster PUL pants was that the elastic in the leg opening was rolling up into a tiny thin strip at the inner leg. This was causing them to be overly tight in that area and it was making a very irritated thin red stripe on my leg. I found the problem to be the leg opening flat elastic bands were only stitched on the inner side and this was allowing the elastic to roll up into a tight thin band. Once I understood the problem I purchased several new pairs of Gary PUL pants but this time before using them I had a local seamstress put another line of stitching at the outside of the leg opening all the way around the opening. The idea was to keep the flat elastic band flat instead of rolling up. I have to say it worked perfectly, the leg elastics now stay flat and they are really comfortable to wear all day long with no more dark red marks.

I also purchased several pair of the LeakMaster side-snap PUL pants (made by Gary too?) and had the same extra stitch applied to the leg elastics. Again this worked perfectly and I would advise anyone using the Gary or LeakMaster pants to have this modification done prior to (or even after) using them. I've also found that the side-snap pants have the additional benefit of being a lot cooler in the very hot and humid climate that I live in. Obviously the side-snap openings are not good for side sleepers but they work great for daytime wear.

I recently started using some Garywear PUL pants on nights when I fear my bladder is going to be really bad. I've noticed it is a little tight on my thighs. It isn't so tight it cuts off circulation but I've noticed when I wake up typically the area around that spot is quite itchy is their anything that I can do to prevent that?

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-full time graduate student with urge urinary incontinence due to an overactive bladder

The deep red marks that the unmodified Gary PUL pants were giving me were also itchy. The modification I mentioned basically eliminated the marking and itching. Of course the problem could also be caused by that area not being perfectly clean as the folds on the surface of the PUL material produced by the elastic is sometimes hard to get really sanitary.

Nah I had issues even when I had them brand new so isn't an issue with sanitary. I'm not really getting marks or red areas just itching around that area. I haven't had any issues with the elastics folding up

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-full time graduate student with urge urinary incontinence due to an overactive bladder

I wear Gary pants both with my disposable and cloth diapers. I never have had a problem with them.

--John

It hasn't been a problem as much as a minor annoyance for me

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-full time graduate student with urge urinary incontinence due to an overactive bladder

I will admit that the size of my thighs are at (but not beyond) the upper limit size given for the XL PUL pants. It may be that that is why the elastic is tending to roll up on my Gary pants but not for others that have thighs lower on the size chart. The obvious answer might be to simply get a larger size, but the rest of the PUL pant fits me perfectly and I wouldn't want them any larger. As we all know one tip or trick that works for one may not work for all, but if this tip helps just one other with the same issue it will have been worthwhile to make it.

Here's an additional "Plastic Pants" (PUL or true plastic) tip that I learned from an earlier post by JDinVirginia...

It's often better to wear plastic pants that are a size or two too large. This is due to the fact you want to have complete coverage of the diaper you are wearing. This is especially true for use while sleeping as the plastic pants tend to get pulled either up or down and can expose the edges of your diaper. Generally speaking plastic pants aren't really designed to keep actual free fluid from leaking out but rather to keep a damp/wet inner garment from getting something on the outside wet. I find when wearing a few sizes larger the plastic pants ride a good bit further down on my legs, a little bit like a bloomer, and really help keep any wetness inside even with a large leak.