Potty training

Just deleted my whole $&!! post. Argh!

Okay, when to start PTing and how do we introduce it? The girls have potty seats that they refuse to sit on and prefer to play with, so I've taken them away. They know when they're wet or soiled (although they don't usually care). They won't sit on the big potty but they are endlessly fascinated with it and what we use it for.

The reason I'm starting to consider PTing is that they are OBSESSED with removing their diapers. For the past month or so they have removed them several times a day and at least once a night (no wet beds, thank you sweet children!). They do wake up dry 4/5 nights, but occasionally they'll have a very full diaper in the am (maybe they held it until they fell asleep?). They never have BMs at night (not for over a year).

So? Do we start PTing? How? How about the fear of the potty? I've never done anything potty relatd with any children, as I wasn't much into kids before I had mine.

Help.

 

You can always try PTing for 3 days and see how they do. If you feel after that, they are not ready then you can always try again later. I had two kids that trained very differently. I started with set times to practice on the potty (wake up, before nap, after nap and before bed). I also rented Potty Power DVD from the library & read them potty books -an Elmo one and another one, No More Diapers for Ducky. I also talked to them about it. I used pull ups with my DD, it was gradual with her, once she started peeing in the potty, she did not look back. She was accident free while awake, then stayed dry during naps and at about 2.5, she was dry at night.
I tried to train my son at the same time but he was not ready and he was our child that had a fear of the potty. I wound up doing the 3 day PT program with him. While he was not fully trained in 3 days, I would say that by day 4, he was dry when awake and within a couple of weeks dry at nap and a month or two later dry at night.
With the fear of the potty, we just assured him it was normal, he was not going to fall in, he got over it for the most part but he still refuses to use a public potty.
M&M's and stickers were great motivators for my kids. Good luck!

 

I can't tell you for sure if they are ready but I don't think that removing diapers is necessarily an indicator you have to train. I know mine went through a phase where they liked to get naked and they were definitely NOT ready for training. I just told them they needed to keep their clothes on and at night I put their sleepers on backwards so they couldn't get to the diapers. Good luck figuring out the training thing. I still haven't figured it out. Mine still refuse to sit on the potty most days and even if they do nothing happens!

 

Ugh! My boys did the same thing with their diapers, we started pting about a month in too. They were ready although I'm not sure how to tell they are ready, we just went by the constant nakedness and the fact that if they did sit on the potty they could force a little out. I figured if they could force it out they must have a little control over it to hold it as well. We started at 26 months and it took a month but they were fully day trained by 27 months and we ditched the night time pull ups at 2.5. Good luck!!! They are on the young side do I would give it a little more than 3 days to see if it clicks

Oh, and my boys also played with their potty so I went and got a different one and used the one they played with as our "van" potty. They never played with the froggy one

 

Being adamant about not sititng on the potty was a clear sign to me that mine were not ready. Especially under 2.5, it's just not worth forcing them to work through a fear that you can much more easily let them grow out of. We had a few naked months with various children here and it was in no way related to potty training readiness. None of my kiddos trained under 2.5 and all but my stubborn Kayci trained in just a few days. I say wait until the potty seat isn't an issue and they actually want to sit on it.

 

A little after my boys turned 2, I put their training potties in the living room and we had "naked time" for a little while in the morning (bottom only). They would watch a show or play with their toys. They also played with their potties. We did have a few accidents, but I watched them closely and sat them on the potty when it would happen. It did take them a few months before they went on the potty by themselves. I didn't have high expectations and it was just a non-stress approach. I didn't full out train them until 2 years 8 months and by then, they were pretty good about going on the toilet during naked time. Underpants took some getting used to and we went full naked on the bottom for two weeks... then underpants (Pull-ups at night and nap). We also used a sticker chart. I was very surprised how easy and stress free training them was - I was prepared for the worst!! They just turned 3 and we ditched the Pull-ups at night with success. It took a while (7 months beginning to end), but it was super easy! Good luck!!

 

See, I was worried about pushing it too early and turning them off of trying. I need to explain this to my husband.

We do backward pj's but the girls get out of them. I'm going to start taping the diapers, but Paul thinks that's insane- "why wouldn't you potty train them if they're taking diapers off? You're just delaying the inevitable."

I really don't think they're totally ready. I'll keep talking it up and experimenting with putting them on the toilet. We'll see!

 

I waited to potty-train until I was sure it would be as easy as possible for all parties involved (me, DH, and the boys) - for us that was at 3.5 for all three of them. And basically, it happened in a day for all of them with less than 3 accidents each. Saved me hours/days/months of stress and power struggles.

 

yes, wait until you think they are ready. Too many headaches and frustrations until they are. Me? From age 2 on my husband would come home from work telling me that they *should* be ready. I guess the people he worked with knew better than their 24/7 caregiver.

 

Yes my Dh says similar things and I counter with 'why don't YOU just train them'? I don't feel that mine are ready although they are getting close. I'm going to try this summer after our 2 day car trip is done- I am not dealing with newly PT'd kids on an 18 hour drive.

 

I wouldn't take the potties away. I would leave them out so that your kids have a chance to get used to them. Don't force the issue. Just leave them out. Also, buy some potty-training DVDs and books and start watching and reading those periodically. That's what I started doing with my girls when they were about two. They went through several phases where they were interested in using the potty but then they would regress. I just kinda bided my time until I was sure they were ready and never pushed them. Then suddenly, at 2.5, one of their teachers at school told me that she thought they were ready. They showed interest in going potty with the other kids in their class and were able to pull their own pants down and back up. She told me to bring them to school the next day in big-girl underpants. And that was it. They were trained. Neither of them has ever had an accident at school, and I can count on one hand the number of accidents at home that weren't my fault (sometimes I fail to respond to their cues quickly enough).

 

They are young so I wouldn't force the issue. But when you and they are ready, I highly recommend the "toilet training in less than a day" procedure. It's pretty dated, so you might want to modify a bit (I didn't use any of the punative parts of the procedure) but it's a great way to start. Of course the whole toilet training process takes much longer than a day, but it gets you off to a good start.

 

I just ordered Elmo's Potty Training DVD (the girls are obsessed with him) so let the indoctrination begin!

I'm not going to worry about training yet. I read your responses to Paul and he agreed to just wait a bit. You know, he is off and home with the girls over the summer... Maybe he will feel up to PT boot camp then!

 

I'm going to be the odd person out on this one and say go for it. Take a week and stay home, put them in underwear only and they'll get it. I did use waffle underwear w the plastic liner for naps and a diaper at bed time but during the day it was underwear. The first day will be AWFUL, tons of accidents but this is your focus for this time so don't give up. I'm stubborn though and after I got through the first day there was no turning back b/c there was NO way I was going to go through that again LOL I used pull ups w dd1 b/c I had JUST had dd2 when she turned 2 and it took 3m until she was fully trained. In hindsight I should have waited until dd2 was a couple months old. DD2 was FULLY trained in two weeks, naps, bedtime she was 2 weeks shy of her 1st bday. They boys were 2.5, mainly b/c they are usually 6m behind what the girls do, plus my older 2 are in activities and I didn't have the time to commit to it. It's been 2 months and they're doing really well. They don't have a ton of language but can tell me when they need to go!

I guess my advice is, make sure YOU'RE ready!! If you start and stop, start and stop they're going to catch onto that ... but if you start and go w it, so will they!!