Refusing to lay down for diaper change

Ok. My girls will be 18 months in a few days and I have one little determined monster (apparently she takes after me in personality) She will not lie down for a diaper change at all. She is too strong to force at this point so we do it standing up. I put the change mat on the floor and she comes over to it, stands there, doesn't leave until I am done. She is actually extremely cooperative as long as she doesn't have to lie down. Her vocab is coming along really well so she is able to communicate better with me. Is this crazy to keep doing though? My mom thinks I should just start potty training. If I ask if she pooped she will sometimes say "yes", but not every time. I just thought I would do them together, but I know my other daughter isn't ready at all. My husband has gotten out of the poopy changes because he finds it difficult to do standing up. For those of you that have gone through training --when did you start, what were the signs? Is it too early?

 

All kids are different but in my experience, at 18 months, neither of my kids were anywhere near ready to PT. At 18 months, we did buy them the little potties for them to see and explore and us to explain what they were for, so when the time came, it wasn't such a shock that they had to do a completely new thing. In my kids the signs were: a willingness to sit on the potty, my ability to see pattern in the times they were going poo and pee, their ability to hold it longer, them telling me that they had to go...but that did not happen for my DD until she was around 26 months old. My DS started around 23 months and then completely lost interest after that.
Here is a link to a PT readiness quiz
I did go through a phase with my two where they did not want to be still for a diaper change at all. Sometimes, I did have to change them standing up. Other times it worked to tickle them or give them a toy, a book, something to distract them while I changed them. If you feel your DD can understand direction well, tell her "Mommy really needs your help, can you lay down so I can get you all clean?" Maybe have her hand you the wipes and a diaper. I found with my DD, the more I let her be a big girl and do things, the more she was willing to do what I needed her to do. Good luck!

 

Can she dress herself? They really need to be able to do that in order to potty train. My girls are showing interest in the potty now, at 22 months old, but they can't reliably pull their own pants up. When they try to dress themselves now, they typically try to put their tops on their bottoms and vice versa. So I'm waiting a few months longer before I attempt to train them.

 

I changed mine standing up from the time they could hold on to stand until they were trained at over 3. One has nothing to do with the other. I actually preferred changing them standing up, because it was quicker, and they would stay in one place for me better than if I had them lay down.

 

I don't think the two things (not wanting to lie down and being ready to PT) are related at all. IMO you're doing exactly the right thing by just doing the diaper changes standing up. (I learned how to do that from the toddler teachers at our daycare!)

We did get out the little potties around 18 months, and the kids would sit on them sporadically and occasionally even pee in them, but neither of them were ready to start training for real until at least a few months after age 2.

 

You should try to teach her to bend over so you can wipe her butt better. :lol:

That's what we did for Alice, she refused to lay down after about 16 months, so I got really good at applying a diaper to someone who was standing.

 

as for potty training... well, if you want to give it a try, I say try it! if you want to just plain delve into it, I'd do a 3 day hard core training and see if she takes to it... you don't really have anything to lose but you could gain a little pottier!

I will say that we trained our from 24-27 mo. kind of haphazardly... and it was time consuming. then at 28 mo. I did the 3 day training and it still took several weeks for them to "get the idea"... and then a few more months to gain longer bladder control... it's not the route everyone wants to take... it does requires knowing where the bathrooms are where you go and having to pay attention... but with that said, we think it's easier and the kids learn whatever you teach them. ours were SO cute learning how to pull underwear up and down!

good luck with whatever you do... each child is wired differently, and yes maybe your dd is ready. I'll also say that my dd never really showed most or all of the readiness signs, but once the little potty was out and available to her on the edge of the play room towards the bathroom, she'd go when she needed to and run back to play. that was after 24 mo, but still she kind of trained herself a bit.

It is easy to be able to leave kids in diapers and change them on your schedule or not worry about carseats or highchairs getting wet etc. good luck figuring it out.

 

Thanks for your input everyone. I think I will start by getting the potty we've stored away and let her sit on it and see what happens, get them used to what it is. I'm not really in a huge rush, since yes, diapers do seem easier right now--even if its standing up