Start potty training when sick?

Sigh. I had planned for a month to use this Spring break to potty train the kids... but they're sick. They've been coughing a lot for 2 days now, didn't go to school yesterday, and now I'm not sure it's the right time... but they're 4. I'm so sick of diapers and DD sitting in her poop without saying anything and getting big rashes.

What would you do? There's 12 days before they go back to school... should I just give them a couple days? Will a week of underwear be enough for them to get it? She peed on the potty once before, he tells me when I have to change him... but as I said, she'll sit in poop for hours if I let her. But we won't get a full week like this before the end of May otherwise, and we're going on a trip in June...

 

I think 12 days should be plenty at their age. Give them a day or two to get to feeling better and then just go naked maybe. It worked best for my boys to just go around without any pants on, they hated the feeling of pee going down their legs.

Good luck!

 

I decided to try anyway, lol. DS had a huge tantrum saying he didn't want to pee on the potty and wanted diapers, so I'm waiting a bit. DD has got one accident so far but got very upset because she couldn't pee on the potty, and now is saying she doesn't want to do it anymore.

Going to be a long week...

 

have patience. they'll give in and go for it. use sticker charts, or whatever other bribery you can think of (cookies, special toy, etc). it's not going to be easy (potty training is RARELY an easy task), but it will be worth it in the end, so just try to keep the future in your mind, especially when getting frustrated. i had one that did NOT want to pee on the potty, and i knew she could, she just wouldn't. so i made her sit on the toilet till she went. she sat for 2 1/2 hours! i sat in there with her. i read books to her, we drew pictures... i gave her milk, juice, water, and then soup for dinner.. and finally she just couldn't hold it in anymore and she peed. everytime they go on the potty, make a HUGE deal out of it, like obnoxiously huge deal... they need to hear that.
patience. lots of patience. and persistence. good luck!

 

I agree with Jori, I would wait a couple of days until they feel better and then try.

 

They certainly will not be sick the entire time (hopefully!). I PT'd my almost 4 year old during 10 days of spring break and it worked. Good luck! i Hope it goes better than expected. We give my guy m&m's aftewards. Nickels were my twins' best friend during that time.

 

At that age, unless there is a medical issue, it's all about will. I would put the diapers up for night time only and make them tough it out. I had to do that with Kayci at 3.5. She just really didn't care. It was several days of cleaning up puddles but all of a sudden she started realizing when she started to trickle, would hold it and beeline for the little potty (that was in whatever room we were in). She had more accidents over the next year than any of my others, but she is still a stubborn strong willed child! It took me telling her "no more daytime diapers EVER" and a few days of testing me to see I was serious before she'd go for it. GL!

 

Yes it seems to be going that way... DS had another tantrum this morning about not wanting underwear. So now he's just half naked. They're sitting on the potty and keep telling me that they went when they didn't though, which is oh so irritating! But it's just day 2...

 

Hang in there! They will catch on!

Mine were 3.5 when they potty-trained and the only way it worked for them was to be naked from the waist down. They didn't wear underwear the first month after they were trained because they didn't like it. Fine with me, go commando, just pee and poop on the toilet. :laughing:

 

Well day 2 and DS is mostly going commando but still hasn't peed on the potty. He peed once in his underwear and has refused to wear any since. Today DD peed once on the potty then twice in her panties. I swear she just loves picking new ones from the basket, I don't think it's helping my case.

This sucks. And there I thought it would be easier to wait... Oh and neither has pooped today. This morning dh found a dog poop in the living room but now I wonder if it was a kid poop!!!! At least dh will suffer with me this week end!

 

With Kayci, I had some special panties (mostly princesses) and a bunch of plain white ones. She got the pretty ones when she got up in the morning and after each accident she had to use the plain ones. Might be worth a try!

 

I put underwear on Ian whether he liked it or not and the first day we NEVER made it to the potty! The second day I took him every 45 minutes - if I waited till 46 minutes he'd pee on the floor...I also made him clean up his own puddles - he'd pee, I'd hand him a towel to wipe it up (and then went behind him with the carpet spray) by the 4th day he was going on his own...poop was an entirely different animal...

 

Poop was always more complicated with my boys as well. Took my oldest DS 3 months of being pee trained before he would poop on the toilet. We let him put a pull up on to poop in and that made the pee training easier as he wasn't stressed out with the thinking he had to poop on the toilet, too.

Hang in there, Fran. They will fpget sick of peeing on themselves after a few days I bet! And really, commando was what worked for my younger boys. They HATED pee trickling down their legs.

 

Will was diagnosed with double pneumonia the day we planned to start 3 Day Potty Training, so we put it off a week.