Asking to Potty All the Time

[TopHat]

We've been ECing my 17mo DD since about 5.5 months. Recently she learned to sign and say "potty." It's her new favorite thing. At church on Sunday, she signed and said "potty" so I took her to the potty. When I put her on the potty, she didn't go so I asked her "All done?" and put her back into her diaper. While folding up the diaper, she signed "potty." Because I'm glad she can communicate and I want her to know I'll respond to her communications, I put her on the potty again. Nothing. Back to the diaper and she signed "potty" again. I eventually gave up and it was daddy's turn. She did potty a little bit for him, but continued to sign potty for the next 20 minutes.

Last night at bedtime it happened again. Back and forth between potty and diaper. I don't want to think she's trying to manipulate me- I want to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she's fascinated that she can communicate with us. It just happens to be at times where she doesn't want to be some place (pew at church, bed at night). I do want her to know that the communication part of EC is open and working and that I'll respond to her.

Anyone else deal with this- what did you do? She's only 17 months.

[emmaegbert]

my son did this for a while around 21 mos (he started PL around 15 mos, I didn't know about EC then but pretty much did what the books say anyway)

I tried to respond but sometimes just had to say that we couldn't keep stopping to potty right now. He did it in the car a lot.

I didn't think of it as manipulation, but more like the baby doing an experiment on me- checking if the communication strategy really works. Of course, sometimes he DID have to potty too.

It didn't last long. I seem to remember that we basically just waited it out.

[pixiepunk]

it's just a phase while she experiments with whether you'll respond to her every time. shouldn't last long. all 3 of mine have gone through this, DD2 is doing it right now. a little annoying/inconvenient at times, but cool at the same time. and once they trust that you'll take them whenever they ask, and the excitement of it wears off, it'll be business as usual. though my oldest two were always excited to use the potty when we were out, exploring strange bathrooms was a huge thrill for both of them

[hrsmom]

My little love did that for a short period, not that long ago. (She's about the same age as yours.) I mostly took her. There were a couple of times when I told her I didn't think she had to go (if we'd just been) and then the novelty did wear off. She's kind of doing it again now that she can say poo rather than "s-s-" but not as much as before. I think she wanted to play with the potty toys before!

[sapphire_chan]

As others have said, totally normal.

One thing I'd add, it is okay to eventually put your kid in an absorbent diaper and tell them "we all need to sleep now, it is okay for you to pee in this diaper" odds are, they'll go to sleep and wake up dry.

[Carlyle]

My "rule" with dd was that if we were in the middle of something (driving, going to bed especially), we'd try once, but then we're done. Other times, I didn't mind taking her more than once, but if she was using it as a "get out of jail free" card, I only responded once.