When Did You Start Potty Training - Page 3

[mamadebug]

Originally Posted by Latte Mama

So happy to hear this because for some strange reason I think the same thing. I've never PL'd a child yet but plan on starting my DS around 18 months, I'm optimistic but if it doesn't work at least we tried. I do feel that if that window is missed then most of the time kids end up in diapers past 3. JMO and it is based on nothing .

Out of 5 kids in our play group, three of us decided to try it around 17/18 months. Our kids were all dry in a couple of months with no accidents. The other two moms waited until 2.5 about, and it was a major struggle, it took until the kids were over three and lots of accidents. Having gone through it twice with DS, once at about 18 months and once when he was over 2 years, it was so much easier the first time. So, obviously not large enough to be a scientific sample size, but what my experience was!

Also, none of the 18 month olds in our play group particularly expressed interest. But when it was presented to them, they all went along with it easily. I think it is like lots of things around this age - starting to use real utensils to eat, drinking from a "real" cup, etc - they may not express interest, but they are certainly able to do so when shown how.

[Holiztic]

Originally Posted by BetsyS

My 3 year old is newly out of diapers (he's been out about 2 months). I think diapers were a LOT easier!! No running to find a potty, no stopping frequently on road trips, etc, etc. It was easier. I mean, he's got to grow up at some point, so I let it happen. But diapers definitely ARE easier.

That should change a lot in the coming months. I remember thinking that exactly the first few months. We had upstairs potty, downstairs potty, van potty and teeny tiny backpack potty. He peed every 45 minutes, he felt the poop coming and had about 5 false alarms before each one. We LIVED on the potty! So much work, I agree.

He's now been totally trained (I count this as in underwear exclusively during the day with accidents being very rare-less than once a week) for 9 months, dry at night for about 2 months now. By the time we hit 3 or 4 months it got much easier, and now he just goes to the toilet and pees (standing up, using the toilet) by himself. I don't even know it half the time. Poop is still a little tricky, we still have false alarms and I have to put him up on the toilet and wait, then wipe. But a poopy diaper wasn't exactly fun!

Also, he'll now use public toilets for pee, we're lucky he only poops at home! It helps that we're home most of the day! As far as peeing intervals, he's now at about 3 hours between if we're out, an hour or two at home. So needing to pee in the car is rare, and he can always wait until we get somewhere. We did have one road trip recently when he needed to poop, but by the time we got off the highway and stopped, he didn't have to anymore (or couldn't, really). We stopped 4 times in 1 hour. That was rough, but its rare.

At this point I'd say without a doubt, potty is MUCH easier. MUCH. And way cheaper.

[artgoddess]

Originally Posted by AnnaNova

so im confused about when to start potty training my son. i really really dont want to have a 3 yo in diapers (like some people i know do).

Originally Posted by Bokonon

Do you really think that anyone WANTS to have a 3yo in diapers?

My son wasn't potty trained until he was 4. We got him a potty at 2. He refused to sit on it without a diaper. He didn't want anything to do with it. His personality is such that he won't do anything until he can do it nearly perfectly. He didn't walk until he was 2 (despite being in physical therapy from 11 months). It was as if he waited until he could stand up from the floor and walk across the room before he would take his first unassisted steps.

Some kids are ready to potty train before others. Try not to judge.

Yeah really. My son very much wanted the little potty at Target about the age of 2 he struggled to carry/shove that thing up to the front of the store. Try and come near his pants button in the bathroom and he'd run screaming bloody murder. He wasn't going to use it. He wasn't going to use the big potty, he wouldn't ever try. I couldn't even get him to try and sit on it and use it with a diaper and clothes on. I could only let him know it was there, maybe suggest it once in a while, but basically I had to leave him alone until HE was ready. It wasn't until just before his 4th birthday he was ready. By contrast my DD started asking to use the potty when she had to go before she was 2 years old. They are ready when they are ready. To suggest a kid who is not out of diapers because that's how their parents want it to be is really hurtful.

[Holiztic]

Ummm, I think the "like some people I know do" may have referred to having a 3 year old in diapers, not the wanting part!

What if I said "I really don't want to get cancer, like my dad"

Does that mean my dad wanted to get cancer? Am I judging my dad?

Just wanted to say that she probably wasn't actually judging anyone!

[moaningminny]

Originally Posted by BetsyS

serious question here, cause I'm really not sure...

When does this happen?? I am debating ordering a bigger size diaper for night time, but if this happens shortly after daytime potty training, then it seems like it would be a waste.

My almost five year old has been day trained for about 1.5 years. She still needs a pullup at night. My almost three year old was night trained about 3 months after she was day trained, and is completely diaper-free.

It absolutely, totally depends on the child - each child has their own development so there really is no way of telling when they'll be dry at night.

Just wanted to add that I always said I would never have a three year old in diapers. My older DD taught me that it's not something I have much control over, and did indeed have a three year old in diapers. It took about 1.5 years to get her day trained, and that was from start to stop - we finally just let her decide in the end, which was what worked.

[Katie T]

My kids all decided on there own that they were ready. My oldest was 2yrs when in the span of a week was diaper free day and night. My DS was around 18 months when he decided to start going on the potty, and I humered him as I called it and before I knew it he was completely pt. When youngest DD was born I always joked she would be 5 and in diapers cause I didnt know how to pt a child. Well guess who at 18 is telling my "I pee" and only wears a diaper at nap and bed. Some kids are eager and some arnt. I kinda with I had a not eager one cause I love cding.

[LavenderMae]

I haven't potty trained any of my kids. They have all started using the potty full time on their own when they were ready; my daughter did the day after she turned 3 (the horror ), my middle guy when he was 18mths and my youngest when he was 2 and half-ish. With my three kids (small sample group lol) I never notice a window of opportunity at 18mths and my daughter and my youngest would not have liked being trained then or well ever. I did notice that when they decided they wanted to use the potty they were fully using it almost immediately at whatever age that was. I don't get why it's so bad or wrong for a 3 yr.old to not be using the potty yet nor do I think it's because of a missed window of opportunity. I much prefer following my kids lead on this one and I have seen how pushing it can actually make the transition take much longer.

[AnnaNova]

Originally Posted by Holiztic

Ummm, I think the "like some people I know do" may have referred to having a 3 year old in diapers, not the wanting part!

What if I said "I really don't want to get cancer, like my dad"

Does that mean my dad wanted to get cancer? Am I judging my dad?

Just wanted to say that she probably wasn't actually judging anyone!

thank you

[artgoddess]

Originally Posted by Holiztic

Ummm, I think the "like some people I know do" may have referred to having a 3 year old in diapers, not the wanting part!

What if I said "I really don't want to get cancer, like my dad"

Does that mean my dad wanted to get cancer? Am I judging my dad?

Just wanted to say that she probably wasn't actually judging anyone!

ahhh, makes me feel much better in this context. So it's not that she doesn't want to have something that other people do want. It's that she doesn't want to have something that other people HAVE.

[sapphire_chan]

The 18 month window isn't a window for training, it's a window for introducing the idea.

On a lot of things kids can frequently do them faster than you think if given the chance. Even if you can't expect it of them, it isn't fair to withhold the chance to try.

But then, I've got a 17 month old who has been drinking from a cup since before a year and using utensils fairly well for nearly as long. I do less supervision now then back then, but she was quite good back then. Her real problem with cups is if the table isn't clear enough for her to put the cup down.

She's also been telling us before she has to poop for a couple weeks and telling us as she's peeing for about a month. We're not doing any pressure to tell us about pee beforehand because it seems like it's frequently a surprise to her, but we are offering the potty when she asks for a drink since there's a correlation between needing a drink and needing to pee.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by BetsyS

serious question here, cause I'm really not sure...

When does this happen?? I am debating ordering a bigger size diaper for night time, but if this happens shortly after daytime potty training, then it seems like it would be a waste.

It's really dependent on the kid.

My son daytime potty trained at 22 months, but he's 3.5 and just starting to be reliably dry at night. About 2.5, he really, really wanted to be night-time potty trained--done with the diapers--and we struggled along for 8 months without diapers, trying every suggestion under the sun to keep him dry overnight.

This past fall, I was sick for several weeks, and I couldn't deal with the daily sheets+blankets washing--far more work than diaper-washing--and I asked him to go back into diapers until he could keep those diapers dry overnight. I made an agreement with him that if he could keep the diapers dry for 7 nights, he could start wearing undies at night. I don't care if he holds it all night or wakes up in the middle of the night to go potty--but he has to get to being able to do one of those two things. The past two weeks, he's been keeping it dry for 2-3 nights in a row, then having a completely soaked diaper the next night.

[LavenderMae]

How does one not introduce the idea of using the potty, I know my kids aren't the only ones that had to be in the bathroom with their mom (and dad). Ime it's just the natural flow (kind of a pun there lol) of things and they will get curious all on there own. No real magic window at 18mths although I do think it coincides with many little ones getting naturally curious about the potty and pee and poop.

[mamadebug]

Originally Posted by LavenderMae

I don't get why it's so bad or wrong for a 3 yr.old to not be using the potty yet nor do I think it's because of a missed window of opportunity.

Just my opinion here - I don't think it is bad or wrong per se that a kid is in diapers at three. I think it isn't ideal for the following reasons - it isn't good for the environment (disposables filling up land fills or the extra washing for cloth diapers), it isn't as sanitary (poop is better treated in sewer systems than it is sitting in trash cans and landfills), it's expensive (disposables) and I think it is better to encourage kids of any age to do self care things for themselves when they are able (I encouraged my son to feed himself when he could, to dress himself when he could, helped him learn to wash his own body in the tub, etc).

[insahmniak]

EC is the only parenting advice I ever offer. We were diaper free with DD at 14 months and it was easy breezy. I know that's not true for all folks, but I can't see how it's not worth a try. My view is that a window for potty cooperation, routine, and learning comes before the "no" stage. I'd give EC a try. It works in many places around the world and when it works it really rocks.

[azgirl]

Diaper Free Before Three is an awesome book. I have really developed strong ideas about potty training. Please don't flame me, but I don't think it is fair to make a child pee and poop in their diaper just because they don't KNOW to ask to be taught to use the toilet. I agree with many other posters: it is so awesome to have potty time be part of the routine before the power struggle age. We started adding potty time to the routine at 15 months, because before then I thought you couldn't expect a boy to be potty trained before 4. Oh, I am a pretty lazy parent Introducing potty time is sooo easy. Potty training looks really hard!! I gave my friend the book and she started sitting her little one on the potty at 6 months, once a day, first thing in the morning. At 9 months she went to twice a day. My 22-month old is a slow poke (he was in the NICU an extra 6 weeks learning how to drink...) and he is peeing in the potty 3-5 X a day and pooping occasionally. That is not impressive by some EC standards, but I am so glad I started early!!

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by insahmniak

My view is that a window for potty cooperation, routine, and learning comes before the "no" stage.

This was driven home to me by the responses to a thread I posted in Toddlers. Lina doesn't know she's about to pee unless she's given a heads-up to think about it when she's very very close to peeing. So I asked how often people check if their LOs need to go. Most of the responses were that they didn't ask because their LO would just say "no" regardless. And that is very normal for 2 to 3 year olds, but not for 18 month olds.

[hollytheteacher]

Put my son in underwear at 23 months, by 25 months he was staying dry 80% of the time. He is now 28 months and has the occasional accident but only when he's really busy. He often says "i have to pee' or " i have to poop" and we just bring him to the nearest potty and he does his business