Not ready for PLing?

[allisonrose]

I decided to give some potty learning a chance with my 16 month old. He doesn't like being in a wet diaper (he spends most time these days in BG or FB) and seems to be aware of when he poops (he will squat and grunt).

So I bought a baby bjorn potty and started yesterday. He peed in it twice in the morning but we were all distracted with company yesterday afternoon.

This morning I put him on the potty and he peed a little bit. I left him without a diaper on and within 10 minutes, he peed on the floor - quite a bit of pee. I brought him to the potty, sat him on it, told him that he should pee on the potty and then went to clean up the puddle. I figured he should be set on peeing for a while and left him diaperless still. Within an hour, he had just nursed and was in my lap on the couch and peed!

Maybe he's just not ready? But I have noticed that each time I've put him on the potty and asked him to pee and use the snake-hiss like ECers do, he does pee so he does seem to have some knowledge of what his body is doing.....

[lifeguard]

We are doing similar to you but I put a diaper on ds in between 'cause he does still pee very frequently & it's too cold here for being nakey. I'm not counting on him being completely potty learned anytime soon but it is nice to make him aware of what is going on & a few less diapers makes me happy.

[Violet2]

It's probably too early for him to PL but you can probably be trained to take him to the potty more often

If he's responding to your cues, give it a try and keep at it. I wish I had started earlier when DD was similar to your DS.

The one thing I have learned is pling is an evolution. There's nothing cut and dried about it--it's progress, not perfection. He's going to pee all over you and all over your house before he's reliably potty learned. Probably for the next 6 months or more too.

GL

V

[allisonrose]

lifeguard - Another reason why I'm giving pling a try is because putting a diaper on is a struggle. But he's happy running around the house without any bottoms on. I seriously drool over the Antsy Pants ads but cannot afford them.

Violet2 - The three pees this morning were all within an hour of each other. Am I supposed to be putting him on the potty every 15 minutes?

[sapphire_chan]

Lina's been ECed from the start and she still has no idea when she needs to pee unless I ask her right as her bladder's really full. Try checking with him every couple of hours.

[sapphire_chan]

I mean after you start getting more pee in the potty. Having a book to read or a toy to play with can help your LO relax enough to fully empty his bladder.

[Violet2]

Every 15 minutes is pretty frequent. He might consolidate a bit with practice or maybe he's not ready. I'm not an expert but I do think there is value in doing this early. I should have done it with DD and regret it.

I sometimes just put a cloth diaper between DD's legs while holding her just in case. Kind of informal cloth diapering. That might help you avoid some clothing changes.

V

[curiouscanadian]

I think 16mos is entirely resonable for starting PLing. But (and I say this gently) keep in mind that you're still at the start, mama! Your DS has spent how many months randomly (to him) peeing and pooping in his diaper and it's going to take a bit of time before he recognizes what a full bladder/bowel feels like.

You may wish to look a bit into ECing (I see it more as a philosophy than anything) for tips on communicating to him and offering the potty at prime timing opportunities. For example, after nursing is often a good time to offer, as is first thing in the morning, right after naps, as frequently as every 1/2hr to hour in the mornings, and somewhat longer intervals in the afternoon.

I find it helps to think of it this way - your baby can eat solid foods long before they can use utentils to get it into their mouth, right? Well, same goes for PLing - just because they need some help doesn't mean your LO can't use the potty! We've been part-time ECing for a few months and we're definitely still working on it, but I can tell you that even just not having to deal with poopy diaper laundry is worth the effort!

Good luck!

[Shami]

Around 18 months, my dd saw a friend going potty and wanted to sit on the potty every time I changed her dipe. So, I let her even though I knew she had already gone in her dipe she would run and go sit on the potty. I bought a seat for the toilet and a two little potties from IKEA (one for the car, one for the bathroom). We rented a book and dvd from the library. I just let her sit on it when ever she wanted to. I did a wee bit of encouraging, but not much. "I" wasn't ready yet!
It wasn't until a couple of months later when I got my guts up to try potty learning. For some reason, I was very intimidated by the whole process of it.
I decided not to do the pull ups. I told her that when her diapers were gone she would wear big girl underwear. I bought thick cotton training pants.

One day I put her in her big girl underwear. She had two accidents and realized pee pee isn't fun running down your legs. Pee pee goes in the potty. It was that easy. First day she fully got it.
Oh, and I kept bubbles in the bathroom to celebrate every time she went in the potty.
I think that if you have the energy to start early then go for it. If you decide it's not the right time you can always back off a little and try later. I do think there is a sensitive period in their development when it just clicks in their little brain.
Personally, I think the time when my dd first started into that phase of being a BIG girl and doing it all by myself is the optimal time for potty learning and bed transitioning. My dd did both happily at the same time with little to no effort on my part. I dunno, maybe I just got lucky.

[Thalia]

FWIW, DD can pee three times in 30 minutes if she's had orange juice. The acidity apparently really gets the kidneys going. Otherwise she goes once every couple of hours.

[allisonrose]

Yup, I think we're a bit more in EC territory than PLing. I put him on the potty about every hour today. We did very good in the morning with just a wet dipe during nap. Then in the afternoon, I was just a few minutes too late a couple of times.

I guess I won't expect to pack away the diapers for a while yet but I figure it can't hurt to put him on the potty and start to have him be aware of what is going on. I am considering getting some Gerber training pants in 18 month size just to see how those might work to avoid some diaper struggles....

[tankgirl73]

Frequent pees first thing in the morning are quite normal. When DD was about a year old, I'd potty her when she woke up, then 10 minutes later, then 20 minutes later, then 30 minutes later... then she's be good for about 2-3 hours.

I totally concur with the suggestion that you realize he's used to peeing "randomly" and needs time to adjust to this new idea. You had a couple successful potties on the first day, then you were surprised when he peed on the floor and thought maybe he's not ready? Potty learning isn't an instant thing, whether EC or 'late/typical'. When he has misses, you just learn from them. Was there a signal he gave that you missed, or didn't realize it was a signal? Was there a timing thing you could have realized? Has he eaten something (as another poster mentioned, citrus tends to make them 'incontinent') that makes him pee more? Was he just too distracted with what he was doing to realize that he had to pee/ was peeing? Toddlers can hyperfocus on something and not want to leave it just to pee.

I definitely think training pants are better than diapers. We invested in good cloth trainers (Imse Vimse, Hot Bots, Eco Nix, and Continuum Family) -- it was pricey, but we compared it with what we would have been spending instead in diapers and I'm sure we actually saved money overall. Training pants catch the one missed pee, without the 'freedom' of feeling that it's ok to pee willy-nilly (randomly).

Potty learning, or EC, at this age, there will be ups and downs. You will have 2 perfect weeks and think he's graduated... then there will be 2 weeks where it seems NOTHING gets in the potty at all. It's all part of the process, as they develop and grow and focus on different things. The thing that saved many a 'potty strike' for us was changing up the routines -- pees don't always have to go in the potty! Peeing outside, peeing in the big toilet (standing on the rim, sitting backwards, sitting frontwards with a seat reducer, or being held in classic position), peeing in the sink, and the ultimate favourite -- standing up in the bathtub!!! As long as it's peeing with awareness, and not in a diaper, then it's good!

[Kim919]

My dd is exactly 16 months and I hadn't even considered her being ready for the potty.... you guys are making me feel terrible! I'm usually the one saying "oh all kids do things at different times" as dd is doing it way before the other kids. Maybe I'm missing the signs? I guess I need to get on the ball with teaching myself how to potty train I don't even know where to start. I thought 18 months was on the early edge even for girls.

[allisonrose]

tankgirl - I fully realize that he is "diaper trained". I had hoped to give EC a try when he was little but between being tired and overwhelmed as a new mom, I just never picked up on his signals. I'm still not seeing any signals honestly, just putting him on the potty at regular intervals. The time that he peed in the hallway, he was actually out of my line of sight.
I wouldn't mind investing some money into good cloth trainers but my hubby will likely be very against it. I sell him on the cloth diapers we currently have because they save us money but I'm not sure the same angle is technically true about trainers. I recently pulled out my barely-used sewing machine recently to give sewing diapers a try and am going to look into how difficult it is to sew training pants.
Oh, and I was mostly surprised by the frequency of the peeing. I remember reading somewhere that a readiness sign was being dry for two hours straight so I just thought maybe his bladder isn't prepared for this.

[sapphire_chan]

The other thing you could try is using regular undies (which he'll need eventually anyway, and a waterproof cover like the simply cover from theECstore. (Or if you've got PUL and sewing skills, just make one)

Making undies is really easy. Making padded undies that actually work? That baffled me. Lots of tutorials that looked really easy and it just did not happen.

[dziejen]

Ds started using his Baby Bjorn potty around 16 months and it was similar to your description -- he seemed to pee all the time! I kept a positive attitude, celebrated when he did pee in the potty, didn't make a big deal when he didn't but kept at it (yes, it's a lot of work for mom at first) but by 20 months he was pooping every poop in the potty, by 22 months he was dry all day with few accidents, by 24 months he was having no accidents and now at 25 months he has been dry for 4 nights in a row! We still use a nighttime diaper but I am considering switching to underpants with a few more successful nights. For us, it was important to have all family members on board so things stayed consistent, we kept a potty in each bathroom and in the back of our car, and we didn't switch to training pants until he was pretty dry most of the time to avoid confusing him. Enjoy this stage! It may take a while until he is fully PL'd but I was very happy we started when we did.

[allisonrose]

dziejen - Thanks for sharing! I would be just fine with that type of progress here. When did your son start asking to use the potty?

I've continued to put him on the potty routinely throughout the day and have success catching a couple of pees a day. Just one poop into the potty so far.

I am part of a Yahoo group that isn't mama related but many members happen to be mamas. Recently there has been talk about older toddlers who are not yet potty trained. I was surprised when one member posted that her ped claimed that the average potty trained age for boys is 3 yrs 3 months!