Putting limits on the potty?

[sarah1122]

My 20 month old recently starting asking to sit on the potty and occasionally actually "goes" while he is sitting there. We got him one of those little seats that goes on top of a regular toilet and he loves it. I'm totally thrilled.

The trouble is that we are spending *a lot* of time in the bathroom. He'll ask to go potty, will sit on the potty, then will get off and take the potty seat off, and put the potty seat back on the toilet and get back on again....over and over and over. I swear I could be in there all day. He's really, really into the whole process.

He's also asking to go potty sometimes when I know he doesn't really need to go, but just wants to get his potty fix..or put off coming event (like after we've got him all changed into his night-time diaper and pajamas and are settling him for bed).

I want to honor his requests and definitely don't want to discourage him, but at what point do I tell him that potty time is done?

Thanks mamas!

[CrunchyChristianMama]

I would say when it's clearly just a stall tactic, you can let him know that he can use it the morning or whenever.

Otherwise, have you thought of getting him a little training potty that can sit on the floor without water in it? That way he could get himself on and off of it all by himself and it may satisfy his desire. It could be too that he's still learning the sensations that mean he needs to go potty and is working on figuring out when he truly does have to go. I would suggest teaching him some independence in this so that you can have a life outside of the bathroom on days when the toilet fills his attention!

[spmamma]

Originally Posted by sarah1122

He'll ask to go potty, will sit on the potty, then will get off and take the potty seat off, and put the potty seat back on the toilet and get back on again....over and over and over. I swear I could be in there all day. He's really, really into the whole process.

We kept the seat on the toilet all the time (taking it off when DH or I needed to use it). DD wasn't allowed to take it on and off until she was fully trained. That way, it never became a toy.

Also, we didn't do anything potty-related until I was really to do it 100%. That meant I never encouraged her to sit on the potty to try it out, etc. until the first day of potty training. (Of course, she didn't ask either - if she had, I think I would have started training her.)

Not sure if that helps...

Also, feel free to PM me if you want more info on how we trained her (I know it will be slightly different with a boy, but let me know if you want to know anyway).

[butterfly_mommy]

DS has a potty that is in our living room it sits on the floor and has a lid and DS can get himself on and off it by himself and open and close the lid. When he was first learning I just let him be naked from the waist down at home and he could sit on the potty when he wanted and for as long as he wanted. (He used to send me out of the room) I told him if he pooped that I need to come help him get clean so he could call me. He used to spend a lot of time on that potty and it allowed me to still get stuff down (he still does like to hangout on the potty)

[Nicole730]

When we first started training, we would let him go back and use the potty after jammies were on, for like the first few nights/naptimes. Now, we tell him it's the last time for potty before morning. He is older though, so that might make a comprehnsion difference with your son. This seems to work for our son though.

He uses a small potty we keep in the living room.

[mamadelbosque]

DS goes potty before putting his jammies (potty, brush teeth, jammies, bed). If he tries to tell me he 'has to go' 10 mins later, I don't believe him and say 'no' Its a stall tactic and you both know it... so why allow it?

[Raine822]

My DD1 does this. She loves the potty. For us what worked is she also loves washing her hands so whenever she would touch the flusher/take the potty seat off the toilet we would redirect her to the hand washing. She will get into the hand washing then I can tell her "all done" and we go do something else.

[healthy momma]

Just thought I would give a little different view. Take it for what it is worth! :-) We have EC'd DS since birth so we've had lots of different potty phases (sitting on his own little potty, emptying his own potty bowl, sitting on the big potty with a reducer, etc.). As we have entered each one he has been pretty obsessed with the newness of the experience for a few days to a couple of weeks and then moves on. Personally, I just go with the flow. If we spend a lot of our time in the bathroom so be it. It didn't last forever and I wasn't having to come up with other activities that he may or may not have liked. Call it lazy mothering if you like. And of course I do only have one child and it may have to be a bit different if we have a second but it has worked for us. Oh, and one last thing. I'll take DS (2 yrs) to the bathroom for the "last time" at night and he may or may not go but either way after nursing and lying down together for a few minutes he often really does have to go again.

[Zimbah]

We've had a similar issue with our 19 month old, we did part time ec from about 8 months then a month ago started potty training i.e. no nappy (except for when we go out, and for naps). DD loves to sit on the potty as she knows it means she gets stories etc - which she also gets when she's not on the potty but she obviously thinks the potty is a nice place to be. This is annoying but overall a good thing! Where we're at now is when she goes on the potty, if she doesn't wee/poo after a couple of minutes then I know she doesn't actually need to go - so then I get up from the floor and get on with something else myself - sometimes she continues sitting on it and playing but at least I can be getting on with something. She does often say 'more wee wee' as soon as I've emptied the potty, sometimes she does actually do a bit more wee but often she sits on the potty and doesn't need to do anything more. Slowly she is starting to only go on the potty when she actually needs to go. So maybe once the novelty wears off for your son he'll only use it when he needs it.

Also on the 'delaying tactics' use of the potty - DD does do this sometimes, but also she does usually ask to go wee wee half-way through me nursing her at bedtime - she likes to have another story on the potty, but she does always need a wee even though she only did one 10 minutes ago.

I figure that although all this unnecessary potty using/delaying is annoying and boring, at least it's better than the alternative of a child who won't use it at all

[winter singer]

Personally, I just go with the flow. If we spend a lot of our time in the bathroom so be it. It didn't last forever and I wasn't having to come up with other activities that he may or may not have liked.

This is what we did too - our DD was doing exactly the same thing and we just went with it. It only lasted a week or so.

As far as nighttime goes, I still put a diaper on her at night, but only after she's fallen asleep. If she needs to pee during bedtime she can use a sit-on potty that we keep in the bedroom. We just try to keep it all very low-key at that time of day. Don't know if that helps at all......