If you don't use ASL "toilet" for a sign, what do you use?

[oolongtea]

We have been cueing DS with the ASL for "toilet" from the beginning, but at 15 months he still doesn't make the sign yet. We also use a cue sound that he was making at the time we started ECing but stopped making that sound. So last night he was in bed and not settling down... he asked for water and so I brought him out to the kitchen to get water. He made a lunge for his potty and pointed at it clearly. So I put him on and he pooped. (Hurrah! That's the first time he's ever told me he has to go.) But so now I'm wondering if I should add a new sign, something he can do, because if the only way he can tell me about the potty is if he can see it and point to it, I will miss it sometimes. So if you use another sign besides "toilet", what do you use?

[theboysmama]

we use the asl sign for toilet but it is more of a fist with a little shake.
I wanted to respond bcs dd is 18 months and just started using the sign. I was also thinking maybe we should have chose something else. dd can talk, probably has 15+ words put potty, pee, are not in those. She can say butt and point randomly somewhere which meant potty. For the most part we juust had pottys scattered throughout the house and kept her naked from the waste down and she would just take herself. When we were in a placee where she needed us to take her she would pat her croch. The sign came and it is not as great as you would think cuz now she asks all the time and I have to make a decision to honor her (ever 2 min if she is in a boring place she doesn't want to be) or make her wait.
I would say stick with it and he will get it soon.

[tankgirl73]

I agree, stick with it. 15mo is early for expecting particular signs -- I mean, at 15mo they'll usually have several signs if you're doing a lot of baby signing, but not necessarily the most useful ones yet lol...

I can't recall how old DD was when she started doing the potty sign, but she did start. I just followed cues and timing until then.

And yes, don't expect the sign to look exactly right... you probably know this, but babies making the signs will be somewhat different that the adults. A little fist wiggle is about right for 'potty'!

[newtomotherhood]

We started at about 6 weeks and we were using the potty sign and she wasn't picking it up and she could sign 60 - 100 words so at around 13 months I also started using the signs for pee and poop as well as the potty sign and that really helped she seemed to love the sign for poop! now at 15 months she is doing pretty good maybe one miss everyday or two and dry at night 95% of the time!
But I wouldn't be shocked if she started having misses again just cause I'm all excited about our progress!

[riboflavin]

I wished we had chosen a different sign other than the ASL for potty. My DS waved all the time and his hello, goodbye, look at me, waves looked just like his potty sign. I rushed him to the potty waaay too much! But since I was doing that from the beginning, I stuck with it. If I had another child I would start using a more distinguishable sign. Someone a while back on these boards made up their own sign for potty (if I remember correctly) which was taking one hand and grabbing the opposite wrist. I couldn't use the 'patting the crotch' because DS was in a baby backpack or sling so much it wouldn't have worked for us. But that also seems like a good one for others it would work for.

If you want to change signs, maybe you could do the old one and the new one for a while first, eventually phasing out the old one.

[sapphire_chan]

DD started telling us she had to use the potty for poop right at 16.5 months and that's when she started signing toilet too. While the hand waving alone would've been confusing, and her saying potty is STILL confusing (does she need the potty, something that sounds like potty, or is she just commenting on the existence of potties in the world?), when she was doing both together it was quite clear.

[Juise]

I would venture to say at 15 months to stick with the ASL toilet sign, I'd bet he'll be getting it soon. If he were younger I might have said try something different because I wish I had with DD1. She didn't start signing toilet until maybe 1 1/2, despite having a whole bunch of other signs, even ones I would have thought were more difficult. And toilet was one of the first signs I started showing her, when we started EC with her at 3 months. I'm not sure why.

Instead of changing to a different sign, maybe try adding the signs for pee and poop? ("Do you need to use the toilet? Do you need to pee, or poop?") Maybe he'll elect to start using those instead.

[nynjtex]

We just made up our own sign. I tried to do something that was easy and we wouldn't confuse with something else. My dd tapps her hand to her ear about 3 times. She uses the same sign for pee and poop, it's just to let us know we need to get her to the potty.