Doing the potty part-time?

[julesmama]

My 19 month old is getting it - we have been very casually putting her on the toilet once or twice a day for a while and one day it clicked and since then we've started doing enough naked days that she knows that she needs to pee sometimes, and almost all of her poops are in the toilet. Not that it's all catches, but she's putting it together and actually communicating before she goes. Yay!

Next challenge - now that she signs for the potty she has on occasion given an urgent look and signed while we're out. I was hoping to stick to the potty at home, but diapers / training pants for times when we're out and for sleep. Is this realistic? Can I tell her that it's okay to pee in the diaper when we're - say - on the subway or at the park - but not at home?? We don't drive so having a little potty along isn't always an option. Is it possible to teach a child this age that we only use the potty at home just like some people only nurse at home?

[ASusan]

We did potty part time-ish. Weekends = underwear and pants/shorts. We did a LOT of changes. (no serious nakey time, though)
Weekdays = daycare, where he wore diapers, but they put him on the potty several times a day, with a few catches.

And when we were out, diapers.

We had 2 serious "potty days" in there when grandma (once) and auntie (once) focused on potty training/catching for the day.

And that's the way we rolled for about 4-5 months.

Then, one morning, I said, "diaper or underwear?" and he said, "underwear." And that was it. He was trained, at 30 months. (so this all started a bit later than where you are, but you have an idea...)

We do a diaper at night, although he is dry through the night. He then refuses to pee in the morning, saying, "I'm wearing a diaper." And then pees in the diaper. A little frustrating, but he clearly "gets it" and we'll transition from this in the next few months.

[amberskyfire]

I don't know about others here, but that's what we did for a little while and everyone else I know did it that way in the beginning potty stages. After about two months, I ditched the diapers. It was at this time that I realized I didn't just have to depend on her to make the decision to potty. I could simply intervene before it became an issue.

For example, I always have her go potty before we leave to go somewhere. When we go somewhere that has a potty, I take her if the next place won't have one. At night, I put her to bed, then I take her to the potty right before I join her a few hours later. I don't even have to wake her up. I just pick her up, pull down her pants while holding her chest against mine, and sit her on the potty. I cradle her head in my hands and she dozes and I tell her to potty. She does. Then I just have to put her back to bed when she's done and she goes right back to sleep.

For the really big emergency situations when in public, I did carry a spare diaper in my purse for a while. Now I just make sure to carry a pair of shorts and panties. We haven't had any accidents, thankfully Now that she is 2, she can hold it for a little while if we are in the car and need to get to a place with a potty.

[nolonger]

That's the was it's been for ds because there really hasn't been any other choice. I take him to work with me and I do not always work jobs where it is appropriate for me to stop in my tracks and get him to the bathroom in an emergency.

I wish I could be a SAHM, but I can't. I wish there were more public bathrooms in my town, but there aren't.

He is 2 1/2 and there is NOTHING socially unacceptable about wearing diapers at that age. He doesn't wear them because he is incontinent, but because they give him another option than being uncomfortable or embarrassed or risking a lot of UTIs from holding his urine for too long.

At home, he hasn't left a puddle on the floor in somewhere between 6 months and a year and on a certain stretch of road we drive fairly regularly where it's easy to pull off and pee behind a tree, he wears the same diaper all day.

[julesmama]

Thanks, my main concern is just that she'll be confused about why sometimes we want her to use the diaper and other times she's not supposed to. It just feels strange to say no when she wants to go. She just turn 19 months so I'm not sure if she can understand the concept, but so far so good.