Will potty training mostly happen on its own or is it supposed to be a lot of work? - Page 2

[KellyandBean]

We are on a week now with the ohcrapppottytraining method and things aren't going super great but we are sticking with it and not going backwards this time. We are mostly just cleaning poop and pee off the floor but occasionally we catch her on time and twice i think she has actually self initiated pee & poop. I think she is just to busy playing to take the time out to go sit on the pot. The hard part is she hasn't forgotten about the treats and even though i know Jamie discourages it i have still been giving them to her because i suspect that that is pretty much the only motivation that she has at the moment and if i take it away i could see real rebellion happening. Eventually we will run out of jelly beans and we will have a decision to make. Otherwise we are sticking with the plan! REALLY hoping to see her finally grasp this in a few more weeks. Oh and i have discovered she refuses to sit on the big potty (scared)  so suddenly we can only leave the house for very short periods of time which is rough :/ ugh. I never knew PTing would be this hard/stressful.

[AmandaT]

Originally Posted by ~Adorkable~ 

its not often that one voice really makes you start to think differently and she is doing that for me, i need ot read the whole thing and also do some more research on the bladder muscles and holding issues that urologist is talking about, but im learning a lot and thats what i like to do.

I read through all of the comments on the Babble article when I first came across it ( a few months ago) and the dr admitted it was mostly an underlying diet problem. Kids were backed up because of a lack of fiber, then blockages pushed on their bladders and infections occurred. What I took away was it was mostly a SAD (Standard American Diet) problem rather than anything having to do with potty training itself.  

Every child I've known (unless they were abused or had developmental delays) would simply eliminate where they were, on the toilet, in the living room, playing with their toys, wherever, rather than "holding it" and causing problems. 

[~Adorkable~]

yeah i do bet that "SAD" has a lot to do with things, and persistent dehydration. from watching how much my kids drink water (its the only fluid they get beside breast milk) im frankly a bit shocked, the other toddlers their age that i see them hang around do not drink as much usually, or most of what they drink is juice, hopefully watered down. my kids carry cool kid water bottles around all day and play with them like cherished toys and drink constantly from them.  i wonder how much firmer or inconsistent those kids poop is, since my kids are always smooth and easy poopers, always have been. im really thankful. i work in the high desert part of the year and have really come to understand the chronic state of dehydration that most of us live in in this modern world, its kinda crazy.

[skycheattraffic]

Kellyandbean, would you consider a travel potty? We have a fold up safety first that DD will gladly use wherever we are. I also heard good things about the potette plus. It might make these weeks a bit easier if you have more opportunities for extended outings.

[Anca]

I didn't read any books about potty training but I think it was simple enough for us. Once my daughter was 2, I bought lots of briefs and explained her the reasons for potty training. Once I got her to agree (she was/is very articulate), we removed diapers and put her in underwear. It was a hot summer and this also helped. Of course she peed and pooped on the floor, but with no carpets it was an easy cleaning and I never bribed or make her feel bad about it. Everytime she did it on the floor, I would explain how she can use either potty or toilet training seat (she actually prefered this one). I also bought a matress protection cover for the night because I thought it's important that once we give up diapers, we stick to using briefs and not giving opposite messages to the child. Of course I would take a few changing clothes with me whenever we went somewhere and it was ok. 

First week - no improvement

Second week - went to seaside, slight improvement

Third week - big improvement

Fourth week - fully potty trained

Since then she only peed twice on the bed (but we had the cover until she was 3) but because she had lots of liquids before going to bed. 

I knew about EC but our first months and year were really hard on us because of her reflux and sleeping issues and we never managed to focus on this. But I don't regreted, she potty trained easily (in my opinion) and had no regress ever since. 

[sunnygir1]

My dd used the toilet pretty early -- she was out of daytime diapers by two.  I started putting her on the toilet around 6 or 8 months when I thought she'd pee.  We did lots of naked time and lots of peeing on the floor!

My ds has been a different story.  When I tried to start putting him on the toilet at 6 or 8 months, he would scream until I took him off; he hated it.  I would try again every month or so, but he always had a horrible reaction.  So, I talked to him about using the toilet, but I never tried to bribe him or make him do it.  He is about to turn three and pretty much has it down now.  It really happened when I wasn't paying attention.  He just started doing it.  For a while he was using a little seat on the toilet (never liked the little potty seat), but soon he refused even that.  He used a stool to get up.  Now he can get up on his own, tells me not to come in, and calls me when he needs a wipe.  For us, totally hands-off has worked the best.  No power struggles, no expectations; he just did it when he was ready.

[JudiAU]

Everything takes work. In potty learning your LO is making a connection between how his body feels before and after using the toilet. It takes time to make the connection and a bit more time to anticipate the change. I really like Diaper Free Before 3 because it talks a lot about how the process works at this time. We start at 18m and finish at 2.

 

[rubidoux]

I know that I am distinctly in the minority on this one, but...  I don't understand the rush to get out of diapers.  Both of my boys wanted to stay in diapers and I'd ask them every few weeks, probably for well over a year, if they were ready to try going without a dipe, and neither one of them had ANY interest.  They did both pee in the potty on numerous occasions before we got rid of diapers and I'm sure it could have been done much earlier, but they didn't want to and I didn't really either.  

When my older son hit 3 1/2, to the day, I thought it was going to start getting embarrassing at some point and we had to bite the bullet and go for it.  So, I just put the diapers away and said we weren't using them anymore and spent a lot of naked time for a few days.  He literally *never* had an accident (unless you count a really bizarre occurrence over 2 years later) because he totally had all of the tools he needed to do it by that point.  It worked basically the same for my second ds, who was one week shy of 3 1/2.  We put the diapers away about 3 weeks ago now and he's done great, actually a bit easier than his brother (who was scared to poop in the toilet at first).  

But *I* miss the freaking diapers!  Today we were at a place with portopotties which are pretty damned horrific if you're an adult and in full control of all your movements, but, ugh, it is just gross to have to bring your 3 year old in there.  And he HATED it.  :(  And tomorrow we're going to a playgroup in a park with gross bathrooms that are about a mile away from where we sit.  Sigh...  And for some reason both of my boys have a terrible aversion to peeing on trees.  My heart sinks when we're nowhere near a bathroom and he says he needs to poop (only happened once and it turned out okay, but ugh, I was not happy about sitting him in his carseat, I do not have a backup, so if it's wet from cleaning we stay home).  And then there's the problem of his being fascinated with public bathrooms, which I am not fascinated with myself (several trips just to check it out everywhere we go) and then the problem of him saying he needs to pee 10 min after we turn the light off to go to bed, and then 15 min after, and then 25 min after.  It all leaves me wondering what was so terrible about the diapers???  

[newmamalizzy]

Originally Posted by rubidoux 

I know that I am distinctly in the minority on this one, but...  I don't understand the rush to get out of diapers.  Both of my boys wanted to stay in diapers and I'd ask them every few weeks, probably for well over a year, if they were ready to try going without a dipe, and neither one of them had ANY interest.  They did both pee in the potty on numerous occasions before we got rid of diapers and I'm sure it could have been done much earlier, but they didn't want to and I didn't really either.  

When my older son hit 3 1/2, to the day, I thought it was going to start getting embarrassing at some point and we had to bite the bullet and go for it.  So, I just put the diapers away and said we weren't using them anymore and spent a lot of naked time for a few days.  He literally *never* had an accident (unless you count a really bizarre occurrence over 2 years later) because he totally had all of the tools he needed to do it by that point.  It worked basically the same for my second ds, who was one week shy of 3 1/2.  We put the diapers away about 3 weeks ago now and he's done great, actually a bit easier than his brother (who was scared to poop in the toilet at first).  

But *I* miss the freaking diapers!  Today we were at a place with portopotties which are pretty damned horrific if you're an adult and in full control of all your movements, but, ugh, it is just gross to have to bring your 3 year old in there.  And he HATED it.  :(  And tomorrow we're going to a playgroup in a park with gross bathrooms that are about a mile away from where we sit.  Sigh...  And for some reason both of my boys have a terrible aversion to peeing on trees.  My heart sinks when we're nowhere near a bathroom and he says he needs to poop (only happened once and it turned out okay, but ugh, I was not happy about sitting him in his carseat, I do not have a backup, so if it's wet from cleaning we stay home).  And then there's the problem of his being fascinated with public bathrooms, which I am not fascinated with myself (several trips just to check it out everywhere we go) and then the problem of him saying he needs to pee 10 min after we turn the light off to go to bed, and then 15 min after, and then 25 min after.  It all leaves me wondering what was so terrible about the diapers???  

Hee hee.  You need a Potette plus portable and a piddle pad :)

[zoeart]

Just a note to say that I downloaded Jamie's book, and we are 3 days into a modified version of her plan. We had been EC'ing since birth so my son has had tons of nakey time over his life... so we skipped that and went straight to commando ( pants but no undies, and no more nakey time). This made a lot of sense to me because we had been trying undies at home but he had been peeing and pooping in them as if they were diapers. He's turning 3 this week, I'm due with our second on Sept 15, and we have about 10 days off from preschool, so we thought we'd try it now!

So far it's going pretty well, but almost all of his potty time is at our suggestion or insistence. We are suggesting he sit on the potty about every hour and a half, and insisting he sit on it before leaving the house and before nap and bedtimes. He hasn't initiated going on his own yet, but I'm hoping we'll get there in the next week!

Yesterday he peed while playing at the kitchen counter ( one of his favorites) while I was in the other room - he came to get me and said " I need to sit on the potty!" which is a major step forward- previously he wouldn't have even stopped what he was doing after he peed.