PL/PT/EC in November

[skycheattraffic]

Hi mamas,

I think DD is getting ready to get serious about ditching diapers and I thought it might be fun/enlightening/encouraging for us toddler mamas to dish. There is a lovely, active EC forum under diapering which has been very helpful, but as DD gets older I find that we are in a different territory.

I invite you to join in and share your experience wherever you and your kiddo are in the potty adventure. Let's band together and commiserate, offer support or brag as we see fit!

Our story:
19.5 month old DD was in sposies up to 12 months of age, cloth ever since. I'm kicking myself for not switching earlier but it seemed really intimidating and I didn't know anyone in our generation who used CD. I introduced DD to the potty at 11 months and did part time casual EC with her. She's really into it now and only had 3 wet diapers in the last 24 hours, the rest was in the potty. She has started at times to tell me "bum" when she needs to go or as she is going. She's not a fan of toilets but loves the potty. She pees once at night, around 10:30 or so and stays dry until morning. I've tried the naked method and mostly she just pees wherever. If she's clothed though, she will usually ask for help. I'm thinking of putting her in training pants around the house, especially after today.

Hope to hear from you :-)

[sageowl]

Just started in earnest with PL too...I honestly feel like I have no idea what I'm doing (how do you teach another person how to do something you totally take for granted?), but I've read a couple of books, and muddle along with it as best as I can.  I tried a few times earlier this year, but DS clearly was NOT ready, so I didn't push it.  I had a long vacation planned for the entire month of September so decided to wait until I got back to get started. 

We've been at it for about a month now.  I launched the PL with a bunch of books/videos from the library (since my kid likes books), and invested in a seat adapter and a potty.  DS seems to prefer the seat adapter.  Unfortunately, my husband went out and bought a box of 100+ diapers so I can't switch to training pants until those are gone. =(

DS won't always tell me when he has to go (or tell me in time), so right now, a lot of PL, is just me arbitrarily deciding we're going to go sit on the toilet at select times of day and see what happens.  

I'm secretly enjoying the opportunity to get really silly with the potty humor (while we're sitting around in the bathroom waiting for something to happen).  Never expected this to be any fun at all...   

[MrsGregory]

I'm sad because mine is nearly 14 months, hides to go to the bathroom, alerts me at once when she's in need of a fresh diaper/hates to be wet or dirty, knows all about the toilet, knows all about poops and pees (And can say them when she's doing it or when you're doing it.), has gone in the toilet from time to time (Saying I EC part-time would be kind.  I have EC'd.  Normally I am waaaaaaay too lazy.), and has naked time almost every day during which she likes to pee all over her Papa.  But she can't work a button or a snap or even pull pants down to save her life, and although she's talking, she isn't following direction yet.  So... she's ready, but she's not.  How sad am I? 
 

[skycheattraffic]

Sageowl, how is he at night? Can you keep the diapers for nighttime mostly? Or for outings? I have some sposies left (using cloth now) and I'm hoarding them for when I'm sick or taking her somewhere without a washroom easily accessible and nap/night time. of course if he's about to outgrow the size, that's different but if he has room to grow then you can save them for a rainy day

Originally Posted by MrsGregory 

I'm sad because mine is nearly 14 months, hides to go to the bathroom, alerts me at once when she's in need of a fresh diaper/hates to be wet or dirty, knows all about the toilet, knows all about poops and pees (And can say them when she's doing it or when you're doing it.), has gone in the toilet from time to time (Saying I EC part-time would be kind.  I have EC'd.  Normally I am waaaaaaay too lazy.), and has naked time almost every day during which she likes to pee all over her Papa.  But she can't work a button or a snap or even pull pants down to save her life, and although she's talking, she isn't following direction yet.  So... she's ready, but she's not.  How sad am I? 

 

Snaps and buttons are for when we dress up for the holidays around our house lol. I havent even taught DD how to pull sweatpants down yet, I just do it for her. The big thing for me is to get her to tell me and I help her with everything. It's dependent independence, KWIM? I don't care if I have to help for a long time, I just want to be done with diapers! Your 14 month old is ahead of many kids twice her age that don't mind a wet or dirty diaper.

[~Adorkable~]

i have PT my twins on the horizon and i have to say im really overwhelmed by the thought.  they are 22m now. ive been waiting for them to get a tad more verbal, though ds is getting good at telling me when he HAS gone (signs to be changed) 

i have been reading Oh Crap, Potty Training. and i have to say i'm in love with her thoughtful frank approach to things, she really seems like she has the long history of real world experiences backing up her ideas and suggestions. 

Ive already changed my mind about a few things that i realize now were just assumptions from a lady that had never done this before.

[newmamalizzy]

I feel like we've been in a slow, continuous, barely noticeable process of potty training since 18 months or somewhat earlier.  I mostly did the naked bum method, not attempting undies or trips out of the house until she was about 2.  Now, at 2.5, I just know I haven't used a daytime diaper in half a year, and it feels good :)  She has accidents pretty often, but I'm okay with that.  When she does tell me that she has to go, she's usually in the process of going already.  She can stop herself long enough to get to the potty/toilet, but is usually wet through her undies anyway.  Sometimes it feels like our success is just luck, because I really don't feel like she has much control over her functions still - or maybe she's just too busy to notice?  She'll also go for really, really long stretches without using the potty, which I find disconcerting.  (4 hours or more???)   I don't know it that's normal, because since being pregnant I pee, like, every hour at least :)

And then there's the night-time issue.  I have NO idea how to approach that.  She's just gotten to a point where her night sleeping is tolerable, and I really don't want to put a wrench in the works.  I'd love some tips/experience for night-training an already poor sleeper. 

[skycheattraffic]

I have heard good things about that book, Adorkable. I hope it works out for you fairly easily; I can imagine how daunting PT twins must be! Let us know how it goes.

It's great that she's been out of daytime diaps for months now, newmamalizzy. I'm a big fan of the gradual transition, it makes more sense to me that way. As long as her urine is pale, I wouldn't be worried with 4 hours of no pee. Her bladder is growing and her UT is maturing. My friend's 3.5 year old pees twice a day although the dr would like to see at least 3 pees in 24 hours. I dont know about you but I'd love to have a bladder of steel like that! Congratulations on your pregnancy! How far along are you if you dont mind me asking? I just got my blood work results today and I'm expecting too! I'm five weeks at the moment and really hoping I won't have two kids in diapers. I use cloth so the laundry would be staggering.

[luckiest]

We were kind of thrown into PL/EC when DS was about 16 months and got a yeasty diaper rash that necessitated naked time.  I started using what little I knew about EC, since he had to be diaper free anyway, you know?  And it actually took!  He picked up on the cue sound really quickly and within a day would pee, even a little dribble, if I held him over the sink (hated the potty).  If he peed on the floor, I'd just wipe it up and say, "Look, you peed.  Pee goes in the potty" and point to the potty.  It took probably 8 weeks before he was using the little potty without any prompting at all.  

Fast forward, he's about to turn two, and we are SO, SO CLOSE yet so far from being in full-time regular undies.  The biggest obstacle is that he is very, very active and not very verbal, so he so far won't tell me when he needs to go.  At home, he's naked and uses the potty 100% of the time (well, sometimes the dog's water bowl, but whatever).  When we're out, we use cloth trainers, but it's hit or miss with public toilets.  He stays dry through shorter outings though.  

We had just hit a big milestone with him when we'd get home from running an errand, so he'd be clothed, and he'd tug his pants and gesture to the potty.  Finally, what I'd been waiting for!!  Then we went out of town for a week and regressed.  Still fine if he's naked, but in clothes he won't tell me if he needs to.  Ah, well.  He's only two.

Oh, still in diapers at night because he nurses several times.  And poop is a whole different story - he had one traumatic poo after a bout of constipation, and has a tendency to withhold ever since.  I don't even mention pooping in the potty, because it definitely has become his chosen area of control.  He poops outside.  I'm cool with that.

[pickle18]

DS is 19 months - we were rolling along, like luckiest described.  We introduced the potty at 9 months (along with cloth dipes) - also due to rash issues.  He took to it like a fish to water!  Like he was saying, geez, people, what took you so long?  He would go whenever I offered, and I went by either his body language/cues, "phantom pees" or timing.  He often stayed dry through naps and through the night, and daytime misses were very rare.  For a while, we were doing nighttime EC, too - until he decided it was too disruptive to his sleep.  Once he was more mobile, we did lots of diaper-free time at home, and he used the lil potty all on his own, no problem.  Blissful, right?

Well...now we are in full on power struggle mode.  He absolutely refuses to go any time I mention it, even if I KNOW he has to go.  We still do diaper-free around the house most of the time, but this has resulted in more misses than catches lately.  He will still use the little potty once or twice a day all by himself, once or twice with nudging/distractions - and he will sometimes go into the bathroom and point at his seat reducer.  We've done EC for so long, I know he gets all the nuts and bolts.  But it just seems like lately he's way too into his activities to stop (all the old tricks won't always work anymore - like books, songs, putting the potty in the window, etc.) and it has to be all his idea. 

I used to be able to transfer him to the potty mid-stream, if he went on the floor - not now.  He gets very mad and indignant and squirms away, so I've backed off of that.  Basically, we've gone from being so.very.nearly.done to this crazy no man's land (and should buy stock in enzymatic floor cleaner). 

He is currently teething, plus working on learning all his letters, and gaining HUGE amounts of words everyday - so is it possible he's just busy focusing on something else?  I do have hopes our EC investment will still help him, whenever he decides it's time.  I've posted in the EC forum alot, but this is a good thread idea!

[rinap]

My girls are a little younger than this, and I'm still wavering on how hard to push the potty. What do people do for clothing when having naked time? It's starting to feel a bit cool for  going actually naked on cold floors. Even with shirts and sweaters.
 

[sageowl]

DS is almost 3, so a lot older than most OP kids in this thread.  (I had to wait a long time to even start with DS: I was working full-time until pretty recently, DS was totally non-verbal until about 6 months ago, he wasn’t at all consistent in his bowel habits, and to top it off, he was afraid of the toilet.  (Now he loves it, go figure).  In the beginning, I had to try several times to get him to even sit on the toilet, now I can hardly get him off.  Who knew? 

Wish I would have thought of the sink, that probably would have worked and we could have started a little earlier! 

I’ve got another kid coming, so it would be nice to get DS1 out of diapers before that happens, fortunately I’ve got quite a bit of time yet before it takes on any kind of urgency.

Some nights, DS stays pretty dry.  Others, not so much.  He’s definitely doing a lot better than he was though (used to poop at night/during naps regularly, and now I’m not seeing that happening anymore).  I’m not as worried about the nighttime end of things because given family history on both sides, it probably won’t happen anytime soon, and frankly I can live with that, if we can get the daytime piece going.

For the most part, we probably COULD get away with not wearing diapers during much of the day since I am home a lot more in the winter, but at the same time, I’m very reluctant to increase the amount of cleaning I have to do though…ugh.  Some people don’t mind, but I’m not one of those people… Kinda chilly to do clothing-free at this point in the year, but that would have been awesome during the summer.

DS likes using the toilet now, but that’s mainly because I have come up with an incentive system.  I tried doing it without rewards, but he wasn’t willing to drop his usual activities to go sit on the potty often enough during the day, so I ended up adding a reward, and that helped quite a bit, especially in terms of getting him to poop on the toilet.      

[MrsGregory]

rinap, leg warmers in a very washable fabric, a nice warm shirt (not a onesie) and some socks and maybe even a hat?  Or, turn the heat up!  I'm always a fan of turning the heat up!

 

[pickle18]

Originally Posted by MrsGregory 

rinap, leg warmers in a very washable fabric, a nice warm shirt (not a onesie) and some socks and maybe even a hat?  Or, turn the heat up!  I'm always a fan of turning the heat up!

 

  That's what we always did (though I love a toasty house, too!) - you can make baby legwarmers out of adult knee socks (think you can google that for info) or Baby Legs and Huggalugs are popular brands (if your baby has super chunky thighs, Huggalugs are better - and vice versa).  Also, you can try putting a prefold or plain fitted dipe (no cover) on them, and change it the second they wet it, while explaining they are peeing and/or cuing them (also, easy on and off for trying them on the potty).  That adds warmth and still gets the job done, without a giant puddle.  (we combined this with the Huggalugs, etc.)