PTing Q

kittylove

Riley hates public restrooms and has for a long time. He goes in and then cries almost the whole time. He is much better if there aren't a lot of people in there but at places like the zoo where the restroom is crowded he is a mess. He calms down quickly once out though and noise doesn't seem to bother him anywhere else.

He recently has shown some intreast in using the potty at home, and I am thinking this summer we will tackle PTing if everthing continues to go well. But what do I do about the public restrooms? How do I help him get over that fear?

dblhappiness

Is he more receptive if DH takes him? I know it worked for us to have the boys go with daddy and for some reason it squashed a lot of their fears. If it's the noise factor, I give the boys plenty of warnings and if need be have them cover their ears to make it tolerable. 

scrapmama2201

We bought one of those portable, fold up little potties (with the baggies) for public outings. I would take Ty to the car or hide him behind a bush. He was very slow to warm up to public restrooms and I hated the challenge of keeping Jake busy/not exploring the restroom while Ty used the potty. Now, he has no problem going into public restrooms but I still get the challenge of keeping Jake from touching everything.

everydayeve

It seems like I remember you and I talking once about how R and E both had an extreme fear of public restrooms. For both of them, it seemed to be the noise that bothered them. I don't have any real advice for you, but I do have some encouragement - E stopped being afraid of public restrooms once she was potty trained.

I think a big part of it for her was realizing that the loud noises were just the potties. She knew that, but I think it really stuck when she was the one using the potty herself.

And I guess I do have one piece of advice, throw a small roll of masking tape in your purse/diaper bag. LOs are some times too little for the automatic flush sensor to realize that they're still going. It did freak E out a couple of times to have the potty flush while she was still on it. You can use the tape to cover the sensor while they're on the potty.

GL! I hope it goes well!

Mrs.BoomBoom

I'd tackle home 1st

then go to some little used restrooms (maybe kid friendly like BRU)

and then work on the big restrooms

Good Luck!

futrkingsley

We also have the little foldable potty but we usually use that when there is no available restroom (like on teh side of the road).  For big places, we try to scope out and use the family bathroom.  We all go in together.  The noise is reduced since you are the only one in there.

Otherwise we just rush through it and promise some sort of treat when we are done (chocolate milk, lemonade, etc).

KellyMRocks

scrapmama2201:

We bought one of those portable, fold up little potties (with the baggies) for public outings. I would take Ty to the car or hide him behind a bush. He was very slow to warm up to public restrooms

This. For Grey, he hated the flushing. So I kept the baggies in the car and had him pee in those. It's called the Potette potty and you can get it at BRU. 

 

kittylove

everydayeve:

It seems like I remember you and I talking once about how R and E both had an extreme fear of public restrooms. For both of them, it seemed to be the noise that bothered them. I don't have any real advice for you, but I do have some encouragement - E stopped being afraid of public restrooms once she was potty trained.

I think a big part of it for her was realizing that the loud noises were just the potties. She knew that, but I think it really stuck when she was the one using the potty herself.

And I guess I do have one piece of advice, throw a small roll of masking tape in your purse/diaper bag. LOs are some times too little for the automatic flush sensor to realize that they're still going. It did freak E out a couple of times to have the potty flush while she was still on it. You can use the tape to cover the sensor while they're on the potty.

GL! I hope it goes well!

Thank you so much for the advice and the hope! I will remeber the tape trick and it is nice to know she got better at it. I will admit it isn't as bad as it once was, he does okay in private rooms like the family one at the mall. So maybe one day soon he will be better at the big ones.

Boomboom: Yes one step at a time.For the record he went 2 hours this am without an accident! But I felt the need to ask now rather than after I freak him out by trying to use a public restroom. I don't want to discourage him either if he asks to use the potty while out. Knowlage is power, right!?

tiki_t

We play mommy hovercraft over the toilet. Yep, I hold them above it. They think it is a fun game. It's better than them screaming.