How old was your son(s) when he was potty trained and how long did it take you to potty train them?
We're going to a local preschool event in town tonight and I'm guessing most will require the kids to be pottytrained. Charlie will be 3 in December and my dr. told me most boys are still in diapers at 3 but I was hoping its possible for C to be PT'd. I don't feel he is ready yet and doesn't communicate too well so I am not planning on attempting it now but hopefully later this year.
Re: Moms of boys
I have a December boy too and we PT right after Christmas, so it has been 3 weeks. It took 3 days to get down to only 1 accident a day, then a week for him to be dry most days and now we still have times where he forgets but I imagine those will lessen with time. I don't consider him fully trained yet, because I still exspect accidents to happen from time to time but from here on out I think they will be once a week things.
We tried to PT last May, June, and October and all were fat failures! He wasn't ready and each time I gave up day 3 knowing we tried hard and he wasn't there yet, but that we were making progress. I think you could do it before 3 depending on him, but I was glad not to have a school preasuring me to do it.
I don't know where you live but most of the 3's classes we looked into were fine with diapers. We have one friend in a class that requires pull ups and I know of one that requires fully PT but I looked at near 20 schools and those are the only 2 schools I can think of with a PT requirement.
My son was about 2 years, 9 months. We did a modified 3 day method with great success. Maybe had one accident. Before the actual training we had the potty around quite a bit (for maybe 4 months). We also had him run around nearly naked in the evenings (for a few weeks). To get used to the feeling of accidents and to try the potty.
BTW- some pre-schools are okay w/ kids in diapers. Some may charge a bit extra though. We belong to a co-op- where there isn't a rule that kids have to be PT-ed (and no charge for non-PT-ed kids). If they are not PT-ed the moms of those kids agree to help each other out.
GL!!
2 weeks before his 3rd birthday. We also did a modified 3 day method and it worked great for us. By the 3rd day he was pretty much accident free and a few weeks later he was night trained as well (on his own, we weren't trying to train for night). However, I have a couple of friends with boys who are almost 4 and still not ready, just depends on the kid.
That said, in our area it seems like fewer preschools are requiring potty training. We attended a preschool fair when we were looking for our older son and only a couple schools had that requirement, most had the philosophy that kids will train when ready and not to push. Neither his previous preschool nor the coop we attend now require potty training.
We are taking the long way with baz- which means he's offered the potty regularly during the day, but if it doesn't happen it doesnt happen. I'm in such shape that he's in pull ups most days, but if Steve is home then he's in undies. We have maybe one accident on those days, and it's usually because we all get distracted.
I say this, though, as he's having weird tummy trouble and we were very glad to have him in pull ups yesterday and will leave him in them today.
My advice is to maybe start offering once a day - before bath or sonething- so he can get familiar with it and then follow his lead.
And the geniuses who do signing time have a potty time DVD that we love. You may find it helpful at some point.
Good luck!
We actually hoped this would work for DS as he showed interest and awareness at about 18 months so we got a potty and encouraged him to use it at wake up and bath time. He did use it sporadically but never got more interested and in fact got less willing to use it with time. Hence my final decision to push him a full year later to just do it already.
I knew that my window before he got really controlling about it was closing and I was scared.
We also let H decide when he was ready. He said no to diapers around his 3rd birthday and we just went with undies and trying every 15-20 minutes and did that for a few days and just went from there. Once I figured out about how long he could go w/out trying, I adjusted asking. I think it took us maybe 2 weeks to get to accident free.
We use nappies at night though b/c he doesn't wake up dry at all overnight.
He's had a potty to play with and get used to since he was around 18 months. It never curved his curiosity, but when we did try to push it (which was the same time he gave up pacis) we had a lot of behavior problems and poor sleeping so we eased off the potty learning b/c i was more interested in the paci being gone
Still working on PT at our house. I started to try to PT when he turned 2, was doing pretty good at it up until a month before I had DS # 2. WE started trying to PT again and he's finally doing better after a HUGE regression after DS # 2 came.
I would say he is still not PT'd and we also are finding that preschools require it. I hope he'll be fully PT'd in the next few months (he turned 3 on 1/9)
Only a few preschools I know of, don't allow diapers. I hope its a non issue for you guys!
Logan is almost 3 and has no interest what so ever to sit on the potty. I'm so over 2 in diapers!! LOL
I really appreciate all the feedback and comments - thanks!
We spoke with about 4 preschools that we were interested in at the fair and all require potty training.
There was one that said "in our literature, we say we will help during with PT'ing during the first month of school but to be honest, we have never turned someone away because of PT-ing". We want C in a part time class (2.5-3 hrs 2 days a week) so we may be able to pull it off since he won't be in class too long.
I totally agree with taking the kids lead and not trying to push it. I don't think C is anywhere near ready but I'm hoping he will before the fall.