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3rd Trimester
dstceo41
member
If you have a toddler at home (2-3 yrs) - HELP!
dstceo41
member
My son will be 3 in February and I am really getting concerned because he has ZERO interest in potty training. I mean none whatsoever. I was really hoping not to have 2 in diapers (2nd baby due in December), but it is just not going well.
I have tried everything under the sun. Most of the books I have looked into still indicate that him being this age and not potty trained is normal for boys, but good grief! These #2 diapers are getting out of control (sorry for the TMI!)
Just reaching out to see if anyone has any suggestions...I'm tapped out
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Re: If you have a toddler at home (2-3 yrs) - HELP!
The first 3 days were horrible. She treated the thick training pants as diapers. I tried bribes and all. On the fourth day I decided to let her go naked and she did not have one accident. I think she needed to really notice when she had to go. I would also make sure she went every time I went and before we sever left the house. Eventually I didn't have to ask her and she would go on her own. Pooping took a little longer, but she got the hang of it.
Really your LO just has to be ready and it requires a lot of patience. I wanted to give up every day...even 2 weeks later, but with time it got better. Like you said it's normala for your LO to not be ready at this time. If it becomes too much of a battle, I would take a break and try in another couple weeks or when he shows more signs of being ready.
Some kids just aren't into it very early. That being said what have you tried so far?
I'd skip from diapers to all underwear for the day (not naps/night) - no pull-ups. Every boy I know who did pull-ups potty trained about a year later than those who didn't. Then you can try potty training in 3-days and just reward the heck out of sitting on the potty. My kid had never had an M&M or gummy bear before potty training and got about 20 mini-M&Ms his first few days for just trying to sit on the potty - didn't even have to go. Then we slowly weaned to only getting M&Ms for going on the potty and finally to only getting them from pooping in the potty.
Bribes were well worth it in this case (don't use those for any other activities) and I was soooo happy to only have one kid in diapers after about 3 weeks. It's tough, but so very worth it and my kid doesn't have any issues for pushing him.
ETA: I started potty training right at 2 years for my oldest and about 2 1/2 for my youngest.
I also potty-trained my sister's kid when she left for the weekend and used the same technique. He was a 3 1/2 year old who was still going in his pull-ups and after 3 days with us, he was in underwear all day and only pull-ups at night and never regressed. Mini M&Ms are like magic!
Good luck.
...baby #3 is here...
I'm going to be all by myself here but I thought having 2 in diapers was far, far easier than having a newly potty trained toddler. My daughter was 25 months when the next baby came along and she showed no interest in PT at all. A week before her 3rd bday, it all clicked and she did it without any issue.
Then, I swear to God, we stopped at every bathroom in the Detroit-metro area, all while I was hauling a 10-month-old around. I will be in a similar situation now with the new baby and the aforementioned 10-month-old (now 20-months-old). This is not to say I'd discourage any real interest, but, in my opinion, having a newly potty trained toddler and a baby isn't all it's cracked up to be, lol.
So true about visiting every public bathroom...I'd rather do that when your kiddo #2 is young and strapped to you or in their carrier than with a mobile baby - it's amazing where you might have to stop during those first few months of potty training.
...baby #3 is here...
Oh I'll agree with you that a mobile baby is a freakin' nightmare in a public bathroom. I think the germ factor does me in with public bathrooms and infants. Like just breathing the air of the public bathroom will infect them with something. I'd love to just avoid it completely. I am a clean freak though and personally avoid all public restrooms unless absolutely necessary. Or if my 3 year old is with me : ) It's a no-win situation!! LOL
Haha, my username should read "3Girlsand1BoyMama"...with #5 on the way! (and then we're done.)
Me, 33, DH, 32 DDs 9, 7, 4 and DS 2. EDD #5 4-29-15
I can totally see this! We started PTing DS right after he turned 2. I was home all summer so we were really committed to it. For the first few months he still couldn't tell us when he had to go and we would have to put him on the potty every 30 minutes or so. He was basically naked the entire summer. It was only over the past month that he started holding it a good amount of time and telling us when he had to go. When DD comes he will be a good 5-6 months into PTing (hopefully we won't have regression issues). Anyway, PTing is a lot more work on you than the diapers are, so if your LO isn't ready I would just not worry about it now and wait till he is. Plus, PTing while being really pregnant has been very physically demanding with all the bending and lifting.
I'm probably on my own here, but we did the 3 day PTing method (by lora jensen) and it worked, AND it doesn't require that your kid show any interest. It simply requires that they are at least 22 months old for the sake of them being able to communicate their needs to you. Our DD was 25 months old, but completely disinterested. We just stopped diapers cold turkey, I didn't leave the house for 3 days, pushed the fluids, and by 3 days she had peeing down completely, and within a week, had pooping down as well. ( she would tell me she had to poop as she was running to the bathroom, but never made it in time until after a week of her getting over her fear of pooping on the toilet).
I was like you--I didn't want to do 2 in diapers, but I also CD, so maybe it was the laundry factor that really made me dread it. We'll see if she regresses,but if nothing else, I have really enjoyed these past 4 months of not changing diapers!
Our LO will be 3 in December. #2 is due in January. He also has zero interest in potty training. We were hoping not to have two in diapers but I'm not going to push him, so we've stopped worrying about potty training for now!
Also hating the #2 diapers. I've tried to get him to start to tell us if he's pooped, the quicker we get it off the better.
ds didnt become day trained until he was 3.5 years old. he is 4.5 now and is still not night trained.
for us, we just kind of let it happen. we had reward charts for going potty (ex. peeing 15 times means you get to pick a toy or go to a special place). there was no punishment for not going potty, only reward for doing so. we would increase the amount of times he would need to go to the bathroom each time he completed a chart.
he will get there...as you said, it can take boys a little longer.
~after 34 cycles we finally got our 2nd little bundle of joy~
My IF blog
I had 2u2 so both in diapers for nearly a year before the older one trained.
You know what? NBD. It's the same damn number of diapers.
And ditto the pp's who mentioned how much more difficult it is to have a newly potty trained kiddo on your hands when you are also hauling around an infant. I had forgotten about that. Good times.
I mean, best of luck with the PTing and all that because once they are out...woohoo! But don't let having 2 in diapers bother you.
I actually have a 2 & 3 year old (boy and girl) but they were PT fully (daytime, naps and bedtime) at 15 & 17 months old. It was very easy- took less then 3 days. We just treated it like a regular milestone. Silverware by 1 years old, PT at 1 1/2 years old, etc. I will also say that we CD so I know my kids had that advantage (before disposable diapers kids were PT at 1 year- 18 months old). I can see your DS point of not wanting to do it because he's had the convinence of being in diapers for almost 3 years. For us, we just stopped using diapers one day completely. Put them in underwear and congratulated them for being dry. We took them on a timer (that way it was the timer telling them to go vs. us so no power struggles). When they went they got an M&M (first time ever having candy). Each day we extended the time. Because of their age, we just expected them to hold it for 2 hours and we would take them but we were very surprised that by the end of the week they got sick of us telling them when to go and they started telling us. Again, it was really simple. We NEVER punished or yelled at accidents just said oh no, you're underwear isn't dry and would congratulate them when they went potty and/or when they had dry underwear. But I also think discipline and listening skills need to be good to do it otherwise it will be a power struggle.
I also wanted to add that we PT DS when DD was 4 weeks old and we were on baby leave. I think it was a perfect time to do it because he was so excited that he was a big boy vs. a baby.
'Til He returns, or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I stand.