Potty training questions.

MoFree · April 2014

At what age did your child start potty training? How long was the process from wearing diapers to staying dry and wearing undies?

DD is 22 months, wears cloth diapers so she feels wetter than if she wore sposies. Lately she really dislikes being wet and had started to use the potty during the day. She is very proud when she pees in it. I don't know if it's just a fluke or the beginning of PT.

Cwhitaker27 · April 2014

We started PTing right around 2 years.

We prepped DS by telling him that on a particular day we were throwing away diapers and would start wearing big boy undies. I took him to Wal Mart to pick out his own undies. When the day arrived, we planned it on a long weekend so we could be with him,we threw out his diapers, put on big boy undies and told him he needed to go on the potty.
We let him go about his business but kept a watchful eye on him and ran him to the potty whenever we saw any antsy cues. In the beginning he wouldn't tell us he needed to go but after 2 days or so he began to say hurry pee pee. He definitely had lots of accidents but that's how he learned. When he had an accident we would take him to the potty and tell him he needed to pee on the potty not in his pants.

When we started we only put diapers on him at nap and bedtime. Once we knew he could hold it for an hour or more we got rid of diapers at nap and then soon after bedtime.

Sounds like she's ready especially if she notices being wet and doesn't like it. My biggest suggestion is once you start don't go back to diapers, just put on the undies and go for it!!!

Good luck! We were very lucky and it was a smooth transition. Hope the same goes for you too.

Mnerani · April 2014

Following, as I'm thinking I'll start around 18 months

ColleenS629 · April 2014

We started at 27.5 months. We could have started sooner but we followed the book Oh Crap Potty Training so we needed to wait for my husband to take a few days off from work so we could give one on one attention to our twins. FWIW, the author says optimal time is 20-30 months and it sounds like she is ready. Good luck!

queenbone · April 2014

We started DS1 the summer before he turned 3. He was showing signs, like your daughter. It has been a much slower and more challenging process with DS2. He's 3ys 4 mo and still not potty trained. I just can't focus enough of my time on him to help facilitate the process. We've been working on it for m o n t h s. He's made great progress (less shitting on the floor) but if he isn't half naked he will pee in his pants.

DS1 pt'd much quicker, but was scared of public toilets, so it was always a battle when we were out and I let him pee on trees in parking lots sometimes just to avoid a major fit in a public stall (or if we couldn't make it in time.) DS2 on the other hand loves to use a public toilet. He'll run to a bathroom shouting, "I have to go poop!" Interesting how different they are about it.

imoverit · April 2014

We started at 18 months just introducing potty then at 2 we tried the weekend potty training where he would be taken every 30 min at first and the stretched to every hour. Worked for a litlle while and then lots of accidents again. We decided to be lax about it and then he decided he wanted to start going. We still do diapers at night and nap but undies during the day. I wish i had waited to actually train closer to 3 but introduce the potty around 2 1/2.

Aliki · April 2014

We started potty training during the summer (for my convenience) when she was 1.5 years old. She didn't show any signs of readiness but I thought I'd try to encourage her. I'd take off her diapers and put her on the potty every hour and turn on the faucet. After a few days, it started to work and she'd consistently go when the water came on, and I'd praise her. We gradually increased the time from 1 hour to 2 hours to eventually 3 hours, etc.

From time she was wearing diapers until she was consistently staying dry and wearing undies during the day was probably 2 months? (i.e. we worked on it the whole summer).

I have to admit that she does not stay dry through the night though because she's a very heavy sleeper and can't always hold it for 8 - 9 hours. She is 4 years old now and we put a pull-up on her for night sleeps. In the morning, 85% of the time the pull-up is dry, and 15% of the time it's wet.

We never had a problem with poo. By 1.5 years, I knew her signs for when she was going #2 so she never pooped in her panties even once. Just lots of pee accidents.

laura1 · April 2014

DS was 3 years 1 month when he trained. I had a potty in the house starting at 2years and a couple of months, but he REFUSED to sit on it. DD on the other hand, LOVED to sit on it. She was just over a year when we were trying to train DS. I ended up buying another potty so that she had one too.

Anyways, once DS turned 3, I told him he was a big boy and didn't need diapers any more. We took them away one weekend, he peed on the floor 3 times, then never again. He had one accident at a playground once, but that was it. He was night trained a month before he turned 4.

DD was 2.5 - I put it off since I was pg with #3 and didn't think she needed to learn before the baby was born. When the baby was a month old, she told me she didn't need diapers any more since they were for babies, and refused to wear them. She had one accident and that was it. She still wears a pull up at bedtime.

For me, training was pretty easy. And like everything else in parenting, I am sure nothing I did had any impact. Surely DD#2 will be very challenging to train - just to prove that point!

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