Toilet Training - When to start? What to do?

My son is nearly two. He lets us know sometimes when he needs his nappy
changed.

When and how do we start?

"Rob" wrote in message
...
My son is nearly two. He lets us know sometimes when he needs his nappy
changed.

When and how do we start?

Others will chime in with more info but you should gauge readiness at least
in part based on his ability to pull his pants down and up independently.
If you have not yet taught him that skill then it sounds like now is a good
time to start. Just remember, take him at his pace and don't pressure him.
It will happen, although not necessarily on the parental preference time
table.

Aula

One thing with a young 2 yr old-be aware that you can have a LONG period of
going on schedule and not being aware of accidents. My DD was mostly
schedule trained, with occasional accidents, from about 22 months to 2 1/2
(as in, usually using only one diaper during the day)-then, at 2 1/2, almost
overnight really "got it"-and the difference it made was obvious. We started
at about 22 months, when she started taking off her diaper when it was wet
and following me into the bathroom, just sitting on the potty at set times
(mostly after waking up and after meals), and she got into the habit of
going at those times quite quickly. We went to thick cloth trainers with a
plastic cover except for daycare when she got pretty reliable, then to
underpants at 2 1/2.

Having said that, starting a schedule when the child first starts showing an
interest may be "Training the parent" instead of true toilet training (as
DD's daycare teacher said last year, while trying to say that they weren't
willing to even consider taking this child who was otherwise dry all the
time to the potty after lunch because it was too much hassle for them)-but
it made life much, much easier.

FWIW, when she started staying dry through her nap, within a few weeks, she
also started staying dry overnight-and it really was like all of a sudden
the light came on.

Aula wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
My son is nearly two. He lets us know sometimes when he needs his nappy
changed.

When and how do we start?

Others will chime in with more info but you should gauge readiness at least
in part based on his ability to pull his pants down and up independently.
If you have not yet taught him that skill then it sounds like now is a good
time to start. Just remember, take him at his pace and don't pressure him.
It will happen, although not necessarily on the parental preference time
table.

Well, parental preference time is that the baby's first words after
birth are, "Mommy, where's the potty?" And there will be a mini-toilet
in the crib that the kid will use. But life's messier.

Jeff

Aula

"Jeff" wrote in message
newsixEi.3130$bf1.679@trnddc04...
Aula wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
My son is nearly two. He lets us know sometimes when he needs his nappy
changed.

When and how do we start?

Others will chime in with more info but you should gauge readiness at
least in part based on his ability to pull his pants down and up
independently. If you have not yet taught him that skill then it sounds
like now is a good time to start. Just remember, take him at his pace
and don't pressure him. It will happen, although not necessarily on the
parental preference time table.

Well, parental preference time is that the baby's first words after birth
are, "Mommy, where's the potty?" And there will be a mini-toilet in the
crib that the kid will use. But life's messier.

Jeff


Jeff, your comedic side is showing!

Aula wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
My son is nearly two. He lets us know sometimes when he needs his nappy
changed.

When and how do we start?

Others will chime in with more info but you should gauge readiness at least
in part based on his ability to pull his pants down and up independently.
If you have not yet taught him that skill then it sounds like now is a good
time to start. Just remember, take him at his pace and don't pressure him.
It will happen, although not necessarily on the parental preference time
table.

Aula


Thanks for the advice. Interestingly over the last few days he has been
taking his pants off and running around in his nappy.

I am in no rush for toilet training to occur. The last thing I want is
this to become an unpleasant experience.

Rob wrote:
Aula wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
My son is nearly two. He lets us know sometimes when he needs his
nappy changed.

When and how do we start?

Others will chime in with more info but you should gauge readiness at
least in part based on his ability to pull his pants down and up
independently. If you have not yet taught him that skill then it
sounds like now is a good time to start. Just remember, take him at
his pace and don't pressure him. It will happen, although not
necessarily on the parental preference time table.

Aula

Thanks for the advice. Interestingly over the last few days he has been
taking his pants off and running around in his nappy.

I am in no rush for toilet training to occur. The last thing I want is
this to become an unpleasant experience.

For him..........

"Rob" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the advice. Interestingly over the last few days he has been
taking his pants off and running around in his nappy.

I am in no rush for toilet training to occur. The last thing I want is
this to become an unpleasant experience.

Wisdom is the source of patience
or is it the other way around?

Anyway, enjoy this stage. They are all fun as long as you don't let
"things" get to you, iykwim.

-Aula, mom to DS12

Hi --

There are many different ways to successfully toilet train your child.
There are many different ages at which to begin, all of which can be
successful for most children, and all of which can be terrible for some
children. (Even child-led training can be very bad for some children,
believe it or not.)

If you'd like to try training at the age of two, you can do what we did
successfully with our boys:

1. Plan for 5 days of mess. (It may not take that long.)
2. During those 5 days, dress your child in a t-shirt ONLY, nothing on
underneath. Have a potty available at all times.
3. Give your child plenty to drink. When he wets the floor (which he
probably will do for a couple of days while he figures out his own body
signals) be matter of fact and clean it up, and also let him try to get
some of it in the potty seat. (The same goes for poops.)
4. Reward him with hugs, and possibly M&Ms, each time he sits at the
potty seat (successful or not), and for getting anything at all into the
seat. You'll be able to completely dispense with the candy within just
a few weeks.
Within 3-5 days your child should have figured out his body signals and
be able to go in the toilet most of the time. Once that happens, go to
underpants at all times when your child is awake. (Sleep training is
different; it may happen now, or may take several more years. Don't
worry about it.)

Some other things to consider:

1. The ability to recognize a need to go and then use the toilet is
very different from the ability to go to a toilet and put something
in when you don't already have urgency. This is why kids go to the
bathroom before they leave the house, can't go, and 15 minutes later
are begging for a rest stop.
2. Some kids will happily use the toilet at home but refuse outside of
the home. Just wait it out.
3. During training, kids often can't wait more than 30 seconds between
recognizing urgency and going. Keep your child in pants that are
easy to pull down for at least a few weeks. No belts, zippers, etc.
4. If your child gets upset at any part of the training process, back
off cheerfully and try again later. If YOU get upset, back off and
try again later.
5. Boys like to pee together. Gather several around a toilet to
urinate at the same time and, although their aim may need improving,
every one of them will save their pee for the community event in the
bathroom. (This doesn't work with girls, alas.)
6. Some kids will pee train but refuse to poop train. Other kids will
do the reverse (but it's rarer). Take what you get and the other
will come eventually.
7. Pullups are a waste of money. They have occasional uses (ie when
taking a child someplace where you can't get up to toilet right
away, such as a lengthy drive or an airplane flight) but they are
NOT part of the toilet TRAINING process.
8. Some kids train all at once. For most kids it's more gradual, and
some accidents will happen. You have to teach everything, and some
boys NEVER learn to aim consistently. (It helps if the boys in your
house are responsible for cleaning the bathroom when they get just a
little bit older.)

There seem to be several "windows" where toilet training works well.
Elimination timing works in infancy up to about 10 months of age. My
method (call it the bare-bottom method if you like) works from about age
2 1/4 to about age 2 3/4. After that you start running into control
issues and are better off with child-led training, which can happen from
about age 3 to 4 1/2. Of course, your mileage may vary.

I hope these thoughts help,
--Beth Kevles

http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic
Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical
advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.

NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the AOL one if you would
like me to reply.

Rob wrote:
My son is nearly two. He lets us know sometimes when he needs his nappy
changed.

When and how do we start?

I've gone for child led potty training both times, my son expressed no
interest in it, so his announcement he was going to use the potty was
without warning, but I let him do it and he was basically trained in 3
days - he was 26.5 mths. With my DD, having an older brother, she saw
what was going on and showed much more interest but rarely had success,
so we would put her diaper on, then one morning she was successful and
as she was 25 mths, we decided to leave the nappy off, the results were
very variable, I posted about it here and she solved the problem for us
by asking to have a nappy put on about 4 days into it. Then 2 weeks
later she took her nappy off herself and went to the potty and hasn't
looked back and amazingly is dry at night as well. We never used pull
ups with either of them. A lot of my friends who've had problems with
potty training seem to have used pull ups and seem to have ignored early
signs/requests and it's turned into a battle of wills, rather than a
physical development thing. FWIW, both mind were in reusables.

Cheers
Anne