STM questions

[nettje]

Rather than resurrecting the thread from last week, I thought I'd start another one...

I've got some questions for our second timers:

1. When did you start potty training? DD is going to be three at the beginning of July and has shown no interest in potty training. The closest she's gotten is expressing when she has gone.

2. When did you put your LO into preschool? In our community, we can start preschool at 3 as long as the LO is potty trained...

I ask as we were with some friends this weekend who ha a LO who is 7 months older than DD and she's already potty trained and in Preschool. I felt a little judged that DD wasn't on par with their DD.

[bendherova]

1. We bought him a little potty at 18mo. It was a toy to him, he'd sit on it at bath time here and there. Around Age 3, he'd actually go on it before bath time, which was awesome. We tried to PT then, but he resisted. At 3y 3m he made the decision to go for it. He led the charge and would still ask for diapers, only he wouldn't use them. about 2w later, he said no more diapers and we haven't looked back, even at night. He slips up here and there, usu on big schedule changes.

2. He was in daycare for the first 3 years and then we moved and now I sah. he went to preschool at 3.5 (fall after 3rd bday). His school does not require him to be PT'ed, but he is.

[nettje]

Thanks Ladies! I was thinking that DD would probably be ready around the 3 and a bit mark. She likes to flush the toilet after I use it but won't sit in her own potty yet (we bought it about a month or two ago). I also got her some big girl underwear but no interest in them yet.

I'm also trying not to let the other couples judgment to sway what we do. I don't want DD to have issues with the toilet if it's forced on her.

[veggiemo]

Good morning! Thanks for posting!

1. DS is 2 and a half (half birthday is next week, actually!) and he's been fully trained for about a month. He started going on the potty regularly right before his second birthday, no push from me other than I bought a potty seat and periodically asked if he wanted to try it. He was pretty interested right away, especially when me and DH were going, he would sit too. He loves to copy "adult" behaviors so that really helped move that along quickly. We just continued on like that for months, he would go before bath time and before bed time (and would even get out of the tub if he had to pee) almost every day. One day I put him in underwear and he ran to the potty on his own to pee and I knew that meant he was probably ready. We hit a snag with a few days of poop accidents and I questioned whether I tried too soon, but he pulled it together and he never had any more accidents. To this day he's never had a pee accident.

2. Preschool-As soon as it's free to send him, whenever that is I don't know. 4? Never? I need to look into what's available. He would be there in a heartbeat right now if I could afford it. He would LOVE it. I don't have care lined up for this new baby (in-laws watch DS at least twice a week along with his two cousins that are the same age, so they are just way too over-worked to take on an infant). So I've got to focus on that first, before I can pay for DS to be in preschool.

[billyhorrible]

1. We never officially potty trained. At 2 he started showing interest in what DH and I were doing so we left the door open while we used the restroom. He also was peeing as soon as we put him in the bath, so we got him a potty ring and asked if he wanted to sit on the potty at that time.

We'd ask if he wanted to sit on the potty other times and he always said no, so we didn't push it. He did love underwear, so between dinner and bath (his dry times) we put him in underwear.

Around 2.5 he asked to poop on the potty and that was the start for us. He never pooped in a diaper again. A couple months later he wanted to stop using diapers and only wear underwear. Since that time he's only had 2 accidents, so I consider that to mean he potty trained himself.

2. Mine started preschool at 2. His daycare was a part of a larger academy (infant through 12th grade) so they just moved him up. He didn't need to be potty trained. We moved around 2.5 and his new preschool didn't require potty training either.

[tiffbot]

1. Despite the fact MIL asks me if he's potty trained yet every time I talk to her lately, he's not quite 21 months yet and not something we have even considered focusing on right now. We also have a potty out for him that he sometimes sits on at bathtime, but that's it.

2. It's also 4 in my community. Since I live in such a small town and have known all 11 kids that will be in his future grade, yes he will be going then haha.

I will have to think if I have anything to ask this week, thanks for starting the thread!

[junch817]

1. My DD turned 3 earlier this month. She has excelled in so many different things in life - and then there is potty training. It is absolute hell. We have had a potty for 1.5 yrs and she has peed on it 1 time. ONE. And that was within the first few days of getting it. I ask all the time and occasionally she'll sit on it, but she never does anything.

3 weeks ago we had pretty much the worst day we've ever had with her. I finally planned it all out, bought rewards, new underwear, made a chart - you name it. Talked it up for days, if not weeks, that I was putting her in underwear on Saturday. I was all - no going back, diapers are gone. Well, It was a truly terrible experience that I wish I could erase from my memory. She is not being stubborn, she is TERRIFIED of going in the potty or having an accident in underwear or on the floor. She had her one and only accident around 11:00 and it freaked her out so much that she held it for the next 8 hours. I won't go into the details, but I have NEVER seen her so upset and scared. And 100% know I did the right thing in throwing in the towel. It was awful.

So my 3 year old is not even close to being trained and I both hate it, and accept it. Looks like I'll have 2 in diapers in a few months. The best advice I have (for us both) is don't give two shits what anyone else thinks or says. This is something we physically can not do for them. We have no control.

2. We put DD in preschool this past fall at 2.5. It is 2x a week for 2 hours and it's perfect for her. She needed some socialization and she LOVES it. She did not have to be potty trained for the 2 yr old room, but I think she is supposed to be for the 3 yr old room. I keep telling her she won't get to go back, but she had no grasp on the concept of time so she can't comprehend what I mean.

[trixi282]

1. When did you start potty training? DD is going to be three at the beginning of July and has shown no interest in potty training. The closest she's gotten is expressing when she has gone.

I did a 3 day down and dirty potty training with J when she was 2yr 4 mo (over Thanksgiving weekend).  I tried shortly after her 2nd birthday but she did not want anything to do with it... when we tried again she took to it very quickly.  Do you have a potty and encourage PT with your DD or have you been talking about it and trying at all?  I would certainly start trying soon if you haven't yet.  She needs to be ready, yes - but she also has to be encouraged.

2. When did you put your LO into preschool? In our community, we can start preschool at 3 as long as the LO is potty trained...

Our DC starts 3yo preschool at 33 months if they're ready.  J was in the 3yo room yesterday and was testing it out.  She loved it!  She will be 33mo in April, so I'm hoping we can get her into the preschool room right away.  Our preschool room though they do have to be potty trained to start.  Otherwise she would stay in the toddler room until she was potty trained.

[nettje]

trixi282 we talk about the potty at least once a day. We have a potty for her to train on and ask her if she wants to sit on it. She flips out if we try to put her on it. We ask her if she wants to wear big girl underwear and she says "no. Diapers." That's pretty much the same response if we ask her if she wants to go potty. "No. I go in diapers."

[Widget123]

1. DD started potty training a few months ago at 18 months just because she is at daycare and moved up to the toddler room where they put them on the potty at regular intervals. At home we just try to make it part of her routine at least to sit on the potty and try, but it isnt always easy. But she still isnt potty trained by any stretch of the imagination. Many of the older kids in her room (which goes up to 3) arent fully potty trained yet either.

2. Daycare starts pre-school at 3. Im not aware of apotty trained requirement; i think its just age.

Dont let another mom try to make you feel bad with where your kid is at compared to theirs. Every kid is different



Eta: DD loves the potty training books we have. Someones we read them when she is sitting on the potty and she finds them encouraging.

[caseyathebat]

1. I started trying at 2.5 with DS but it was a struggle. I bought him pull ups and he liked those and instead of pushing I just always encouraged and invited him to go potty with me. Even if he was just sitting on his little potty. Then 4 days before he turned three he said mommy I need to go potty and ran to the potty and from that day on he went in the potty. We had a couple accidents at night but he never had one during the day. To be honest I have no idea how it worked I kinda winged it. I think it depends on the kid In all honesty.

2. DS went to preschool at 4. He was at day care till then. We chose the montessori by our house because his private school he goes to now won't allow kids until a certain age and he didn't meet the cut off.

Good luck with the potty training. That and getting kids to hurl in buckets are the biggest hurdles we face as parents. At least 8 my book.

[billyhorrible]

Mar 26, 2015 12:09:22 GMT -5 nettje said:

trixi282 we talk about the potty at least once a day. We have a potty for her to train on and ask her if she wants to sit on it. She flips out if we try to put her on it. We ask her if she wants to wear big girl underwear and she says "no. Diapers." That's pretty much the same response if we ask her if she wants to go potty. "No. I go in diapers."

I know it's frustrating, but I can assure you that eventually they all want to stop wearing diapers at some point in time.  As is often said in my family (grandmother, mother, aunts, etc.) about all these kind of things "It's not like the kid is going to be going to college (fill in the blanks with appropriate behavior - in diapers/needing to be rocked to sleep/drinking from a bottle/with a pacifier)"

[trixi282]

Hmm, until she's interested it will certainly be more difficult to get her going.  Some kids just aren't ready until later.

Is she in regular diapers, or pull-ups? Pull ups, in my experience don't hold as much... which could be frustrating to you changing her more often, but could also be annoying to her?! Did she pick out her own big-girl underwear?

You could try to read lots of books about going potty and how fun it is maybe?  My DD loved this book we got from a friend: A Potty For Me!  She ended up wanting to read it multiple times a day before we even truly started potty training.  Moms on my other board had other books their kids loved too...

Don't compare too much, she'll be ready when she's ready.  And like billyhorrible said, she won't go to college in diapers! 

Another "trick" I've heard from others, but have never used myself, is to put underwear under the diaper so they start to really feel the wet sensation and hopefully not like it so they start to want to go on the potty and not feel that way. 

[tatersalad]

1. DS is 2 1/2 and shows zero interest in potty training. I'm not buying any Pottys or pushing it until he's ready. Diapers are easier than cleaning up messes.

2. Luckily our preschool doesn't require the 2/3's to be potty trained. He started half days 3xs a week just before he turned 2, and will do 2 full days this fall because they have changed their hours/available days. I'm very happy I was able to send him early, and plan to send this baby at 15 months as well now that I am aware of the early childhood program.

[brennaz]

1. DS was potty trained by 3, his preschool required it. We tried to start it around 2, but he just wasn't ready yet. About six, maybe eight months later we tried again, without the little kid toilet (and with cheerios in the toilet for him to learn to aim, which he thought was the best game ever). It was unbelievably easier the second time, I think both because he was more ready, and because we tried a technique that was more fun for him. I don't know exactly when, but it was closer to 3 than 2 I'm pretty sure, and it was a short process.

2. He started when he was three, but only 2-3 days a week, a few hours a day. The next year we put him in 5 days a week, four hours a day, sort of a stepladder into the full-day kindergarten schedule.

[lalamomma]

DD just turned 3.5 and doesn't care about the potty at all. She is indifferent about where she goes. If you ask she will sit down and try. If you don't she just goes in her pull up.
She has always been the kid that had her own timeline but I am getting really impatient.
I've tried rewards, naked, pull ups, regular underwear and she just goes and says "mommy I went potty".
On the bright side when we go out in public and I use the bathroom she cheers for me lol

She started a two day a week pre school at 2.

[tulips114]

1. DD1 was 2 1/2, and I pushed before she showed interest because of constant diaper rash. DD2 was 22 months, so it's been about 3 months. She was showing interest, but it's not going great.

2. I'm a working mama, so pre school is basically daycare. DD1 is in the equivalent to the preschool class. They go in when they're 3/4 depending on their bday and when they will start kinder. Next for DD1 is the preK class for her year before kinder, she'll move in there in August. DD2 is 2 yrs behind her.

[alayne926]

DS is somewhat interested in the potty as a novelty. He just turned two in November and was SUPER excited when I brought the potty home for him. He has pooped on it once....for the babysitter. Daycare is trying to get him to sit on the potty there, but he's being stubborn about sitting on it, so I told them not to force it. He's been like that with everything, though. When he was 9 1/2 months old, he was cruising around furniture like no one's business, we thought for sure he'd be walking by his first birthday....NOPE....13 months... I'm going to let him figure this out in his own time. I'm not going to stress both of us out by trying to get him trained before the baby comes. He does come with me when I go to the bathroom and will sit on the potty before bathtime. Every once in awhile he will as to go, so we take him, but he doesn't do anything.

He's in daycare and at 3, he'll go to the preschool room. We probably won't do the school district one, because of their schedule, it will be difficult to get him there and picked up with our work schedules.

[kimberlyandthor2014]

Mar 26, 2015 15:46:48 GMT -5 @jemomma said:

I have a question for moms of toddlers or who have had toddlers.  My DD is a little over 2 years old.  Lately she has been screaming at everything.  I took her to the playplace at the mall today and anytime another kid was playing with something she wanted, she stood there and screamed. She has also been just randomly screaming to express a general unhappiness with anything (like if I leave the room, or she is frustrated with something she is doing).  I feel like I am constantly just listening to her scream all day.  I have tried time-outs, discussing it with her, taking away whatever toy she may throw whilst screaming (super fun). Nothing seems to work with her.  Anyone else gone through this or have a suggestion?  My DS never did anything like this, so I am at a loss.

I can feel your pain. My DD went through a short time like this but luckily it was only a few months long. I think it sounds like you are doing all you can, just keep making sure she doesn't get her way by screaming, and she should eventually learn that it won't get her anywhere. It's really hard. Years two and three felt impossible, but just when I felt like I couldn't go on, things began to shift. I wish I had better advice, but I just held my ground and eventually the behavior tapered off.