Please share your potty training advice (before and while at Dis)

[mask_w03]

DD just turned one and we will be going to DisneyWorld by the end of this year when she is 20months old (4months away from her turning 2). She has already shown some interest in the potty and loves to flush it. DH and I can't decide if we want to try potty training over the summer/fall when she seems more interested or waiting till after Disney. I know waiting won't be that big of a deal, but if she is ready to use the potty i would love to be able for her to.

I just need advice and any tips incase we do potty train before we go to disney.
Thanks!
Margaux

 

[tms295]

even if you do potty training before disney... bring pull-ups...
Little bladders can't hold it for long... and the excitement may make her forget that she has to go... Accidents happen

 

[kate]

My profession deals with children and the advice we give is to wait till the child is three OR shows a strong interest in potty training. It tends to take only a few days if you hit the right time. That said, we had intended to wait till our daughter was three to potty train, at 26 months she decided it was time and the deed was accomplished in a day. Frankly I think it was a lot easier to grab a diaper bag and go than to have to try to find a "clean" potty every time she need to go. AND the public toilets are too big and scary for little ones which means you either need to carry around a portable seat (and yes, they do sell them) or have the child hold on for dear life (placing their hands in places you really would rather they not.) In the end, let your child be the guide.

Good luck. Kids are great!!!!

 

[blessdmommy]

Wait till after Disney. That's what we did and we don't regret it one bit.

 

[5 Disney Fans]

Unless she decides on her own before then that she wants to be potty trained.

It is much easier to change diapers while traveling. I can't tell you how stressful it is to be on a plane with the seat belt signs on or in a car w/ no rest stop in sight and hear your little one announce "I have to go potty!" B/c when they have to go the HAVE to go!

Also, I have a horrible recollection of waiting a hour to meet Ariel (DD's FAVORITE) and being 3 people away when she announced the need to use the potty! It also happened in ride lines as well.

Someone else suggested pull ups. That is a great idea if she does train b/f Disney!

Good luck

 

[Hannathy]

I would never let a Disney trip determine when to potty train. If she shows signs go for it both mine were trained by 2, one at 19 months and my nephew was before 2 also. I never carried a potty seat I had enough to carry around disney they all used the reg. toilet seat and believe it or not all have lived without "catching" anything although I have never figured out what they were supposed to catch. We just let my guy know when we were by the bathroom and let him know when we were getting ready to get in a line with no way out. He did fine at 2 1/2 at Disney. The auto flushers are more of a problem till they get used to them.

 

[crisi]

My experience is that the time between "shows interest" and "is realibly potty trained" was more than 18 months with both our children. Neither trained until 3 1/2. My daughter turned into a power struggle, my son was simply unsure until that age and didn't want to leave the security of a pull up. Don't start fretting about this now, or the potential is for a LONG two years while you wonder if the child who showed such promise at a year will really go off to college in a pull-up.

 

[tmarquez]

I think you should go ahead and start when she shows interest. I read somewhere how compared to other countries and cultures, we wait the longest to potty train, alot of european countries start them off as infants. Don't worry about the trip because who knows where she'll be in the process at that time, you can deal with that then!

My DD(3) started showing interest in the potty very early as well. We decided to go with it. This might sound kind of wierd, but we figured since she was so young and the comunication wasn't there like it would be with an older child, we went about it like training a puppy (no we didn't rub her nose in it!) What we did was try to anticipate when she would need to go based on her fluid intake, if she just woke up, and her activity level. It's pretty easy to figure out once you start paying attention. When I thought she would have to go I would sit her on the toilet (we used the regular toilet with one of those potty seats that you put on top to make the whole smaller). She quickly learned what "it felt like" to need to go. We never pressured her. She was completely trained both day and night by 19 months.

When we were at Disney during/and soon after training, she wore a pull up (until one day she refused it). But even with the pull up we NEVER stood in a long line or went in a show without taking her to the bathroom first. I think the most important thing to know is that we, as parents, can head off accidents (most anyway) by planning ahead a little and realizing that when they say they need to go...we need to stop whatever we're doing no matter the inconvenience to us...yes...even on vacation!

Jusy my 2 cents!

 

[RuthLS]

So while we are on the topic..and I don't mean to hijack this thread..but....

my first son just turned 3 Feb and still shows no interest in being potty trained. He runs when it's diaper time and will sit in a dirty diaper and not tell us. He's even had a leak out without telling us.

We are going to Disney in May and are waiting until after to train. My question is...I was told 3 is a good time. Should we not even try if he shows no interest even though after Disney he'll be 3 yrs 4 months? I don't really care about the age issue. I'd prefer we are able to train him quickly and without issue or trauma. I've heard that when they are ready it can happen in a matter of days. I've seen too many friends force it and it took a year plus.

So...what are your suggestions? And how do we go about doing it. Do we just stay home all day and ask every 5 min if he has to go potty? Do we put him in underwear so he is more aware? I heard that diapers/pull ups really don't help with potty training.

He too showed interest around 2 or so, but that was it. Just a quick fading interest. He would sit on the potty for an hour. Then after run to the corner and go in his diaper. So we stopped trying then.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Thanks!
Ruth

 

[AllyCatTapia]

"shows interest" is crap. My kids "showed interest" at less than a year. Did that mean they were ready to train? No, it meant they wanted to know what that sound was, why people sit there, etc.


The age the original poster cited is way too young.

 

[lauritagoddess]

So...what are your suggestions? And how do we go about doing it. Do we just stay home all day and ask every 5 min if he has to go potty? Do we put him in underwear so he is more aware? I heard that diapers/pull ups really don't help with potty training.

My DS was a very reluctant trainer. He started peeing in the potty for fun at about 26 months but then had a long illness and when I started up with him again a couple of months before 3, he didn't even want to sit. However, he clearly had bodily awareness and control by then so I moved ahead. Basically, we (me and my mom who is my childcare) made a schedule and took him to the potty regularly. Even if he had already peed in the pull-up, we still took him to the potty. Eventually he started peeing in the toilet because he realized he was going to have to go to the potty anyway. After a few weeks I started putting him in underwear during the day and as long as I got him to the potty regularly, he was fine with peeing, but would only poop in the pull-up. This went on for months. Then when he was 3 years and 4 months I read a method from Dr. Greene's website about how to get a reluctant pooper to poop on the toilet and he was fully trained in 2 weeks. But I have to say I think he was just ready for it then. It was only in the few weeks before that that he had begun to be independent in peeing, taking himself to the toilet and pulling his pants up and down. He also had started sleeping through the night completely dry around the same time, although I kept him in a pull-up for at least another month at night. And even though he'd been fully trained for months, when we went a month ago I had him wear a pull-up on the plane and at night in the hotel. And yes, he did want to use the toilet about a zillion times on the 2.5 hour plane ride, although that may have been because he loved the blue water in the airplaine toilet, lol.

 

[grimley1968]

To the OP, don't let anyone else's judgment of what the "right age" is affect how you potty train your DD. No age is really better than others. Both our DD's took to potty training pretty late (our oldest DD, now 6, didn't really begin potty training in earnest until after 3, and it took her 3 or 4 months; our youngest DD, now 2.5, is only barely beginning to show any interest at all in it). But our DD's did other things earlier than other kids, like reading, counting, shapes, etc., so it all seemed to work out in the end.

Just make sure not to push potty training too much. It might not be a bad idea to have a potty sitting near her play area, just in case DD wishes to try it, but in our case that potty sat for months unused before either DD tried to use it. If this means waiting until after your trip to potty train, then that's not such a bad thing.

 

[kayebee]

First, all kids are different and will potty train at different ages. Having said that, I think (at least in our culture) it's very premature to be thinking about potty training just as your child turns one. I think you may be setting yourself and your family up for a lot of frustration if you have the expectation that your daughter will be potty trained before your trip.

My daughter never showed an interest in going on the potty even though we bought a cute little potty chair and pretty underwear, etc. UNTIL her best friend at day care showed up in underwear one day. This was when she was about about three months shy of her third birthday. The next day, she wanted to wear underwear, too, and that was it--she was "potty trained" and wearing underwear the next day with absolutely no effort on our part.

I encourage you to wait for the right moment--it will be easier on everyone that way--and not set up some artificial time table.

Karen

 

[snickerboo]

My experience is that the time between "shows interest" and "is realibly potty trained" was more than 18 months with both our children. Neither trained until 3 1/2. My daughter turned into a power struggle, my son was simply unsure until that age and didn't want to leave the security of a pull up. Don't start fretting about this now, or the potential is for a LONG two years while you wonder if the child who showed such promise at a year will really go off to college in a pull-up

LOL Boy, do I hear this!!!

In response to the thread....both of my children showed similar interest in the potty at that age but dd wasn't trained til 3 and three months and ds just turned three and isn't doing it. Sometimes, kids will start to train early, enjoy it, do it, then...bam...."I no go poop on da potty". That's how it was here. If you think your dd might be interested at 18mos, get the DVD "Potty Time With Bear". It's Bear in the Big Blue House and cutesy cheesy Bear best. You'll both be singing, "it's time to get to know your potty chair." Some kids train at 18 months, some at more than 3. Don't push her but, if she truly seems interested, go ahead and start introducing her. My friend teaches preK and says she's never had one come in pull-ups in her 10 years of teaching.

I wouldn't worry about the Disney vacation. If she's not quite ready by the vacation, she'll wear pull-ups. Personally, I think it would be a lot easier to do WDW in pull-ups than to have a just-trained toddler who is likely to say, "I have to pee RIGHT NOW" after you've just waited 45 minutes in line for It's a Small World.

 

[crisi]

So while we are on the topic..and I don't mean to hijack this thread..but....

my first son just turned 3 Feb and still shows no interest in being potty trained. He runs when it's diaper time and will sit in a dirty diaper and not tell us. He's even had a leak out without telling us.

We are going to Disney in May and are waiting until after to train. My question is...I was told 3 is a good time. Should we not even try if he shows no interest even though after Disney he'll be 3 yrs 4 months? I don't really care about the age issue. I'd prefer we are able to train him quickly and without issue or trauma. I've heard that when they are ready it can happen in a matter of days. I've seen too many friends force it and it took a year plus.

So...what are your suggestions? And how do we go about doing it. Do we just stay home all day and ask every 5 min if he has to go potty? Do we put him in underwear so he is more aware? I heard that diapers/pull ups really don't help with potty training.

He too showed interest around 2 or so, but that was it. Just a quick fading interest. He would sit on the potty for an hour. Then after run to the corner and go in his diaper. So we stopped trying then.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Thanks!
Ruth

Talk to your peditrician. Ours was very helpful at about 3 1/2. Your peditrician can evaluate if there is actually a physical issue, if your son is developmentally ready, if its become a power issue, or if regression has occurred that should be addressed.

 

[Hannathy]

I found the pull-ups to be nothing but glorified diapers so avoided them except for nights for a bit and for airplanes at first. It really doesn't take much to wash a few extra pairs of little pants for a few days and the kids seem to get the corelation between being wet and going to the potty quicker.

I am curious about one thing what do your kids say, the ones that are over three when you say why did you poop in your pants? when the potty is right here. I can't imagine them having a good answer. Not flaming just really curious.

 

[crisi]

I found the pull-ups to be nothing but glorified diapers so avoided them except for nights for a bit and for airplanes at first. It really doesn't take much to wash a few extra pairs of little pants for a few days and the kids seem to get the corelation between being wet and going to the potty quicker.

I am curious about one thing what do your kids say, the ones that are over three when you say why did you poop in your pants? when the potty is right here. I can't imagine them having a good answer. Not flaming just really curious.

I didn't want to. (daughter). I couldn't get there in time (son). My son has always needed to master something before he does it. There were no accidents once he decided to train.

Pullups are interesting. The nice thing about pullups is by 2 1/2 my son could change his own - unless they were very messy. My daughter didn't mind sitting it whatever she'd produced. Pullups for her didn't work well, as she wouldn't change them herself and chose to see them as "close enough" to big girl underwear. However, underwear didn't work for her either, since it wasn't a "few days" for her. We'd let her wet herself for a week or two before we'd get fed up with steam cleaning the couch. Plus she'd soil as well, and poop on the couch isn't something that is really worth cleaning up.

 

[long4disney]

My dd finally is potty trained. She is 3 1/2 years old now. She showed no signs of interest in learning and when we did put her on earlier she would cry and was afraid. My doctor said not to put pressure on her, and it will happen when it will happen. They suggested to make more of an effort with her around 3 1/2 years old, and if possible during a time when you are at home more. So we waited until spring break since we weren't going anywhere, and pretty much stuck around the house. The first day we started I put her in regular underwear and told her that she needed to go on the potty, because she didn't have a diaper or pull ups on. The first time she went pee in her underwear she had a fit, because it was messy, and I told her that she had to go on the potty. We cleaned her up, and put a new pair of underwear on and I kept reminding her about going potty so she didn't wet her disney princess undies, and she did have one more accident. I then gave her a lot to drink, knowing that she would have to go again rather quickly, and by the 3rd try, she ran to the potty and went! We made a big deal about it, and by the next day, she didn't wet or poop at all in her underwear. I did put her in a pull up at night, but they have all been dry in the morning, so we are not using them anymore.

One note, and this shows you how smart these little ones are. The first day we started training her, when it was time for her to poop in the afternoon, she was running around upset opening the cabinets where we used to keep the diapers and pull ups. She even went upstairs in her room to open her closet where the pull ups were, and I removed all of them so she couldn't find them. She started to cry telling me I need Elmo diaper (Pampers) and I knew she wanted me to put it on her so she could poop in them. She was afraid to poop on the potty. I told her she had to use the potty and not to be afraid. She asked me to hold her hands, and then she went. It has been almost a month now, and still no accidents.

I think it is wise like our doctor said to wait until they are around the 3 year old mark so you can talk to them, and they can understand a little bit more, and tell you what they are thinking. It was great to be able to train her so quickly, and I don't think it would have been that fast if she was a lot younger. My son was 2 when we started training him, and it took forever, and he had many accidents for months, and was waking up with a wet pull up in the morning for quite some time. So in our opinion, it worked out great waiting until our dd was 3 1/2!

 

[KimberlyC]

My DS is 22 mths old today. At 1, he too liked to flush the potty. In fact, had I turned my back I'm sure he would have flushed any number of things down the potty. He too showed interest in the potty. In fact, the one time I did turn my back he was so interested that he opened the lid and climbed right in (all of him). In under 30 seconds flat he was stomping and splashing in the toilet like it was some little rain puddle. I would have been LMAO if it weren't for the fact that I kept thinking what if he fell in head first. So I'm not sure showing interest is the same thing as being ready to train. You know your child best and will have to be the judge of that.

So while 1 would have been too young for my DS, we are NOT waiting until he's 3...that's just too long for my DS IMHO. At 18 mths I set the potty out and he sits on it (fully clothed) when we use the toilet because he likes to imitate us. Last week he told me "poop" and since I *thought* he was saying he had to go, I said lets go on the potty (he ran to it)- false alarm but he did pee a bit. Fast forward to yesterday when he was playing outside and again "poop". This time was for real. We went in and he did both on his potty. We applauded and he was so proud. But its not that easy, unfortunately. None of the other kids at his daycare academy train that young and so they do not assist with training until at least 2 when he moves into the next classroom (but usually 2.5 - 3). I'm not sure why there persists such a strong mentality that kids need to be 3 to train. I'd like to start now because my DS wanted to use the potty yesterday but we'll wait 2 months and start since daycare must be onboard for it to work. So DS will be in diapers at WDW for his 2nd b-day and we'll start when we return.

According to my mom, I was fully trained by 2. DH was 3.5. Every kid is different. I say wait and see how it goes (you've got time) and adjust your vacation plans accordingly.

 

[lclark0621]

While yes, all kids potty train at different times, one year old, is a bit young to even think about it.

If a child likes to flush the toliet, that does not mean they are showing interest in potty training. It means they like to flush the toliet.

My DS potty trained himself at 22 months old. He started asking to use the potty one day. The next day we went & bought one of those potty rings for the toliet. And he was happy.

Oh we had a few accidents here & there. But he was ready, so training was easy.

If a kid is not ready, it just wont work. I know someone who started "training" their DD at 18 months old. Well she is now almost 3 & still not potty trained. They call her a "work in progress". Really, they just started WAY to young.

I like pull ups. I never used them instead of undies. But if we were going out, DS wore one. We talked about them & he called them his "just in case pants". Sometimes you just CANT get to a bathroom in time. There are times a kid says "I gotta pee" and they mean NOW! And having an accident in public or in front of people they know, is incredibly embarassing to them, at least it was to my DS. So we wore pull ups when we left the house. He never used them like a diaper. He always told me he had to go. But there were times, we just could not make it. And those times, I was thankful for the pull up. It saved my DS embarassment or an uncomfortable seat while we waited in traffic.

As long as used correctly, pull ups can be very effective.

Sometimes, a part of me, misses those diapers. They sure were a whole lot easier then my circus act we need to do in a public bathroom everytime DS has to go (which you can read about here: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1058617)