When to Toilet Train

[Snickals]

Having a debate within myself and would love to hear opinions...Baby Girl is 2yrs (+1 month) and I can't decide if I should toilet train her now (36 days before we go to America) or wait until we come back (be gone for 6 weeks).

She gets the toilet paper off the roll, scrunches it, 'wipes' herself (fully dressed), puts it in toilet, closes lid and flushed...so she knows all that. And she can tell you after she has dirtied but not before. We have potty training books for kids she has had a long time, we have a sesame street dvd about potty training, we have an elmo potty training toy and a doll potty training toy. So we are well equipped with 'props' I am just not sure I am brave enough and confident enough to do it lol We have been talking about her becoming a big girl and using the toilet like Mummy. But am not sure if it's a good idea before or after the trip. Thoughts/suggestions/comments most welcome!!! Thanks

 

[bumbershoot]

We followed DS's lead so I don't know about training, but I would not start the process just before a trip. Even with DS leading the potty learning process it was pretty parent-involved with countless trips to the bathrooms and getting out of lines quickly when the need arose.

 

[lucyem]

I also agree right before a vacation might not be the best time but with potty training so much depends on your child. That being said my oldest potty trained himself while we were driving to WDW (24 hour drive spread over 3 days). He did not like going while sitting in a car seat. By the time we arrived he had trained himself . Now that was a magical vacation

 

[Cholderby]

I have four kids, three toilet trained, and I highly recommend that you WAIT. Especially if there's a long plane ride and WDW in your future.

A certain child of mine (name withheld to protect the guilty ) had been completely potty trained for two years (with no accidents) before our last trip to Disneyland. And then there were the lines...he knew he needed to go potty but didn't want to get out of line. So he had an accident. And then the same thing happened that afternoon...

My 3yo is potty trained, but he's going back in to pull-ups for WDW. Carrying around sodden clothes or scrambling to buy replacements in the parks is a nightmare!

 

[ElenaRN]

DD is 2 1/2. During the spring we started to introduce her to potty training and she did go on the potty intermittently. Then all of a sudden she had ZERO interest in it. So we put it on the back burner for a while.
I sit her the potty once a day before her bath, just to get her into the habit.

She is showing more interest now but we leave next week and there is no way I am going to WDW with a newly potty trained toddler.

So we will start when we come home.

 

[SEA333]

You should potty train when your CHILD is ready to potty train, not when it is good for your vacation schedule.

I would start potty training the day your child wakes up dry from the night, or a really long nap. If they can stay dry for several hours at a time while sleeping, their bladder is mature enough to start potty training. If this is happening already, I would start ASAP. If she is still soaking wet in the morning, or "dribbles" all day, she is not ready. Once my kids were physically ready, we did it 100%, even when they didn't want to stop playing or we were in a public restroom - all three were potty trained by 26 months (DD), 27 months (little DS), and 2 1/2 years (older DS). The boys PT'd in the winter, and DD in the summer. It only took about a week or so of sitting them on the toilet every hour or so before we ditched the diapers and they were in undies (not counting nighttime, although once they had the daytime down pat, they were all pretty much night-trained, too, but a lot of kids have a harder time at night, so don't worry if this isn't the case for your DD!) Also, around two years old, I started paying attention to their bowel movement schedule and signs - I would run them to the bathroom and have them sit on the toilet at the first sign so they would start associating pooping with being on the toilet. For the first couple times, I would sit them with their diaper on, then loosened the diaper more and more, eventually just removing it altogether, to get them over the "fear" of having a bowl movement on the toilet. We would always flush the contents down together as well. All three were "poop" trained on the toilet a couple months before "pee" trained, which I think really helped with the process as a whole.

If she is ready and you wait because YOU are not ready, don't be surprised if you are still changing her diapers till she is 4....

Good luck!!!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

You should potty train when your CHILD is ready to potty train

This was going to be my answer as well.

 

[Woodmnky]

If your child was actively trying to use the potty, then you would need to go for it even if it will be a big inconvienence. Since she is just interested in some of the rituals associated with using the potty, I would not press it. My son wanted to potty train as he did not like diaper changes. It still took months before he was sufficient enough to go out in public in underwear. Sure we could put him in a pull up, but then he would scream and cry if he had an accident.

We began last Jan and in May went on a Disney Cruise. He was pretty good by then, but it was still a giant pain. Honestly both DH & I said that diapers would have been a lot easier. Imagine having stood in line for 20 minutes to meet Mickey and you are within 2 families when your LO declares that they have to pee. With toddlers there is often no waiting 5 minutes, instead it is a mad dash to the bathroom. By the time we got back, Mickey was gone. Not a happy moment.

Even though my son will have been out of diapers for almost a year, we still put him in a pull up when we are going to be in the car for a long time and will likely have him wear a pull up the majority of the time in WDW. The last thing I want is to be on Spaceship Earth and have him need to use the bathroom. Even if he isn't happy if he goes in a Pull Up it will be better than him not being happy because he is sitting in wet clothes until we can get off and get him changed.

 

[KWithers]

I think you should wait until afterwards. That being said, I disagree with pp's saying "follow your child's lead." What worked for us was the bottomless method and rewards. It's all about consistency. If you're going back and forth with pull-ups, no pull-ups, etc that's confusing. I think cold turkey is best. Our DD was totally potty trained by 19 months. She stopped wearing pull-ups to bed a few months later. Yes I washed her sheets frequently in the beginning, but we stuck with it and she learned.

 

[CourtneyL]

I would wait until after your trip to jump completely into potty training. If she seems interested, you could let her sit on the potty before nap time and bed time. Find a potty seat that sits on the regular toilet and bring it on your trip. I don't think you could fully train in a month, but even if you could, the bathrooms in disney are very loud and could be frightening to a young kid. Also, the fact that you wouldn't be at home in familiar surroundings might be scary for potty training for a little one.

FWIW, my daughter is about the same age as yours and we leave in 29 days. She has been showing interest in the potty for the past few months and will use the potty if we put her on it. She has some success with telling us she needs to pee/poop, but if she is distracted she will just go in her diaper. So far I've purchased 3 different folding potty seats to use when we are out at restaurants, but she is not comfortable on any of them. I finally broke down and bought a full size seat to cary around that was similar to the one she uses at home. We've had some success with that one thankfully. The plan is to carry it with us in disney, but I don't think she will use it in the parks because of the noise level in the restrooms.

If you do decide to have her try using public toilets on your trip, get some post-its to cover the auto-flush sensor (just make sure to toss it in the trash when you are done and not flush it).

 

[wiigirl]

I have four kids, three toilet trained, and I highly recommend that you WAIT. Especially if there's a long plane ride and WDW in your future.

A certain child of mine (name withheld to protect the guilty ) had been completely potty trained for two years (with no accidents) before our last trip to Disneyland. And then there were the lines...he knew he needed to go potty but didn't want to get out of line. So he had an accident. And then the same thing happened that afternoon...

My 3yo is potty trained, but he's going back in to pull-ups for WDW. Carrying around sodden clothes or scrambling to buy replacements in the parks is a nightmare!

 

[SEA333]

Having a debate within myself and would love to hear opinions...Baby Girl is 2yrs (+1 month) and I can't decide if I should toilet train her now (36 days before we go to America) or wait until we come back (be gone for 6 weeks).

OP - I have read through all of the posts here, and there is a common theme:

"It would be easier to wait until after vacation because we will have to take the time out of OUR vacation to find bathrooms and bring extra clothes for accidents for our little one."

Let's get back to the basics here....potty training is a PHYSICAL act, not a psychological one. We, in modern western times, have made it psychological. It's really not supposed to be a big event in a child's life, it is a natural process that happens when the time is right.

If the physical time is right, potty-train away! If she is not physically ready, then wait. It really is black and white. There is NO SUCH THING as a child being "psychologically ready" or needing to having interest in the potty in order to potty train - parents look for signs because they do not always know the physical signs of a child being ready. It really doesn't need to be overthought.

Please don't worry about getting caught in lines, missing Mickey, the plane ride, or anything else. You will figure it out, and so will your DD. Potty-training is one of those unscheduled events that *might* happen on vacation when you have a toddler. It's not a big deal.

For what it is worth....my oldest unexpectedly woke up dry one day, and we went with it. It was a day where he had a fever from the 20th ear infection of his life (not kidding about that, either!), and I was home with him. It was actually St. Valentine's Day of 2003. We had baked cookies for his daycare class, so once his fever went down, we made a quick trip to his school to drop the cookies off. He ended up wanting to stay for the party, which was OK with his teacher since he wasn't contagious. I was planning on running an errand with him, but went on my own. I had totally forgotten that he was still in underwear - no diaper! I called the school to let them know to take him to the bathroom, came back about an hour later, and he was still dry. I took him home, he had a total of 2 accidents the next day and next, then we left for a planned long weekend trip about a 6 hour car ride away. I put a diaper on him for the trip, with his underwear on over the diaper, but - and this is the IMPORTANT part - still treated him as if he was only wearing undies. We made rest stops every 90 minutes or so, limited drinks, etc, and continued to potty train him on our trip. It made our trip a little different, having to stake out bathrooms and such, but it was really No Big Deal, and the end result was having a potty-trained boy at age 2 1/2.

My advice is - do not worry about life getting in the way of a natural event such as potty training! And remember to give your DD some credit here, too...I'm sure she is super smart and will catch on in no time!

Good Luck!

 

[ameliasmommy]

I would also wait until the child is ready. I try to get my little boy to potty train 2 times before he was actually ready and that made the process slower

 

[starsweeper]

I say wait until she is really ready. My ODD trained at 3yo 2mos over a 4-day weekend when we were snowed in one Januray, ODS didn't train until 3.5yo (March) with WDW as an incentive. When we visited that May, ODS had no accidents but ODD wet herself in the parks once and twice in our hotel room standing in front of the toilet. So even if your DD does train at home, it doesn't guarantee success on vacation, especially with all the excitement WDW holds.