Please share your potty training experience w/ me

[Rosie_0801]

When my daughter starts regressing, I take her to the chiropractor. If the boy's mum is that hard up for cash, she probably can't afford though. If the lower back is out of alignment, which will happen often because kids that age need to wrestle, jump off things, fall off stuff and all of those sorts of things, the nerves to the bladder will get squashed and the "I need to pee" signal won't get through. It's not the kid's fault. I've read case studies of kids with this problem up to the age of 16. If Mamma can't take him to a chiro regularly, then I think you'll all just have to wait until he takes another tumble that knocks his spine back into place.

 

Rosie

[johnandtinagilbert]

When my daughter starts regressing, I take her to the chiropractor. If the boy's mum is that hard up for cash, she probably can't afford though. If the lower back is out of alignment, which will happen often because kids that age need to wrestle, jump off things, fall off stuff and all of those sorts of things, the nerves to the bladder will get squashed and the "I need to pee" signal won't get through. It's not the kid's fault. I've read case studies of kids with this problem up to the age of 16. If Mamma can't take him to a chiro regularly, then I think you'll all just have to wait until he takes another tumble that knocks his spine back into place.

 

Rosie

This is very interesting, Rosie. Thanks for the thought.

[Rosie_0801]

Oh yeah, and only about ten percent of the nerve has pain receptors so it's quite possible to have these problems without actually feeling any discomfort. So don't expect to see the lad rubbing his back or any of those tell tale signs. Dd can be so far out of alignment that her legs are significantly different lengths and she'll still be running around, happy as Larry.

 

Rosie

[justamouse]

Well, I had to potty train very young because my kids started getting impetigo from the diapers and I used the Potty Train Your Child in a Day method with 6 of them and had great results. I would do what you are doing, but I would ahve HIM clean up the mess.

 

close off the kitchen

make him a nekkid boy all day

show him a pee doll and help him clean up after IT

when he pees or poops on the floor, have him clean it up.

[ABQmom]

No offense, but *I* think it's ridiculous that YOU think that just because YOUR kids were potty trained around the age of 2, that all kids should be, and if they aren't, it's "ridiculous."

 

That's just as silly as saying it's "ridiculous" for a child to not be walking by a year just because all of yours were. Or it's "ridiculous" for a child to not be weaned or sleeping through the night or talking or anything else. This is a developmental milestone like any other, and not all kids reach it at the same time.

 

A LOT of us had kids who didn't potty train til three or four, it doesn't take much effort to find plenty of evidence out there that this is a normal thing, and it comes across as EXTREMELY pompous to tell us who went through that how "ridiculous" it is that our kids weren't potty-trained by age 2, just because yours were!

 

Whoa! I'm so very sorry to have come off sounding offensive. I profoundly apologize for using the word ridiculous. I realize many children have different reasons why they may not be potty trained until a later age. I feel just awful. Please accept my apology.

 

I do think the Azrin and Foxx book is a good read and helpful to many. Potty training is a tough thing.

[NanceXToo]

Whoa! I'm so very sorry to have come off sounding offensive. I profoundly apologize for using the word ridiculous. I realize many children have different reasons why they may not be potty trained until a later age. I feel just awful. Please accept my apology.

 

I do think the Azrin and Foxx book is a good read and helpful to many. Potty training is a tough thing.

 

Apology accepted- er sorry I went off like that, reading it back now I was pretty defensive. Then again my son DID take til VERY close to his 4th birthday to be fully potty trained lol. There's such a wide range of "normal" for this, seriously.

[ABQmom]

Apology accepted- er sorry I went off like that, reading it back now I was pretty defensive. Then again my son DID take til VERY close to his 4th birthday to be fully potty trained lol. There's such a wide range of "normal" for this, seriously.

 

Thank you. I agree; there is a wide range of normal for most things concerning kids.

[cjbeach]

I'd go with "no follow-through at home."

My kids were in an excellent, excellent Montessori and that was pretty much the common complaint out of the toddler room - no follow through at home.

[WiseOwlKnits]

My DS potty trained at 23 months. He was night trained a couple of months after that. My DD trained at 19 months and night trained a couple of weeks after that. With both of them, I let them run around naked for a few days and I took them to the potty every 15 minutes the first 2 days. They didn't have to go on the potty, but they did have to sit on it for 5 minutes. Every time they peed/pooped in the potty, they got an M&M or Reece's Pieces (a RARE treat in our house). DD was pt'ed (meaning NO accidents, peeing and pooping in the potty every time) in 3 days. DS was in 8 days, but from day 3 on it was down to an accident/day or every other day.

 

I say it's lack of follow-through at home that's causing the problems. Poor guy is probably getting confused...

[katilac]

I read the Infant Potty Training link someone posted, and . . . eh, really? She spent a year and a half thrusting her kid onto mixing bowls, sinks, and handy patches of grass to pee and poop, all so he could be potty trained at the age of two? (which is also the age she gives as an average for "Western" babies). I find that spectacularly unimpressive, lol.

 

I'm kind of picking on this lady's page, but honestly, I do not see how this is an improvement over changing diapers and then training at a later age. And I don't find most of what she says particularly amazing. I promise you, if you take any breastfed infant, strip them naked, and pull their lil' butt cheeks apart, there's an excellent chance they'll go, no Poop Whisperer needed :lol:

 

And I know she/others say that non-Western infants train much earlier, as early as a year, but I'd like to know what they consider "potty trained" for a one-year-old, b/c I can't imagine they are crawling off to the bathroom, hoisting themselves onto a potty, and so forth. That, I would consider amazing. Crawling off to a corner of the yard just doesn't work for me, y'know?

 

For the record, my two wore disposable diapers from birth, and then daytime trained at 18 and 21 months. Night time not long after, but I don't remember exactly. I'm guessing there's a pretty wide range no matter what method is used.

[Snowfall]

Why do you think it is a lie that some children are not physically ready for potty training? Do you have any links to support your contention?

 

WebMD has a link supporting my contention and I stand by it:) WebMD is medically reviewed and is a reliable source of information. I think it is wrong to assume that every child will be physically or emotionally ready to potty train by such and such an age. IMHO such an idea will cause undue frustration for parents and children when such beliefs are held and potty training issues arise. I do agree that diapers can be a hindrance for potty training at times. OTOH, when your child urinates 10 times in one hour in his pants and underwear consistently day after day after day even though you have tried every trick in the book such as letting the child run around naked in the house, cheerios in the toilet, reminders, potty chairs, etc., then I think it safe to say that said child may not be ready and to wait a couple of weeks/months and try and again IMHO. Ask me how I know.

 

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/tc/toilet-training-topic-overview

 

My 2 cents:)

 

You misquoted me. I didn't say it was a lie that "some children aren't physically ready for potty training". I said the idea that the majority of children aren't ready for it before 14 to 18 months is a lie. Your link even takes it a step further to 22 months, which is, yes, a lie. Now, whether or not your son was physically capable, I have no idea. My guess is that he was. He just wasn't emotionally ready. It's hard to convince a child who has spent 2 years (or 18 months, or whatever) peeing and pooping in the same, exact place, all the time, every day (their diaper) that they shouldn't do it anymore, just like (as I previously said) it would be hard to convince you to pee or poop your pants right now. :) Maybe your kid wasn't physically capable, but that would make him unusual as compared to the majority of children on planet earth. He likely was not emotionally ready. It doesn't really matter which it is, does it? He wasn't ready, so he wasn't ready. Who cares why? Perhaps I wasn't clear in my original post, but I support waiting until a child is ready, regardless of which "sort" of ready we're talking about - emotional or physical readiness. Readiness just isn't an issue for people who start at birth or in the first few months. Those babies have always peed in the potty (or wherever) so they just do it more and more as they get better and better at getting there on time.

 

WebMD does not quote anyactual research) for that article. That means it's just as much conjecture as anyone else's guess. The fact that the majority of children in the world are potty trained before WebMD says they are physically capable of being potty trained is evidence enough. There is no actual research showing that there is any specific age at which children magically become able to hold it. When you have a bunch of doctors who all believe ridiculous things about potty training "reviewing" an article about potty training, then you're going to get an inaccurate article. And I'm editing this right now because I'm coming off sounding all snotty and I don't mean to. I just know that WebMd is wrong and biased on this count, and I do actually have links to prove it. lol

 

Here is a link to the abstract of real research on the issue:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/887331 and a quote

 

 

The Digo believe that infants can learn soon after birth and begin motor and toilet training in the first weeks of life. With a nurturant conditioning approach, night and day dryness is accomplished by 5 or 6 months. The success of early Digo training suggests that sociocultural factors are more important determinants of toilet training readiness than is currently thought.

(emphasis mine)

 

Here's an article on toilet training started during the first year of life, with a quote below the link. This one includes developed countries, like America and Canada:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18277362

 

For those who completed toilet training at the time of survey completion mean completion ages for daytime dryness and bowel control were 17.4 and 15.0 months, respectively; those who initiated toilet training during the first 6 months completed training earlier than those who started later

(emphasis mine)

 

I could link to lots more, but that might be overkill. :)

 

In fact, if you've ever heard of infant dyschezia, that sort of blows the whole notion of babies being unable to hold it right out of the water. The muscles that control elimination in humans are NOT relaxed all the time, until kids hit a certain age at which they learn to clench them (hold the pee/poop). In infant dyschezia, the baby actually can't poop because he can't figure out how to push it out! This isn't a medical condition - it's just a normal thing that happens to lots of babies. The bigger problem among babies isn't their inability to hold it in, but rather their inability to get it out when they want to. They aren't coordinated, and for many babies this makes pooping downright uncomfortable, as they know they have to go, but can't do so without a great deal of effort. This is normal and is not constipation.

 

My 6 month old pooped in the potty today, after clearly indicating to me that she needed to do so. She held it until I set her on the potty, then instantly pooped. Instantly. She does this every day, in fact. She has done it every day since about 4 months of age. We've probably had maybe 8 poopy diapers in the last 2 months, despite the fact that she poops at least 8 or 9 times a week. My older daughter was completely potty trained by 17 months of age. She was staying dry through the night and naps by 5 months of age. She stopped having poopy diapers at 6 months of age. By 10 months of age she was having maybe 2 wet diapers per day.

 

This was not because we sat her on a potty all day or pressured her. Quite the opposite. Nor was it because she is somehow remarkable. This is the norm for millions of babies worldwide. The fact that we refuse to accept it is evidence of nothing more than our euro/americentric belief that the way we do things must be the only way.

 

Dr. T. Brazelton is the biggest one to have insisted we should wait until age 2 or 3 to start potty training, although he didn't ever have any scientific evidence showing that children are physically incapable of holding it before then. Quite to the contrary, he says elimination communication/infant potty training is quite possible, but that it's just too hard to do it in the developed world, due to our lifestyle. You can verify that on Wiki and some other places, if you care. :)

Edited October 14, 2010 by Snowfall

[Snowfall]

I read the Infant Potty Training link someone posted, and . . . eh, really? She spent a year and a half thrusting her kid onto mixing bowls, sinks, and handy patches of grass to pee and poop, all so he could be potty trained at the age of two? (which is also the age she gives as an average for "Western" babies). I find that spectacularly unimpressive, lol.

 

Well, I've practiced infant potty training on 2 babies now. I don't use bowls, sinks, or patches of grass. I use a potty or the toilet. I do have a potty in my trunk. Baby pees in it (in the trunk, lol) while we're out. I soak it up with a prefold diaper and put that in a wet bag. She also wears diapers, of course. I don't rush to the car whenever I think she needs to go and I'm in the middle of a shopping trip or anything. I put her on the potty when we get somewhere, if she seems she needs to go. After that, she's stuck with using diapers until I go back to the car. Generally speaking, if I go to the car every 90 minutes (which I don't make a special effort to do - just if I'm running errands and happen to be back at the car) she will hold it until I get to the car, then go the second I sit her on the potty. Then there are days where our "schedules" don't mesh, and she'll go through 5 diapers while I'm out that day. lol

 

I'm kind of picking on this lady's page, but honestly, I do not see how this is an improvement over changing diapers and then training at a later age. And I don't find most of what she says particularly amazing. I promise you, if you take any breastfed infant, strip them naked, and pull their lil' butt cheeks apart, there's an excellent chance they'll go, no Poop Whisperer needed :lol:

No diaper rash - EVER, no matter what. Fewer diapers equals less waste, whether you're washing or throwing away. And that breastfed infant poop thing is only good for the first 5 or 6 weeks. After that, some of them might wait a week to poop. Anyway, everyone is different. When I see people laughing about their baby straining to poop, then saying, "Well, we need to wait until he's done before we change his diaper. Otherwise he'll just poop again in the clean one," then leaving him stewing in his poop for 10 minutes while he finishes up, I get a little grossed out. Of course it makes perfect sense, but I don't want to do that.

 

And I know she/others say that non-Western infants train much earlier, as early as a year, but I'd like to know what they consider "potty trained" for a one-year-old, b/c I can't imagine they are crawling off to the bathroom, hoisting themselves onto a potty, and so forth. That, I would consider amazing. Crawling off to a corner of the yard just doesn't work for me, y'know?

They usually hold it until their parents put them in the right spot. It's not a big deal. My older DD would crawl over to her potty, though. She'd sometimes climb on it once she was big enough. Of course, she was in a diaper, so the diaper still got wet, but it was the thought that counted. :lol:

 

For the record, my two wore disposable diapers from birth, and then daytime trained at 18 and 21 months. Night time not long after, but I don't remember exactly. I'm guessing there's a pretty wide range no matter what method is used.

Agreed. However, I don't want to be the one to find out that my kid isn't going to potty train until age 4 if I do it your way. That just won't happen if I do it my way. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not for me - just like infant pottying isn't for you.

 

- Snowfall, who is really just responding and not trying to be argumentative. I promise. <embarrassed>

Edited October 14, 2010 by Snowfall

[Sara in AZ]

I

I'm kind of picking on this lady's page, but honestly, I do not see how this is an improvement over changing diapers and then training at a later age.

 

This is thread is spectacularly off track since none of this elimination communication talk is going to help the OP, but I have to say you can't see any improvement in this method because yours were trained before age two anyway.

 

My first two were both cloth diapered which did nothing to help them transition to underwear or potty training. They truly didn't mind being wet or poopy all day. They'd been conditioned that this was the norm.

 

DD8 was not potty trained until over 3 and STILL suffers from serious encopresis (constipation) issues which involve daily accidents.

 

DS5 wasn't reliably trained until over 4 which still involved a few months of full bowel movements in his underwear. Awesome.

 

I vowed I'd do it differently with my third, DD who just turned two this week. We started pottying at 6 mo. and at this point she's not fully trained and will happily pee in a diaper, but she understands her bodies signals, which is something my older two struggled with for so long. When left at home naked with us all day she will listen to her body, find her potty, and use it consistently.

 

So while she's 2 and not fully trained (yet) the difference for me is that she has been learning to understand and listen to her body all along AND it's so much more fun to set a baby on a potty and flush it down the toilet than to deal with all the literal crap I've dealt with over the last 8 years!

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

You misquoted me. I didn't say it was a lie that "some children aren't physically ready for potty training". I said the idea that the majority of children aren't ready for it before 14 to 18 months is a lie. Your link even takes it a step further to 22 months, which is, yes, a lie. Now, whether or not your son was physically capable, I have no idea. My guess is that he was. He just wasn't emotionally ready. It's hard to convince a child who has spent 2 years (or 18 months, or whatever) peeing and pooping in the same, exact place, all the time, every day (their diaper) that they shouldn't do it anymore, just like (as I previously said) it would be hard to convince you to pee or poop your pants right now. :) Maybe your kid wasn't physically capable, but that would make him unusual as compared to the majority of children on planet earth. He likely was not emotionally ready. It doesn't really matter which it is, does it? He wasn't ready, so he wasn't ready. Who cares why? Perhaps I wasn't clear in my original post, but I support waiting until a child is ready, regardless of which "sort" of ready we're talking about - emotional or physical readiness. Readiness just isn't an issue for people who start at birth or in the first few months. Those babies have always peed in the potty (or wherever) so they just do it more and more as they get better and better at getting there on time.

 

WebMD does not quote anyactual research) for that article. That means it's just as much conjecture as anyone else's guess. The fact that the majority of children in the world are potty trained before WebMD says they are physically capable of being potty trained is evidence enough. There is no actual research showing that there is any specific age at which children magically become able to hold it. When you have a bunch of doctors who all believe ridiculous things about potty training "reviewing" an article about potty training, then you're going to get an inaccurate article. And I'm editing this right now because I'm coming off sounding all snotty and I don't mean to. I just know that WebMd is wrong and biased on this count, and I do actually have links to prove it. lol

 

Here is a link to the abstract of real research on the issue:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/887331 and a quote

 

(emphasis mine)

 

Here's an article on toilet training started during the first year of life, with a quote below the link. This one includes developed countries, like America and Canada:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18277362

 

(emphasis mine)

 

I could link to lots more, but that might be overkill. :)

 

In fact, if you've ever heard of infant dyschezia, that sort of blows the whole notion of babies being unable to hold it right out of the water. The muscles that control elimination in humans are NOT relaxed all the time, until kids hit a certain age at which they learn to clench them (hold the pee/poop). In infant dyschezia, the baby actually can't poop because he can't figure out how to push it out! This isn't a medical condition - it's just a normal thing that happens to lots of babies. The bigger problem among babies isn't their inability to hold it in, but rather their inability to get it out when they want to. They aren't coordinated, and for many babies this makes pooping downright uncomfortable, as they know they have to go, but can't do so without a great deal of effort. This is normal and is not constipation.

 

My 6 month old pooped in the potty today, after clearly indicating to me that she needed to do so. She held it until I set her on the potty, then instantly pooped. Instantly. She does this every day, in fact. She has done it every day since about 4 months of age. We've probably had maybe 8 poopy diapers in the last 2 months, despite the fact that she poops at least 8 or 9 times a week. My older daughter was completely potty trained by 17 months of age. She was staying dry through the night and naps by 5 months of age. She stopped having poopy diapers at 6 months of age. By 10 months of age she was having maybe 2 wet diapers per day.

 

This was not because we sat her on a potty all day or pressured her. Quite the opposite. Nor was it because she is somehow remarkable. This is the norm for millions of babies worldwide. The fact that we refuse to accept it is evidence of nothing more than our euro/americentric belief that the way we do things must be the only way.

 

Dr. T. Brazelton is the biggest one to have insisted we should wait until age 2 or 3 to start potty training, although he didn't ever have any scientific evidence showing that children are physically incapable of holding it before then. Quite to the contrary, he says elimination communication/infant potty training is quite possible, but that it's just too hard to do it in the developed world, due to our lifestyle. You can verify that on Wiki and some other places, if you care. :)

I would suggest IMHO that you consider stop bantering the word "lie" about. It really is not friendly at all IMHO. I am not in the habit of misquoting or lying as well. You did post as your first response "that's such an old lie" right under my post about some children not being ready for the record.

 

Oh, and the research you posted deals with only several hundred participants and one mentions that it is the first study of its kind. Therefore, I think the jury is out on this one. I do think it is possible that some are ready but again I do not think all are ready. As for WebMD all articles are reviewed by doctors and nurses and I still consider it reliable.

Edited October 14, 2010 by priscilla

[Snowfall]

I never accused you (priscilla) of lying - merely of repeating information that isn't actually true, and is, IMO an actual lie, the roots of which are traceable to Dr. Brazelton, who went to work for P&G and suddenly started saying it was cruel to train before age 2 because kids aren't physically ready. Eventually he backtracked and said it is possible after all, but just too hard.I apologize if it seemed I was accusing you of lying. It was not my intention at all.

 

It is a double standard to say my studies aren't good enough when you are quoting an article that doesn't reference any studies at all. There are actually many studies on worldwide potty training ages and practices - they just aren't all like the ones I linked. :) I again apologize for whatever tone it was that left you feeling personally attacked, though.

 

I agree that infant pottying is not helpful to Tina's original post. It only matters in the context of whether or not children are physically capable of being potty trained before a certain age. That was my only intent in posting - to explain that it is possible with very young toddlers. :) Of course, then I got caught up in responding about how/why we do it. :blushing:

 

I need a lesson from the wiser posters in keeping my fingers off the keyboard when it isn't helpful to the original poster.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Snowfall

[katilac]

Well, I've practiced infant potty training on 2 babies now. I don't use <snip>

 

There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not for me - just like infant pottying isn't for you.

 

- Snowfall, who is really just responding and not trying to be argumentative. I promise. <embarrassed>

 

A little argument never hurt anyone ;) but you didn't sound argumentive at all. I actually didn't mean to imply that infant potty training isn't a good idea in many cases, only that this lady wasn't putting forth very convincing arguments for it.

 

My first dd spent much of her infancy nekkid on a beach towel, as she had such sensitive skin, so your way of doing things might have interested me a lot back then.

[Sahamamama]

I read the Infant Potty Training link someone posted, and . . . eh, really? She spent a year and a half thrusting her kid onto mixing bowls, sinks, and handy patches of grass to pee and poop, all so he could be potty trained at the age of two? I promise you, if you take any breastfed infant, strip them naked, and pull their lil' butt cheeks apart, there's an excellent chance they'll go.

 

And I know she/others say that non-Western infants train much earlier, as early as a year, but I'd like to know what they consider "potty trained" for a one-year-old, b/c I can't imagine they are crawling off to the bathroom, hoisting themselves onto a potty, and so forth. That, I would consider amazing. Crawling off to a corner of the yard just doesn't work for me, y'know?

 

:iagree: Where I lived in Africa (Malawi), ALL the babies were "potty trained" -- because they were bare-bottomed (T-shirts only) and peed and pooped just wherever they happened to be. There were no toilets in the villages, just covered holes in the ground (which the babies and toddlers were NOT allowed to go near, because they could fall in and die). Their "toilet" was the dust of the ground.

 

IMO, to compare clothed Western babies in cold(er) climates with mostly naked non-Western children in warm(er) climates is comparing apples to oranges. Yes, the mothers and older sisters in Malawi DID know when baby peed, because baby peed all over Mama and Sister. Is that really LESS laundry than a diaper would be? I'll tell you, in truth, they didn't USE diapers because they were too POOR for them, not because they would not have wanted them. Where I was, the people didn't have soap. They were always asking me if I had soap, or a comb, or something (to me) incredibly simple -- like a piece of paper or a pen. When I brought out my first aid kit one day to get a band-aid for someone's cut, ZAM!, within five minutes twenty people lined up for "medical care" -- out of my little first aid kit! They didn't have so much as a band-aid or an aspirin, let alone a diaper or a toilet.

 

What's the point of comparing cultures that are so far apart, in more ways than JUST how we "potty" train our children? As far as I'm concerned, the "potty" in the IPT is laughable, and so is the "training." How hard is it to "train" a child to pee on the ground? Now, if you want to call it "Pee in the Dirt Training," I can go with that.

[ondreeuh]

Hi Tina,

 

I am in the process of training my 2.5 year old son. A couple thoughts - PT readiness seems to have a familial element. Your kids may have been inclined to be ready earlier (better muscle tone, nerve sensation, whatever) while he may be a later bloomer.

 

You say that he does well when taken to the potty regularly but does not get himself to the potty in time. Honestly, I think that is where the problem lies. He may be physically ready to constrict his bladder sphincter until he's sitting on the potty, but not emotionally mature enough to be responsible for doing it all the time. Either he is not feeling the sensation in time, or he is feeling it but ignoring it because he is busy/distracted/focused on something else, or he is having difficulty containing it (UTI?), or he's choosing to pee his pants. I'd wager that #4 is the LEAST likely scenario - and as long as it's not a matter of him willfully peeing on your rug, I think it's something you're going to have to work around.

 

Roll up the rug, put towels on the furniture, and institute training pants (even double up). We use Hanna Andersson trainers ($6.50 at the outlet store) and they are much much better at containing messes than Gerbers. I sit my son down a every couple of hours and he immediately goes on the potty. If he gets the urge when he is in the living room where the potty is, he nearly always makes it in time, but he often wets his pants when running around outside. Either it's too far from the potty or he's too busy to notice he has to go. I just clean him up and move along, and praise whenever I can. As my favorite parenting expert Penelope Leach says, "This is a puddly stage." Trust that he will keep making progress and that keeping him feeling successful will get him to his goal quickest.

 

I have a 9 year old with Hinman's Syndrome, which is a problem with the bladder neck muscles coordinating. He is treated by a urologist and is on medication, and still has damp underwear several times a day. It's not always as simple as them being "ready." There is a lot that goes into it!

[katilac]

Upon re-reading this thread, I think that regression due to stress is quite plausible. I mean, "Mommy is so broke she can't afford diapers" sounds like a pretty big stressor to me, no?

[Kidlit]

FWIW (as if you need more opinions!)--and keep in mind that I haven't read all the replies--but, training my girls was pointless until around 3. I joke and say I trained my eldest for a solid year, just because she wasn't ready. ;-). My younger dd showed interest much earlier due to her sister's influence. However, she regressed before my very eyes in one day. The reason? I babysat a friend's baby, and dd was jealous!

 

I vote give him a few more months. :-)

[Laura Corin]

One of my boys trained really easily. The other, I'm convinced, really couldn't feel it coming until it was too late. He was still having accidents at five and wasn't dry at night until he was six.

 

Laura

[Hedgehogs4]

i don't remember...my mom said i learned fast, but it was so long ago!

 

:lol:

 

sorry....the title of your post is what made me respond that way...

[HelenNotOfTroy]

I have a 3 year old boy. I started to put him on the potty when he pooped (he had obvious signs and wanted to be held while he pooped) when he was just turned 2. He would only pee in the potty occasionally. If I left him naked, he would pee on the floor and tell me he peed. This continued until after his 3rd birthday. Suddenly, when I left him naked, he would not pee on the floor and would go to the potty with me and use it to pee. Sometimes he will tell me when he has to go to the potty, but usually I must remind him/take him. He has accidents when we go to play at the playground no matter how frequently I take him to the bathroom there (and he uses the toilet there, so that is not the issue). I have him in training underwear to catch the accidents (and always have extra pants).

I do not understand why people think that you need to put a child back in diapers who is potty trained with reminders just because you have to tell him to go to the bathroom.

[Karen M]

I would have to agree that he is not ready. I have 2 boys and 1 girl. They were all different. My second son, cloth diapered-showed signs at just over 2, was successful for a couple weeks or so, but then started having accidents. I was getting tired of the clean up and it was getting cold outside, I decided to try again after winter and he was completely ready and trained very quickly, but he was almost 3. But since he isn't yours, then you can not really know what is happening when he isn't in your home. Does he use diapers at home or does his mom clean up his messes?

 

Can she afford some cloth diapers? He may like them less and be more interested in the potty over time.