Potty training ...........Alibubbles your advice needed please!

[Melly]

Alibubbles if you're there, I would really appreciate your advice. Have posted on other threads about early potty training but thought I would start another. My dd is now 16 months and she will quite happily go on the potty, usually better if she can hold a toy or something. She has sat on the potty reasonably happily since the age of about 10/11 months. When dd was about 13 months I found out I was expecting another baby, had a horrible first trimester with nausea, spotting etc and now with the amnio behind me, (now 19 weeks) I am starting to feel much better, and feel guilty that dd's potty training has sort of gone off the boil. My aim is to have her potty trained at the latest by about late Feb/March time (baby is due mid April).

So, to get back to the point, not sure whether to go for it now or wait until she is about 18 months? If I go for it now, not really sure how to "take things to the next level", i.e should I put her on the potty at regular intervals, or try pants or even maybe try terry nappies so dd is more aware of being wet etc. I have excellent support from dh and also my Auntie who is dd's registered childminder. Auntie has three grown up children and has looked after probably 30 odd children in her career as a childminder and I believe most of her charges have been pretty well trained by about 2 ish at the latest.

I feel "ready" to start and honestly think dd is "ready" just need a few tips to get us going really.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

About night time nappies - my dd1 is just 3 and toilet trained very quickly at aged 2.7mns - but she wears pull ups at night which are always very wet in the morning - and she does a wee before bed, and has about 5oz of milk as abedtime drink - will she wake up one day and the nappy will be dry, or do I need to takes her pullups away first ?

Sorry scatterbrain - I lumped your comment with piasmum. If your wee one wants her nappy then I would let her have it for a while longer even if it is dry. Re-using it is fine although it might not stay on so well. She will soon get more confident. Perhaps you could put on a waterproof sheet instead and reassure her that is for accidents instaed of a nappy.
JaneyT - are you sure if the nappy is wet when she wakes or does she just use it because it is on. That was what my ds did so I took it off as soon as he got up. It may well be that first big wee in the morning that is soaking the nappy. If you do just try taking it off, remember to have a waterproof sheet on the bed and lift her to the toilet before you go to bed. IME, they do a wee and go straight back to sleep. Best to see if she wants to go to bed without a nappy.

Scatterbrain, I know what you mean about the yuck factor but if they were clean and dry, I got over it Just think of the environment (and the money!

Actually, DSs were pullups so they were easy to reuse.

JaneyT, I read some excellent advice a few months ago on Mumsnet (I think it came from PamT, sorry if I have got this wrong). She said something along that lines of her children just using a nappy if it was there, even at night, and she just took the night nappy off. I have tried this with my DS1, now four, and have had very few accidents. I now realise that even although the nappy was soaking in the morning he must have been peeing in it last thing at night and first thing in the morning. Occasionally he forgets to get up to use the toilet first thing and wets the bed then but I think we have only had one, maybe two middle of the night bedwettings. All the best.

I started potty training my 2.5 year old 2 weeks ago, and he took to it really easily, always announcing when he needed a wee and rushing for the potty. I assumed I'd do what I did for my older child regards nights, and wait until he started waking up with a dry nappy. But 2 nights ago he refused a nappy after his bath and said he wanted his pants. I told him he should call me if he needed a wee during the night. Both nights he's woken once announcing he needs a wee, I've put him on the potty and he's gone straight back to sleep. It's only early days but I'm really pleased - some of my son's 4-year-old friends are still in nappies at night as their mothers wait for a dry morning nappy, but it obviously doesn't always work like that. I assumed most children would hate the idea of wearing a nappy/pull-up at night once they'd mastered being a "big boy/girl" in pants during the day. It is a hassle to be woken in the night at first but well worth it I think!

Thanks, I was awarw of the double standards thing but was worried that I would be pushing things to take it off at night. She hasn't had a nappy on for day time naps since she went into pants so I'm being brave and so far so good.

Thanks for the tips Demented and mears. I think I will try dd1 nappyless soon - but will buy a waterproof sheet first.

Actually this last week she has said she doesn't want 'sleep pants' on, and wants to keep her pants on ! And she also is concerned that her bottom smells in the morning after wearing pull ups - she says 'I've got a hummy bummy'! So maybe she is trying to tell me something!

Janey T, My little one is not so little, 4.5, and up until about a month ago had never had a dry night, not even once. I tried on numerous occasions to wean her off pullups with no success whatsoever (she was out of nappies during the day when she was about 18 months old with very little training so I couldn't understand what the problem was). I never made an issue of it and we'd give it a couple of weeks and if she was still wetting the bed every night (usually 2 or even 3 times!!!) then we'd just go back to the pull ups. By 4 I was beginning to worry that she would be one of these children that go on bed wetting into their teens. I had heard that the enuresis clinic do not see it as a problem unless the child is over 7 so decided I was panicking unnecessarily. Everyone I spoke to said not to worry she would do it when she was ready. I couldn't see how since her nappy was sodden every morning and without it so was the bed.Then blow me down if she didn't decide a month ago to do without the pullups and she's never been wet since. They obviously do do it when they are ready! It was suggested to me by the doctor who visits her kindergarten that it was linked to the fact that her legs were still turned out (like a toddlers) and that if I massaged her legs every night they would start to come around and the night time toilet training would follow. Sure enough her legs started to rotate around and then she stopped bed wetting. Probably not the case in your situation but just a little story to say "don't worry, she'll do it when she's ready to and not when you want her to"