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clee03m
Nov 27, 2011, 5:49 PM
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Sorry not gender specific, but I don't want to deal with don't bring kids outside at all comments, so here I go.
My toddler is potty training. He is mostly accident free, but he is still having a hard time telling us when he needs to go and also with poo. So we are having to remind him frequently and put him on the potty. He has done well on indoor outing like to the children's museum. He has done well with small 20 minutes hikes at the dog park. And when I say he has done well, I mean he is mostly accident free, but he does still have accidents. I am wondering how other parents handle toddlers who are potty training for day trips especially in the cold weather in the snow and such. Sometimes it takes a while for him to pee, so I can't really imagine pulling his pants down in the cold and sitting him down in a potty for 10 minutes at a time. How do you handle it when they have accidents? I would hate for the baby backpack to get wet. He really hates diapers and even training pants, and I am a bit worried about undoing all the work if I were to use them. I would also worry about him being cold during changing and such. Are we doomed to stay mostly indoors while he potty trains at least while it is cold outside? Any ideas or advise would be appreciated. Thanks.
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happiegrrrl
Nov 28, 2011, 3:08 AM
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Childless, so take with grain of salt, but I would think you would probably want to have enough changes of clothes to refresh into dry/clean if he has accident. So - if it's possible to have 3 in a day....3 changes. It would be no fun to be cold and wet for even a short while.
Though he might not always be able to let you know he's ready to go, he probably CAN tell you when he just has and is now freezing his little hiney off! Accept that accidents will happen, and be prepared to get him set up quickly when/if it does.
As for providing opportunities, I can easily see you're right that he won't be able to sit on a pit for 10 minutes in the cold. How many of US will sit in our sleeping bags on a winter night when he have to go but don't want to be cold!?
I wonder if they make heated rings one could set atop an outhouse pot.... Found one for the house; if it were battery-operated - hahahah
http://biorelief.com/...ted-toilet-seat.html
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kickasssoprano
Nov 28, 2011, 3:46 AM
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I agree- also don't have a child (well one that's out of me anyway :p) but, I've worked in childcare for more than 12 years and about 7 of those years were with 15-24 month olds. Pack a few plastic bags and lots of changes of clothes. Also, bring some wipes and a towel of some sort. It will suck in the beginning, but I think you're on the right track not going back to diapers or pull ups. I've seen that set kids back and toilet learning then takes much longer. Hope that helps!
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lena_chita
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Nov 28, 2011, 1:32 PM
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Wait, isn't he only 18 months or so? I know that potty-training is pushed on at much earlier age in some cultures, and some people use EC here in the States, too. But you are definitely going to work harder and have to do it for a longer time if you start early.
First thing that caught my eye-- you aren't actually thinking of bringing a POTTY to a crag? Part of potty-training, IMO, is learning to go in various places, be it a public bathroom, or the woods. He is a boy. He can pee standing up, and you can hold him up under knees for BM, so IMO no need to lug a plastic potty with you. If he never peed standing up, you might want to practice a few times in the backyard.
Second, you are over-thinking it. Training pants are a must in situations where cleaning up the results of the accidents is very inconvenient! If he hates the disposable ones, get a few cloth training pants, such as these: http://www.kellyscloset.com/...ing-Pants_c_651.html You have another baby on the way, you'll use them and the price tag won't be too high when divided by two kids. Or you could use the disposable ones, even though he hates them, and make it an incentive to not have accidents ("if you can show me on this trip that you can go potty every time, we won't use them on next trip"-- though this sort of thing works much better with kids who are 2.5-3.5yo) But overall, he is at the age where " hating something" doesn't last long.
Sure, if you leave him in a crib wearing training pants and pajamas, and he is bored and not sleepy, he is likely to take off those hateful training pants, and pee all over the crib. But when he is outside, with a lot of things to look at and play with, he will forget that he hated putting on those training pants in about 5 minutes.
Third, none of that "wait 10 minutes with pants down" stuff -- when you ask him if he needs to go, and nothing happens after a minute, you pull the pants back on and ask again in 10 min. If he goes in between-- oh, well... Change the training pants. Several changes of clothes, at least 2 or 3, will have to be in your pack until he is past the accident age. I had a change of clothing for the kids until they were way past potty training, because even if they aren't peeing their pants they still like to jump in puddles, they fall and skid down muddy slopes, and in general they find ways to get much messier than you ever thought possible.
Fourth, even in the cold weather, his private parts are not going to freeze off in a minute that it takes to either pee or change diapers. Just make sure he is dressed warmly overall, and a little bit of exposure is going to be just fine.
Fifth, everyone has setbacks. Just because he peed in his training pants three times when you were at a crag doesn't mean that all your work is undone and you have to start over. Two steps forward, one step back eventually gets you to the destination.
Sixth, if all of the above sounds like too much trouble, then sure, stay home. But at some point, whether now, or next summer, you'll have to bite a bullet and go for it. So why not now?
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boadman
Nov 28, 2011, 8:37 PM
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Time for some "nature" peeing and pooing. We kept our kids in pull-ups during the training phase, and just asked them if they need to go a couple of times per hour. Seemed to work ok. After they were out of diapers we brought more extra clothes.
Our son didn't really potty train until 3 (he wasn't interested before then) but it only took him a day. Our daughter trained about 2, but it took her a couple of months to get the hang of it.
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clee03m
Nov 29, 2011, 5:23 AM
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Yeah, I think I am over thinking things too much. It is probably not a big deal even if he has accidents in the cold. I guess I have a tendency to be a hovery protective mom. I try hard to overcome this urge...
We had originally bought some cotton training pants with plastic lining for my son, and he absolutely hates them. I mean a full on screaming fit and pullling down his pants hate. He really doesn't do that with anything else, so I guess we are a bit shocked by his reaction. We bought some all cotton training pants today, so hopefully he won't be able to distinguish them from his regular undies.
As far as starting potty training on an almost 20 month old, well we had several reasons. First, he has such sensitive skin that diaper rash has been something we've been battling since he was an infant. It seemed to improve some after we switched to cloth diapers, but it would still flare up. My pediatrician was threatening to put him on oral antibiotics last one was so bad. My husband and I are both rather crunchy and believe that early potty training is a good thing. We wanted my son potty trained before the next one was born as my MIL wants to try EC with the baby. Korean kids are often potty trained by 18 months and rarely not potty trained by the time they are 2. It seems to me that cultural expectation plays a role in when kids are potty trained.
He has been potty training for about 2 weeks, and he is doing very well. He is accident free many days.
We are going for a long hike this Friday in the mountain, so we will see how it goes. I will try to relax and know that even if he has an accidents in the cold, he is not going to get a frostbite or something. I must not be a helicopter mom! I must not be a helicopter mom! Thanks everyone, and wish me luck!
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lena_chita
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Nov 29, 2011, 1:44 PM
Post #7 of 13
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Some of the cheaper plastic-cover pullup pants can be really scratchy on the edge/seams, and that may be why he is reacting badly to them. But the ones that I linked in the other post were nice and soft, with a cloth band stitching around the leg openings. In my experience the all-cotton ones (Gerber brand specifically) were pretty much useless in terms of wetness protection. You might as well just go with plain underwear.
For what it is worth, I used EC with my younger one. Thanks to the efforts of her Russian nanny she successfully used potty at 1yo, and was out of diapers by the time she was 2yo. In contrast, I didn't even mention potty-training with my older one until he was 2years 4 months old. He was accident-free a month later. So 2 years worth of EC vs. 1 month of focused potty-training, and the difference is only being out of diapers about 5 months earlier.
In retrospect, EC was a lot of effort for relatively little gain. It works when there is one-on-one attention to the baby, and you aren't on the go, e.i. you can drop everything and rush the baby to the potty every time you need it (think stay-at-home mom or a nanny who doesn't go anywhere except to the backyard with the baby), but it is mostly training parents/caregivers to recognize the clues, and not actually training the baby to have control over elimination -- until they are capable of that control anyway. In cultures/situations where every pee in the potty means one less diaper to hand wash, it is definitely worth it. Otherwise-- I'm not so sure. But it was very crunchy.
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clee03m
Nov 29, 2011, 4:23 PM
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Well, he throws a fit about his comfotable diapers, too.
I agree about EC, but my MIL read a book on early potty training in preparation for early potty training my son. It kind of advertises EC, and my MIL is sold. How can a crunchy parent like myself refuse a caretaker who volunteers to do it, no? :) My husband and I are secretly thinking that she won't last, and we will probably be back in diapers. But if we pull it off, great.
Yeah, without the horrible diaper rash, we may have held out longer. But he was running around without diapers for his rash anyways, so we thought might as well start now. I don't think it is going to take him that long to catch on as he is doing very well so far. I kind of think these things are children dependent too. One parent I know has one son who pretty much potty trained himself at 18 months, and her younger son, well, she said she was afraid he'd go to college in his diapers. Some parents say that their 3 year old potty trained in a day, and some paretns say their 3 year old had a real difficult time with potty like refusing to poo off diapers at all. With an older child, there is that element of a child who is more advanced in language and motor control, but I feel like there is also the element of having a child who has grown very used to being in diapers in a stage of development where they are really pushing for their autonomy. Besides, my husband and my MIL say that potty training is a breeze compared to cloth diapering. I have to confess I did pretty much no diaper changing or washing so no idea for me due to I have baby and breastfeed and my husband changes diapers agreement we had.
I had no idea I would turn out so crunchy...
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tolman_paul
Dec 2, 2011, 1:02 AM
Post #10 of 13
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#1 Relax!
I think you are way over thinking this issue and putting too much effort into trying to prevent kids being kids, ie making a mess. After 3 kids and 1000's of diapers, I can attest that they will puke themselve, pee themselve, and poo themselves at the least opportune times and occasionally make a mess of clothing, backpacks etc. That's life as a parent.
Always have a pack of baby wipes handy (our kids are teens and wipes are still a staple on trips) spare clothes, diapers et al.
Some kids have smaller bladders and less control of their bladders and will have accidents even when they are older.
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klopik
Dec 9, 2011, 1:30 AM
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Registered: Sep 26, 2006
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Dude, he is a boy! ;) He can pee standing up!!!
My 20 month old is fully day potty trained. We just took him to Vietnam with us - and thats where we taught him to pee standing :)
We have him in cloth trainers still, just in case, but our last accident was maybe a month ago.
But make sure you take a few changes of clothes just in case. You'll do fine! :)
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clee03m
Dec 14, 2011, 4:55 PM
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The hike was no problem at all. He didn't have any accidents. We haven't taught him to pee standing yet, but I guess that is the next step.
Thanks, all. I tend to be an anxious parent.
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happiegrrrl
Dec 14, 2011, 11:49 PM
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It's always a good day climbing when no one has an accident. hahah
Glad to hear it was a success - motivation for your next outing!
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