potty training 19 month old & sippy cup

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Registered: 01-07-2004
potty training 19 month old & sippy cup
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Thu, 01-08-2004 - 1:24pm
My daughter is 19 months old. A lot of people ask when I am going to start potty training. I thought girls were normally potty trained around 32 months. Is it too early to start? She doesnt even know what peepee and poopoo is yet. I feel like Im lagging behind. Also does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about potty training. This is my first so Im not so sure what I should do.

Another thing is that I have noticed how the no drip attachments to sippy cups get real dirty. I have boiled them and they still wont come clean. Got any suggestions?

Brittnie

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Avatar for colejbmom
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 01-08-2004 - 2:28pm
Hi,

I wouldn't worry about potty training yet if your DD has no interest in it. My DS is 22 months now and at 20 months he started taking interest in the bathroom (we're pretty much open door here!) so we got the potty and he was doing well until sickness and all the comotion of Christmas started. I'm not really sure what to do now that i've alreay introduced it. I don't want to pressure him but I don't want to train him to go in his pants. I guess i'm not being very helpful! From what I understand girls are usually fully trained day/night on average at 36 months and boys at 39.

As for the sippy cup valves, ours (Playtex) always come clean in the dishwasher. If I don't have time to run the washer I have cleaned some with a toothpick and then hot soapy water.

HTH,

Jill and Cole (22 months)
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Registered: 04-07-2003
Thu, 01-08-2004 - 7:42pm
Hi!

My twin's are now 3 1/2 yrs old,a boy and a girl, and they didn't potty train until the day before their 3rd birthday.They were finally ready just before their birthday in July even though I had officially been trying since January. We had a week of accidents but after that it was smooth sailing.

As for the sippy cup nozzle's I noticed the same thing and I would soak them in boiling hot water with a little Clorox Cleanup in the water once a week. That worked for me, not only did it clean them it also disinfected them too. I would let them soak overnight and just rewash them in the morning and rinse VERY well.

HTH

Jenni

Mommy to Nicky and Nika 7-5-00

and Gianna 9-24-03

SAHM in Chicago
Avatar for sonyas1
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 1:06am
As far as potty training a 19 month old, it's a bad idea in most cases in my opinion. Most of those people who put the pressure on swear their child was trained at 5 months or something, lol. I even had a friend once bragging to her friends that her dd pooped on the potty. She was 9 months old. I broke in and said, "Oh, so you put her on the potty when she was grunting and it fell in eh?" LOL PAH-LEASE!

First of all, she has to be able to communicate, preferably talk, so she can tell you when she has to go. She needs to be able to pull her own pants up and down, get the concept of wiping, washing her hands, etc. She definitely needs to know what poop in and what pee is too. At this age, I got a potty seat for my dd because of outside pressure also. She LOVED it. Sat on it with the diaper on, sat on it with the diaper off (always her choice, never forced or coerced), and never peed or pooped. She just wasn't ready. She had many words, but just wasn't ready.

I simply let her lead the way. I was DUMB enough to follow someone's "helpful" hints of potty training a 2 year old and set her back about 6 months I'd say. She said to set a timer for 1/2 hour increments and just put her on the potty. If I knew there was a certain time she went, put her on the potty at that time, etc. It was awful. DD cried, hated the potty, didn't want to do it anymore. Pretty undies, fun potty, NOTHING would tempt her. I was "training" ME, not her, and besides it's not "training" it's learning. Poor thing. I felt awful and stopped it after 1 1/2 days.

FINALLY I just decided to let her lead the way. She had many friends who were older than her and now and then she noticed that they went to the potty, they didn't have their diaper changed. At about 2 1/2 she started wanting to look at pretty undies. I told her she couldn't pee or poop in them and that I would get them for her if she was ready. She told me she wasn't ready. LOL! She ran around naked a lot and managed to get to the potty now and then that way, but the real winner was when we went to Target and she saw Neemo undies. She said I WANT THOSE! I reminded her she couldn't pee or poop in them and she said OK! We took them home, put them on, and that was it. She had very occasional accidents that mostly dissapeared after 2 months of potty learning, and rarely has an accident now. She was 3 years old and one month to the day. She is now 3 1/2.

Most doctors will tell you that kids really understand and will use the potty between 3 and 4. Some will do it earlier, and some WAY early. BUT you have to look at some of them. Are they saying they need to go potty and going? Are they understanding when they have to go? OR are their parents telling them every 5 minutes to go potty, or better yet taking them to the potty every 1/2 hour.

Ok, so I've gone on and on. LOL! I guess I have way stronger opinions on this than I realized. Pushing, punishing, etc can really have lasting affects. I say she'll do it when she's ready but get her familiar with the steps, what it is, and how it's done. Let her watch you and maybe get the It's Potty Time video. DD LOVED that. She made me sing "She is a super-duper-pooper," every time she pooped, lol!

As for sippy cups, I'm not sure which one you have but maybe this will help. The type I have will take a Q-tip in the hard to reach places. I take the Q-tip with soap and clean out the crevaces.

Sonya

2009 siggy by tanya08Lilypie Kids birthday Ticker
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-2003
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 12:25pm
I both agree and disagree with your post. I agree there are certain signs that babies need to have in order to potty train. There are several signs, but they don't ALL have to be visible in order for the child be ready, the majority of them yes, but some kids just don't ever say "hey, I wanna poop in the potty", but that doesn't mean they aren't interested in other ways. For one thing, my DS has not been verbally reliable until recently and he's four years old (he has speach problems he is being tutored for now) but he was obviously ready for potty training right before he turned three. I had "tried" to potty train him a couple half attempts before, but he wouldn't hear of it, and I gave up shortly after we started. As soon as he was ready, he was litterally potty trained in two weeks. My youngest now, I am potty training, she just turned 2 right before Christmas. She does not tell me when she needs to potty, but she shows visible signs of being uncomfortable when she wets or poops. It is very upsetting for her to go in her pants (she was before we started potty training). That's the main reason why I decided to start her, plus she was showing lots of intrest in the toilet and only wetting her diaper a couple times a day, showing she was developing bladder control and awarness when she did go.

The other thing, I think the timer is a great idea. Obviously I don't think it's a good idea to "make" a child go when you want them to, but there is nothing wrong with prompting a child to use the toilet, or "reminding" them because they get busy playing. There are lots of things a mother will have to prompt her child to learn, otherwise they will never show intrest in learning it themselves. To this day, I hate Math and have no intrest in it at all, but I NEED to know it, therefore I was pompted to learn it. Not every kid eventually shows an intrest in learning how to read, but they DO need to learn it. I gaurentee you, my son to this day would have NO intrest in learning to go potty himself if I hadn't encouraged him. That's not something he cares about naturally, so I had to prompt him. I also think there is a big difference between insisting a child is potty trained and constantly reminding him him to go. A child has a short attention span, and they always need reminders for everything else, why is going potty any different? Yeah, I guess to an extent it's potty training the mother too, but eventually the child needs fewer and fewer reminders. My DD sometimes goes potty by herself, othertimes, she will wait two hours, and I ask her if she needs to go, sometimes I even SUGGEST she goes.

I guess it's just a difference of opinion. I do agree though, the whole "my baby was potty trained BY a year" smug attitude drive me NUTS! I always WANT so bad to say "oh yeah, prove it? You can SAY your baby was potty trained whenever you want, but that doesn't make it true!" Ugh! Every baby is very different. My three children are proof of that! LOL

I also think it's plain torture for a baby to be potty trained when he's not ready (from your post, I'm assuming I'm agreeing with you ;). He doesn't understand, and it's nothing less than frusterating for the mother. It's setting up a bad situation for both. You can put a baby on a potty, but you can't make him pee! I see it way too much! I also get really frusterated when parents get upset with a potty training child who has an accident! HELLO, he's still LEARNING it, would you get upset with him for not learning his ABC's all at once?? UGH! Some people take potty training WAY too far and make it 10X harder than it should be! There are lots of reasons/benifits to wait until the baby is ready. The only reason I can see potty training too soon, is because of peer pressure. It's sad that people feel they need to act like high schoolers by pressuring a mother into something she's not ready to do! UGH!

Angie

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-27-2003
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 2:25pm
>>The only reason I can see potty training too soon, is because of peer pressure. It's sad that people feel they need to act like high schoolers by pressuring a mother into something she's not ready to do! UGH!<<

I couldn't have said it better myself. I still get looks when people ask if my DD (3 1/2) is potty trained. She is, partially. But she still has accidents. Don't you just love those "well, my dd/ds was potty trained at 1yr, blah, blah, blah". Like many things, I believe you should follow the child's lead in these situations. I helped raise my niece, and caved to the pressure that she should be trained by age 2. Well, it was awful, she resented it and was just not ready. Trying to "force" her into potty training just made the situation a lot worse.

Oh, and about the sippy cups, I stopped using the ones with the little plastic things in them. No matter how well I cleaned/boiled them, they still looked dirty. There's a company called The First Years (you can look it up on the internet with the usual before and afters) that makes great spill proof cups. They come in packs of 6-8, are re-usable, and very inexpensive.

Megan
Megan
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2004
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 3:58pm
My two cents...

Don't potty train until they are showing signs. You want the child to be trained not you. What I mean by that is if you are having to take the child into the bathroom every 20-30 minutes to go potty so they don't have accidents that is not training the child it is training you. Some parents might be good with that so they don't have to do the diaper thing anymore however for me it is not worth it. I pushed with my oldest and found what a mistake that was. When the children are ready they do it within a week if not fast, when they are not you struggle for months. So when they start showing signs of staying dry through night or asking about the potty or being curious or whatever give them the option. I hold up a diaper and a pair of underwear and say what one do you want. They pick, then if they have an accident they usually will choose, some are so upset about an accident they want their diaper back, and I let them. Soon they don't want the diaper anymore and insist on underwear. My boys have been almost four by the time they were potty trained my girls just over two. When someone asked if one of my children is potty trained I just answer them. I don't have any guilt about them not being trained if they are not so when people ask it doesn't bother me. Be confident in what you are doing and it makes all the diffence.


Laura from Utah and mom to:

Deven 11

Amber 10

Bryen 9

Jered 8

Mikel 6

Ceaira 4

Taran 2

Talyn 1.5

Zane 0.5

Avatar for sonyas1
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 4:08pm
I do agree with you. I didn't mean it was a bad idea to remind the child about going potty, I still do that with dd. I just meant that the timer every 1/2 hour and plunking the kid on the toilet, NOT asking them if they have to go but PUTTING them on the toilet regardless of what they say or want (which is the technique--AND you are supposed to keep them there for 10 minutes!), is wrong. It just creates resentment and fear, which it did for dd.

I just watch dd. If she's had a big glass of juice and hasn't used the potty within about 15-20 minutes, I ask her if she has to go. Most times she says no and I ask her to please go try. Sure enough she pees like 4 cups.

While learning though, you need to be careful about pushing and insisting. Once they've learned and only have occasional accidents, they just need on and off reminders, and that's ok.

Sonya

2009 siggy by tanya08Lilypie Kids birthday Ticker
Avatar for sonyas1
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 4:13pm
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Kayleigh was basically trained in a day. She was wearing diapers, saw the Neemo undies, and that was IT. Sure we talked about it before, had days where she asked to use the potty, etc, but still wore the diaper. Once she saw that Neemo underwear though, that was it. LOL!

At night we still use pull-ups. 8/10 she still wakes up dry, but she chooses what she wants to wear at night. Murphy's Law says when she chooses undies, she wets the bed, so she mostly chooses pull-ups because it really upsets her to wet the bed. I'm sure she wont go to college in pull-ups.

Sonya

2009 siggy by tanya08Lilypie Kids birthday Ticker
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Registered: 07-30-2003
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 5:58pm
I totally agree.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-12-2003
Sat, 01-10-2004 - 12:25am
here and there on this post. i started potty training with my daughter when she was 18 months, went on vacation at 19 months and stopped for a few weeks, and then she was completely trained day and night by 20 months with a two brief relapses, one for a bladder infection and one when i had ds. she showed none of the readiness signs per se, except for staying dry for extended periods of time, but the 'training' was very easy. just left her nakey-butt when we were home and put a pull up on when we went out. she was fine at home as soon as she realized what to do, but she had accidents when we went out because she didn't have the control to hold it until we made it to the bathroom. she would also inevitably pee during telletubbies, her daily half hour of tv. guess they were just too engrossing lol! i never held her on the potty, that sounds a bit harsh, but in the early days i did all kinds of weird things, like letting her play with water, drink juice, have a snack, etc to pass the time until the magic happened so to speak. she never hated it, i think she greatly enjoyed all the attention. dd already knew the concept of pee and poop, as we had started talking about it a few months earlier. within the first day or two she would run to the potty and say "pee-pee" when she had to go, although she never made it in time for a week or so. (lots of resolve on the carpet during this time!) i would tell her every time i guessed that she might need to go and she would sit on it on her own and often peed, and of course we made a big fuss of it when she did. then like i said we went on vacation and put her back in diapers because things were just too crazy, and she didn't mind that at all, and when we got home we started again. that time i was a little more in earnest, got real brave and threw out all the pullups and stuck to it. we put her in undies at night then too, and she never had trouble staying dry during the night. i usually got her up once or twice before i went to bed and she was almost always dry come morning.

so in general i disagree with the statement "She needs to be able to pull her own pants up and down, get the concept of wiping, washing her hands, etc." all that comes with time, and a two year old CAN be succesfully and easily trained if you really want to. dd just now learned to wipe when she poops, and didn't wipe after pee until she was almost three, but she was still potty trained. she still has trouble getting certain outfits up and down, and had no idea about that when we started training. most of that stuff comes AFTER potty training, not before, and can be taught along with it, so it's not neccesarily a prerequisite to potty training. it's more about whether or not they know what comes out an d how to make it come out, and are willing to try, than about whether or not they can wash their hands. basicaly, i don't think it's a good idea to potty train any child who doesn't want to try, or seems incapable of doing it, but otherwise give it a try.

that being said, it's a lot of trouble to have a potty trained 20 mo old. even if they're trained they have little teacup bladders and have to go every 15 mins, so you might as well have a porta potty in the back of your car or you are bound to be peeing in the parking lot or behind a tree at some point. not to mention that 24 mo clothes are intended to fit over a diaper, so you have a lot of sagging, lol. and the jammies are all one peice and all the shirts snap at the crotch, so clothing is a bit of an issue.

good luck, and the best bit of advice i've ever heard was from one of my foster mothers who had potty trained a ton of little pee-ers and poop-ers: "if it's too hard, give up and come back to it later. keep fighting about it and you'll just make both of you miserable." and another one that's on the wall of a bathroom stall a dh's work: "you can lead a toddler to the potty but you can't make him pee."

clarity

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