Family Forum / Parenting / Parenting / September 2005

   We stopped at night when her diaper was consistently dry in
the morning, when we got waterproof sheets (since she sleeps on
our mattress), and when she expressed her desire to do so,
after the option was brought up on occasion. She was over three,
so she was able to do so clearly, with a full understanding of what
was going on.  She went back and forth for a month until dropping
the diaper at night altogether.

   We stopped underwear outside of the house when accidents
were all but gone.  But if we're going someplace without a
good restroom, especially if I'm also hauling #2 around,
I still ask her to sit and try to pee before we go if she has
not done so in awhile.

                                                           P. Tierney

Why? Toilet training happens wherever you are, not just at home. Give her
the benefit of the doubt and be prepared for accidents. Potty training can
be messy, it's just part of it. Keep extra clothes in the car and make sure
you know where bathrooms are, make it a rule to use the bathroom before you
leave anyplace (your house, freind's house, etc) If the issue is the bowel
movements then watch her carefully and look for signs. They will be there,
you just have to look pretty closely.

Should I also try to put a underwear

If you are still putting a diaper on her when you leave the house then I'd
wait a little bit longer. My ds wore pull ups at night until he was almost
four. He just wasn't ready yet. It's a whole different ball of wax than
daytime training.

Daytime: all or nothing for diapers. no matter where we went.
Night: pull ups as long as he needed them

HTH

JennP.

*DD (2.5 yo) is regularly wearing big girl underwear and staying dry.
*She's still scared of pooping in the potty but as far as peeing goes,
*she's got it. In the daycare she's wearing underwear even during naps.
*At night time I put a diaper on her because that's a 10 hour stretch.
*

I've been through potty training twice. The first time - it was a
no-brainer. The whole reason we realized our 2 yr old son was ready for
potty training was that he was waking up with dry diapers every morning!
So when he finally took us up on our offer of big boy underwear a few
months after we first broached the subject, it was full-time underwear
from day one, no problem.

The second time, well - my daughter was a little more resistant to the
idea than my son was. But about a week after she was day-trained, she
started to refuse to let us put a pull-up on her at night (which we had
done for the first week because she already refused the diaper! She wanted
underwear all the time :)) so we put her in underwear. She had accidents
maybe up to half the time for the first week or so, but once we made sure
to have her pee right before bedtime, and explicitly TOLD her to WAKE UP
AND USE THE POTTY if she needed to pee at night, we had no real problems.

-h.

With ds, the threshold for underwear outside the house was I wouldn't
do it until after he had actually successfully used a toilet somewhere
other than our house.  I think we had a little bit of a transition
period where I didn't put him in underwear for big events like birthday
parties because I didn't want him to get distracted and then have an
accident in a high-pressure situation.  I also tried to judge whether
or not the person we were visiting would freak out if he had an
accident in their house, during the period of frequent accidents. ;-)
He was in pull-ups by that time simply because he had outgrown the size
5 diapers!  I never really treated them as something different - just
as big diapers.

He was already dry in the mornings most of the time before he was potty
trained, so we didn't make a big deal about night training, esp. since
his mattress had a waterproof cover.  He had accidents, but they got
fewer and farther between, and he hasn't worn pull-ups in ages now.

I do have nieces who still wear pull-ups at night at ages 3-6 who are
otherwise potty-trained, fwiw.  My SIL's are amazed at my ds, but I
tell them I really can't take any credit for it! ;-)

As you prep for taking your dd out in underwear, make a mental note of
all of the bathroom locations in places where you normally shop!  You
may need to find them in a hurry! ;-)  Also, always travel with extra
underwear and clothes...

Good luck!  Dd (17 months) is already showing interest in ditching
diapers in favor of underwear, but has yet to actually produce on the
toilet.  It will be interesting to see how this experiment goes (she
has done this 3 days in a row, now, after the time she was pulling at
her diaper while trying to put on a pair of my underwear!  I told her
she didn't get to wear underwear until she was peeing on the potty, so
she went over to the toilet!)

Irene