Comments on: Be Brutally Honest With Me

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:27:19 +0000

Ok, now when someone says their 8 month old is trained, I have to laugh. It is the parent who is trained not the baby. I really don’t know why parents think that early potty traing is a sign of intelligence or something! As for night trainin, girls are usually trained at age 5 and boys at age 6. There is a night time training device one can use if their child is not night train and is day time train. It does work. The day my son turned 6 I got this night time training device. As a previous mom said, the signal he has to pee doesn’t wake him up. The trainer is placed into underpants, and the beeper is attached to his pjs or pants. The second he starts to pee, it goes off and wake him up. My child went the first night 6 hours and it went off. He then got up and peed in the pot. It took one week to totally train him. My niece got it when she was 5 and it helped her. Her older sister didn’t use this and she pee until she was like 12. It does work.

By: bob

bob — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:13:43 +0000

if you shit you pants still when you are a teen and you have to shit in you underwear or just sit on it in school

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 04:12:48 +0000

AE was potty trained the week she turned 3. She was almost trained many months before, but we moved to a new area and she got really upset by it. She went through quite a rebellious stage with the potty training. Finally, being the smart one that she is, she told me she would do it when she turned 3. The week she turned 3 I held her to it. She is 3 1/2 now and hasn’t had any accidents at night in a long time, so she is wearing panties to bed. I probably could have taken her out of pull-ups much sooner, but she gets really upset if she has an accident. I think (and hope) my little boy will be easier to train.

By: Mom at Work

Mom at Work — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:07:28 +0000

At 4, little guy has some daytime accidents of the so busy doing something that going to the bathroom is not a priority variety, but he keeps dry reliably at night.

By: Tito

Tito — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:10:55 +0000

Nancy! I’m not sure what you mean by “a handful of accidents” but I’m sure you shouldn’t share that.

By: Jody

Jody — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 02:18:04 +0000

Since we are working with a urologist to address one of our children’s bladder control issues, I feel safe stating that Ann makes a number of totally bogus claims. Night training in particular is not a question of making the child uncomfortable: if the body-mind connection is not ready, it’s not ready.

My little sister’s bed had a particular odor to it until she was seven or eight — she wasn’t in pullups, but I’d bet large amounts of money that she had frequent nighttime accidents, slept right through them, and was dry enough by morning that my mom didn’t notice.

My children were late to potty training, and if I could do it over again, I’d switch to cotton trainers closer to 30 months and see if that moved them forward (although in retrospect, since we’re dealing with medical issues with one child, it’s clear that one of the kids wasn’t going to train without professional intervention/medication). Night-time training, though, is an oxymoron. The child is ready when she wakes up dry, and not before.

I know, because I thought maybe the pullups were encouraging nighttime urination, and spent 10 days changing sheets on two beds two and even three times in a night. Lo and behold, two weeks ago, one child finally wakes up dry, switched to underpants, and is off and running.

Daytime training is one thing — I do think pullups and diapers are counterproductive there, for neuro-typical kids. But night-time training? Either you’re ready or your not.

Wrapping your child in a plastic bag to encourage wet, itchy skin is not only unsanitary and unhealthy, it’s a suffocation risk if the bag tears. Sheesh.

By: whymommy

whymommy — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 01:02:10 +0000

This is so encouraging … we haven’t begun the potty training olympics yet (Widget is 2.5), and I’m dreading it….

By: Ann

Ann — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:31:42 +0000

I think we’re all a bunch of whooses. I’ve even trained friends kids-in a weekend. It requires: STAYING HOME for 48 hours, and taking them to the toilet hourly, with a lot of liquids in the diet. Children who can spell their name, and write it, should have been potty trained already.
We (the over 40 yr. old generation) were trained: girls at age 2, boys by age 3 (always slower). No targets in the toilet, no ‘potty’ parties. We were left in our wet diapers or pants, in a cool breezy doorway, to learn that urine left on the skin gets cold and eventually yucky-itchy!!
The diapers and pull-ups of today are a curse. Children have no idea what cold urine feels like. Did it kill us? Hell no, we learned to get our little selves to the toilet. Our mothers were busy making preserves and pickles, dinner, operating wringer-washers, and likely taking care of 4 other children.
Every younger friend that I’ve told to get rid of the ‘pull-ups’ (up to 75 lbs for Gods sake!!) got the kids trained in no time. You don’t want urine on your furniture or carpets? (and who does?) Then slip ‘em (still urine soaked in wet- normal-cotton training pants- NO NASA diapers) into a garbage bag-taped at the ankles and waist. They’ll be begging to get the cold, wet, itchy clothes off. Now that’s a REAL LIFE incentive if you ask me.
No drinks @1 hour before bed time (sip of water-just a sip or two) Please tell me these 2-3-4-5 yr. olds are not getting baby bottles either. Have them go potty before bedtime, install a plastic matress cover to ensure the matress isn’t soaked in the event of an accident. They’ll likely wake-up if they’re not in ‘pull-ups’.
Give it a try, it means throwing away convenience, staying home for a weekend, and a sense of accomplishment for the children!! I can’t imagine how awful a 4 year old must feel who doesn’t know how or why to use the toilet during the day.
This isn’t mean-it’s called teaching them to grow-up. It’s a good thing. No one was ever psychologically scarred from being potty-trained.

By: whit

whit — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:24:06 +0000

Atticus was just past 2 1/2 when he was cleared for big boy undies. Only once did he have an accident, at Target where we seem to spend a lot of time, but it was diarrea, and that shit could happen to anyone.

By: Kaleigh

Kaleigh — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:10:23 +0000

Daytime trained (meaning underwear all day, but diaper at bedtime), right at age 3 (within a month of the birthday) for both kids. Overnight trained (meaning no diapers and no wet beds with r a r e exceptions) about 3 1/2, maybe closer to 4 for my son. Each kid has had a random accident years later (daughter had hers in kindergarten, son had his in first grade….both completely weird and never repeated).