My son is almost 21 months old and we have been diaper-free (except at night) for three weeks. He hasn't had an accident at home since Jan 1 and he is averaging about 2-3 "accidents" a week at day care when he gets distracted playing and tells them he has to go, but a little comes out before they make it to the bathroom. I am in no hurry to get rid of the diapers at night, but I was wondering how it happened for all of you. I've read everything from "just wait and they'll get it on their own" to "limit fluids at night and get them up in the middle of the night to pee so they don't have accidents." I was interested in hearing how you did it with your kids and at what age and how long after they were day-trained you went completely diaper-free.
On a related note, when (and how) did you transition your boys from sitting to standing to pee?
When they wake up dry in the morning for a few months straight. My son
was 21 months when he was day trained. I think he was like 2 1/2 before
he was out of diapers at night. As far as standing; when he wants to be
like Daddy he will stand.
for both of my boys, we waited until they were dry in the morning....every single morning....for 1 month straight-thru. This came about 6 months after daytime dryness for my oldest son.....& at about 3 months for my younger son.
As for standing up, the criteria for that would be body height! If you're using the standard toilet, you either will need to use a stool/bench or wait until they're tall enough!
I wouldn't worry about the transition to standing just yet. When he starts to want to be like dad is when I would let dad step in and show him. That or when Dad is primarily the one taking him potty in public places. Dad won't want him sitting in the men's room, lol.
However, be sure that whenEVER he does start to stand, that you have him use a step stool. My son dropped the toilet seat on himself b/c I didn't think about it happening and he was tall enough to not need the step stool to get it into the bowl... But apparently NOT tall enough to keep from getting "pinched" by a dropped lid. My BIL and SIL are both nurses. One of them has worked in ER and they get visits due to this on a REGULAR basis.
My daughter is 5 and half and still wears a pull up at night. She is dry most mornings, but I still put it on her for the nights she isn't. My son is 3 and is daytime potty trained. He started standing to pee right around when he turned 3 in Dec. At that point he was tall enough. He did it pretty much on his own. I think one day before bath he had to pee, and i was in a hurry and I said him, here just stand and shoot it in, and he did it. But then he saw his cousin standing to pee and that reinforced it and he has done it almost every-time since. And he too still wears a pull up at night and is wet more often than not yet. So both kids will wear them until they don't wet at all anymore. I wet at night until I was around 7, so I don't expect my kids to be much different. Unfortunately back then there were no pull-ups and I was teased for it, as I was wetting the bed.
You can't train night-time dryness. It just has to happen on its own. I did not switch my oldest to regular underwear at night until is was consistently dry in the morning for a few months straight. I think she was about 4 or 5 at the time. My middle child wasn't daytime trained until he was 4. He is 5 now and still not dry at night. My youngest is 3 yr old and partially trained for daytime and dry at night most of the time. As you can see, it is different for each child. My pediatrician told me that they do not expect children to be consistently dry at night until around 7 years of age. The don't expect a child's bladder to be developed enough for night time dryness until then.
Hope this helps.
My son was potty trained by the time he was almost three years old. Sometimes he will get distracted and pee on himself but that is not so often any more. He stands up to pee because he wants to be like Daddy. He kind of figured it out by himself. At home, I was on him all day one day after he had a accident and this was the second in a few day time period and made him pee every hour or any time shortly after he consumed a good amount of liquids. He always goes pee before he goes to bed and right when he wakes up there is no wiggle room there. Just stay on top of it and be consistent.
With my oldest and youngest (not middle) it took running out of diapers for them to be done with them at night. They would both wake up with soaked diapers but one day with each I ran out and it was too late to go buy more so we just went without and they both woke up dry the next morning.
