When do you consider your DC PT/PL'ed???

[MMEand1]

My DS has been out of diapers for 3 weeks now and despite this being the hardest 3 weeks we have ever had, I think we are over the hump. He tells us when he has to go and when we are out in town we always make sure we ask him several times and know exactly where a bathroom is. We have only had 1 night-time accident thus far, and no day-time accidents after the first week or so.

My question is when do you consider your DC to be PT'ed? Is it when they stop having accidents or when they can go to the bathroom without you needing to ask every 10 minutes or even without asking at all? I'm just curious to know at what point I can call this success!!

Thanks,
Mariah P.

[StantonHyde]

When he stopped having accidents and then he went to the bathroom without being asked--that's when I knew we had arrived. He did still have some night accidents. But now we do no liquids at bed or nap and that has stopped. I still keep the waterproof mattress pad on the bed! DD started trying to take her pants off to go potty at 15 mos. Something tells me she is going to be a piece of cake. (DS did not train till 3.5 years!!)

[DDowning]

DS stopped wearing diapers around his 3rd birthday back in June. We had a great couple of months, then september came along with a change in preschool and we had some regression. After a period of about two weeks of hardcore bootcamp we're back in the clear. The one thing though he will not do is wipe himself after a bm. We've been practicing but there is some fine amount of motor skills requirement to get the angle just right IYKWIM. Once that's done, then I will say we are 100% potty trained!

[kozachka]

My standards I much less stringent than other pp's, maybe that's why when I tell pp at what age DS got PT/PL they are surprised ;). I say DS was daytime PTed when he told us he needed to use the bathroom before he had to go and he had no more than 1 accident a day. He was lacking the skills to take his pants off and sometimes we did not make it in time to the bathroom but it was my fault, not his. At night, I considered DS to be PTed when he did not have accidents and asked to be taken to the bathroom at night if he had to go. As far as I am concerned 1 accident in 3 weeks = no accidents.

So by my standards, your DS is PTed :). Congratulations! Personally, I would rather change my DS' wet pants once in a while (has not happened since early spring when we still had snow outside) than diapers few times a day.

[kijip]

T sold the rest of the cloth diapers and declared him pt when he had been in all underwear (day and night) for about 5 months (I think). He is potty independant now at home and at school except for when he is in overalls. That is helped by giving him jeans and pants with elastic waistbands. He has not had an accident in many, many months and it was a point in which I was ready to have an accident too (we were looking for a toilet for a looooooong time, LOL.)

I think potty sucess comes in increments and that you certainly are seeing sucess now.

[MartiesMom2B]

Just wanted to add that your child can be PT during the day and not at night. That's completely normal. My ped. said that accidents at night are normal until at least 5. I think my daughter was out of nighttime pull ups after she was day potty trained for 5 months.

-Sonia
Mommy to Martie
& Li'l Girl Bunny to come Feb. 2007
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