How likely is potty regression?

[SarahBear]

So I basically potty trained my first kid 3 times. The first time was at 18 months. That whole month, she requested the potty almost every single time and had very few accidents. She was only in diapers for nap time and bed time. She regressed and we went on a big vacation. Between her efforts and our efforts, she was out again at 23 months. She had ups and downs and was fully back in diapers around 2 and a half. Then we potty trained more conventionally at a couple months short of 3.

Now here comes Leo. He's 23 months and we did a diaper-free 3 day weekend. It had a HUGE impact on him and that progress continued throughout the week, even though he was back in diapers for the week. Then this last weekend (regular 2 day weekend), he was diaper free again. When I came home this evening (Tuesday), he had no diaper because he was doing so well that my husband was comfortable having him diaper free. He has even started pooping in the potty more consistently.

He still has some progress to make, but with just an "accident" or two a day and poop more consistently in the potty, he has made HUGE progress and seems to be well on his way to being potty trained.

My question is, like with his big sister, is this too good to be true? What do you think the chances are that he'll regress? Or do you think the chances are that he'll just continue to make good progress and we'll be able to ditch the daytime diapers for good pretty soon?

PS, oh, and he's even peeing less at night now.

 

[catty]

I personally just wouldnt put him back in diapers again now if he seems to have got it. My daughter was fully out of nappies (not night time) by her 2nd birthday and we have never experianced any regressions. I think it sounds confusing going back and forth from nappies to being nappy free though.
My son has had the odd tiny regressions here and there when he started nursery but i think that is only because he was having so much fun there and noone reminded him.

 

[pa2k84]

I would say go for it, personally never had any regression with either of mine but know from working work children it does happen, usually this is only quick 1-2 weeks and if carrying on as normal is easy to ride through

 

[SarahBear]

I personally just wouldnt put him back in diapers again now if he seems to have got it. My daughter was fully out of nappies (not night time) by her 2nd birthday and we have never experianced any regressions. I think it sounds confusing going back and forth from nappies to being nappy free though.
My son has had the odd tiny regressions here and there when he started nursery but i think that is only because he was having so much fun there and noone reminded him.

I wouldn't either, but I'm not the stay-at-home parent. So I only have so much control over the situation. I'm hoping that with him consistently being out of diapers when I'm around will help with the confusion part. I'm also hoping that my husband gets used to and more comfortable with the idea of no more diapers. I said a long time ago that it felt like potty training would be more straight forward with Leo and I'm hoping that impression will prove accurate.

One issue with the lack of consistency though, is that Leo was actually requesting a diaper when I was trying to do diaper free time. If he was consistently diaper free, it would be easy to say no. But since we aren't being consistent, saying no probably doesn't make sense and might cause issues...

I'm going to actually be in a town that has stores that sell underwear today. I'm going to go get 10-15 pairs and see if I can nudge my husband along to not using diapers.

 

[.Mrs.B.]

We had about a two week regression with both of our kids. The regression came after months of being reliably trained so we didn't go back to nappies we let it casually pass both times.

 

[BlingyGal]

For those who potty trained around 2 years old (or earlier), did you make your decision based on your child's readiness?
I'm in no rush to potty train and my daughter doesn't seem particularly interested in the potty yet (she's 22 months) so, for now, I'm not trying to train her at all. Just wondering if there's other things I should take into consideration.
Personally, I don't find changing diapers bothersome.

 

[catty]

For those who potty trained around 2 years old (or earlier), did you make your decision based on your child's readiness?
I'm in no rush to potty train and my daughter doesn't seem particularly interested in the potty yet (she's 22 months) so, for now, I'm not trying to train her at all. Just wondering if there's other things I should take into consideration.
Personally, I don't find changing diapers bothersome.

My daughter wanted to because i was also training her older brother, i wouldnt have done so otherwise

 

[.Mrs.B.]

We trained both at about 24/25 months. I felt like they would be much more comfortable out of nappies. With my daughter it made a massive difference as it actually stopped her from being constipated. She went from taking movicol for painful constipation to going regularly in the potty each day. It really seemed as though nappies prevented her from being able to poop.

 

[SarahBear]

For those who potty trained around 2 years old (or earlier), did you make your decision based on your child's readiness?
I'm in no rush to potty train and my daughter doesn't seem particularly interested in the potty yet (she's 22 months) so, for now, I'm not trying to train her at all. Just wondering if there's other things I should take into consideration.
Personally, I don't find changing diapers bothersome.

With my first, I used EC. That's where you pay attention to and respond to your infant's body language indicating the need to pee or poop. You then hold your infant over the potty or toilet. Using this method, Violet started requesting the toilet and was asking for it about 50% of the time by the time she was 14 months old. By 18 months, she was so reliable that she was out of diapers. When she regressed and we went on a month long vacation, she was back in diapers. Back at home, similar methods led to her being out again at 23 months. At this point, it took the effort of my husband and myself to tell her to go and her sometimes requesting. After that, she had her ups and downs with the potty until completely regressing at about 2.5. When we trained again at a bit short of 3, she did not show typical "readiness" signs. I just suspected I could make it work and I did.

Now with Leo, we did the same thing. He began signing for the potty at about 7 months old. This skill didn't stick. It came and went. He also hit a point where he just really wasn't using the toilet/potty at all. I don't remember how long that lasted. But at some point he became more receptive to being put on the potty at wakeup time. He also is receptive to praise and is interested in other's bathroom habits. I just decided to try 3 days without diapers and see how it went. It went well enough that I decided to kick it up a notch with potty training.

So no, I didn't wait for them to be interested before starting the potty-learning process.

 

[SarahBear]

OK, now potty training is affecting sleep... The night before last, he hardly slept. Last night, he requested the potty in the middle of the night and then again at 4:00 AM, and then several more times before he fell back to sleep a couple hours later.

I think he genuinely needed to go the first two times, but then it quickly became what appeared to be an excuse to get out of bed.

I'm so exhausted.

 

[SarahBear]

When I came home, Leo was in underwear. Apparently he had gone the whole day without an accident. While I was home, he did make about a quarter sized spot on his pants with pee before he caught himself and asked for the potty, but he was also exhausted and really grumpy as he hasn't been sleeping well at night, so that's not too bad. So it looks like we've fully graduated to underwear at home during waking hours. It will be some time before we venture out without diapers. Probably not too long though.

 

[SarahBear]

Leo spent all day with his grandparents while we were off at a conference and he only had about one accident! We also had him in pull-ups for the grandparents. That's pretty good! Potty training was pretty successful if he was able to continue staying on track with it in a different environment without his parents around. We'll go back to underwear once we're home and perhaps stick to underwear on our next visit.

 

[pa2k84]

I would just stick with the underwear, he will end up very confused if you keep switching, just obviously take out lots of spare clothes!

 

[SarahBear]

Using diapers here and there hasn't caused confusion thus far. It didn't cause confusion with Violet either.

 

[catty]

Using diapers here and there hasn't caused confusion thus far. It didn't cause confusion with Violet either.

How can you know that when she seems to have had quite a few regressions?

 

[Kazy]

I agree with the not using diapers. My youngest just potty trained at 20 months the and all 4 of mine were before 2. I had one child regress and it was the one I put in pull ups during a week long vacation and didn't want to deal with accidents. Now I just chose to deal with accidents and she's 22 months old and no accidents hardly at all.
I do have the benefit of being a stay at home mom BUT I work at home and we are out and about for many things as I have kids in two different schools with two different drop off and pick up times. So if you are able to not do diapers or pull ups I really believe your chances of regression are way lower. But if it's not possible then do what you can.

 

[AnneD]

I put mine in a nappy for going out for the first few weeks because it was cold (winter/spring), no public facilities and I couldn't have taken more than one change of clothes especially when going shopping. I explained why and we had no regressions.

 

[SarahBear]

Using diapers here and there hasn't caused confusion thus far. It didn't cause confusion with Violet either.

How can you know that when she seems to have had quite a few regressions?

Because we waited until she did fairly well before she was consistently out of diapers and regressions happened with no diaper use and not in association with diaper use whatsoever. It's pretty easy to tell.

 

[SarahBear]

I'm glad to hear so many people who trained young, didn't experience regressions. I'm hoping that's how things go with Leo. We even took Violet up to a doctor's appointment an hour drive away and kept Leo in underwear. He did great. He asked for the potty on our way up and we were able to pull over for him and he asked while we were out and we were able to get him to a restroom. We then had to ignore him on the way home because he kept asking as an excuse to get out of the carseat... He had no accidents and we were gone for 3 hours. I think when we leave him with grandparents next, he'll be diaper free as well. We're down to just diapers for sleep time, but even those he hardly pees in. As a matter of fact, he actually held it all night long last night and then peed in the potty in the morning.

 

[Kazy]

that sounds great! If he can go all night I'd sy regression is unlikely. It sounds like he is doing really well!