A few of you have asked me if we were going to have a day for questions, and I thought that was a great idea!
Since we have had many questions (and you can still keep sending them through facebook or directly to my email) I'm going to post about 2-3 at a time so it won't get so confusing. So if your question isn't on here yet, don't worry, it will be. This is just in order of whoever sent it to me first.
So here they are:
- When and how should I transition my baby from a crib to a toddler bed?
- When did you start potty training your kid? I have a 19 month-old girl and I really want to start potty training her...So I won't have to change diapers anymore.
Now all you have to do is answer whatever you would like! Please share your own experiences if you've already gone through any (or all) of this. If you haven't you're more than welcome to leave tips and suggestions.
Now let's learn from one another, shall we?
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12 comments:
About moving your child to a toddler or regular bed, I think you have to wait until your child is either too big for a crib or can climb out. Our daughter was about 2 1/2 when we converted her crib to a toddler bed and in the beginning she loved it. There was no need for us to do it though, I just thought it would be cool and that she was old enough and ready for the change. She did fine the first few days but then she started getting scared and wanted me to lay next to her or on the floor until she fell asleep. Well, I always thought it was absurd when parents told me they had to lay down with their child until he/she fell asleep. And there I was doing it! So I decided to change that, I moved around the furniture in her room so I could have the lamp on the dresser right next to her bed and leave it on until she fell asleep. Well, she really liked it and she would stay there by herself but eventually get up, open her door, get all scared because it would be all dark and start crying and calling for us, thus waking her brother up. It was a disaster.
Then I decided to get Eric's Fisher Price musical aquarium (which has really helped us when Eric had trouble sleeping) and hung it on Jasmine's bed. She thought that was the coolest thing, because she's always LOVED that thing, even wanted to go in Eric's crib to see it when we got it for him. Anyway, that has been working out for us, but I still think it was a little premature of us to make the switch. She loved her crib and felt safe in it. She never tried to climb out and I don't think she ever would (just because of her personality). So I would say the closer to 3 the better. No need to rush.
Wow- I wrote a lot.
Well, here's the link to the rainforest waterfall thing I was talking about http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2455073
And we started potty training Jasmine when she was about 26-28 months old. It took us a couple weeks to be successful and now it's great because we save so much money on diapers! I would say wait until she's at least 2!! Even still I think it will be hard, I would wait until she's 2 1/2 because then she'll probably understand it better. But it depends on the child too, some children are ready before others, some take a little longer, and so on.
For potty training:
I would suggest start slow, read books, show movies, talk about potties. Maybe have a her sit on the potty a few times. Have her get herself dressed as well because she will have to pull down her pants to go anyways. Then she will probably just do it when she's ready. If it were a boy you'd need to do a lot more, but luckily most girls are so much easier! My little girl just did it on her own one day and has been doing it since.
Also, remember you will still need to help her go and wipe her, so you're not totally off the hook once she's trained! And you have the situation of what to do when you're out and about and she has to go. I can't tell you how many times my little girl has had to "pop a squat" at the nearest tree at the park, lol.
Good luck!!!!
Oh, one more thing, I forgot to say that I hate potties! I bought one for Jasmine and in the beginning she used it but it was a pain to clean, especially when you have another toddler not too old to really understand what's going on and thinks the potty is a toy. So I bought one of those toilet seat adaptors, and it works great! The kid does everything in the toilet and all you have to do is flush.
And like Liesl said, I also bought books and videos for her to watch. One was Elmo's potty time (which she still LOVES watching) and an Elmo book with buttons to push and everything. My mother-in-law also gave me a book called "Once upon a potty" and she also loves it." I actually think this book was what made her understand the concept better.
Good luck!
We put Nicci in a toddler bed just before she turned 2. We were going to wait longer but a friend gave us a toddler bed and Nicci seemed so excited about it so we put her in it and she did great.....until Jordan was born and she started to get up in the middle of the night over and over again. Bedtime can be hard sometimes too cause she keeps getting out of bed. She is doing much better now though.
We decided to start to potty train Nicci when she was 22 months. I refused to have three kids in diapers so that made me motivated to do it before Jordan was born. We had a potty chair but she never really cared about it until we started to potty train her. She did great and I really believe she was ready for it. I also hate the little potty chair. It's gross to clean it and Nicci wanted to use the big potty anyways. It was also annoying that my 1 1/2 year old always wanted to play with the potty. Now we only use it as a stepping stool up to the toilet. Potty training is hard work but so worth it!
One thing to remember is how different kids are. Nicci never showed any interest in the potty but she was ready to be potty trained. Some kids might show tons of interest and be ready or not. So it's really hard to say what age to start cause all kids are different. But I would not start until after your child is 2. Good luck!
Sorry Nicci was 26 months when we potty trained her.
As far as toliet training, I found "the closer to three, the easier it will be!"
And I learned with Chris to leave them in their crib as long as possible. We put him in a bed at 2and one morning I went to his room to check on him and he wasn't there. My heart stopped! My first thought was he had been kidnapped from his bed! I found him at the living room couch, bent at the waist with his head on the couch and his feet on the floor sound asleep! From then on I got up several times during the night just to make sure he was still in his bed.
I love Elmos potty time :) and yes, just use a toilet seat adapter thing, the little potties are a big pain to clean!
The other day Chris woke me up in the middle of the night to say that he couldn't sleep because that song "You'll do it...Even kings and queens do it...You'll use the potty.." it wouldn't get out of his head.
Sometimes I wonder if Thomas is ready for a toddler bed. He loves sleeping in our bed and whenever we have our spare mattress on the floor he loves laying on it and pretending to be sleeping. But then again, I love that I can confine him to his crib.
I really wanted him to last longer in his crib, and I'm sure he would...
But again, sometimes I just wonder if he's ready (I know I'm not!)
For potty training, I really have no tips because I think I suck at it. I have absolutely no desire to potty train Isabelle even having two kids in diapers. It's so much easier no to have to remind her to go potty. Sometimes she wants to go potty by herself and I'll let her, but I don't want to be following her around. Since we are also moving in a month, I wanted to wait until this huge change happens. I found comfort in Sherry's comment about the child being three. :) So for me when the time comes, she already goes every once in a while by herself and then I think when she's older, she will understand it better and it will be a quicker process.
About transitioning my 26 month old has been sleeping in her toddler bed since she was 23-24 months old. We weren't expecting it and I wasn't really planning on giving her any freedom to get up during the night, but after I had my second baby I went to buy another crib because the pack and play was just no good for my newborn and I found that a crib costs 150 bucks(the cheapest at Walmart) and a toddler bed was 49 bucks. I was sold then, we were going thru so many diapers and wipes I did not have the money to add a crib at that time. Izzy found out she could get out of bed and we sometimes have a hard time with her, especially after she learned how to open the door or her room. I would wait until either 1) ur baby can climb out of bed or 2)she doesn't fit in the crib anymore. Other than that,it's just more work to look like they are big girls/boys. :) The hardest thing I guess is the excess of freedom, because now, Izzy will sometimes go to our bed in the middle of the night(even 2-3 times if she is having a hard night) and she definitely will wake us up early morning every day (there's nothing stopping her).
Good luck whatever your choice is :)
Crib to bed:
I follow Dr. Weissbluth...according to him (and to my experience), you wait until your child asks for a bed. My girls have just done that, so next week...we are buying them beds.
How old are they, you ask? 4!
Have they climbed out of the cribs? Yes.
Have they fallen? One kid fell twice, the other, just learned from her sisters mistakes.
There were many morning that I'd wake up and both girls were laying on the daybed we have in their room, reading books. But, I followed the book, and it worked/works.
So, after reading the book and applying its teachings, I totally do not believe, follow the whole, "if they can climb, it's time to move to a bed."
Potty Training:
I started the girls a month before their 3rd birthday. It took them 4 months. Next kids, I will wait until they are 3.5.
I am the type that doesn't push anything. My girls totally tell me when they are ready for things. They were done with bottles 2 weeks after their first birthday. One was night trained a few weeks after being potty trained, the other one took a whole year.
But....kids are different and so are parents.
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