Must be completely potty trained?

[celle]

OK this thread has definitely taken a left turn but I wanted to pitch in a perspective from someone who used cloth diapers and potty trained in the last 3 months.

 

In my very humble opinion, "back in the day" kids potty-trained sooner not as a direct result of cloth diapers (= feeling the wetness) -- I personally think it was because their mothers were more motivated to potty train as soon as possible, because they were tired of washing diapers. (I washed my own cloth diapers instead of using a diaper service, so I can relate.)

 

Also, I would think their mothers were much more likely to be at home full-time and could spend a few weeks really focusing on helping kiddo learn to use the potty. I actually finished potty training on the first few days of our cruise because it was the first time I was able to spend 24 hours a day with them for more than a weekend. To my great surprise they started consistently telling me when they had to go to the potty within about 4-5 days (their nanny and I had both been trying to potty train them for the few months previous to that, with only a medium amount of success).

 

So in our case, the cloth diapers and feeling the wetness didn't seem to have helped that much, but being able to spend a lot of time with them made a huge difference. Just my 2 cents, and worth about the same!

 

I think you're probably right, too. Cloth diapers are a lot more work than disposables, so there is a motivation for "Mum" to get rid of them as soon as possible.

 

Once a child has attained the level of maturity to be able to be potty trained, he/ she will "catch on" quite quickly. If they are not ready/ sufficiently matured, nothing will work.

 

When this readiness stage is reached, if parents have the time or motivation to work on it early, the child will be potty trained early. If, for whatever reason (lack of time, working outside the home, etc) the parents delay training, then the child will continue in nappies for much longer. Ditch the diapers, spend some time on training, and voila! you have a potty-trained child!

 

I'm sorry I hijacked this thread :). I still think that my initial comment is true - that it should be achievable for a 3-year old girl to be fully potty-trained and ready to go into Adventure Ocean.

[imsulin]

There was certainly no "miracle technique" in my day, nor did we have the option of disposable diapers early on. I question any "miracle techniques" of today, as well. Best to wait for the child let you know when they're ready. Having five within ten years and teaching full-time, potty training just wasn't a top priority, and I found the less attention we paid to it, the faster they trained themselves. Sibling "peer" pressure also helped! Didn't use jellybeans or toilet targets or anything like that. Just common sense. Girls were done at around two, boys around 2 1/2. Worked for us "in my day"!