Potty Time? - Lincoln,CA

It sounds like he is ready, he's getting the idea if he's taking his clothes off to go. My daughter isn't quite two and I'm letting her run around without clothes right now and she often makes it to the potty. If she had any interest in working her own clothes I might not have gone this route. If I were you I'd definitely consider a potty chair in his room at night and tell him that if he needs to go potty he should take off his clothes just like the other day and sit on the potty to go. (They understand more than we give them credit for sometimes! I told my daughter tonight as I put her night time diaper on that diapers were not an excuse to go potty in her pants, just there in case of an accident and that if she needed to go she should tell mommy in time to get her clothes off and sit on the potty. Pretty soon she was out of her bed knocking on the door, when I came in to put her back to bed she told me "potty" and her diaper WAS wet!)

Hi R.,
If he's taking his diaper off, then potty train him. It will save you a lot of cleaning up! =)

I used the naked method and it works. The thing is, YOU have to be ready to potty train (it's not really about the child being ready - any kid over 18 months is ready - yes, really). What I did was take the child's clothes off from the waist down. Then give him a lot of liquids and the split second you think he MIGHT have to go potty, run off to the potty with him. Sometimes you'll make it, sometimes you won't - if he pees on the floor, just clean it up and don't make a big fuss about it. Tell him that next time, he'll make it to the potty - and be sure he does! Get really happy every time he goes in the potty, brag about it to Daddy, Grandma, anybody who will get happy about it too. Within about 3 days he'll be reliably potty trained. The trick is - when you start, DON'T STOP! You will think a day into it that you must be insane for trying it, he's not ready, your carpet is getting ruined, etc - but stick with it! All of a sudden he'll "get it" and then you'll be free of diapers forever.

Keep in mind that some kids will be potty trained at night the same time as they're day potty trained - and some kids are bed wetters. If you have a bed wetter, it is what it is - just put him in pull-ups at night and don't make a big deal of it. My older child was in night time pull ups until Kindergarten when she suddenly grew out of it - my younger daughter was night time potty trained at 2. It varies by child, and they can't help it.

Good luck and happy potty training!

my aunt did the no clothes thing with both kids and it worked in one day. i choose to take away all pullups and diapers and that was enough for us. granted we did have the poop accidents often but after about 1 month it was all good.

Dear R.,
At this age, I think if they can get their own pants and diapers off they are ready to correlate that with potty training. That's just my opinion. Both of my kids were so easy to potty train and everyone told me that my son would take longer, etc. He was actually easier than my daughter. All kids are different and it's hard to say what motivated him to disrobe in the middle of the night. Did he know he had to pee? Was he even fully awake when he did it? You may not get an answer out of him about it, but he's certainly at an age where you can put underwear on him or let him be naked from the waist down during the day when you're home with him and put him on the potty every time you go and everytime daddy goes. Just put him on the potty throughout the day. No pressure. It's just what everybody does. You may have an accident or two, but that's just part of it.
This may turn out to be a one time incident, but if he continues to want his diaper off, let him have it off as much as possible. He might be ready to ditch the diaper idea.

Best wishes!

WOW 2 months?? That's early! :P Just kidding...
Yes, he is telling you he is old enough to give it a try. Get him a potty chair, put him on it 20 minutes after he has had something to eat and drink. Give him some books, let him watch you, be patient and don't push. He will figure it out. =) Be sure and praise him if he does something and be patient when he doesn't.

Hi R.,
My daughter turned 2 in June and is pretty much potty trained. I had no idea she was even ready, but while she was visiting with my mom, she would let her run around naked. She told her everytime she had to go. My daughter would always want us to clap and sing pee pee in the potty afterward. Also we would give her one M&M as well. It took us a little longer to get her to poop on the potty, but that was because she was constipated. Once we got her regular, that wasn't a problem either. Since that was a little harder of a task and usually only once a day, she would get a cookie for pooping. Again lots of clapping and singing. Good luck!

B.

Look 3 Day Potty Training on the internet. You pay for the info and then you can ask any questions as you go through potty training. It was well worth it to me!!!

Potty training has always been a 'bear' for me. What I'm finding with the two little boys in my care at this time is that I have to have a schedule for myself where I take them in to the potty (one of ours sits on a potty chair while the other prefers the little seat on the toilet so both go in together). We sit for about ten minutes with me encouraging each of them to go. If they do pee, I then ask if they need to sit longer to do poo. I usually let them be the ones to decide when they are 'all done'. If they say 'all done' but haven't actually done anything, I do try to ask them to sit a little longer, but I don't let it go to the point where they get upset with being there.
My schedule with these boys is about an hour after they arrive for daycare, then at intervals spaced around activities... about one hour apart each time. We go prior to going out for the morning walk, again when they return from the walk, after breakfast, again at about ten am prior to having snack, at about 11 am after snack and some playtime, at noon prior to lunch and again after lunch just prior to naptime. When they wake from nap they go in one more time and then it's usually time for their parents to pick them up.
I know this schedule won't necessarily work in your situation, but you can see possibly pick up some ideas from it to help you decide a schedule for your little guy.

And to answer your question regarding him taking off the diaper in the middle of the night... I think it's a good possibility that he is working on being ready. It could also just be that for some reason the diaper was bothering him in his sleep and he wanted to get it off, then felt the need to go pee once he had removed it. Whatever the diaper removal means, at his age he is likely ready for you to work with him on potty training. Just don't be discouraged if the process takes some time... possibly as much as a year or more.