Another potty training question

[Sarah Vaughan]

As posted recently on misc.kids, I'm planning to have a go at taking my
son out of nappies in a couple of weeks' time. He's quite good about
weeing in the potty if he needs to go before or after his bath, so I
think he's now ready for the transition, and we're planning to go the
intensive route and spend a few days really devoting ourselves to it and
hoping he gets the idea quickly!

All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage. Has anyone got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of
carpets or leather couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to soak
them first before putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly *do* you
clean a potty? (I've been rinsing it with cold water after wees, and
using a squirt of bleach then rinsing that out well after poos.) And
just how smelly is our house going to be a few weeks from now?! Any
support welcomed from people who've BTDT...


All the best,

Sarah

[toypup]

Post by Sarah Vaughan
As posted recently on misc.kids, I'm planning to have a go at taking my
son out of nappies in a couple of weeks' time. He's quite good about
weeing in the potty if he needs to go before or after his bath, so I
think he's now ready for the transition, and we're planning to go the
intensive route and spend a few days really devoting ourselves to it and
hoping he gets the idea quickly!
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage.

I kept DS outside in the backyard a lot, but both my kids trained almost
overnight with only a few accidents. Both of them basically told me they
didn't want to wear diapers anymore and then they were done.

I sent DD to school, which doesn't mind accidents when training. She had
most of her accidents there. At home, she didn't have any at all.

[Banty]

Post by toypup

Post by Sarah Vaughan
As posted recently on misc.kids, I'm planning to have a go at taking my
son out of nappies in a couple of weeks' time. He's quite good about
weeing in the potty if he needs to go before or after his bath, so I
think he's now ready for the transition, and we're planning to go the
intensive route and spend a few days really devoting ourselves to it and
hoping he gets the idea quickly!
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage.

I kept DS outside in the backyard a lot, but both my kids trained almost
overnight with only a few accidents. Both of them basically told me they
didn't want to wear diapers anymore and then they were done.

Doggie pooper scooper? Or did she never defecate?

(Sorry about the TMI, but, I think this topic will benefit greatly from the
practical question that's been brought up!)

[Donna Metler]

If you use fairly thick cloth trainers inside, the accidents are mostly in
the trainers, which helps dramatically. And having the child in cloth pants
gives the parent a real incentive to get the child on the potty regularly,
so that at least the child gets on a schedule, even if they're not
initiating things yet. We were able to get it down to fairly rare accidents
several months before my DD really caught on and started initiating "going
potty" completely on her own (now, the problem is going on her own, NOT
asking for help, and not being able to wipe thoroughly-obviously,
"completely potty trained" is very relative!). I also second Nature's
Miracle-it did a great job on the few accidents we had that made it out of
the pants. As far as clothes, I just washed them by themselves with bleach,
and avoided putting her in anything that couldn't be bleached, and did the
laundry as soon as we had an accident. And plan on either having someone
come in and steam-clean the carpeting and the furniture when you're done, or
rent a steam cleaner yourself. Because accidents WILL happen, leaks WILL
happen, and even if you do a lot of "outside play in the summer" (my DD
still believes she has to take off her underwear to play outside), you've
got to come inside sometime.

[Banty]

Post by Sarah Vaughan
As posted recently on misc.kids, I'm planning to have a go at taking my
son out of nappies in a couple of weeks' time. He's quite good about
weeing in the potty if he needs to go before or after his bath, so I
think he's now ready for the transition, and we're planning to go the
intensive route and spend a few days really devoting ourselves to it and
hoping he gets the idea quickly!
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage. Has anyone got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of
carpets or leather couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to soak
them first before putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly *do* you
clean a potty? (I've been rinsing it with cold water after wees, and
using a squirt of bleach then rinsing that out well after poos.) And
just how smelly is our house going to be a few weeks from now?! Any
support welcomed from people who've BTDT...

Thanks for pointing to the elephant in the room!

Folks say "oh, it will be a leeetle messy but life is messy sometimes". They
must have plastic furniture, concrete floors, and insensitive noses! :-)

Not that there's no way to address that, but I'm 12 or 13 years past that stage,
and I'd like to hear the answer to that one, too!

Banty (citrus cleaners work on concrete - that's learned from animal-pee)

[Ericka Kammerer]

Post by Banty

Post by Sarah Vaughan
As posted recently on misc.kids, I'm planning to have a go at taking my
son out of nappies in a couple of weeks' time. He's quite good about
weeing in the potty if he needs to go before or after his bath, so I
think he's now ready for the transition, and we're planning to go the
intensive route and spend a few days really devoting ourselves to it and
hoping he gets the idea quickly!
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage. Has anyone got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of
carpets or leather couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to soak
them first before putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly *do* you
clean a potty? (I've been rinsing it with cold water after wees, and
using a squirt of bleach then rinsing that out well after poos.) And
just how smelly is our house going to be a few weeks from now?! Any
support welcomed from people who've BTDT...

Thanks for pointing to the elephant in the room!
Folks say "oh, it will be a leeetle messy but life is messy sometimes". They
must have plastic furniture, concrete floors, and insensitive noses! :-)
Not that there's no way to address that, but I'm 12 or 13 years past that stage,
and I'd like to hear the answer to that one, too!

Use one of the enzyme cleaners. I get them by the gallon
at the pet store (Simple Solution is my fave, but there's also
Nature's Miracle and others). Beware--some are rather perfume-y
(yuck). If they get out cat pee, kid pee is not particularly
an issue, at least from a smell and stain perspective. You still
have an issue with wet, which can cause problems with leather or
whatever's under your carpets. Make sure the enzyme cleaner gets
everywhere the pee did (e.g., down into the carpet pad), but blot
it up well or you'll encourage mold/mildew. It should get out any
stains too. Also great to have around for vomit.
Of course, the standard advice that usually goes with
bare-bottomed training is to do it in warm weather and stick
'em outside most of the time ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

[Banty]

In article <***@comcast.com>, Ericka Kammerer
says...

Post by Ericka Kammerer

Post by Banty

Post by Sarah Vaughan
As posted recently on misc.kids, I'm planning to have a go at taking my
son out of nappies in a couple of weeks' time. He's quite good about
weeing in the potty if he needs to go before or after his bath, so I
think he's now ready for the transition, and we're planning to go the
intensive route and spend a few days really devoting ourselves to it and
hoping he gets the idea quickly!
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage. Has anyone got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of
carpets or leather couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to soak
them first before putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly *do* you
clean a potty? (I've been rinsing it with cold water after wees, and
using a squirt of bleach then rinsing that out well after poos.) And
just how smelly is our house going to be a few weeks from now?! Any
support welcomed from people who've BTDT...

Thanks for pointing to the elephant in the room!
Folks say "oh, it will be a leeetle messy but life is messy sometimes". They
must have plastic furniture, concrete floors, and insensitive noses! :-)
Not that there's no way to address that, but I'm 12 or 13 years past that stage,
and I'd like to hear the answer to that one, too!

Use one of the enzyme cleaners. I get them by the gallon
at the pet store (Simple Solution is my fave, but there's also
Nature's Miracle and others). Beware--some are rather perfume-y
(yuck). If they get out cat pee,

Noseflash!! They do not get out cat pee. And I have the empty containers of
Nature's Miracle and the worn Xacto knife to prove it ;-)

That said, cat pee, with its alkali and musk, is a special case. We got a dog
last July 1st, and went through a little adjustment (rescue dog), and dog pee is
a heck of a lot easier to deal with. Maybe that's the case for people-pee too.
Haven't tested that, though...

But Nature's Miracle is oversold. Not useless, but oversold on what it can do.

Post by Ericka Kammerer
kid pee is not particularly
an issue, at least from a smell and stain perspective. You still
have an issue with wet, which can cause problems with leather or
whatever's under your carpets. Make sure the enzyme cleaner gets
everywhere the pee did (e.g., down into the carpet pad), but blot
it up well or you'll encourage mold/mildew. It should get out any
stains too. Also great to have around for vomit.
Of course, the standard advice that usually goes with
bare-bottomed training is to do it in warm weather and stick
'em outside most of the time ;-)

Yeah. It'd have to work pretty fast for me to stick with it, though.

Now, what about the solid stuff...?

Banty

[toypup]

Post by Banty
That said, cat pee, with its alkali and musk, is a special case. We got a dog
last July 1st, and went through a little adjustment (rescue dog), and dog pee is
a heck of a lot easier to deal with. Maybe that's the case for people-pee too.
Haven't tested that, though...
But Nature's Miracle is oversold. Not useless, but oversold on what it can do.

Yes, we had a dog and cat and Nature's Miracle doesn't work on either. Cat
pee is more difficult. Anti-Icky-Poo does work on cat pee, but only if the
pee doesn't make contact with wood. It somehow soaks into wook and is not
so reachable with the spray.

[Ericka Kammerer]

Post by Banty
says...

Post by Ericka Kammerer
Use one of the enzyme cleaners. I get them by the gallon
at the pet store (Simple Solution is my fave, but there's also
Nature's Miracle and others). Beware--some are rather perfume-y
(yuck). If they get out cat pee,

Noseflash!! They do not get out cat pee. And I have the empty containers of
Nature's Miracle and the worn Xacto knife to prove it ;-)

I've had excellent luck with Simple Solution. Mom has
the world's most sensitive nose for cat pee, and while it may
take a few times (and don't forget to rinse), it generally gets
out even stubborn smells for me.

Post by Banty
That said, cat pee, with its alkali and musk, is a special case. We got a dog
last July 1st, and went through a little adjustment (rescue dog), and dog pee is
a heck of a lot easier to deal with. Maybe that's the case for people-pee too.
Haven't tested that, though...

I do certainly agree that dogs and kids don't present near
the challenge cats do.

Post by Banty
Now, what about the solid stuff...?

Scrub brush and any good carpet cleaner, followed by
enzyme cleaner if needed.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[toypup]

Post by Ericka Kammerer
I've had excellent luck with Simple Solution. Mom has
the world's most sensitive nose for cat pee, and while it may
take a few times (and don't forget to rinse),

I never got that part. How do you rinse carpet? Do you have to buy or
rent one of those carpet cleaners? I used Simple Solution and it didn't
work for me. I never understood how I was supposed to rinse.

Anti-Icky-Poo doesn't require rinsing . . . and it works.

[Jeff]

Post by toypup

Post by Ericka Kammerer
I've had excellent luck with Simple Solution. Mom has
the world's most sensitive nose for cat pee, and while it may
take a few times (and don't forget to rinse),

I never got that part. How do you rinse carpet? Do you have to buy or
rent one of those carpet cleaners? I used Simple Solution and it didn't
work for me. I never understood how I was supposed to rinse.
Anti-Icky-Poo doesn't require rinsing . . . and it works.

I have seen this method called something like the 3 day/$75 method. The
$75 is for professional carpet cleaning (which is why I mentioned the
similar shovel/hose method - same method, just keeping the kid outside
and naked during the training period - obviously, over a warm weather
stretch).

If you're planning this down the road, plan on the next carpet cleaning
being a few weeks after the kid is trained. You can also rent a steam
cleaner.

One thing my aunt bought is one of those home steam cleaners. It is made
by Hoover or one of the major home vacuum companies. One of my cousin's
guest (who was middle or high school age at the time) puked on the
carpet while he was sleeping over. Cleanup was simple with the carpet
vacuum. Your kids and their guests will pee, poop, puke and spill things
on the carpet (I am also thinking wet and muddy shoes/clothes in the
fall and winter). My dad bought one too. It has a long hose with an
attachment on it. It can be used for cleaning furniture, steps, and even
the puked upon sleeping bag (a good reason to buy the biggest size
washing machine too).

Jeff

[Ericka Kammerer]

Post by toypup

Post by Ericka Kammerer
I've had excellent luck with Simple Solution. Mom has
the world's most sensitive nose for cat pee, and while it may
take a few times (and don't forget to rinse),

I never got that part. How do you rinse carpet? Do you have to buy or
rent one of those carpet cleaners? I used Simple Solution and it didn't
work for me. I never understood how I was supposed to rinse.

I just do the same thing I did with the Simple Solution--
wet the spot down and then blot it up. And I do have a carpet
shampooer that I use on occasion (if it's time to shampoo the
rugs anyway).

Post by toypup
Anti-Icky-Poo doesn't require rinsing . . . and it works.

I don't like leaving stuff in the rug like that,
so I rinse regardless of what it says.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[toypup]

Post by Banty
Folks say "oh, it will be a leeetle messy but life is messy sometimes". They
must have plastic furniture, concrete floors, and insensitive noses! :-)
Not that there's no way to address that, but I'm 12 or 13 years past that stage,
and I'd like to hear the answer to that one, too!

We do have something for our pets called Anti-Icky-Poo. After an incident
with DS, I now swear by it.

DS had defecated in his underwear at school. They put the soiled underwear
in a Ziploc bag for us. It smelled like you wouldn't believe. We washed
it. It still smelled. We washed it again with Oxyclean. Still smelled.
I sprayed it with Anti-Icky-Poo while it was still wet and stinky from the
wash and let it dry. Lo and behold, the smell was gone!

I swear, after that, I could do a commercial for that stuff.

DS's room smelled of urine a few months ago. We couldn't figure out where
the smell was coming from. I sprayed the entire carpet with Anti-Icky-Poo
and the smell is all gone. It's fantastic stuff.

[Penny Gaines]

Sarah Vaughan wrote:
[snip]

Post by Sarah Vaughan
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage. Has anyone got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of
carpets or leather couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to soak
them first before putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly *do* you
clean a potty? (I've been rinsing it with cold water after wees, and
using a squirt of bleach then rinsing that out well after poos.) And
just how smelly is our house going to be a few weeks from now?! Any
support welcomed from people who've BTDT...

If you are cleaning up a puddle, the first thing is to get as much
wetness up as possible. I used to use a dry old towel or cloth nappy
to soak up the urine. After you have done that, then start using
enzyme methods to clean what is left.

HTH

[Jeff]

Post by Penny Gaines
[snip]

Post by Sarah Vaughan
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage. Has anyone got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of
carpets or leather couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to
soak them first before putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly
*do* you clean a potty? (I've been rinsing it with cold water after
wees, and using a squirt of bleach then rinsing that out well after
poos.) And just how smelly is our house going to be a few weeks from
now?! Any support welcomed from people who've BTDT...

If you are cleaning up a puddle, the first thing is to get as much
wetness up as possible. I used to use a dry old towel or cloth nappy
to soak up the urine. After you have done that, then start using
enzyme methods to clean what is left.
HTH

Or keep the kid outside, where the clean up is a shovel and hose.

jeff

[Sue]

I don't mean to sound like a wet rag, but the girls didn't have accidents in
the house because I waited until the girls were ready and they knew what to
do and when they had to do it and could get themselves there on time.
--
Sue

Post by Sarah Vaughan
As posted recently on misc.kids, I'm planning to have a go at taking my
son out of nappies in a couple of weeks' time. He's quite good about
weeing in the potty if he needs to go before or after his bath, so I think
he's now ready for the transition, and we're planning to go the intensive
route and spend a few days really devoting ourselves to it and hoping he
gets the idea quickly!
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the practicalities
of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly stage. Has anyone
got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of carpets or leather
couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to soak them first before
putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly *do* you clean a potty?
(I've been rinsing it with cold water after wees, and using a squirt of
bleach then rinsing that out well after poos.) And just how smelly is our
house going to be a few weeks from now?! Any support welcomed from people
who've BTDT...
All the best,
Sarah
--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com
"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell

[Donna Metler]

Post by Sue
I don't mean to sound like a wet rag, but the girls didn't have accidents
in the house because I waited until the girls were ready and they knew what
to do and when they had to do it and could get themselves there on time.

Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. Not a single accident? We didn't
have many (I can count on one hand the number of accidents my 2 yr old has
had since moving to underpants), but there have still been a few, and my
experience is that it usually takes one if the situation is completely
changed for her to adjust, so even once she was completely reliable at home,
it took one accident in the car seat before she really got the concept that
she needed to go when she had the chance to do so, and there was one when
she started preschool before she really got that she needed to go when it
was time to go or tell her teacher, and the like.

And even one requires cleanup!

[Ericka Kammerer]

Post by Donna Metler

Post by Sue
I don't mean to sound like a wet rag, but the girls didn't have accidents
in the house because I waited until the girls were ready and they knew what
to do and when they had to do it and could get themselves there on time.

Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. Not a single accident?

Neither DS1 nor DS2 had accidents that led to
anything more than damp underwear at home. DD was a
different story. It does happen.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[Anne Rogers]

Post by Ericka Kammerer

Post by Donna Metler
Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. Not a single accident?

Neither DS1 nor DS2 had accidents that led to
anything more than damp underwear at home. DD was a
different story. It does happen.

yes, but it's not a sign of the parent doing this right thing about
potty training, accidents may not be completely inevitable, there are
wrong ways to potty train (or at least wrong ways for a given child),
but having accidents doesn't mean you've gone about it the wrong way.

Cheers
Anne

[Ericka Kammerer]

Post by Anne Rogers

Post by Ericka Kammerer

Post by Donna Metler
Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. Not a single accident?

Neither DS1 nor DS2 had accidents that led to
anything more than damp underwear at home. DD was a
different story. It does happen.

yes, but it's not a sign of the parent doing this right thing about
potty training, accidents may not be completely inevitable, there are
wrong ways to potty train (or at least wrong ways for a given child),
but having accidents doesn't mean you've gone about it the wrong way.

Well, to be fair, I didn't see that Sue said hers was
the only right way. She only observed that she found some benefits
to potty training later rather than sooner. All other things being
equal, training later rather than sooner does tend to lead to fewer
accidents (and perhaps even no accidents). It also leads to more
months of diapers to get to the "later" part. There are few
guarantees with kids, especially when it comes to potty training,
but if you really don't want to deal with accidents, hanging loose
on the potty training until the kid is older (assuming the kid
isn't pushing to stop wearing diapers) does reduce the likelihood
of accidents. Different families will make different choices about
what they're willing to deal with.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[Banty]

In article <***@comcast.com>, Ericka Kammerer
says...

Post by Ericka Kammerer

Post by Anne Rogers

Post by Ericka Kammerer

Post by Donna Metler
Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. Not a single accident?

Neither DS1 nor DS2 had accidents that led to
anything more than damp underwear at home. DD was a
different story. It does happen.

yes, but it's not a sign of the parent doing this right thing about
potty training, accidents may not be completely inevitable, there are
wrong ways to potty train (or at least wrong ways for a given child),
but having accidents doesn't mean you've gone about it the wrong way.

Well, to be fair, I didn't see that Sue said hers was
the only right way. She only observed that she found some benefits
to potty training later rather than sooner. All other things being
equal, training later rather than sooner does tend to lead to fewer
accidents (and perhaps even no accidents). It also leads to more
months of diapers to get to the "later" part. There are few
guarantees with kids, especially when it comes to potty training,
but if you really don't want to deal with accidents, hanging loose
on the potty training until the kid is older (assuming the kid
isn't pushing to stop wearing diapers) does reduce the likelihood
of accidents. Different families will make different choices about
what they're willing to deal with.

Also, child-led training means allowing the fastidious child to train sooner, if
they're showing interest and ability. He might really hate being dirty or wet,
while the next little boy would hardly notice.

I'd go ahead and gently do some potty training the boy, and see how it goes.

Banty

[JennP.]

Post by Ericka Kammerer
Neither DS1 nor DS2 had accidents that led to
anything more than damp underwear at home. DD was a
different story. It does happen.

True. DD was five days in before having an accident and since Feb. she's had
*maybe* five? She trained at 2y3m, fwiw.

JennP.

[Sue]

Post by Donna Metler
Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. Not a single accident?

No I really didn't have accidents from the kids. I did from the dog and cat,
lol. When DD1 was ready (or so I thought) to be potty trained I used
pull-ups at first because I didn't know better and I thought it would be
easy. I pushed and she fought not to use the potty. I gave up after a month
or two and put her back into diapers. When I went back to work when DD1 was
almost 4, my mom had her during the day and my mom was motivated to train
her and DD1 responded better to my mom. So by the time I stopped work (it
was a training position), dd1 was trained. Along comes DD2 and I decided
that I wasn't going to push training like I did with #1, so I waited for her
to let me know that she wanted to use the potty and she was day trained
almost instantly. She trained at 2.5 yrs. Then comes along dd3 and I still
didn't push the potty training issue and she decided on a camping trip to
use the potty and she did and never looked back and she was 2 yrs old. I am
not suggesting that my way was superior to others, it was just a fact that I
learned from DD1 that the more I pushed, the more they resisted. I also did
not have any motivation to train them quickly like preschool or daycare,
because by the time they went to preschool, they were trained. I think if
anything, my way was a bit lazy because I didn't want to clean up messes.

[Mogga]

Post by Sue
I don't mean to sound like a wet rag, but the girls didn't have accidents in
the house because I waited until the girls were ready and they knew what to
do and when they had to do it and could get themselves there on time.

This is probably a good point. Too early and you'll have lots of
accidents, so if it all goes badly put it off for another week or so.
Making it stressfree for you and the child is important.

[Penny Gaines]

Post by Sue
I don't mean to sound like a wet rag, but the girls didn't have accidents in
the house because I waited until the girls were ready and they knew what to
do and when they had to do it and could get themselves there on time.

It depends on your kids doesn't it? I waited with my eldest until he
was ready and willing, and we had a day and a half of accidents before
he got the idea.

That didn't work with my youngest, because they wanted to start when
they were at least a year younger. So I started before they were 2yo,
and we had more accidents.

[Rosalie B.]

Post by Penny Gaines

Post by Sue
I don't mean to sound like a wet rag, but the girls didn't have accidents in
the house because I waited until the girls were ready and they knew what to
do and when they had to do it and could get themselves there on time.

It depends on your kids doesn't it? I waited with my eldest until he
was ready and willing, and we had a day and a half of accidents before
he got the idea.

That's it exactly It isn't a function of anyone's superior or inferior
parenting or waiting until they are ready or any of that stuff. It's
trial and error and chance.

In my day, we didn't have pullups - we just had 'training pants' which
were very thick cotton underpants. DD#1 was trained by my mom while I
was on a trip. And DD#1 was a compliant child, so she would sit and
go when requested to do so. I don't know that she ever had accidents.

DD#2 was quite a different proposition. She obviously knew when she
had to go, and knew how to do it. At two, she would remain dry all
day long (at Disneyland), even while napping in the stroller and would
not go until I put her diaper on her. She was also dry at night, and
would soak the diaper just before I got her up in the morning. But
she wouldn't sit on the toilet in any form. Not a little potty, or an
insert on the big toilet. Absolutely NO WAY. When she got to be 2.5,
she was told that if she wanted to go to pre-school with her sister
(which she did), that she'd have to sit on the toilet and couldn't
wear diapers anymore. I think she had one accident after that and it
was at school.

We lived in California then. When dd#3 was born, we had moved to
Florida, and then we lived in Philadelphia from when she was 8 to16
months, and then moved back to Maryland with my folks until she was
about 29 months when we moved to RI. I suspect that she was trained
by my mom at some point because I don't remember doing it - or maybe
by her older sisters. I do not remember that she had any accidents.
Of course it was some time ago (1970) and one's memory of what the
younger children did tends to fade a bit.

DS lived in RI until he was almost 3, and I do not remember any
accidents or, for that matter doing any training of him. What I do
remember is that for awhile he wouldn't lie down to be diapered so I
would do him standing up, and DD#1 was quite scathing about my ability
to diaper so she would redo it. So maybe she trained him too.

Post by Penny Gaines
That didn't work with my youngest, because they wanted to start when
they were at least a year younger. So I started before they were 2yo,
and we had more accidents.

[Anne Rogers]

Post by Sarah Vaughan
All of that, I'm OK with. What I'm wondering about is the
practicalities of clean-up in what I assume is likely to be a puddly
stage. Has anyone got any good tips for getting urine/faeces out of
carpets or leather couches? If he poos in his pants, do I need to soak
them first before putting them in the laundry? How thoroughly *do* you
clean a potty? (I've been rinsing it with cold water after wees, and
using a squirt of bleach then rinsing that out well after poos.) And
just how smelly is our house going to be a few weeks from now?! Any
support welcomed from people who've BTDT...

for carpets and upholstery, soak up as much as possible with a reusable
nappy or old towel, the use 1001 carpet/upholstery cleaner. For solid
waste on the carpet use toilet roll or kitchen roll to scoop it up, then
the same but scrub it a bit more. For a leather couch, do similar, but
sanitise with something suitable for leather - having not had leather
stuff I don't know the name of anything.

For cleaning a potty, I mostly rinse with water then tip down the loo,
in the UK, I then used flushable toilet cleaning wipes (don't recall the
brand) if necessary, these days I'm spraying with clorox.

For poos in the pants I just disposed of the poo then chucked it in the
wash, I usually have spray stain remover to hand, I think I sprayed them
with that, but for us, pooing in the pants has been a once only for each
child.

When clothes are wet with wee, I insist that they go straight in the
washing machine, not in the basket, I can usually find something that
needs washing to fill it up, but I don't mind leaving it for 12hrs or so
if not, it's when DH has ignored this and put stuff in the laundry
basket and not told me that a smell has resulted, but at least that is
solvable.

We also would put 2 real nappies on anything a potty training child was
sitting on so there wasn't much that could seep through the layers and
not get cleaned easily.

Good Luck

Anne