I'm living in a split level house and the bathroom is upstairs (well mine is).... How do you get around that with potty training, doesn't it make it difficult because her potty will be in my bathroom? What age do you remove the gate from the stairs, at night, during the day? She goes up the stairs with my help now but obviously 21 months is too young to remove the gate but at what age?
Any mommas had gates they put down at the stairs? Not necessarily for the potty but in general? How old were your child/ren?
Shauna, she can crawl up the stairs and scoot down the stairs... I guess I'm paranoid about her falling down the stairs because when I stood by her and let her do it by herself she fell down 2 stairs and it didn't hurt her but it scared her. Sometimes she'll get distracted and stand up and kind of bend over in a way that you look at her and think she's going to fall standing like that. But I'm just paranoid because we have upstairs and downstairs so it scares me that she'll fall if she gets distracted and hurt herself on the tile.
Nichol, I agree with you with the potty in the bathroom thing. I know it's going to be frustrating but that's what my question was basically. I wanted to see how to get around that because the potty will be in the bathroom. She does scoot on her bottom one step at a time :)
Workinmom, her room and bathroom is upstairs by my room. The other bathroom is downstairs :P She spends the most time on the main floor. Split level in this house is you walk in the door and the living room, dining room, kitchen, back door, and den are right there but two bedrooms and a bathroom are downstairs and two bedrooms and a bathroom are upstairs. I never seen one back east but they're popular here in the west
Sorry, but my thought is, why do you feel like you still have to have kid gates up at 21mo?
My son was up and down the stairs successfully by a year and I took down the gates at about 15mo, the other kids never had gates, except for my one son so he wouldn't open the dishwasher and climb in.
I would teach her to use the stairs and then you won't have any problems.
I will be the bad guy here....I would NEVER use a potty chair in a room that is NOT a bathroom. I train kids regularly as a home childcare provider and previously a nanny with a combined 23 years experience, plus parenting years as well.
Why teach a child its OK to go potty in a living room, kitchen or hallway???? Thats not the way our world operates and part of toilet learing is normal world functions, rules and control. I am a firm believer in this and follow some of the guidelines in the 3 day potty training method(Lora Jensen) and train kids pretty young now.(22-28 mos generally)
As a provider, licensing requires gates in my house. But I find those younger ones still need my help anyway, so I want to supervise. Little girls don't scoot back far enough on the potty (so will tend to make a mess all over, needing clothes changed, etc) ....boys spray...etc. Many would say then they are not ready to be trained. I disagree and would rather assist then when they tell me they need to go (I NEVER ask them or make them go sit just because a time interval has elapsed and they haven't gone for a time)...then to be changing their diapers.
So my advice is...keep the gates in place when you feel they are needed. Teach your child stair safety when you are right there to supervise. Use gates at night if falling down steps is a concern...and assist them when they say "I gotta go potty" (open the gate and get them where they need to go....make sure they are successful and help wash their hands when done ...this is usually what my 2.5 year olds need help with..the sink!)
Best wishes and CONGRATS on a young trainer!!!! I love seeing that!!!
If you use a potty chair: Always move it with you in the room you/child is in, make sure they know where it is every time you move it or go into a different area. OR have 2-3 potty chairs, and place them in the most frequent rooms you/child use.
Using toilet: ALWAYS have a clear path to the bathroom, anything blocking the child from getting to the bathroom will only discourage the child and be frustrating for the child and potty training alone is frustrating enough let alone not being able to get to the potty by one's self. So either remove gate, use a bathroom that is easily accessible or get a potty chair or two.
By two years of age all gates had been taken down in my house, but every family/child is different so use your best judgment about the gate(s).
I would remove the gates at the first sign of her trying to climb it. It would be better to fall down the stairs without a gate than if she fell down them while trying to climb the gate first. I would suggest multiple potty chairs through out the house and I would keep the gate until she can navigate the stairs well on her own or until she attempts to climb it. Teach her how to come down one step at a time on her bottom. Even then, I would keep the gate up a night just to insure that if she got out of her room during the night, she would not accidentally fall down the stairs in the dark.
Use a potty chair.
It can be put in ANY room or area the child is in.
That is what I have used. The Baby Bjorn one.
Its great.
The MAIN thing, is to make pottying/the 'toilet' accessible to the child... and when just starting to 'learn' pottying, they can't hold their bladder very long. And there will be accidents, although normal.
And yes, we have more than 1 potty chair... for different areas of the house since we have a 2 story house.
Stairs are still dangerous for a child that age. They can still tumble down by accident.
At this age, she is going to need your help to go to the bathroom anyway. So if you feel safer having gates, keep them up and take your daughter to the bathroom whenever she needs to go. Have potties in each bathroom so you're never too far away from one.
I don't think 21 months is too old to still have gates. If you don't feel safe giving her access to the stairs, don't take them down. But, whenever you and your daughter are on the stairs together, help her learn how to go up and down safely. Hold her hand, but don't pick her up if possible.
Don't take the gate off the top of the stairs at night until you feel 100% safe. If you are sleeping and she gets up, there is nothing you can do to help.
Remember to teach your daughter to potty after meals, drinks, etc. so you can reduce the amount of potty dashes when she really really has to go. If you take her after a meal; or after she's had a beverage, her mind will start thinking that way. Easier said than done sometimes; but something to try at home. If the gate is at the bottom of the stairs, you are stopping her from going up on her own....but what happens at the top of the stairs to prevent her from coming down? We had gates at top & bottom. When our girls (twins) we able to go up & down unassisted, and with confidence, we removed the gates but I placed a very plush "inexpensive" carpet at the very bottom as we have tile so if there were an "oops", I felt more comfortable that they would land on something soft. We also trained our girls to ALWAYS use handrails when going up & down, and absolutely no hopping, sitting & sliding and/or any playing while going up & down the stairs. They turn 4 on Sunday, and they still follow the stair rules. We have less mad dashes to the bathroom if I constantly remind them to go when I think it's been awhile and/or they finished a meal, just got up, etc. If left on their own....they will hold; hold; hold; RUN! Good Luck!
Is there any way you can use the one where your bedrooms are, or where you spend most of your time? Does she use a potty chair? Can that be in her room?
We moved into our current house when my son was about two years old. Our previous houses had been single stories, but this one is a split level. (Read: Techincally only two full stories, but stairs everwhere and divided into three levels.) Our stairs were carpeted at all levels (which probably makes a difference with gate decisions). But, we decided not to gate at all. It is his house, and he had to learn to walk up and down the stairs. He was slow at first, but he learned, and he's never taken a bad spill from the stairs. In fact, the only time I've ever seen him eat it off the stairs was when he tried to play superman and jump from halfway up the staircase. I'm blaming that one on his lack of planning. :)
I don't know how your house is split up, but we have two bathrooms upstairs and one downstairs. When my son started to potty train, we just kept stuff in both bathrooms for him. His personal bathroom upstairs, and the main "guest" bathroom downstairs. He used whichever one he was closer to when he had to go. There was never an issue of travel, or stairs, involved in the potty training.
