https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 22 May 2026 12:19:20 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448505 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:58:53 +0000 Cherrybee 2448505@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Charm54: Awesome reply, thank you :grin: </p> <p>Y'know, I can clearly remember having public bathroom phobia when I was little, too. I would have been older than E..... but I wouldn't come out of the cubicle unless I was sure there was nobody else in there. Id sit and wait and wait, panicking that my mum was waiting for me but frozen with fear. Weird! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448500 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:55:18 +0000 Applesandbananas 2448500@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: I completely understand. DS had diarrhea one day (gross, so I put him in diapers) and we went out for groceries or something and it was SO nice not having to drag him to the bathroom and cajole him into using it or cleaning out the car seat. </p> <p>Life is much easier with diapers lol </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448496 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:52:10 +0000 Charm54 2448496@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That was the worst part of training for us...being stuck in the house. I decided to train during a cold rainy weekend when we wouldn't be outside much anyway. After day 4 i was confident enough to go out and about on short trips. But yeah. I think I was expecting PTing to be this great thing because everyone is so happy their kid is out of diapers, but it's WORK. Diapers were so much easier haha. Though now that she is reliably trained I will say it's really nice. Just took us longer to get to that "easy" stage than I thought it would.</p> <p>We dealt with public washroom phobia as well. She hates the noise of the dryers. One road trip she held it for 8 hours because she wouldn't use the washroom in the places we stopped. I started a thread about it a few months ago and got some really good ideas.</p> <p>She now is mostly over her fear...some things that worked for us are:<br /> -going into public washrooms lots , starting off with small private quiet ones. Even if she didn't need to go we would go in a public washroom pretty much every time we were out just to look around.<br /> - saying "it's just the dryer, no big deal" over and over when she heard it (that's a tip someone in the thread taught me and it works great)<br /> -buying a My Carry Potty - we keep it in the car and took it everywhere with us those first few weeks. She felt more comfortable going on "her" potty. Now we don't need it, she just holds herself on the regular toilet, but I still keep it in the car for emergencies<br /> - put a sticky note on any flushing sensors...if a toilet ever self flushed on her I know she would lose her *^%#! </p> <p>Good luck!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448494 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:51:12 +0000 Cherrybee 2448494@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Applesandbananas: Yes, really common. Usually both. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448492 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:50:15 +0000 Cherrybee 2448492@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Applesandbananas: She loves washing her hands and I don't mind drying with tissue, its getting in the room and relaxed enough to pee I cant imagine! I'm sure it will be fine. I'm probably just creating problems before they happen because I liked the simplicity of life in nappies!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448490 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:49:15 +0000 Applesandbananas 2448490@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: poor E! I can picture her staring down the hand dryer :( are they really common in the UK? I feel like it's probably 50/50 in my area between hand dryers and paper towels. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448489 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:46:29 +0000 Cherrybee 2448489@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@brownepiano: She's scared even when its not going off because she's knows its in the room. She protests when you take her into a public bathroom at all, and stands with her back against the far wall, eyeing the hand dryer suspiciously! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448487 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:46:14 +0000 Applesandbananas 2448487@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>You could carry the small potty with you, but we just kept the ring insert (little seat that goes on big toilets to make it more comfortable for little bottoms) and he did well with that. </p> <p>If she's scared of the hand dryers, could you take hand sanitizer as an alternative for the first few outings? I'm not a huge fan of hand sanitizer, but nothing is forever! My LO now loves the hand dryers!</p> <p>I also read a tip about auto flushing toilets, keep a pad of sticky notes (Post-Its are the brand in the US) and use one to cover the sensor so it won't accidentally flush while your LO is sitting on it. I never tried this, but I've heard it works wonders! </p> <p>We did try to stay home for a three day weekend but I was so stir crazy (and LO was too)! I had a bunch of things planned day 1 (new puzzles, coloring, art projects, baking, etc.) and that kept the stir-craziness at bay a little until we felt more comfortable getting out.</p> <p>My LO was obsessed with Elmo at the time we potty trained and I bought two Elmo goes potty type of books, I can't recommend this enough. Even though we initially potty trained in September, we still read the potty books! If they make a Peppa goes Potty book, bonus points if it has sounds, it'll be worth every penny! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448485 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:40:18 +0000 brownepiano 2448485@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DS is scared of the automatic flushing, so I hang a coat or something in front of the sensor. Can you bock the sensor in the hand drier? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448484 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:38:22 +0000 brownepiano 2448484@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were so busy running to the potty every 15 min and reading books that I couldn't imagine going anywhere the first two days. But DS was 22 months and it was a long process. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448482 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:17:24 +0000 Cherrybee 2448482@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lion: Ahh! You call the toilet the potty!!! I get it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448477 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:59:31 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2448477@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: I never took a potty out of the house. My son just sat on the big potty in public. I know people who have done that though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448476 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:49:51 +0000 Pumuckl 2448476@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: My formulation was weird. What I ment is that nobody but you can set the handdryer off so it is unlikely to go on :) Just bring some tissues or napkins to dry the hands. LO was scared to sit on the toilet at first but we talked about it how it was an important part of being allowed to wear pants (underwear) and once he knew how to balance himself on the toilet with just stretching his arms all the way and holding on he's been fine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448474 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:43:50 +0000 Cherrybee 2448474@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Pumuckl: E wont even sit on the toilet with her Peppa Pig seat on it. She says she's going to fall in. Bless her! I will try the disabled - they have hand dryers in there too; baby change is often in the disabled and she gets really upset when you take her in, but she might surprise me, its worth a go! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448471 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:37:56 +0000 Pumuckl 2448471@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: How about using the disabled stall? They are often seperate and there is more room and noone will start the hairdryer. We never took the potty with us but LO is fine to sit on the normal toilet and just holds onto the seat. I just make sure to clean before using it and make him thoroughly wash his hands afterwards. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448470 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:32:03 +0000 Cherrybee 2448470@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lion: Did you take your potty into the public bathroom? (I don't mind carrying a potty about, I'm not proud!!). Yeah, she's so scared of the hand dryer because its loud and can turn on unexpectedly if you get too close (on a sensor) - I hear its really common. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448469 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:27:11 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2448469@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did just pants without undies when we went out and he did really well with few accidents. We just went to the potty before we left home, when we got where we were going, and before we left. Accidents usually happened in the car when they did happen, so keep a thick burp cloth or towel in the seat. :)</p> <p>ETA- not sure how to handle being scared of using the public bathrooms. I try to find family style rooms so there's less noise and my son has never had an issue with it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottomless-potty-training-and-kids-who-go-stir-crazy-in-the-house#post-2448467 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:13:29 +0000 Cherrybee 2448467@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>E is so ready to potty train..... She has been ready for months, doing the occasional pee on the potty etc, but became reluctant whenever we pushed her, so we just didn't. Well, Tues evening, she announced that she wanted to wear pants (what we call underwear) and use the potty - and that's what she did! Yesterday, I sent her to my inlaws wearing pants, with lots of changes of clothes, and told them what she said (they've been putting her on the potty for months now, like us, with little success). She did lots of wees but also had a couple of accidents so they went out and bought her pull-ups (ugh). Of course, once in pull ups, she started going in them and, when they put her on the potty, she "couldn't find a wee" as she puts it. Yesterday evening, we went back to pants and we had two pees! </p> <p>Basically, I know she's ready and its time to do the bottomless or just big-girl-pants thing - and its nearly the weekend, yay! But here's my question: </p> <p>E goes stir crazy at home. We usually spend all weekend out and about. Do i keep her home all day, even if shes bored and unhappy? Also, we currently have no kitchen (renovation) so we are eating out three meals a day. How do I navigate this? She's scared of real toilets (and hand dryers) in public bathrooms - so how do I get her to go to the loo out of the house when we do have to go out? (dont get me started on the fact we have no laundry facilities right now! Her timing is impeccable! :happy: ) </p>