Big Girl Bed and Potty Training

you know your daughter best. how has she done with transition in the past? for my daughter, if we make something sound exciting, she thinks it's great, and does not have any problem. she moved to a new house, put her in a toddler bed, and FULLY potty trained her in 3 months. she was 26 months.

here are a few things to consider. anything that is considered something for "big girls" will require your daughter to listen and obey you. if you have any trouble with this, you may want to work on that first. if not, then you should be fine.

my daughter never climbed out of her crib, but i thought she was ready for the toddler bed. we gave her the "big bed rules" and asked her to repeat them each night for a while - no jumping, no standing, and no getting out. if you see or hear her getting out, go and remind her of the rules...

i don't see the bed thing as a difficult transition...

potty training is a tough time. i didn't want to do a drawn out thing with pull ups and all that. we did the "intense" straight to undies thing with lots of excitement and treats for going and staying dry. i didn't think she would stay dry at night for a while, but after the first week she was dry at night. i continued to use diapers ONLY at night for a few weeks, and then one night i forgot. she had two accidents after that, about 3 weeks later and NONE at night since then.

i wouldn't expect your daughter to be ready to get up and go to the potty at night by herself, so you don't necessarily have to get her to the bed first. my daughter is about to be 3 and still calls me for help to go potty in the night. i am glad, because it means she is not wandering around by herself, and even though the feeling wakes her, she is usually still pretty sleepy.

all kids are different. you have to do what you think she's ready for, but know that anything is possible.

It doesn't matter..if she is ready for both then do both. But, buy a fitted sheet that is used for bed wetters. It has a plastic cover on bottom so the urine does not go through to the mattress. Have fun..it's an excitng time for her.

if she seems ready to potty train, I would go that route first! think of the money saved by not needing those diapers!!! When we put our kids into their big beds, we put one side of the bed against the wall. they never fell out of bed. we have a 2 story house, so we were worried about them gettin up and wandering around and maybe falling down the stairs, so we put a child gate across their door. I didn't want to shut their regular door all the way, just in case they did fall out of bed. this worked out great and we never had any issues. hope this helps..my kids are now 21 and 15

Wow that's a lot of changes at one time.

Keep in mind, pottying occurs in stages. NOT all at once. Regardless of how 'ready' a child seems.
It fluctuates... and their body/nerve development/maturity/brain connections also has to be there too. It is not just about doing it.
There will be good days and not so good days, and they will have accidents. So you have to factor this in... and accept it. A child, WILL have accidents. Even 3-5 year olds do. Its normal.

Then the big girl bed... that takes time to adjust to, too.
Trial and error. And picking your battles. It is a change in routine.

2 year old, is also a time of MANY developmental changes... so that will tweak them too... which is normal.

It will not be a concise science... nor attainment nor "mastery" for the child. It occurs in stages.... small steps at a time.

You could also put a mattress on the floor.

Next, if she is sleeping well in her crib, I would LEAVE her in it. My son for example, slept GREAT in his crib... until about 3 years old. Then, he told US, that he was done with that... and wanted to sleep on a bed. And then he was fine.

Next, know that "night time dryness" is a whole DIFFERENT thing. NOT the same as daytime pottying. Night time dryness, is not something that is attained until even 7 years old, and this is normal per Pediatricians and their body development. So, don't expect night time and daytime pottying to be the same. My daughter was in night time diapers until about 5 years old. NORMAL. She is 7 now... and still once in a blue moon, will wet her bed. But, I have waterproof bed pads that I put under her. So no problem. We NEVER scold/punish for accidents. It is childhood. It happens.

all the best,
Susan