Parenting Catch-all

It happens, so don't get to discouraged.
We had numerous potty issues over the years after days or weeks of success.

One thing I made sure to do was talk with the child and comfort them amd encourage them to keep trying.

Our son still wets the bed very occasionally ~4 months after being potty trained.

I've found several things happen, almost always our mistakes due to overconfidence. We'll forget to make him use the potty before bed. We'll forget to make him stop drinking much water after dinner. Or he's just in the midst of a regression.

He's still too young and inexperienced for us to expect him to wake up and go potty in the middle of the night. He's done it, but it's not reliable.

Though it is awesome that he wakes up, goes potty and gets dressed before waking us up.

Tagging for current and future reference.

mrwynd wrote:

I woke up at about 5 am this morning to my daughter screaming her head off. It turns out she wet the bed after two successful nights without a diaper. Now I'm not sure if we want to go back to a diaper at bed time or not. Before this she hasn't wet her night time diaper in almost a month so we figured it was time.

I second all the great advice above, I said it last page but if your kid can manage peanuts and if not replace with another protein source maybe, peanut butter and wheat toast knocked this out for us. Do your own research but again our kid had a huge change. We went from fully potty trained to accidents every night and then once we started this off a friends recommendation no more issues. Good luck!

Yeah, as mentioned above, accidents can happen. When we've had them it's been similar cases to what kaos says, getting sloppy on our part. And sometimes accidents just happen, they can happen for years.

Definitely don't panic and go back to diapers, that will knock her confidence and set you all back.

*edit*

Also, probably goes without saying, but just in case. If the kid is anything like our daughter she will be upset and embarrassed. Make sure to take some extra time to let her know it's okay and give some cuddles.

Looking for some parenting advice before I go to the doctor again (we've been there with them before on this with no real diagnosis so not sure who to talk to about this.)

So my son is 6. This has been a recurring problem for a while now and it's getting pretty old. Whenever he gets a cold or something that causes a lot of mucous, we invariably end up with at least one day where he spends it puking. No one else ever throws up so it's not a stomach bug or something, it just seems to be his stomach can't handle the mucous. He also gets car sick so hooray! I'm just wondering if this is something we're just going to deal with or if I should be concerned about something more serious. Like I said, I've been to the doctor about it and they basically prescribed zofran to help with the nausea and then probiotics to help get his system back on track.

The days we have issues also seem to have the same pattern to them. He'll wake up early in the morning and throw up, then he'll proceed to throw up 3 - 4 times over the next 5 hours or so. Then he's good until the evening (we think this is because he's mostly feeling better so he overdoes it with food) and he sometimes ends up throwing up a couple hours after going to bed. Then we're good. He'll get a good nights sleep, stay home the next day since he has to be free from any issues for 24 hours before going back to camp/school, and then we're good... until the next cold. Sometimes we get through a cold with no issues but this typically happens something like 4 - 6 times / year. Any thoughts?

My youngest did this as well when she was that age. Now that she's a teen she doesn't so much. I think you're right, it's just something about the mucous and the sensitivity of their stomach. We just learned to expect it, not much we can do about it. It's kind of frightening, and like you, no one else here did that, just her. If the doctor's aware of it and not too worried I wouldn't worry but just be ready for it.

She also deals with car sickness on occasion, so maybe there's something there too.

Just don't let him get sick! lol I know it's impossible once they're at school, they seem to come home with colds a lot at that age. Not so much now that they're teens.

Well for the car sickness, there is kids dramamine, which has been a god send for us. My daughter gets motion sickness pretty easily sometimes, so we religiously give it to her for moderate to long car trips.

We use the Zofran for the car ride as well and it's amazing. Went from having issues about 2 hours into a car ride to driving for 10 hours to SC without any issues. So fantastic.

Does the Zofran cause drowsiness at all? I found that the Canadian Dramamine equivalent (Gravol) makes her sleepy, which is ok for longer trips but not short ones...

No, zofran doesn't cause drowsiness, at least not for our son. The only issue is it requires a prescription.

Asterith wrote:

Looking for some parenting advice before I go to the doctor again (we've been there with them before on this with no real diagnosis so not sure who to talk to about this.)

So my son is 6. This has been a recurring problem for a while now and it's getting pretty old. Whenever he gets a cold or something that causes a lot of mucous, we invariably end up with at least one day where he spends it puking. No one else ever throws up so it's not a stomach bug or something, it just seems to be his stomach can't handle the mucous. He also gets car sick so hooray! I'm just wondering if this is something we're just going to deal with or if I should be concerned about something more serious. Like I said, I've been to the doctor about it and they basically prescribed zofran to help with the nausea and then probiotics to help get his system back on track.

The days we have issues also seem to have the same pattern to them. He'll wake up early in the morning and throw up, then he'll proceed to throw up 3 - 4 times over the next 5 hours or so. Then he's good until the evening (we think this is because he's mostly feeling better so he overdoes it with food) and he sometimes ends up throwing up a couple hours after going to bed. Then we're good. He'll get a good nights sleep, stay home the next day since he has to be free from any issues for 24 hours before going back to camp/school, and then we're good... until the next cold. Sometimes we get through a cold with no issues but this typically happens something like 4 - 6 times / year. Any thoughts?

I was this kid growing up, never took medication as my parents are against taking medication unless you're dying. If I had a cold through a full day and night, I would throw up between 3-5 am.

I was a picky eater too because my stomach was easily upset. I vividly remember hating pineapple because it tasted good but made me throw up. I grew out of it around age 11 and by 14 I could eat anything.

Thanks for the feedback all! I appreciate knowing this has occurred elsewhere. The doctor also said this is probably something he will just end up growing out so that seems to be confirmed by what you all are saying.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Steve - have you counted their teeth? Easy way to tell if they've gotten them all in.

...well when you put it like that it seems like the first thing I should have thought of...

We’ve had mixed success with potty training. Diaperless, he’ll get up and sit on the potty on his own. At first it was just dribbles, but now he fills it up pretty good.

However, the instant he has a diaper on, that is what he uses and goes back to not telling us. We put him in some real underwear to run around the house in, explaining for him to tell us when he had to pee. Nope, he just peed through them and left a puddle on the floor. The wet underwear didn’t seem to bother him at all.

So it’s a bit of a mixed bag so far.

We kept our kid in nighttime diapers way longer than we needed to, because she wasn't waking up with dry diapers. Turns out, she was waking up with a dry diaper, then taking a big old piss in it once she woke up.

Once we finally figured that out, we were away to the races.

So the 3yo has taken to yelling “triops” and “tripods have three legs!”

For context, They Might Be Giants have a bunch of kids albums, including dvds for “Here come the A B C’s” and “Here come the 1 2 3’s”. The song about the number three is about a creature with three eyes called a triops.

It’s a good set of videos. Entertaining and educational. It’s just funny to hear him yelling weird things like that.

Strewth wrote:

Does anybody have any suggestions for potty training?

My oldest boy is 3 1/2, we tried last year with no real success, and postponed it for whatever reason. In December we had a home invasion, nobody was hurt, but the renovations in the aftermath were disruptive, and we decided to move, which caused another disruption.

So now we are all settled in to the new house. He said it hurt to sit on the potty, so we bought a new one in a different style. The first one was sort of like an armchair, and he was kinds of squeezed in. He’s tall for his age, and even when he was one people thought he was a year or two older than he is.

He’s decided it’s easier to just go in his diaper, so he’ll sit on the potty for a couple hours and a trickle of pee will come out. He then gets up and puts on his “underwear” (pull-up diaper) and five minutes later it’s full of pee. He knows when he’s having a poop because he always runs away and hides behind the curtains or in the other room.

We’ve tried rewards and bribery, but neither have been effective. We’re not sure what to do other than to just be persistent and hope he finally gets it. But he’s consciously making an effort to not use the potty in order to go in his diaper.

For my boy, I made it a game and I would throw a fruit loop or a cheerio in the toilet and have him aim for it to pee. All the sudden, I had a 3 year old that just wanted to pee nonstop.

BlackSheep wrote:

For my boy, I made it a game and I would throw a fruit loop or a cheerio in the toilet and have him aim for it to pee. All the sudden, I had a 3 year old that just wanted to pee nonstop.

My wife tried that. When he wouldn’t pee, he freaked out when we flushed the toilet but the Cheerio came back up. It took three or four flushes to get rid of it, and he didn’t like that it wouldn’t go away.

Strewth wrote:
BlackSheep wrote:

For my boy, I made it a game and I would throw a fruit loop or a cheerio in the toilet and have him aim for it to pee. All the sudden, I had a 3 year old that just wanted to pee nonstop.

My wife tried that. When he wouldn’t pee, he freaked out when we flushed the toilet but the Cheerio came back up. It took three or four flushes to get rid of it, and he didn’t like that it wouldn’t go away.

Oh man. Kids. I can see the surprised look on his face...

So I think it's time to jump in this thread finally.

My wife is pregnant with our first, a girl. Due around New Year's.

Here she is a couple weeks ago:
IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/MLNi47E4FRaWz4KcvRJATjHI6n5PSMD8lOTSzAEjhLqxmlIpTRg1t2gHzb-hGhWomZ-2Ec0XObsv7_2ikLl1Hax9aainCJrOnAXexJ7Bb4cGQkANjfrYUGYhsgbDl75qR-smvW4n9wc4kmjDRdHKNJDFl62DlHG5u8xjSvmUu7VgNVkL4UFOSfxzjMoDmqTRgI_pSn3U6sgJ8KBqMKOsrZKL0L6RnqFMWwtxUkofK8wOfX6DYCR29cZuPtrXDm-asTGnKQ01g-v6-Gd3UmJWqXDEHX5VOSQabM78xCn31j7pDD-SAOPeUE0yq12GoAZpBTO51cXAq8wO0d5LSjv73b9ruzs9zOw7HwkTqq0zX5FSh_Z3KmgC4RHfsBe2EsvSkRwy9tbITScdtis3VOvgTQeIgsRpr_gGxkIxcbjyfFQKrMclLPl1TRPHuquGYJ4H-qDVuyemVgAyfhL4f8Kq3R4OXCGmIC0ZSgTU6k03Llg-MuimygJQWaLTrH_uyBQiaBOPVZyXwidsuSdJy84i7aD7Sa0boMO17610qmc7AWXwHlrHhrmhXwwdXGu3otsZsjhO1Puoq39MvX5u-3618VZfhn6IglZ-aH6PDEnKlEfFegfe9JfFI5SljF231VI=w1231-h923-no)

Picture of a picture, not great quality. But there she is. Everything's about to change. Can't wait.

Congrats on having such a recognizable Ultrasound picture!

Congrats Stele!!! And hold on to your hats, it's quite a ride.

Stele wrote:

My wife is pregnant with our first, a girl. Due around New Year's.

Congratulations!

Stele wrote:

Everything's about to change. Can't wait.

You have no idea. Congrats!

As I prepare for Kid #3 (due at Thanksgiving), I realize, unfortunately, that our infant car seats are past their expiration dates, and unfortunately Google is unwilling to confirm my instinct that these expiration dates are just a scam by Big Car Seat. One thing I haven't been able to determine via google, though, is whether it's only the seats that expire or if the bases expire as well. We'll probably just buy another Chicco Key Fit 30, so it'd be great if we could use our existing bases. I bet we can't, but if anyone out there has investigated this and knows the answer, please let me know.

(I also need to start doing more research into how I will get 3 car seats into my Honda Fit...oof.)

Car seats do expire, mainly due to the plastic degrading and internal metal parts rusting due to years of use, exposure (sitting in a hot car) and spills, so that'd certainly include the base. They won't turn into a pumpkin and not work at all, but the chance for them to not work correctly in a crash is higher.
The good news is that you can take old cars seats to Target and get a 20% off coupon to put towards new one(s). Their next trade-in event is September 9-22.

I think it's also the foam padding that breaks down, same for bike helmets.
Seconded on Target and the coupons.

For fitting into the Fit do some searches for narrow car seats. There are some that will fit 3 across, but I am not sure the Keyfit is one of them.

fit

Yeah, I guess it makes sense that the bases would be just as subject to problems as the seat itself. Phooey.

I had looked up the Target trade-in deal, and we do plan to do that, although because Vermont does not have a Target, it means a trip on the ferry across Lake Champlain into NY. My wife is keen on some a Graco car seat that allegedly converts from infant all the way through booster seat. My research says my Fit is 66" across, and the Graco car seat my wife likes plus the two car seats we currently have installed are all around 19-20" wide, so, theoretically this could fit, but I am going to be sure I am very clear on the return policy before I buy anything.