Moving with 2.5 year old ("big" bed and potty training)

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zyxwv

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We are scheduled to move back to North America this summer, when our son will be 2.5 years old. In the next several months, we will need to (1) move him from crib to a "big"' bed; (2) wean from the pacifier (he has only ever had it for naps/bedtime); and (3) potty train. I'm not sure when to tackle all of these things, as I've heard time and again that big changes, like a move across the world, cause regression. To complicate things, #2 is only 4 months old, so #1 is already working through a major life change!

My current thought is to attempt to sort out the bed and pacifier before we move and hold off on potty training until after. I can remove one side from my son's crib, so this wouldn't need to involve buying a new bed. He doesn't seem quite ready for potty training yet but...what if he does next month?

What was your experience? Any thoughts or suggestions? How, when etc.?
 
i would do it all now. yes, there may be regression but again there may not.

first off, i would NOT make a huge deal about it all. i would start with the bed (don't worry about night toilet training for now). just tell him that he's a big boy and needs a big boy bed. then get him some cool sheets and you're off.

then i would get a potty and have it easily accessible. ask him every so often if he needs to go. and then give him a reward when he goes on/in the potty. we offered m & m's to ours. eventually, they forget about the rewards and then you can, too.


for the pacifier, it's just a case of big boys don't need them. they're for babies... see baby brother/sister has one... but you don't need one anymore... maybe they can give it to their baby instead?

you've still got 5-6 months until summer, no reason why you can't take care of all of this before you go...if you want to and if you think your child is ready, of course. some kids are ready for things before others. my son was pretty much toilet trained before #2 was born (son was exactly 2 years old). after baby arrived, we were a little lazy and let him go back to nappies. when #2 was about 4months old, we took the nappies away from #1 again. #2 wasn't toilet trained until she was about 3 yrs 4 months...

we had no issues whatso ever with taking away the crib from either of our kids. maybe because we didn't anticipate any?

pacifier wasn't an issue for #1 as he never used one....#2 was reliant on them until one day around 22 months old, she said,'no, for babies' and that was it... never again.
 
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I'm also moving back to NA this summer. My #1 will also be 2.5 and #2 will be 7 months old, she's two weeks old now.
My son is not ready for a big boy bed nor is he interested in toilet training. He also still sucks his thumb.
My plan is to buy him one of those Little Tikes race car beds as an intro to his new home and big beds. For toilet training, I'm just going to leave it until we are settled in more. Ditto for his thumb, but I'm not so fussed about that.
 
LOL! the bed has seen a lot of miles...i got it second-hand... only $1000 and it's the big one, not the toddler one! hopefully, he'll like it until he's 10 or 12!
 
Can I piggy back on this thread with a similar situation? We will be moving in a few weeks and I'm thinking of getting my 2 yr old big boy bed in the new place instead of putting his crib there. Is that wise to lump the change together?
To complicate things, my second one is 2 month and I'll need to give the crib to the baby after we move. (baby will outgrow the Moses basket). The thing is, my boy "hate" the baby the way it is already, would it make things worse to let baby " take away" his crib? They'll also need to share a room soon....
Any advice?
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honestly, if you talk to your son and explain that he's not a baby anymore, that he needs a big boy bed... take him out shopping for one and take him to pick out his own sheets.... don't even mention the crib...

perhaps there won't be any problems at all.
 
I was in the same situation as I just moved back to HK with my almost 2.5 year old. I tried potty training before the move, but she just wasn't ready so I waited until I got here. I did introduce the potty and had her use it everyday but she was also in pull ups. I stopped the pull ups once we moved back to HK and she is now ready and responding much better. My personal thoughts were that there may be accidents on the plane which ment many more outfits to bring and such. I also waited to transition from the crib to a big girl bed until our arrival which worked out quite nicely, she didn't seem to mind at all. I would say that if we had not moved I should have tranisitioned early as she took a pretty hard fall from attempting to climb out of the crib. Lastly, I also waited to ween from the pacifiers until we were back in HK as they served as a comfort for her (although she is probably too old to have them and I should have weened off much earlier). My rational is that it would help her with stress and such. But all children are different and handle transistions differently. Hope that helps.
 
We had zero problems moving our 2.5 year old boy from a cot to a bed. I was so surprised but we just explained it to him and set up the new one and no troubles at all. I was worried about it but was delighted that he took to it well.

We are potty training at the moment and is MUCH harder than moving to a big bed (see my separate thread on pooing in undies)!!
 
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