Is my 2-year-old too much of a baby?

[drsweetie]

Once again I'm participating in the dangerous activity of comparing my child to other people's children. DD turned 2 in June and shows no interest in dressing or undressing herself, bathing herself, or using the potty. She still sleeps in a crib and drinks from a sippy cup. Do all these things sound normal? Or do we need to step things up a little around here? DH and I are okay with things the way they are, but we don't want to keep DD a baby to an unhealthy extent.

ETA: I should clarify that DD seems developmentally normal in other areas: she runs, jumps, and skips; routinely uses sentences of 3-4 words; can recite some of her favorite books from memory; counts and recognizes numbers and some letters. So it's not any kind of global developmental delay we're worried about.

Ellen

[hjdong]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it, particularly the cleeping in the crib, the longer the better. Except for the potty, which DS took to fairly early, but didn't really master until 2 1/2, DS sounds similiar. I did push him in the undressing and dressing himself, and still do, but mostly because I wanted him to learn it. And I'm not sure if it was that young either. But the interest was definately not his.

I would look in other areas. Does she show independence? DS definately had things he would rather do himself, it just wasn't dressing and undressing. And he does undress himself now - we're still working on the dressing; if I get it started he can finish it.He can drink from a cup, if he's a table, although he thinks he can carry it all over the house and can't figure out where all the water went when he gets wherever he's going.

HTH,

[JElaineB]

Sounds completely normal to me. DS has only been doing some of those things the past couple of months. We wouldn't have even thought of them right after he turned 2. Undressing he has done for a few months, and he is getting interested in dressing (can do his shoes and tries to do his shirt), he has recently started soaping himself up in the tub, will use the potty but has no interest on his own. I dont' think there is any big rush, she will figure all these things out eventually. (I'm hoping DS does too! :))

ETA: We only moved DS into his toddler bed at 2.5, after he could climb out of the crib. He actually is much harder to get to sleep now, I wish he was still in the crib! He still uses sippy cups at times, or usually straw cups, but he is finally starting to demand open cups. We are doing naturalistic potty training (which our daycare center advocates, basically they potty train themself when they are ready, hopefully by age 4!) Oh, and he only learned how to put on his shoes after our previous daycare provider said he had to put on his own shoes to go outside (she said he was ready to learn and gave him an incentive! So I guess sometimes a small push is not a bad thing!)

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[wendmatt]

We changed DDs crib into a toddler bed around 2.5 as she was climbing into it during the day but couldn't get out! She is day time potty trained (not night) and did it quite early (her choice) but I dress and undress her (she can take bottoms off not tops) and put on flip flops but not other shoes.
So I'd say your DD sounds normal, DD drinks from a cup sometimes but usually a sippy cup. It's tough to know how much is normal. I still feed DD otherwise she doesn't eat more than 2 bites and I worry that thats babying her too much......the worry never ends!!

[jk3]

Sounds perfectly normal to me too. My DS is the same age and he still sleeps in the crib, sleeps with a pacifier and has zero interest in the potty. In other respects, he doesn't seem "babyish" so I'm not concerned. Two is still very young and I'm sure we will see major changes by the time they turn 3!

Jenn
DS 6/3/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png

[alkagift]

Ellen,
My understanding is that it's a delay if the child *can't* undress herself (i.e., lack of motor coordination) not that she doesn't *want* to, which is probably your DD's case. My DS (27 mos) does have some delays in speech and gross motor, but he thinks washing himself is funny and is always trying to take his socks off. Now, does he wash himself well or even marginally well? Nooooooo. He's still in his crib because he's comfy. My nephew, who is nearly exactly the same age, still uses a sippy and he's advanced for his age in all respects (except for that tantrum-free thing).

If you're concerned or even thinking about it, you can certainly make getting dressed or bathing a game and your DD will have fun with it too.

Allison
Mommy to Matthew, who is TWO!

[CiderLogan]

My DD, who just turned 2 in August, sounds a lot like yours. The only difference is that she is just starting to try to undress and dress herself - otherwise, she has no interest in the potty or regular cups or bathing herself or any of that. I am not pushing any of it (excep the PT since she needs to use the potty by 3 to go to preschool). I personally love her spillproof cups and cannot imagine going through a day where she has to sit at the table, supervised, every time she wanted a drink of something! So maybe it's partly me. But although I see other kids farther along than ours at this point, I think ours are just fine. (I also see kids just a few months younger than mine who are no where near learning all those things, so I feel like ours are normal.)

Jenny
Mom to Julia, 8/03
...and another one due 5/29/06!