Please share your potty training tips

[MouseLover]

I still have to do this and my daughter is now 11!

 

[lurkernj]

I gave birth to my second son when my older son had just turned three. The goal was to have him trained by the time second son was born, but he was smarter than us . We would bribe him with candy and videos, he would poop on the potty to get the bribe, then resort back to going in his underpants, so I knew he was playin us. We couldn't afford to go on this way, so we decided he needed to handle the clean-up. When he would poop in his underwear, we would have him dunk them in the toilet to rinse the poop out. He would hold his nose and declare it "gross" . This lasted a week and he was done. Seems a bit extreme, but it worked. I am happy to report that he is 13 now and has had no lasting side effects.

 

[cmariew]

no pull ups is the way to go. We did pull ups with DD#1 and it took months. DD#2 no pull ups and it took about 4 days to potty train day and night at 27 months. Good Luck.

 

[monorailsilver]

I don't do pull ups either.

I am currently trying to PT my 2 yo but it is a slow process.

I try her every few days (yeah I know I give up to easily!) & I am trying today mainly because I only have about 20 diapers left & I need to buy more.

I put her in the thick training pants (I bought mine at Walmart for the poster that asked) with the plastic pants over. I also have put on real underwear as the first layer but today I skipped that, one less pee soaked thing I have to deal with.

My oldest was a month or two shy of 3. I tried to PT her weekly with out success. I think I gained 10 lbs just eating M&M's trying to encourage her to pee. But this one Friday I put her in underwear & that & me switching over to jelly beans & telling her how yummy they were worked. She was night time trained with in a month & I don't think she had an accident day time after that Friday.

My ds was also trained just before his 3rd b-day. He was starting preschool so he had to be trained. I did put him in pull ups for the first month but he had no accidents. He willbe 5 in September & he finally night time a few months ago.

When I train, I try to take them every 15-30 min which we are due to go in now so I must go...

 

[MrsR]

I freak out at going in the car...peeing in the car seat.
Ahh this whole thihng seems so hard for mem x2 -twins!!

 

[Slivedjn]

I had both my kids (girl and boy) fully trained by 24 months.

Ditch all diapers and pull-ups. Get them naked from the waist down and let them have accidents on the kitchen floor and don't make a big deal about it - just clean it up indifferently - This is a NECESSARY step so that they see how things work down there - what comes out and from where. (Thankfully, they learn quickly, after one or two accidents).

Buy those cheap potties at Target or Ikea ($3.99 each) or the $1 store that are small and easy to get on to. Have 3 on your main floor - in the living room, bathroom, bedrooms, etc, and at least 1 on each floor.

Don't expect them to tell you when they have to go! Just sit them on the potty immediately after waking from a nap and in the morning, before you leave the house, and any time you see or feel that they have to go. If they fight sitting on the potty, never force it. Let them play on it. Make a BIG DEAL when they go in it. Dance, sing, have a parade!!! You can even go on it yourself! (You need to have a playfull attitude about this whole thing!!!)

Make sure you help them take off and put on their pants, or just keep them in dresses with no underwear (girls) or long T-shirts with no underwear (boys) during the first week or so. They love to go sit on it by themselves.

Never reprimand them for mistakes. Just help them by sitting them on the potty frequently. Do this, and they will get it - in 2 days to 2 weeks. Good luck, and enjoy!!! My son was about 90% trained with this method by 12 months. I wouldn't believe it myself if I didn't live it. But by age 3, you will DEFINATELY have success with this method.

 

[mamaLori05]

I freak out at going in the car...peeing in the car seat.
Ahh this whole thihng seems so hard for mem x2 -twins!!

Just make sure they go before you leave. then as soon as you get to wherever you are going, and again just before you leave. Yes, it's a pain, and yes it makes your trip much longer, but it is worth it!! I promise!

 

[mjkacmom]

I had both my kids (girl and boy) fully trained by 24 months.

Ditch all diapers and pull-ups. Get them naked from the waist down and let them have accidents on the kitchen floor and don't make a big deal about it - just clean it up indifferently - This is a NECESSARY step so that they see how things work down there - what comes out and from where. (Thankfully, they learn quickly, after one or two accidents).

Buy those cheap potties at Target or Ikea ($3.99 each) or the $1 store that are small and easy to get on to. Have 3 on your main floor - in the living room, bathroom, bedrooms, etc, and at least 1 on each floor.

Don't expect them to tell you when they have to go! Just sit them on the potty immediately after waking from a nap and in the morning, before you leave the house, and any time you see or feel that they have to go. If they fight sitting on the potty, never force it. Let them play on it. Make a BIG DEAL when they go in it. Dance, sing, have a parade!!! You can even go on it yourself! (You need to have a playfull attitude about this whole thing!!!)

Make sure you help them take off and put on their pants, or just keep them in dresses with no underwear (girls) or long T-shirts with no underwear (boys) during the first week or so. They love to go sit on it by themselves.

Never reprimand them for mistakes. Just help them by sitting them on the potty frequently. Do this, and they will get it - in 2 days to 2 weeks. Good luck, and enjoy!!! My son was about 90% trained with this method by 12 months. I wouldn't believe it myself if I didn't live it. But by age 3, you will DEFINATELY have success with this method.

I wish someone would publish this PT method - it seems like many on discussion boards know about it. I wish I had internet with #1 and #2 - nakey butt works SO much better than the princess underwear!

 

[dmked]

I PT'ed DD a few months ago at 2 yrs. 7 mo. what worked for us was the potty watch! It is a watch for them to wear that you can set to 30, 60, or 90 min. and it sings a song to remind the child and you to go potty! She wore it for about a week and got it down really good. This is better than a timer since it is portable and it kind of puts it in the child's hands so they come to you and tell you it is time to go potty. I also used a sticker chart for the first little while and she really liked that.
I would agree that Pull-Ups are just diaper pants, and not training pants. They make diaper changes easier when they are little but I do not think they help in potty training.

 

[las3888]

We are sort of wrapping up our potty training, which we started just after Memorial Day or so. We are not totally there...DS will NOT tell me if he has to potty when we are out anywhere. So my rule is that we go potty before we leave the house or we don't go out. I get a lot of resistence, but it has been helpful. Other than that, we're doing OKAY after about 2 long months or so.

Here are a few things I found helpful:

I did have to totally ditch diapers and pull-ups (except at night-time). This caused accidents as to be expected. Then DS started to almost get used to accidents. That was not fun. Despite rewards, charts, blah blah blah, I just ended up telling him firmly, but nicely that I EXPECTED him to go potty if he had to go. I then stopped forcing him to sit (except when we leave the house and at night-time). Within a few days, he just started to sit on the potty by himself...didn't ask me for help or anything. I just told him constantly over and over that I expected him to either just go or come and get me when he had to go and I stopped nagging. This was probably a big key for us.

I had to let go of being accident-phobic. I still worry about accidents, and they still do happen here and there (DS is now sick so all bets are off now). I just bring extra clothes, plastic bags, wipes, etc., and treat underwear like a diaper...if they are totally soiled, into the trash they go. Still cheaper than diapers in the long run.

I DO use and like all-cotton training pants. DS doesn't realize they are different...just thinks of them as underwear and you're not supposed to go in them. However, if he does, they help a bit in cleaning up. They are not self-contained by any means, they just absorb a little more waste so that it's less on legs, clothes, shoes, floor, etc. I found them at BRU as well as Penney's...I like Penney's brand better. I would buy them on the small side so they are snug against privates, but on the other hand, loose helps them pull down and up easier...something for you to think about.

Also, somebody on the boards was so kind to send me a potty training book that somebody wrote. It was a little late for us to incorporate all the suggestions, but one thing that I did take from it was to kind of make a big to-do when they had accidents and you had to clean up. You are not to be-little them in any way shape or form, but just say 'look what mommy has to clean up now...ewwwww...what a mess...it is stinky....gross..." I found this contradictory to what the "experts" say that you're not supposed to de-mean their waste in any way because they see it as a part of them, but I think it helped a bit in our situation. I wasn't mad when I said these things...I just acted very grossed out (not hard to do in that situation).

We had a hard time with #2 and again, from advice based on disboards, I ended up taking him in the shower with me or DH when he had a #2 accident. He does NOT like to take showers so this seemed to stick with him a little bit. We did not make him feel bad...we just matter-of-factly told him that we needed to take a shower to clean the poo off of him and we can't do it in the bathtub because it will still be on him (which was true). To date we have had to do it about 3x.

I also disagree that they need to be dry in the AM in order to do daytime training. My sister's kids both had bed-wetting issues well into 5's and even 6 and I believe that is really common. Once we did day-time potty training, DS seemed to be dry more at night but it's not 100%.

These are just some of my random thoughts...I heard lots and lots of advice about potty training and sometimes something will really just stick and help or at least it might help to try. Good luck!!!!