Potty Training..ugh

Hey ladies and gents,

So I have a 26 month old son and desperatly want to potty train him. Im not entirely sure hes ready nor am I sure how to make sure hes ready. I dont want to start and then have to quit...that is all bad.

So my question is how old was your child (especially boys bc I know they are a wee bit slower than girls) when you potty trained them?  how long did it take? and do you have any tips.

Thanx

Chantale

I have a daughter but I'll give you my advice, anyway! :)

My daughter was about 2 1/2 when I potty trained her. It took one day. No joke. I had always read that you should wait until they show interest before starting potty-training. My daughter could have CARED LESS! I finally put some panties on her one morning and told her we were done with diapers! We spent the day at the mall and I just made sure I took her to the restroom often. She didn't have a single accident all day. Granted, we used training pants at night but she didn't even wet those. I can count on one hand the number of accidents she's had in 2 years and most of the time it's because she's been sick.

I know my experience isn't likely to happen but you never know!

Make a big deal out of it when they use the toilet. We had a potty dance and I sang a song ("You did it, you did it, you did it, did it, did it!") as we did the dance. Candy and bribes can sometimes work (one piece of candy after using the toilet or an inexpensive toy after making it a week with no accidents, etc.).

I read that for boys, tossing some Cheerio's in the toilet helps them aim. My son is only 5 months old so I don't have any tips for you yet on that front ;)

Good luck! Remember, patience, patience, patience! 

My oldest son was a bit of a chore.  We insisted on starting at about three and a half, and he was fully open to using the potty for going pee.  We got little tissue "targets" to put in the toilet, and he thought is was a cool game, and used various little dollar store "prizes" for every 2-3 successes (keeping dry).  It took about two weeks, although he had his "testing" moments - I was amazed at how long he could hold something in.  But BMs were a completely different story, and turned into a control issue.  We waged a huge battle of wills over that one and he didn't reach success until he was almost 5, after we consulted with a specialist.  He can be a very stubborn child.

My youngest child is a special case, as he is autistic and has a myriad of developmental delays.  We had to overcome communication and sensory issues, then use ABA (applied behavioral analysis) with the help of a therapist to get success with peeing in the toilet.  We're still working on BMs.

Good luck!

My friend has twin 33-month old boys, one of whom was ready to get rid of the nappies a good few months ago and let his mother know this.  He was pretty much clean within the week and has been aside from the odd accident since. The other is still not quite ready, so I guess it depends on your child.  I know my friend used a Star Chart as an encouragement tool...every # 2 on the potty got a star, and every 5 stars meant some form of treat.

Those little targets came out after my son was trained... I just used a couple cheerios for targets instead.   More or less I just let him go commando and kept the potty in whatever room we were in so it was Right There for the first day.  Added another article of clothing each day so 2 he got his undies, 3 shirt, and so on so he didn't have an accident trying to get undressed. 

We used a star chart for him as well and he had prizes (up on a shelf in the bathroom) that he could pick from at x # of stars.   He was a little stubborn at getting from the little potty to the big one, even with a seat until I flipped him around so he was sitting backwards on the toilet.  Was a suggestion from my ped and it worked!

He was totally trained by 18mos and out of pull ups for good at about 20mos when they ran out finally.

I have 3 children and never waited for cues from any of them.  My oldest(son) was bowel taught by age 17 months.  And fully day taught by 3 years old( he has a disability so a bit harder for #1)  My other 2 children are girls and they were completely out of diapers all day long even for naps at age 22 months.  I also do home daycare and have taught so far 7 more children(boys and girls) and Im on #8 right now.  Those 7 children were all taught using my system.  Some were a bit older then my ideal starting age so a bit harder but when I start toileting with my daycare children they are day taught by 2 years old.

Thanx everyone for the response. I wanna start now so badly but I dont think hes ready he barely even talks yet so how is he supposto tell me he needs to go potty. Will definetly be using alot of your suggestions tho.

I have raised all my siblings, cousins plus my own child... it feels like second nature and I am over it finally! :) ... I trained my daughter at about 19months she was walking at about 14 she was a fast baby... 

I literally do not go to pull ups and straight to underwear... she has about a week of bad accidents and finally decided she didn't want dirty underwear anymore and would run to the potty... it was messy but she got the point and I went straight from daipers to underwear! it worked for me and I had done this for my younger siblings when I was very young and it worked. 

good luck

Soraya 

p.s. that kitty is soooooo cute Chantale1985! I can't take it!!!! 

my oldest was a little over 3-1/2 when he really made the connection. he had displayed some interested before that, but nothing real regular. i was sorely disappointed because i had just had another baby and was not thrilled with the idea of 2 kids in diapers. i believe what pushed him over was having a sleep over at our house with two older kids, they were 5 & 6. (btw... my kids have not ever done the daycare thing, so have not had that influence.) so anyway... after that weekend he was completely out of diapers during the day. he's 6 now and still does pull-ups at night. most mornings he's dry, but there is the occasional "accident". earlier this week he actually woke in the middle of the night to use the potty, so we might be seeing the light at the end of that tunnel too!

our "baby" is 2-1/2 and is definily showing interest in the potty (more than his brother did at this age), mostly because it's something big brother does.

My daughter was 15 months and I had one of those expensive musical potty chairs that she could care less about. I tried the candy reward which she really didn't care too much for either because she was not consistent. Then I bought a plain potty chair that is pretty much just a hole for them to go in for about 9 bucks and put the chair in whatever room we happened to be in as well as in the car whenever we went anywhere. I bought a pack of stickers SpongeBob is her fav thing ever so I bought those. Whenever she went pee she got one sticker and two for poop and I let her put the sticker on the potty chair itself (it became her trophy potty), and thats all it took. She was completely trained in 3 days and has never had an accident (she will be 3 in July). Do not buy pull ups they are a waste of money just use underwear and buy a lot of them too just be consistent with whatever you do. Don't get frustrated and put him back in diapers if something doesn't work cause its too confusing for them. If you commit to getting him out of diapers do it 100% this is the time to do it in the spring or summer cause he can run around in underwear which is easy for him to pull down himself. You can do it just find what motivates or excites him and use it!

I went to bribery!! I give my 28 month old one m&m pure choc. Every time he goes pee, and the first day I said m&m if you pee in the potty so it worked and now I do not mention the m&m I just say lets go pee in the potty and if he brings up the m&m I give it to him but if not than we pass it up!! I went to this stage because we just had a new baby and after that he soo did not want to potty and he was doing really good before so I figured it was because I had to switch a lot of my attention to the little one!! We are on the right track plus use the words big boy underwear really get him excited, when he is running around naked he will hit his pp and be like Big Boy Big Boy than I put underwear on him and say we don't pee in these we pee on the potty!! Good luck!!

Original Post by spuckine1:

I have 3 children and never waited for cues from any of them.  My oldest(son) was bowel taught by age 17 months.  And fully day taught by 3 years old( he has a disability so a bit harder for #1)  My other 2 children are girls and they were completely out of diapers all day long even for naps at age 22 months.  I also do home daycare and have taught so far 7 more children(boys and girls) and Im on #8 right now.  Those 7 children were all taught using my system.  Some were a bit older then my ideal starting age so a bit harder but when I start toileting with my daycare children they are day taught by 2 years old.

 What is this system?!

we are doing the potty training fun also. I tried for a few days with pull-ups but I think they are too diaper like and she had no problem going in them. One day I said no more diapers and put panties on her. 10 minutes later she went in the panties and didn't like it. That was about 2 months ago. She has only had a couple little (not full bladder) accidents since. However, the whole "stinky" thing is another story. She has only gone on the toilet 3 times for that. It doesn't bother her to do that in her pants!

Original Post by alloutattack7:

Original Post by spuckine1:

I have 3 children and never waited for cues from any of them.  My oldest(son) was bowel taught by age 17 months.  And fully day taught by 3 years old( he has a disability so a bit harder for #1)  My other 2 children are girls and they were completely out of diapers all day long even for naps at age 22 months.  I also do home daycare and have taught so far 7 more children(boys and girls) and Im on #8 right now.  Those 7 children were all taught using my system.  Some were a bit older then my ideal starting age so a bit harder but when I start toileting with my daycare children they are day taught by 2 years old.

 What is this system?!

I'll type it out tomorrow morning but the key is starting young, staying consistant and not giving up.

So its been almost 2 months since we started potty training and hes doing great. Hes had probably about 10 minor accidents in all this time. He goes on by him self now I will go check the potty and there is like 2 pees in there. He even has bowel movements  on the potty.

We still put a diaper on him at night time because he still drinks during the night and is still in a crib until Monday. But often in the evening he wakes up yelling "PEE PEE" so I put him in the potty at that time and his diaper is still dry.

I never thought he would be this great because he is behind in like talking, he was behind in walking so I was assuming he would be for this too...boy did he prove me wrong.

Thanks everyone for all of your tips.

I have 3 kids (cooking number 4 now) and all of them were different.  I never waited for a cue from them either but I didn't puch them...at first.  I just kept the potty around in the living room & had them watch videos about going potty.  i would try every once in a while at first.  Once I knew that they got the idea I switched it up.

For my oldest...he was easy.  I tried the running around naked thing but when he pooped on the floor right in front of a plate of food I was eating that was it!  I told him no more pull-ups/diapers and that was that.  No more accidents.

With my 2nd, it was harder.  He was the boy that didn't mind walking around with soiled pants.  i think we did the sticker thing where he put the stickers ON the potty.  He is 6 now and we are almost done training him at night.

For my 3rd, my daughter, she was fairly simple.  We had the musical potty but it took awhile for her to care about it.  Then we swithced to the bribe/reward method.  Going pee got her a sticker that she could pick & put on her potty chart that we hung in the bathroom.  Going poo gave her a prize from the prize box (toys & snacks inside a box with ribbons attached).  She would get to pick a ribbon & hold on to it while we fished her prize out of the box.  She is 3 1/2 now & we just took her off of pull-ups during naps.  She still uses them at night.

Each child is different.  Getting mad at them for not training according to your schedule won't help.  Make a big deal whenever they go on the potty!  Oh yeah, my #1 suggestion....it's YOUR job to remind them every 20-30 min to use the potty!!!  Don't always wait for them to tell you.  Take them there & if they go - yay!  If not - next time.

Good luck!