Potty training tips...

[todzwife]

How'd you do it? I'm already tired of pee on the floor.x(

[mudder17]

Well, we're on day 2, so I'd really be interested in seeing what other people suggest. But for now, it's nakie time at home and just suggesting the potty every 15-30 minutes. I'll ask her and she'll usually say yes or no. I've moved away most of the carpets so that it's at least just the floor I have to clean up.


Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png
Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[lizajane]

sorry, naked naked naked is my #1 tip!

is it warm enough in TX to go outside in just a shirt? (are you in TX or am i crazy?)

try putting the little potty in the room with you-if you are in the living room, take it in the living room so he doesn't have to leave what he is doing to use the potty. a friend of mine started by renting new movies her daughter had never seen so that she would sit on the potty to watch the movie. if he doesn't fight you, try just putting him on the potty every hour or so. he may say he doesn't need to go or he doesn't want to go if you ask him, but if you just sit him on it, he may go.

good luck!!

[todzwife]

I'm almost in TX- I'm in NM, and today it's 78...sheesh.

We don't have a back or front yard because we live in apartments. I've been setting the timer and he'll sit there for a few, but then he got up and peed on the floor- I am just not sure he's ready yet.

[daisymommy]

My number #1 Tip: Wait until they are really-really ready. I waited till Joshua was 3 yrs. Partly because I wasn't ready to deal with it before then, and partly because I hadn't seen any interest on his part before then either.

Having Joshua naked from the waist down, and the potty chair right there in whatever room he is playing in works for us. Also, big-time positive reinforcement, meaning doing the Dorah "I did-it, I did-it!" dance after each time he went in the potty, and then he gets 3 M&M's--something he loves but never get's any other time.

We also started reading potty books to him for 1-2 months before we ever went to bare bottom time, and we put him on the potty 1-2 times each day at a set time such as when he first wakes up, and before his bath in the evening. We were doing these things just to introduce the idea of the potty before we went head-first into true potty training.

Once we started, he had 2 accidents on the floor, and that was it. He will go pee and BM everytime in the potty IF he is naked on the bottom and has the potty chair in the room with him. But he doesn't stay dry out in public yet, and put a pair of underwear or pull-ups on the kid, and forget it--he uses them as a diaper. Now that's frustraing since he knows what he's supposed to do. But I figure at least we are making progress!

[trumansmom]

My advice is to wait for the serious training. With DS we offered on a regular basis, but didn't take him out of diapers until he was in complete agreement. We had tried a couple of times before, but it was nothing but frustration for all involved.

DD is currently starting to use the potty several times a day, but I don't plan on taking her out of diapers for a good, long while. Unless, of course, she starts really taking the initiative.

Good luck. Potty training is no fun! But it's great leaving the house without a diaper bag!

Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/01 and Eleanor 4/04
Independent Consultant, Do-Re-Me & You!

[mudder17]

>Good luck. Potty training is no fun! But it's great leaving
>the house without a diaper bag!

Well, except right now we're taking our Graco soft potty insert (the one that goes on the step stool with the red bowl) with us, so it needs to fit in the diaper bag. ;)

And right now, I'm just going with the flow and totally having a blast with it, just because Kaya is having fun with it. Like I said in the Lounge, Kaya could totally regress and that's fine, but I'm just letting her call the shots on this one. Oh, and one thing that I've done to help her sit longer on the potty is that I'll read books to her during that time (something she's finally ready for me to do!). She's starting to develop favorites and will have me read it over and over and over and over...and then she'll suddenly decide she's done with the potty and she'll get up. Sometimes she'll have gone and sometimes not. We tried the insert in a regular toilet today at the chiro's and she really liked it, but I think it's because she liked playing with their toilet paper, LOL! At home I use cloth wipes and I think I'll continue with that, or we'll have to declog the toilet of toilet paper on a regular basis! But one thing, for all you experienced PT'ers, if your kid isn't ready for underwear yet, how do you handle all that undoing of the diaper. Today, at the chiro, I had to pull down her pants, take off the cover, take off the diaper, let her sit on the toilet, cleaned her off and put everything back on and then 30 seconds later, she started asking for the potty again (and she had already gone quite a bit), so I decided to take her seriously and undid everything and sure enough she went again. But geez, it took maybe 15 minutes! Any tips? I'm seriously thinking of ordering a bunch of stuff from the EC store to make my life easier!

Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png
Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[JBaxter]

Bribery... Nathan sits on the potty for m&m's. Naked is still #1

[samwyatt]

I guess I would say... WAIT WAIT WAIT... until they bring it up! I mean, my oldest started showing readiness and I tried to potty train her and it was a PITA! So... I just decided to not mention it and put diapers back on her. After a few months she just told me one day that she wanted to go potty... she did, and when Daddy came home, she showed him that she went potty... and that was it! Pretty much diaper free (except at night) from then on... and very very few accidents. The same held true for her brother, although, he was just over 3 by the time he made the decision.

Good Luck!

[mudder17]

Out of curiosity, how old was your daughter when she decided to PT herself? And would you say Kaya might be ready for it if she's refusing diapers and has asked for the potty? (I know, every situation is different, but I'm sort of going with the flow here and other than it taking longer to go out anywhere (or keeping the trips shorter), it's not really that much of a pain. It's actually easier picking up poop from the floor than removing it from her diapers and my diaper laundry has shrunk to her night time diapers and occasional nap time diapers, which is WONDERFUL!


Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png
Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[trumansmom]

I didn't see this until now, sorry! Actually, we're not taking the insert with us yet, and since DD is so darned short, I don't think she'll be using it for a while. I bought the smaller Baby Bjorn that we will take to other people's houses, but I'm not sure what to do for out & about. The babysitter got her to use a regular potty at Target the other day, but that hasn't been successful for me.

We've been using Pull Ups mainly lately, and only using cloth for naps and nighttime. I'm hating spending the money again! I think I'm going to buy a few pair of trainers so DD can take off her diaper without such a hassle. But, once again, I'm hating spending the money! So maybe just a few...

And if you find a good EC store connection, let me know! I'm thinking that's the only place I'm going to be able to buy panties for her once she's finally potty trained. She's a loooong way away from fitting in a 2T, and that's the smallest I've seen.


Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/01 and Eleanor 4/04
Independent Consultant, Do-Re-Me & You!

[mudder17]

I've e-mailed the owner of THEECStore a few times and she suggested Gerber training pants, which are similar to the Hannas, but without the price! So I ordered a 3-pack from her. But she also has some wahm made training pants and such (I'm trying the Bright Bots) which are much smaller than 2T, and which she suggested. Kaya's small, but she has big thighs, so I'm going to try the large Bright Bot and Gerbers and see how they fit. She also has a 2-pack of small underwear that is smaller than the usual for $5, so it may be worth trying if it turns out the Gerbers and Bright Bots are too big for Kaya. I would recommend checking out the store this month, since it's part of the Diaper Hunt and you can get a discount (15% I think--I didn't calculate it but it was around $6.90 off a $45 bill...so yes, that's 15%).


Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png
Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[lizajane]

you might be surprised about the sizing- schuyler had some 2T underwear that he has already outgrown. he wears a 3T pants, but that is because he is tall. i have to tighten the waist thingy on his gap pants as tight as it will go. he is WAY skinny. the gerber training pants run big, i think, but maybe it was hanes? that were so small.

[toomanystrollers]

Shandelle,
I would wait. With Tess, I did a lot of "pre-training" starting when she was around 16 -18 months. By age 2 1/2, I was still "training". I decided to back off completely and just wait. The day after her third birthday, we went cold turkey - straight to underpants. She trained herself within the week without me running around asking her "if she had to go", moving the potty everywhere,... all that potty training nonsense :)

I knew at age 3 that she was physically capable of handing the entire bathroom process herself - the wiping, flushing, getting redressed and hand-washing.

So with Shea, I did no pretraining at all. He went cold turkey too at age 3. We had a little "good bye to diapers" celebration and then straight to underpants. He trained himself within 1-2 weeks - again without all the parent training. I also showed both of them how to clean themselves up after an accident so they would understand that staying dry is a heck of lot easier. I needed to step back and not be so willing to do everything for them.

And FWIW, Shea needs to wear a pull-up at night. He can not wake himself up yet to go. I figure he will accomplish this goal as he gets older.

Wait 'till October '06 :)

[s7714]

>Once we started, he had 2 accidents on the floor, and that was
>it. He will go pee and BM everytime in the potty IF he is
>naked on the bottom and has the potty chair in the room with
>him. But he doesn't stay dry out in public yet, and put a
>pair of underwear or pull-ups on the kid, and forget it--he
>uses them as a diaper. Now that's frustraing since he knows
>what he's supposed to do. But I figure at least we are making
>progress!

Since day one of being sans pants, my DD has used the potty for peeing and BMs without a second thought. Everytime we put a pair of undies on her though, she refuses to pull them down. (And yes, she CAN easily pull them down on her own--I've seen her do it!) She'll just pee in them like they're a diaper. Or my favorite, she'll actually sit down on the potty and go even though her undies are still on! Ugh! I am happy she doesn't have any PT problems otherwise, but it is definitely frustrating!

Jennifer
Mommy to
Annalia 3/03
Sophia 6/05

When raising kids the days are oh so long, but the years are short.--John Leguizamo

[samwyatt]

If memory serves (she's 11 now) she was about 2 and 2 months when she first showed interest enough to actually do it... but not until about 6 months later did she decide she was really ready. I think the hardest thing about potty training is what to do outside the house. I mean... if you are home every day all day, no biggie, but once they are in underwear and you are out, they usually need to find every bathroom in ever store you might ever visit :) She was a heavy sleeper and needed diapers at night forever!!

HTH!
Amber

[mudder17]

Yeah, DH and I are still undecided if Kaya is really ready. I mean, she doesn't usually come to me and say she needs to go potty but if I ask her every hour or so, if she does, she'll go over to it and sit down on it and pee. If she's not sure, she'll sometime go over there, sit on it and then get up and say no. And if she doesn't, she'll definitely say no. We were in church today and apparently she went twice in the church nursery. I think we're going to try the training pants I got from theECstore and the gerber training pants for around the house. I also don't mind using the Gerbers when we're out and about--I'll just stuff an insert in there to boost the absorbency if we're going to be driving anywhere. Of course the real test will be on Wednesday when we fly to CA. We're going to bring the potty insert with us and just offer her the potty several times a day. The nice thing is that she doesn't mind going on a big toilet. :) Anyway, we'll see what happens by the time our trip is over. We're definitely willing to go with the flow. Oh, and by the way, I think wearing underpants is actually easier on the parents than going naked.


Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png
Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[Dcclerk]

Agreed. My guy potty-trained pretty early for a little boy, I think, but it is only because he really wanted to go. His friend Charlie (7 mos older) was going pee-pee in the potty, and that is what clinched it for him. He decided that this is what big boys do, and he was a big boy, so he should use the potty. We spent about 3 days having diapers on and just using the potty, and from then on, we have been only in underwear. He has an accident at night maybe once every week or so, and there have been a few times that he hasn't wanted to stop what he was doing to go to the bathroom so he had an accident, but in general, it has been pretty easy. With a baby, I figured it was easier to change 2 sets of diapers then do all the parent-training that is generally used. Now that I have to help him use gross public restrooms all the time, I still kind of think this is true... ;)