This summer I am planning on starting potty training and being the newbie that I am in this area, I can use all the advice and recommendations I can get. Here are a few of my questions, any direction would be greatly appreciated.
- How did you prepare yourself for potty training? Books, websites, etc?
- What products/tools did you purchase for the potty training process that you would recommend? (Potty chairs, books for tots, training pants or diapers, etc.)
- How did you encourage your child to use the potty? (Just praise, incentive charts, treats or other rewards, etc.)
- Did you follow a method, such as potty training in 3 days or less?
- Is there anything that I left out that I must know?
Please share your wisdom. Pretty please!
When we started out potty training we purchased a small potty. I would take C to sit on it every 30 min. (while at home) this was to get him familiar with the potty. After that we started using insintives. I found some thomas the train stickers and I searched the internet for a thomas potty chart. I’ll look and see if I can find it. To start with he got a sticker everytime he peed in the potty. I would hoot and holar like he had just won some huge award.When he filled his chart he would get candy. Pooping was difficult for us because he didn’t want to poop in the potty. So if he did in fact poop in the potty, we threw a partyish and he got a train. He mastered peeing pretty quick, and eventually got the pooping as well. He loved seeing his sticker chart in the bathroom. When C was three I had Sammy, and C forgot how to go to the potty. That time I mentally prepared myself and one weekend, I put him in underwear and never went back. It only took him one week to decied he could go to the potty.
Thanks so much for guidance. I really appreciate your advice.
I have no real help for you, but we’re at the same stage. We have the little potty sitting on the bathroom floor, and Alex asks to sit on it for a few minutes before getting in the bathtub every evening. (He pees in the tub almost every night…sigh.) He knows he will get a piece of candy when he pees in the potty, and he wants to do it. I just don’t think he’s quite physically ready. That’s why I’m not pushing the issue now.
The one repeated piece of advice – from many different friends – is wait until the child initiates things. Introduce the potty, but let the child take the lead. When they’re ready, it will go quickly. We’ll see if that proves true at our house!
Thanks so much for the advice Dawn. I am glad, sorry to say, that you are in my boat right now. My son doesn’t seem to care at this point that his diapers are dirty or wet. Hoping that changes soon because I sure do care!
We tried for months to get E to use the potty. We got a simple potty that didn’t have any bells or whistles. We would sit her on the potty at regular intervals, encourage her, clap for her, and the little stinker would hold it in. E would literally wait until we put a diaper on her and I could watch it fill up! Finally, per the advice of a friend, we got a potty seat that fit over the actual toilet seat. She was using it on the first day! We let her run around without a diaper in the house, and ask constantly if she has to go. Its working. Its been a week and she is now telling us that she has to go! Its like going on the big potty clicked with her! Maybe this will help!
For what its worth, I have heard that girls go sooner than boys. It will happen!!!
With an 8 month old and a 2 year old in diapers, I care! I change a minimum of 10 diapers a day…and I’d love for that number to decrease! Alex will lie about dirty diapers because he doesn’t want me to change them. I sure don’t understand that! But, hey…when he decides it’s gross, hopefully the potty training process will be painless.
My neighbor’s little guy just turned three last week. She’s been driving herself nutty since shortly after Preston turned two, trying to get him potty trained. She pushed and pushed for about 9 months. Finally, she gave up. Two weeks before his third birthday, he told her he had to go potty, and he’s been doing fine ever since.