I love these posts the most because I usually get the best responses. I’m blessed to have so many wonderful, intelligent, resourceful moms stop by. I’m in awe of you all sometimes.
Here is the latest dilemma a reader has regarding potty training her son:
My little guy is 3 years old and while he shows all the signs of being ready, he just likes his diapers. What can we do? Is there anything that worked really well for anyone else?
Well, I’m currently potty training my 2.5 year old and I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. None. She’s getting there, but only by the grace of God!
Let’s help her out: Is there anything you did that really worked? How about rewards, a certain schedule, etc?
I can’t wait for responses. I want to start sitting Jaedyn on the potty around 18 months so all the tips and advice will help!!!
I am no expert. I am currently in the process of training my 2 year old; however, what has worked better than anything I’ve done is having my child be in daycare with a little girl who was like the potty ringleader. Before my daughter even turned two some new girl started at her daycare and the teacher said she had everyone wanting to potty. It was like peer pressure in a good way, almost like she was saying, it’s cool to potty, you should potty, too. lol and it’s been working! So I’d suggest putting him around an older cousin or older kid whose gotten the hang of it and makes it look cool.
Also, in the earlier stages, when she came home from school we would take her diaper off, let her roam and then pay very close attention to her body language. More often than not we’d be able to catch her and run her to the pot, (but we had carpet cleaner handy) and celebrated big time when she pottied, I mean high fives, dancing, hugs, kisses, treats the whole 9. Now we’re on to panties and she’s kinda getting the hang of it. She loves positive reinforcement and rewards (we give her fruit snacks). Also, I picked up a foldable potty seat that we take everywhere which helps when we’re out.
That’s my two cents. Hope it’s helpful.
Nighttime potty-ing is something I’ll need some advice on if anyone has any methods.
@Ashley – Yes, the nighttime thing is going to be a different animal, I think. I don’t even know where to begin. Do they just start staying dry? Do I have to check on them? Like, how does this work? Ugh.
Also, where did you get that foldable potty seat???? I’ve been looking everywhere for one, because now, she’s scared of public toilets (so am I!)
When my daughter turned 3, she was beyond ready to potty train, but she was stubborn. I told her that it was illegal to wear diapers after you turned 3 for about a week prior to her birthday, and that the day after her birthday we had to switch to panties or Mommy would have to go to jail.
It worked. 😉
I still don’t know how she knew what “jail” was. Hahaha…
@Amy – That is the most creative thing I have ever heard. Bonus points for you.
With my 1st she was trained before her 3rd birthday. I was pregnant with her sister.
We weren’t pressing the issue of having her trained before the baby was born. We followed her lead.
We moved shortly after she turned 3 and had to start all over. We tried rewards, like one jelly bean for pee and two for poops. That worked for about a week. We finally went back to following her lead again.
We would make sure she went before we left the house, and before she went to bed.
We would also ask her at different times while she would be playing at the park or outside with friends.
Sometimes she would hold it so long because she didn’t want to stop playing that she would have an accident.
Our 2nd is 2 now and is basically potty training herself.
She loves to be naked, so she runs around the house naked and when we leave the house she puts on panties.
Picking out big girl underwear is a huge deal for kids. Take him to do that if you haven’t already.
Also watching for the potty dance, every child has one.
Oh and I read somewhere that little ones will pee about 20 minutes after they drink something.
Try not to yell or punish accidents. I know it can be hard sometimes. Don’t compare him to other kids who are potty training either, that will only make him feel worse.
You could make up a special potty game. My friend had her son aim at the cheerios in the toilet. He loved that!
Make sure his clothes are easy for him to pull up and down himself.
Good luck it can be a fun and exciting time.
@Darcel – You have great tips and suggestions! Especially the one about peeing 20 minutes after they drink. I’m still trying to see how long it takes my daughter to pee. LOL.
I found it at the Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory.
I am struggling with this issue so bad. With my first he went shortly before he turned 3. He just went to the potty one day (after training for months of course) all by himself and never looked back. Now my baby boy who will be 3 at the end of July is a totally different kid. He doesn’t wet his diaper at night and during the day he will go and he’s been peeing standing up (don’t know where he got that from. Must’ve saw big broher or daddy). I just can’t get him to go consistently. I recently invested in pull ups with the hope that they will look more like “big boy” underwear.
I try not to force him to go and I also don’t yell at him for having a dirty diaper because those things never worked with my oldest and this one is way more stubborn. He’s usually wants to do the opposite of whatever you want him to do so like @darcel said I just follow his lead.
BUT I am taking notes and I’m going to try them out. Great post!
great topic! i had my daughter trained by 19 months…i’m a sahm so i had the time to really put into it. but i just started by getting her familiar with the potty. when she turned one, i’d just sit her on it sometimes. skip a few days, then sit again. i didn’t make a big deal about it cuz she was so young. but i wanted her to be comfortable with it and not view it as something horrible. if she ever did anything in it, i’d act a FOOL! hoopin and hollerin, etc.
as time went on, we’d talk about it. i’d ask her where does pee-pee and poo-poo go and altho she couldn’t speak well, she’d point to the potty. i’d put her on every hour. most times she wouldn’t do anything, but as time grew on, she would…plus she loved to see me act crazy when she did do something. as she aged, she could speak more, so i’d ask her and eventually she caught on.
night training is much harder…but its more my issue than hers. we have juice/water time that ends at 8 pm. sometimes i slack and when i do, sometimes she has accidents. but i allow her to wear pull-ups at night. only thing is, they feel/look kinda like diapers which could be confusing. so i told her they are “princess panties” (cuz they have disney princesses on them) and we don’t want to pee-pee on the princesses. 90% of the times, she doesn’t. and yes, i still act a fool for her when she wakes up dry.
@Mrs. W – See, my daughter was scared of the potty for about five months. Seriously. Anytime we brought it out she’d run screaming like it would eat her! It took almost five months just to get her to sit on it without crying. This is when she had just turned two. Now she goes (mostly at day care…I think it’s the peer pressure) but nighttime potty training is weird. Like, do you have to just wait until they are old enough? What happens if they have to pee at night? Do you have to get up and take them?
Ugh. Just when I thought I had it all figured out…
i have done that…getting her up at night to pee. but thats too much of a guessing game. so i played with the timing before bed…thats how i figured that she’s shouldn’t have anything to drink after 8. so she goes at 8 and one more time before bed which is 9:30 or 10. you’ll just have to feel her out…she has her own clock, you just have to learn it