Potty Training

[nun69]

ok girls I need lots of tips and trick for potty training my last one...I bought a pack of diapers yesterday and I want them to be my last !:p He is a boy and I am pretty sure he is staright up lazy, but he is almost 4 and it is time to start!

[MommaTrish]

I don't know. With my boys it didn't work at all until THEY wanted it to work. So far none of the tricks I used with them to get it to work have worked with Belly. The number one thing that worked with them was hanging up really cool character underwear in the bathroom, but telling them they couldn't have it until they went X-days without an accident.

[Victoria Feemster]

I just put my son in undies and dealt with the accidents. At first it was a lot but we just bought like 20 pairs of undies and at first he went through almost all of them but we just kept changing him and reminding him to go to the bathroom and after about a week he was doing pretty good with maybe 1-2 accidents a day if that. Mainly it was poop because that took him FOREVER to do on the toilet. We put him in undies about a month before he was two and it took him well over a year to finally go poop on the toilet all the time.

Just hang in there and the biggest thing is be consistent

[MandaT]

No words of wisdom, I've only got the 2 girls down so far. Just sending lots of good potty vibes.
Grace used M&M's & Jelly beans, as a reward to start with (since she LOVES them) 1 for #1, 2 for #2, she got undies with yo-gabba gabba on them & we'd tell her, don't go potty in your panties, cause X character will be so sad. She's been a work in progress since like October & just this last week, decided that she's a big girl (mostly) & only wears a pull-up at night. Lots of praise works for her.

Anna just pretty much decided on her own, when she was the 'big sister' (so aside from having more babies hahaha). :)

[amystoffel]

Ack...I'm trying to potty train too! And its not going so well. He refuses to go in the potty.

[nun69]

Anna just pretty much decided on her own, when she was the 'big sister' (so aside from having more babies hahaha). :)

yeah TOTALLY not doing this anymore :p

[cardinalskate]

Good luck! I've only potty trained a girl and I know how easy I got off with her. It was a breeze with M&Ms. That's all it took.

He'll get the hang of it. Consistency and patience.

[Tracie Stroud]

I'm trying to train Noah right now before school starts again. He'll be 4 next month. He has autism so it's a little more difficult than normal. He knows what the potty is for and pees in it occasionally but it's not consistent and he's just as happy going in his underwear. I bought him some cloth trainers that are a little better with leaks than just underwear. They worked pretty well, so I've got some more ordered and when they get here we're gonna hit the training hard. :)

[rach3975]

I think part of it is figuring out what works for him. I have 1 son who is generally more self directed, and we were able to keep him in pullups and still make progress through a reward chart and promise of a toy store trip to pick out [almost] anything he wanted when he was fully trained. When he started having dry days in the pullups, we switched him to underwear. After a few false starts before he was really ready to train, he trained in about 1-2 weeks when he was 3 yrs and 3 months.

My younger son has been much harder to train. (I should also add that he has some muscle and sensory issues that make potty training difficult and made him very late to train.) Keeping him in pullups didn't work, so we had to put him in underwear for him to start getting it. We started with him in underwear a few hours a day and are now up to underwear anytime he's not in school or camp. We still have to take him to the bathroom hourly, but he's making progress and having fewer accidents. He has a reward chart that gets him an extra video or computer turn when it's full, usually about once a week. He also knows that he gets that toy store trip when he's fully trained.

Good luck!

[jessica31876]

for my boys I took them to the store just them and took them to the big boys underwears (made it like a big deal for them). I let them pick whatever characters they wanted. I dont remember who they picked. Probably Batman, Power Ranger and Spiderman Id guess though. Then I told them ok spiderman (or batman whatever) has to stay dry and clean. Its your job to keep them clean right? So then they came running to me anytime they even thought they might need to go. It took a couple weeks with both boys. With my daughter she was only 2 and just did not want to wear diapers anymore. She basically potty trained herself. The boys also got #1 faster then #2 but Ive heard some kids do that in reverse. I think the key is to make it fun and not punish when they have an accident. Just say ok you had an accident lets get some clean underwear and then remind them whenever you feel like you have to go tell me and we will go (or whoever is watching him at the time of course). Also I think it is important to not go back to diapers or pullups once you start. My boys would go in pullups because it absorbs it and they would not feel the wetness. Maybe pullups work for some people but mine were in them for what seemed like forever and then when they went exclusively in regular underwear and could feel when they had an accident it was uncomfortabe and they wanted to avoid having accidents so they were more active in trying to go in a potty. Also if he responds to rewards get a chart and label it potty chart or something like that and put a star for each time he goes potty for a week or two. Then a star for each time he goes all day without accidents. When he gets a certain amount of stars have a small reward for him.

[mummytothree]

I did what Victoria did and just put them in undies (but both my boys had just turned 3), the first day was hell...but I knew they were ready because we hit day 2 and we had like one or two accidents. They were both fully day trained in like 4 days.

[MamaBee]

UGH - I wish I had an answer... J, who is 4 years and 3 months and REFUSES to have anything to do with the toilet. I have done it all... and nothing working... he doesn't care if he is wet or not. He understand all the steps and can walk you through the whole process, but he just won't do it... he is a bit stubborn... don't have a clue where he gets that from! :o

I get that its in his own time... but I'm getting frustrated that the kid can spell elephant and can almost read, but he can't get potty trained!

[nun69]

Elizabeth can I send Peyton to your house and then you can send him back when he is trained :)

[mummytothree]

Elizabeth can I send Peyton to your house and then you can send him back when he is trained :)

:D

If we lived close I would totally help you!!! :thumbup:

[nun69]

I know you would...and you could teach me all kinds of craft stuff too :)

[heathergw]

I plan on just sending Isaac outside naked with a little potty for him to use if he wants... but he's only 2.5 years old so I'm not really "training" or thinking that he'll be using underwear by the end of the summer... just letting him try if he wants.

We tried with Moriah and it didn't go well at all... so we just waited and she let us know when she was ready and well... that was the easiest and not so stressful thing for all of us.

[Jenn Barrette]

We did nekkid potty training. I put my girls in a dress with no undies and keep a kids potty in the living room and playroom. I then sent timer and they had to sit on it every 30 mins at first. Each them they went on the potty they got a sticker and gummy bear. The first little while was hell LOL, but I was lucky and they caught on quickly.

Good luck!

[AmyG]

My kids were super easy-I'll get payback somewhere along the line I'm sure.

I put them in training undies and if we had to go somewhere I put a plastic liner over it. They hated being wet so it was a fast training. El only took 3 days. The only thing I did diff with my son was to face him backwards on the potty, so he had something to hold on to. He was 6 months younger than El was when she trained but he was SO BIG. He didn't fit on the kid potty seats at all haha. She did so she was able to face forward without being scared. I agree with the above, whatever you do be consistent and rewards don't hurt either!

[nun69]

fo rthose of you that had boys did you teach them standing up or sitting down at first? I am trying to teach Peyton standing up straight from the get go....

[farrijc]

fo rthose of you that had boys did you teach them standing up or sitting down at first? I am trying to teach Peyton standing up straight from the get go....

Both my boys sat down while they were learning, then graduated to standing once they were trained.

[Victoria Feemster]

I would say train him sitting down. I've heard many stories about training to stand up but then they won't sit to poop. I'd wait til he is regularly going to so the standing up. JMO :)

[eranslow]

We did the naked route as well (well naked on the bottom!) Had a potty in the family room and in the playroom. And surprisingly he didn't have any accidents while at home - only when we were out and he was clothed! We also did what Jenn said about the timer. He caught on really quick - especially since he was only 2.5 when we trained.

As for standing up or sitting down - we trained him sitting down. I think it's easier that way - especially with the pooping.

Good luck!!

[kscwgirl]

my kids took forever.. but i didn't push either and waited for them to let me know they were ready. Abby was trained at 4.. we told her she couldn't go to dance class until she was potty trained and that child started using underwear that day.. she had no motivation.. little brat. :D

JJ was a little harder although he would poop on the potty, he would NOT pee on it lol (i have odd kids) anyway, he finally got it.. i think he was 3 1/2 maybe.

[mummytothree]

fo rthose of you that had boys did you teach them standing up or sitting down at first? I am trying to teach Peyton standing up straight from the get go....

I taught both boys to sit at first (but they were a whole year younger) cause they were kind of short and couldn't reach the big potty standing up and standing on a stool just made more of a mess!!!

My oldest went to standing fairly quickly after potty training but my middle boy has been trained since December and he still sits to pee. I figure he'll learn to stand when he wants too!!! :D :D

[nun69]

funny thing is, when we trained Ben, Matt use to go with him to the bathroom and they would "race" so that is how we trained Ben...of coarse matt wasn't working at the time so we really don't have that luxury this time...so I am gonna take him to pick out one of those seats that goes on the toliet and some underwear today :)

[MommaTrish]

fo rthose of you that had boys did you teach them standing up or sitting down at first? I am trying to teach Peyton standing up straight from the get go....

We taught them sitting since we didn't like to use toddler toilets too much and the regular toilet was too tall. They picked up the standing on their own.
My little brother was potty trained by spending a month at my grandmother's. She would send him and my big brother outside to pee on trees. lol He had the peeing thing down in a week.