The dreaded potty training

Treasure - posted on 03/09/2011

I have six children, and the youngest is potty training right now too! She will be 3 in May, and we have left it up to her as to when the right time was to start.
As soon as we got our puppy (2 weeks ago), she started going pee in the toilet like all of the time! She gets 2 starbursts for this. If she poo's, she gets 2 tootsie rolls. She is doing very well with this.
I think for her, seeing the puppy get into trouble for going potty in the house has helped, as well as her helping take the puppy outside for potty-time!
Traveling Back... All three boys were very difficult! The oldest was three when I began with him, and because of daycare and preschool, I had to, or else I had to keep him home. He had accidents for awhile still at 4 and 5, but they became few and far in between quickly.
The next two (boys) I started training at the same time. They were 4 & 2 1/2 at this time. Not to mention our oldest girl was training at the same time and was 2. (It is a blended family: his/hers/ours). She caught on very quickly, and within weeks was in panties during the day. Only took 2 months before she was completely potty trained. The boys were in preschool (1 was in prek for developmental reasons). The oldest in this group still has to wear a pull up at night (at 8), and over this past summer, he had accidents daily in his underpants, and was always washing them out. I made him wear pullups during the day at times! The youngest boy was potty trained in the course of about 8 months total - and completely.
Our 4 yo daughter was 24 months old when I started training her, and she was done in about 6 weeks!
ALL of them had to clean out their own underpants when they messed them. It didn't matter if it was wet or soiled. They got treats in the beginning of training them as well!
Last thing I can think of is, with the most stubborn one, who would hold it until a diaper was put back on, we made him clean up his own diaper/pottying. This included wiping. (That is what broke him at 4 1/2).

A lot of children who are a challenge with #2, it is psychological, and just need more coaxing and celebrating when they do finally go on the toilet for the first time! :)

Elisa - posted on 03/02/2011

Been reading these great ideas in hopes that I will be able to potty train this summer (when it's warm enough that I can let him run around bare from the waist down). I'm still helping him learn how to take his clothes on and off so we are working up to it;)
Thanks for all the great advice!

Megan - posted on 01/24/2011

My son will pee in the the toilet, he stands on his lil step and will pee but he cant pull his pants down and he wont no.2 in the toilet and he is already 2 and a half

Renee - posted on 01/23/2011

I am a SAHM and have my son completely potty trained! He has over night accidents 2-3times a month. I found the best way for training him was to have him run bare from the hips down. Each time he used the potty we made a "huge" deal about it and gave him a treat- M&M and Smarties worked the best. At first I gave him like 6 of one or the other then as time progressed the treats got less and less until he forgot about asking for them all together. After about 2 weeks of this he was able to put underpants on without having an accident. Before he would have an accident within 5min of having them on. We did pull-ups only at nap and night time for about 2 weeks then he refused to wear them and wanted to wear his big boy underwear at night. I have finally gotten him off the little potty chair and now using ONLY the big potty. We have a little step stool in front of it for him. I also did a sticker chart for him and each time he went he got a sticker. After he filled a row of 10 he got a bigger treat- Popsicle, sucker, or something else that he wanted.
Good luck!

Tanya - posted on 01/23/2011

Have you tried a reward for pooping on the potty? My son has done well getting a reward, and we've done that for the past month. Yes, he's still having problems with it at daycare, but hopefully with persistence he'll figure it out soon. Today, my son went poop on the potty and didn't mention his reward (chocolate), so neither did we. Sooner or later he won't get a reward anyway since the Christmas chocolate is almost all gone, so it's a reward that won't go on forever, but now he's figured things out.



Holley, my son is our only child and I wasn't sure how to approach the potty training either. Now, he will go to the toilet in a number of ways. If he uses the potty, he sits (no alternative there). If he uses the toilet, I either let him sit (we have a seat for him, but he doesn't always need it), or he can stand on the seat. When we first started to potty train him, he wasn't too enthusiastic, but letting him stand on the seat and "aim" for the bowl was fun. (Some people also put something like a Cheerios in the bowl to teach them to aim.) Now, my son will sometimes opt to crouch on the seat, facing the back, instead of standing since he's more sure of his balance and aim that way.

Holley - posted on 01/12/2011

I know what you are talking about. My son dont want to be train. I don't know what to do and this is my first child. When you are the only parent trying to potty train it is diffcult and also i have no clue how to potty train a boy. Could anyone help me out to.