Potty Training

LaCi - posted on 08/24/2010

I won't say mine is fully housebroken yet, but he's doing very well now. It's only been going on a little while though.



My son was intrigued by the potty around that age. I didn't push him or anything, and he peed in the potty a few times and was bored with it. When he turned 2 he was interested again. for the past week (he's 26 months ish) he's been diaper free. I just let him run around naked all day, he pees and now, finally, poops, when he needs to, and doesn't have accidents. He may lose interest again, but he loves flushing the potty so much I doubt he will. He gets TONS of praise, the prize of flushing the potty, and sometimes I give him a treat when he's doing very very well.



He pees sitting down, because he's uncircumcised and since it's still attached, pee comes out very crooked sometimes lol. It would be very, very messy to pee standing up. He does seem to be toying around with the idea of peeing like daddy, he hovers over the toilet sometimes. The potty is in the living room. I never encouraged him to do it, I just praised him when he did. I let him run around naked through the day, still using diapers at nights because he isn't waking up to pee yet ;)



I wouldn't push him to do it so early, it may just be a phase rather than real interest. Just leave the option open. I was somewhat worried that by waiting and not pushing mine to use it I'd be in for a lot of trouble when he was bigger and more defiant, but he's doing everything on his own now. I haven't had to do anything. It's pretty fantastic. I'm very glad I waited.

Tara - posted on 08/24/2010

from what ive been told, i was potty trained at 18 months, my son is 23 months and has yet to pee on the potty once and he will tell me when he has to poop (he oddly wont poop in a peed diaper) but ill take the diaper off, put him on the potty and say "ok, go poop bubba" he sits there and reads a book and then says "done" but didnt poop, i get him off the potty and put his diaper on, and sure as the sky is blue, he'll poop & when i change him ill ask him why he didnt poop in the potty, he just doesnt understand, but if ur son, at 13 months, is doing all u say he is, i would go get him a potty & tell him "this is where u go potty" i dont think any age over 1 is too young, if ur son can hold himself and knows to wipe when hes done, he might be ready! (which by the way i am envious of! i wish my son would get it & having both his father & step-father around to see "potty" isnt helping!) so good luck with that!

Anika - posted on 08/02/2010

Amy, what kind of signs is your son showing? Being interested in the toilet doesn't necessarily mean he's interested in using the toilet. Try not to mistake interest in the mechanics of the toilet with actually using it.

Amy - posted on 08/02/2010

I think you need to at least get a potty chair to start encouraging your son to go when you go. And try to get him to let you know when he feel's the need to go.

We start with peeing sitting down, everyone I've talked to said that's how they started. We also kept the potty chair in the bathroom, we don't want him to think he can go just anywhere. So far were still using the regular old diapers. A friend of mine is going to switch to using real underwear shortly so he can have a better idea of when her son needs to go.

Our son has shown a LOT of signs, but he just doesn't know when he needs to go. We got a potty chair and have been trying to help him make the last step but we'll see.

His dr also told us recently that if we don't take up an opportunity like that there's a strong chance the child will just give up and wait another year or so before even trying to be ready.

Chatty - posted on 08/02/2010

Thank goodness I didn't have a son! ;)

Anika - posted on 08/02/2010

I haven't toilet trained my own child yet but I work at a daycare with infants and toddlers so have helped in the process. Your son is a little too young for toilet training. It's not until around 20 months that children have the physical ability to 'hold on' until they can make it to the toilet. In the meantime, I would just talk positively about going to the toilet. Once the time comes I would recommend not using the training pants. They cost a lot of money and give mixed messages. Feeling that his pants are wet and isn't very nice, so he's less likely to do it and it shows him cause and affect. Instead of asking him every 5 minutes "Do you need to go to the toilet?", remind him that if he feels he needs to go, to let you know. You don't want to make it annoying or frustrating for him. Accidents happen, don't make a big deal and if he doesn't want too, stop and try again later. Boys do tend to train later than girls same with oldest children (unless they live with other older children). Hope this helps.

Amber - posted on 08/02/2010

We taught our son to pee sitting down. After he had the potty thing down, and was making it to the potty every time he started standing. We made sure he knew the difference between the feeling for #1 and #2 also.
Every time he pottied, we would say. "Yay, you peed/pooped." This helped to get him telling us.
We kept our potty chairs in the bathroom...but that was because he would only use the ones that sit on top of the potty. He hated the "baby chair".
Every time he ate or drank, he sat on the potty. Every time he woke up from sleep (night time or nap) he sat on the potty. And every few hours I'd take him back to try also.
After he started going on the potty because he was just sitting there, he started to understand the feeling. Then he started to tell us when he needed to go.
We also used disposable pull-ups. It was just easier for us. And he goes to daycare 2 days a week while I'm at school, and they require them. We wanted to be consistent.
Also, we found that a sticker chart worked the best as incentive. He loved it.
I think that answers everything :) Good luck! Just be patient and consistent.