Thinking about starting Potty Training. Need ideas!

Mary - posted on 08/10/2010

Our 23 month old is just showing signs of starting to want to go on the potty. Some of the signs for us have been flushing the toilet, moving the stool to the toilet, standing on the stool and more....We know that before he gets into the bath tub the sound of the water makes him pee so thats when we work with him we put him on the toilet and have him try or if we are not quick enough and he starts to pee on the floor we just clap and say yay pee pee and it gets him excited about going potty. ( then its bleach clean up for me LOL) When he does go in the potty his reward is 1 M&M that way he learns his colors too! ( worked great with our now 3 yr old) It come's down to the child figuring out how the muscles work and when that clicks it's a piece of cake after that! Good Luck!

Beth - posted on 08/08/2010

What is funny is I heard that so much, i believed it. I thought my daughter would be potty trained and have to teach her brother (they are 23 month old twins). He is now almost potty trained. He can wear big-boy underwear all day with nearly no accidents. Her on the other hand has no interest what so ever. She will not sit on the potty willingly for very long. She doesnt seem to attempt to control her bladder. She will tell us AFTER she wets herself. He will tell us he has to go pee-pee and go sit on the toilet and can pee. We do have to tell him specifically to go poop though. Don't believe all the hype about boys are slower. It doesnt always work out that way.

Vicki - posted on 08/08/2010

Tiffany,

I got the potty training boot camp book off the website for less than $6! I've read it already, and am already thinking of ideas. Got a poster board and stickers already for the rewards. It's gonna be tough, but I know I can do it. Maybe we can encourage each other! He hasn't gotten into telling us when he goes, but he will once he starts learning, he picks up stuff pretty quick. I'm excited and nervous for us both to start, but I think it's time. That and I SERIOUSLY want to get rid of buying 4 packs of diapers!!! lol

Jami - posted on 08/08/2010

My Daughter is almost two and almost potty trained during the day. I have not started my one year old yet, but I have sat her down on her sister's potty sit when she has been in the bathroom with us. I would start introducing your daughter to the potty. Just let her sit on it. IT helps when she has someone to watch like her big brother. If he is potty training it could rub off on her and make her want to be a big girl like her brother and if her brother isn't doing so well but sees his sister doing it he may just decide to do it. Having a sibling so close in age is difficult at times but sometimes it helps them learn faster. They have someone to watch and mimic. Which what children do best.

Tiffany - posted on 08/07/2010

I would suggest Potty Boot Camp via Facebook! Your can download the book for less then 10 dollars! I am reading it and my son is 22 months and he is to the point where he tells us when he went!

Vicki - posted on 08/07/2010

Thank you all for your helpful feedback!! I will have to work on this. I'm thinking about doing a sticker reward chart. I bought a book that has noise animation, so I'm hoping that will help some too. They never tell you the hard parts of parenthood before you decide to have one! :-)

Thank you ladies!!!

Shaina - posted on 08/02/2010

I would wait until he shows signs of wanting to use the potty. I bought a potty for my girl awhile ago and just had it sitting in the bathroom. Every once in awhile she would sit on it and just think she was cute. Just recently she has started to go only pee at nights when I go potty. We all clap, cheer, and make it a big deal and she loves it. Just wait until he/she is ready and they will be fine :)

Betty - posted on 08/02/2010

im trying to potty train my son too, i make him use the restroom with his dad and uncles so he sees what he has to do and how he does it, its kindof working but i know its going to take a while lol

Paulette - posted on 07/31/2010

i would say start him first and if your daughter watches the process , she will most likely get curious and follow along. my son is 22 months and he goes pee pee in the toilet but wont go poo on the toilet. It did take us over a month to get him to stay still long enough to stay on the potty but now he's a pro=) good luck!

Niki - posted on 07/31/2010

My daughter was 19 months when we had her potty trained. I would recommend The Potty Boot Camp by Suzanne Riffel. www.thepottybootcamp.com It really worked wonders with my daughter.

Nicole - posted on 07/26/2010

Things to consider for readiness:
Can your son stay dry for at least two hours?
Is he willing to at least sit on the toilet/potty?
Is he able to communicate with words or gestures he will need to go?

After that all I did was start by getting my son comfortable with the toilet with special seat (no potty here, with doing home day care and 3 children 3 and under, not happening, I need my sanity). I did this by sitting him on it every time I changed his diaper. I got lucky here, at this point he started peeing when I put him on it and I didn't have to do the fill him up with water/juice and take him every 30 minutes.
After that we realized pull ups were a bad idea because he figured out that if he peed just a little in them he could make the shapes disappear and then he would tell us he needed to go and finish in the potty. We switched to underwear then
We are still having issues getting him to go poop in the toilet, but given he is 22 months old I am told this is normal (I had started him only because he seemed interested in what the 3 year old was doing and held no expectations of him actually potty training until he was 2. Of course he had to blow those expectations out of the water by starting to pee on the potty because the 3 year old was).
We've been doing a sticker reward for every time he successfully tells us he needs to go pee and we get to the potty on time. Otherwise with the exception of the pooping he rarely has accidents peeing (generally happen when it's close to bed time or he is very engrossed in his play which is again normal for his age).
He wears pull ups now only to bed at night and when we go further then the local park (so to the mall or something since we have no car and have to go by bus).

Don't force it. Remain calm even when tired and stressed when an accident occurs. Just take him to the bathroom, clean him up and sit him on the potty remind him that pee and poo go in the potty.
If you are comfortable with it, letting him see you and Daddy go to the potty is also helpful.

I have heard getting a doll that goes pee and having the child teach the doll to go pee while they learn to go pee is a viable strategy and option.

We also had our son help pick out his underwear and his potty seat is the First Years Cars themed seat that you can find at Walmart (it was only $2 more then the plain one).

Potty training is a lot of work and requires a great deal of consistency.
Given it's summer it's easier to train, because if you want at home you can just leave him naked (or in our case just underwear and a t-shirt -the youngest child in my care was way to curious about my son's penis- also normal, so we had to go with underwear all the time).

Oh and start training sitting down first and later work up to standing. My son insisted on standing this past week because that's what Daddy does. We had to get a stool first, but now he goes pee standing up when he wants to.


Good luck!

Renee - posted on 07/25/2010

well my son was 1an a half toilet trained day an night my daughter was 3 day an night an daezharn is 22months an hates the potty lol

Carolyn - posted on 07/25/2010

My son will also be 2 on Sept 3 :) We started potty training a couple months ago. I decided to do a potty training boot camp one week and I kept him outside in underwear all day for a couple days. Every time he peed I told him pee-pee goes in the potty. After 2 weeks of sometimes hitting sometimes missing the potty, he now will go every time I put him on the potty. Even stays dry during nap time and short outings. Although I got tired of my carpet being peed on and put him in pull-ups instead of underwear, I think it's best to start them in underwear.

Your son should be ready to start, your daughter may simply follow suit. I would allow her to sit on it with her clothes on whenever she wants and after diaper changes without clothes. Just tell them both pee-pee goes in the potty so they start understanding what it is for. It has also helped my son that we let him watch Daddy use the potty. When he goes now he'll say "pee-pee [like] Daddy."

Claire - posted on 07/25/2010

my son will be two on the 3rd sep. im thinking of potty training but got told by h.visitor to wait until he shows signs of when he wants to use potty. on the other hand i just leave the potty where he can see it, sometimes he just plays with it and other days he will sit on it fully clothed (suppose its him getting to use to knowing what its for) befroe he has a bath i intend to sit him on the potty with nothing on, he don't do anything but at least im getting him use to knowing what its for. all i can suggest is to leave it where ur son can see it and get him use to it. good luck.