Jump to content

Menu

Best Potty Training Methods


Recommended Posts

After 4 kids, I've tried MANY potty training methods, but I've always wound up with kids who don't get it down pat until late-3/early-4, with accidents way up to 5.

 

So here I am with the last toddler. He's 21 months old and has his first Elmo potty, which he doesn't mind sitting on from time to time, since he adores being nekkid. Now I'm just trying to decide whether to just sit back and see how things go, or to attempt to implement a real plan and see if I can get through this stage quickly and deliberately.

 

The weather IS getting chilly now, and we do have carpeting, so full-on nekkid days are not a real option for us, just for the record. Also, being observant enough to "catch him" at just the right moment is NOT my thing. Not while trying to juggle 3-4 other kids' needs. I'm not that good a multi-tasker.

 

What's been your biggest success for potty training?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I successfully used the 3-day method with my youngest. This was after going through all the motions for months, but her being a very leaky kid as long as there was something to leak into. About 1.5 days into the 3-day method, she was pretty well trained. At 17-18mo she was diaper free 24/7.

 

My older daughter was given a couple more months in transitional undies (leakproof but cloth against the skin), because she trained in the colder months. She started "going through the motions" at 12mos and gradually got more successful / interested. The day she held it for about 5 hours was the day I left the "insurance" behind. She was 19-20mo when she became diaper free 24/7.

 

When I say "going through the motions," I mean the girls sat on potties at certain likely times (every day) as determined by me. It was somewhat hit-or-miss, but they knew what the potties were for, and they could pee on demand. At that point they just needed to learn how to hold it when it wasn't the right time or place. So the actual messy part of training was very limited.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had mine in a dress (yes even the boy) w/o underwear (I had carpet too)

 

I put the potty chair in front of the tv (on a thick towel) and gave then LOTS of drinks (juice, kool-ade etc..).

 

I put their feet in a bowl of warm water and waited while they watched tv.

When the first 'event' happened I set the timer for 40 min.

 

They basically sat on the potty chair watching tv for a couple of days (we all watched together so it was fun,) with me putting warm water under their feet every fourty minutes.

 

After they learned the "feeling" of when to pee, then it was a case of getting to the potty on time.

 

I potty trained at 2.5 yrs, 2.5,3,and 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just finished this with my sixth. They were all so different. My girls ranged from 17-21 months, and the boys from 23-28 months.

 

I think the biggest thing is they knew and understood the vocabulary for the entire situation before I ever expected them to use a potty. From the beginning I talked to them about the state of their diaper very frankly. Before they could speak the words they knew what wet and dry meant, and that wet was undesirable. As they turned into capable toddlers I pointed out how their siblings wore undies, and used the potty instead of making diapers wet. I let them follow me into the bathroom, and frankly told them what I was putting into the pot. When I thought they were anywhere near ready I'd put their toddler potty in my bathroom for them to explore on such occasions.

 

A couple of them helped me potty train a doll, then I switched it to the child. They learned how accidents were handled through the doll activity, before they ever had one themselves.

 

My older two boys were the sort to get wrapped up in play and hold it until they couldn't get to the potty in time. When that happened they helped me clean up the mess and we'd practice running to the potty as fast as we could. I think one in particular finally quit doing that just so he didn't have to "practice potty."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This sounds like a wonderful idea and I may steal it.

My 3 year old can't seem to sense *when* he needs to go potty, so it seems impossible to get him there "in time". Lots of juice, potty chair in front of the television, and warm water sound like a winner to me :D.

I had mine in a dress (yes even the boy) w/o underwear (I had carpet too)

 

I put the potty chair in front of the tv (on a thick towel) and gave then LOTS of drinks (juice, kool-ade etc..).

 

I put their feet in a bowl of warm water and waited while they watched tv.

When the first 'event' happened I set the timer for 40 min.

 

They basically sat on the potty chair watching tv for a couple of days (we all watched together so it was fun,) with me putting warm water under their feet every fourty minutes.

 

After they learned the "feeling" of when to pee, then it was a case of getting to the potty on time.

 

I potty trained at 2.5 yrs, 2.5,3,and 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a believer in accidents being learning experiences, believe me, but I've never just taken the diapers off. Does this work? Please explain.

 

All but one of my six dropped diapers cold turkey, but I didn't make that switch until I was fairly certain they were willing and able to go the distance. I cleared the calendar and focused on them for about a week.

 

My last one dabbled with undies while at home, during our very busy summer. One day he decided there would be no more diapers and that was that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've potty trained 2 kids, one at 20 months and one at 23 months. With both of them, I took them to the bathroom every 5 minutes. Literally. Once I managed to catch them go the first time, I made a HUGE deal out of clapping and cheering and gave them 1 M&M or Reece's Pieces. The first day DD had 7 or 8 accidents. The second day DD had 2 accidents. The 3rd day she was completely potty trained. DS took a bit longer, but he was completely trained in 5 days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a believer in accidents being learning experiences, believe me, but I've never just taken the diapers off. Does this work? Please explain.

 

You wait until they show signs of readiness. It usually happens around 18 months (we cloth diaper). They start tugging on their diaper and getting annoyed when it's soiled. Some will start removing diapers themselves.

 

Then you just let them go naked during the day. Keep a potty nearby and when they have an accident take them to the potty.

 

At night we used diapers until they started waking up dry. With my third I suspected he was only peeing at night because he had a diaper on. I sent him to bed naked and he woke up dry from then on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After 4 kids, I've tried MANY potty training methods, but I've always wound up with kids who don't get it down pat until late-3/early-4, with accidents way up to 5.

 

So here I am with the last toddler. He's 21 months old and has his first Elmo potty, which he doesn't mind sitting on from time to time, since he adores being nekkid. Now I'm just trying to decide whether to just sit back and see how things go, or to attempt to implement a real plan and see if I can get through this stage quickly and deliberately.

 

The weather IS getting chilly now, and we do have carpeting, so full-on nekkid days are not a real option for us, just for the record. Also, being observant enough to "catch him" at just the right moment is NOT my thing. Not while trying to juggle 3-4 other kids' needs. I'm not that good a multi-tasker.

 

What's been your biggest success for potty training?

 

It was different for all 3. :)

Oh, and I don't do naked. Sorry. That just grosses me out - bare behinds (and whatnot) sitting anywhere in my house? :ack2: No. Just no.

Link was easy. He turned 2 in February and he was potty trained by June. I don't recall how much work it took, but I do remember that I reminded him regularly and had him in underwear. I knew he was really trained when we were at the mall and he started dancing around and saying he had to pee (I put a pullup on him when we were out and about for convenience). I figured if he wouldn't even go in the pullup, we were good to go.

Astro did the 'shooting cheerios' thing. The week before he turned 3 he looked at me and said, 'Mom, I want to go shoot cheerios' (this is how he referred to going for awhile after, too! :lol: ). From that moment on, day, night, everything, he was trained. :001_huh:

With Pink we did a few days in underwear and she would just hold it - hold it as LONG as possible. You could tell she had to go, she'd dance around and say she had to go, and then she'd go in and didn't know how to 'release' - and then she'd come out and be unable to hold it 5 minutes later. :rolleyes: Once she figured it out, she was fine. She picked it up for sure around June/July I guess? She was 3 in May.

 

I learned with Astro not to stress over it. Pink reinforced that for me. That seemed to be the best way to go about it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I have potty trained 5 of my own children and pretty much trained the two that I baby sat for from birth to 12 yrs. The big thing that I realized was not to start until they really were old enough to understand well and were ready to participate willingly. I started my youngest at around 2 and it was a disaster. He wasn't REALLY potty trained until he was almost 4. It was 2 yrs of struggle, discouragement, anger and frustration. My second I started at around 2 and she was completely potty trained in a couple wks. She was ready to be a big girl. The third pretty much trained himself at 18 months.:001_huh: He loved the color yellow, fell in love with a yellow potty chair and it was all over. I never did figure it out.

The last 4(my two youngest and the 2 I baby sat were about 3 1/2 each. We didn't start until they really acted ready and it was over in about a couple days to a month. One of the things that I did with the one that took a month was I purchased a potty toy. He got to play with it only when he was on the potty chair and IF he did his job in the potty chair he got to play with it for a short time after(10 min. or so). When we did this is was pretty much done for him.

 

One thing I do know is that every child is different.:001_smile:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was different for all 3. :)

Oh, and I don't do naked. Sorry. That just grosses me out - bare behinds (and whatnot) sitting anywhere in my house? :ack2: No. Just no.

 

me too. I did T-shirt and undies for my pottying kids.

 

 

no pullups. Kids don't get it. They think its a diaper. except maybe at night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are in the early stages of potty training here right now.

I can't do nekked kids. Too much mess to clean up.

We do pull ups during the day and then diapers at night until they are consistently using the toilet during the day. Then we switch to underwater during the day & pull ups at night.

 

Mini M&Ms are a huge motivator here!!! Every time he goes on the toilet, he gets 3-4 of them. Honestly, he is running to the washroom every 20 minutes :001_smile:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You wait until they show signs of readiness. It usually happens around 18 months (we cloth diaper). They start tugging on their diaper and getting annoyed when it's soiled. Some will start removing diapers themselves.

 

 

I have three kids and have found each to be different. As an example, the oldest was very obvious when it was time to poop and almost never pooped in the diaper, whereas the second would pee in the toilet but took much longer to poop in the toilet. I don't really like having kids peeing and pooping on the floor (or on books or whatever) throughout the day so I have never been willing to have a naked kid roaming around to see if it works. However at least my youngest tries to clean up after accidents, but this can lead to even bigger messes! However I did have one woman express shock that I would have a kid out of diapers if he ever had any accidents, which I found silly.

 

I am not stressed about toilet training, but I am reconsidering my method because I don't have as much free time as I did when I had only one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All but one of my six dropped diapers cold turkey, but I didn't make that switch until I was fairly certain they were willing and able to go the distance. I cleared the calendar and focused on them for about a week.

 

This is what I did with all of my six. While they showed interest at varying times and to varying degrees, none of them actually wanted to make the effort to use the potty on their own. So, right around 3 y.o. or so, no more diapers (during the day - night "training" is a little different and depends more on the particular kid). Being at least half-naked makes the sensation much easier to understand. For most of them, it took a good week or two. A couple of them stayed naked even longer (whenever we were just at home) for reinforcement. If we had to go out, I'd try to get them to go on the potty before we left the house to reduce the chances of an accident in clothes. Clothes, pullups and sometimes even just underwear may interfere with learning the sensation in the early days for some kids. Half-naked was the only thing that worked for us (with my older kids, pull-ups or wearing clothes, sitting on the plastic potty in front of the tv with juice, etc. didn't seem to make a dent).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's been your biggest success for potty training?

 

My last has been slow, but stress free. I started sitting him on the potty at 9 months once a day for a minute or two. Around 12-13 months I started trying to 'catch' first thing in the morning. When he hit 15 months I switched him over to cotton training pants with a plastic cover and started taking him with me during the day. I still stuck him in a cloth diaper when we left the house or things were chaotic. Around 19 months I removed the plastic cover and got serious. He's now 21 months and dry. :D

 

#5 - Took the diapers away at 22 months and had a very exciting summer. :lol: But she was trained by the end of summer!

 

#4 - 3 1/2, got sick of diapers so invested the diaper money in underwear, M&M's, pops, and chips. 2.5 hours after we started he was trained. No accidents and dry at night. Go figure. :001_huh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only experience with one child so far, but pants-less for a week was what worked for us-- the summer after dd turned 2 (so 2 and a few months old). We didn't go out much that week either. Not sure how it will work for dd#2. She's 21 months right now and will be 2 in December. Maybe we'll just crank up the heat for a while ;)

 

ETA: no candy rewards - just pants-less for us. We quit diapers pretty much cold turkey- even at night. We only did diapers if we were in the car and that was only a few times that week. We went right to undies- no training pants.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Toilet Training in Less Than a Day."

 

I didn't do it in less than a day, lol, but I liked the principles: teach the child to know when he has to go and go do it, pull down his own pants, wipe himself, empty the potty, flush the toilet, wash his hands; praise the child for having dry pants and not for the act of going potty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My oldest trained a little over 3. She constantly battled constipation, so her being trained meant she could potty when placed there.

 

Two was 2.5. I just put him undies one day. One accident and he had it down.

 

Three...she's our whirlwind. From 9mos on, we could hardly keep her clothed. As much mess as she makes for me, SHE doesn't like being messy. She was trained at 15 mos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a believer in accidents being learning experiences, believe me, but I've never just taken the diapers off. Does this work? Please explain.

 

With my oldest, I potty trained in the summer. One day, I took off his diaper and said, "No more diapers. You're a big boy and can pee on the potty." He was about 2.5 years old and we were outside a lot, so I just put him in a longer t-shirt and let him run around outside. He got the peeing part down pretty easily. It was the poop part that was tough. It took a few weeks for everything to come together.

 

The other kids weren't so easy, but that's another story;).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a believer in accidents being learning experiences, believe me, but I've never just taken the diapers off. Does this work? Please explain.

 

With the caveat that I'm well aware this won't work for every kid, with DD she had a nasty diaper rash and was barely 2yo. I had made one prior attempt using the naked method that had started out pretty good but then got stressful because we couldn't go anywhere and we both got frustrated. So, I just put her in clothes, with undies (ones that she really liked). Discussed that she needed to use the potty now. Of course she peed in the undies, then was very sad that they had to get taken off, changed the clothes, put her in clean undies, rinse repeat. By the end of the first day she had used the potty once or twice, and had a half dozen accidents. The second day she had 2 accidents. The 3rd day she had none. I carried spare clothes with me for a couple of months, but she really never needed them.

 

I think that for her she needed that sensation of being wet after she peed (unlike just peeing on the ground with no clothes on). Plus the motivation of not having to change her clothes.

 

We're currently having not much success with the boys using naked-time, so I'm thinking of switching them to clothes. They're a bit younger though, so they might need some more time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just let mine potty train when they're ready. I offer encouragement and such but don't force it. They've all potty trained while they were still three (although in my son's case I was afraid we were going to hit four lol, he really waited right until the end of that third year!) and for me it was less stressful than trying to bribe, push, or keep an eagle eye on the toilet habits of a disinterested two year old.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just let mine potty train when they're ready. I offer encouragement and such but don't force it. They've all potty trained while they were still three (although in my son's case I was afraid we were going to hit four lol, he really waited right until the end of that third year!) and for me it was less stressful than trying to bribe, push, or keep an eagle eye on the toilet habits of a disinterested two year old. And I'd rather change diapers and pull ups than do tons of extra laundry and/or clean up after a bunch of accidents!

 

Eta: stupid phone- I thought I edited my first post but apparently it was just reposted! Sorry!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the end of the first day she had used the potty once or twice, and had a half dozen accidents. The second day she had 2 accidents. The 3rd day she had none. I carried spare clothes with me for a couple of months, but she really never needed them.

 

I think that for her she needed that sensation of being wet after she peed (unlike just peeing on the ground with no clothes on). Plus the motivation of not having to change her clothes.

 

This is why I tell moms it's really about whether the mom is ready. Because my kid peed and peed and peed that first day. It was so tempting to give up, but I decided I had to be strong. Sometime the second day was when the tide turned. I think a lot of people get frustrated and give up when just a little more perseverence would have got them over the hump once for all.

 

I too used cloth undies and never did the nakey thing. That just doesn't seem sanitary in any way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is why I tell moms it's really about whether the mom is ready. Because my kid peed and peed and peed that first day. It was so tempting to give up, but I decided I had to be strong. Sometime the second day was when the tide turned. I think a lot of people get frustrated and give up when just a little more perseverence would have got them over the hump once for all.

 

I too used cloth undies and never did the nakey thing. That just doesn't seem sanitary in any way.

 

Yup. My big motivation was actually the diaper rash. I figured that 3 days of not having a diaper on her would improve it greatly, so I really wanted to give her 3 days. After three days she was already potty trained...

 

Today one of my twins asked to use the potty several times (and used it successfully 3 times). I'm thinking about doing underwear for him tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:bigear:

 

My 24mo is an enthusiastic potty-sitter but seems to have somehow gotten the misapprehension that first, one pees or poops in the diaper, and THEN we sit on the potty. So far I'm having no luck in setting this straight, sigh.

 

DH is something of a germaphobe and will not hear of naked toddlers running about, which has always made potty training considerably more difficult than it needs to be. Sigh again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...