Potty Traing a Two Year Old

I agree with Dana. We just presented it as fact when DD was about 2. I put her in big girl underpants. At first, she didn't totally understand but after about a week, we have had only maybe 3 accidents since. We never did pull-ups or anything just went from diapers to undies and never looked back. We did give her pez the first few times she went on the potty - maybe for a week as an incentive but once we got it, we quit that. Best of luck mama!

I would stop rewarding him and just present it as an everyday fact of life. Pee and poop go in the potty. Take him whenever he wakes up, after each meal and if you notice he hasn't been in an two or three hours. Don't ask him if he needs to go, just tell him it's time to go and go with him. Put him in real underwear if he is not already. Have him come into the bathroom with you and DH so he knows that big people use the toilet. There is absolutely no reason he shouldn't be happily trained by the time your next one comes (congratulations).

That is how we trained my son when he was 25-26 months old. He had absolutely no signs of 'potty readiness' as far as I can tell a term invented by the purveyors of disposable diapers and a foreign concept in the rest of the world. It took 3-4 days until he was 90% there, another 4-5 days of some accidents and then maybe 2 accidents over the next few months.

Before disposable diapers in the 1950s, the average age for a child to be trained (done, not started) in the US was 18 months. The median age in the rest of the world today is 12 months (see NY Times archives for the reference). The physiology of children has not changed in the last 50 years. The ease of disposable diapers has simply changed our society's expectations. Good luck.

I agree with Dana. The only thing your child needs to be able to do to be potty trained is say the word. We potty trained my son when he was 20 months. Basically all I did was have him go bottomless for a day and we had a day of fun. I played with him all day long, he got lots of snacks and juice and whenever he started to pee I moved him to the potty. The first time we totally missed, the second and third time it was half in the potty and after that all the pee for the day went in the potty. After that he went diaper-less (except at night) and underwear-less for about 2-3 weeks and then we added underwear. I had just read that underwear feels too much like a diaper for some kids and my son was also having a hard time getting the underwear up and down. He just wore sweat pants for the most part because they were comfy without undies and easy up and down. His only reward was lots of praise and high fives. He "got it" by the end of the first day, but we had about 1 accident per day for a couple of weeks and they tapered off after that. For an active little boy making him sit on the potty for even minutes at a time was not an option. When I want him to try before we leave the house or something he has to sit and count to 5, if he has to go he will and if not he won't.

Just keep in mind that he won't be perfect and will probably have a period of adjustment after the baby comes, but it's so worth putting in the effort now and only having to deal with a week or two of regression than to try to train him with a newborn. Good luck and congrats on the one on the way!

M&Ms help.

He might be a little young to go full force on this...boys tend to take longer to train. Keep sitting him on the potty and praise him like he just won a Nobel prize each time he gets it right!

Does not sound like his is ready so I would probably just give it up for now.
You can always try the cheerios in the toilet and have him aim. It is a great
game. Even if you get him train in the next few months, then a new baby
comes and sometimes regression occurs. So IMO it might just be worth
waiting until after the baby is born.

I had the same experience as the 3 responses below. Both my boys were potty trained in a focused weekend, naked, at 20 and 24 months. With my youngest I'd offer a sticker, or throw him up in the air a couple times after he went. If he wants to stand up on a stool to pee that's fine. Or he can sit.

Don't see if he wants to sit on the potty....take him to the potty at regular times with a timer set. Like every 15-30 min. say we are going to sit on the potty and take him. Find a different food or toy or something to be a reward and then stick to that and it should only take a day or two at the most.

Getting them to potty is like all the other biological functions we teach them. There isn't anything magical about it. Stop rewarding him, stop making it behavioral, and let it just be biological.

With that said, he is old enough for his diapers to be taken away. This literally means no pull-ups, no diapers, pee and poop goes in the potty. Clean up the messes without saying anything negative, and he will get it real quick that pee and poop go in the potty. Just put aside a few days, put him in trainers and give him the chance to learn timing. If he can go on the potty, he is half way there, he has control, now you need to give him the chance to learn timing. Usually it's best if you let going potty be their idea.

Also, don't do the timer thing. Literally just talk to him about the sensations and pressures when he has accidents and direct him to the bathroom. Give him quick, no fun showers, and he will quickly get that pee and poop go in the potty.

But do institute "rules" after he is close to being trained. 2 and 3 year old are very distracted, so they do need help sometimes. In our house, for instance, everyone goes potty before going outside to play or before leaving the house to go somewhere --including mommy. We have little bathroom outings. We do the same before meals, and I let them decide if they need to go.

And do yourself a big favor, once he is mostly daily trained, put him in cloth diapers at night. Yes, I said cloth diapers. It will help him quickly decide to learn night control. Big pees are very unpleasant in cloth diapers ;-) Both of my kids decided to start using the potty in the middle of the night (at 22 months) thanks to cloth diapers.

I also agree with Dana. My two older boys were fully potty trained at 27 months. I started slowly with my first and he would occasionally pee on the potty, but really didn't seem to have much interest. After a month or so, I just decided to let him be naked for a couple of days. It only took a couple accidents and about a week and he was about 90% accident free. I did put diapers on him at night for a month or two but he only woke up once or twice with it wet. It was like something just clicked all of the sudden (he used to wake up with soaking wet diapers). I pretty much went cold turkey with my second and after one week, it was about 75% accident free and by the next week he was fine. My youngest is 18 months and I am thinking about started him a little earlier, maybe around 20-22 months. Like someone else mentioned, there may be setbacks after the new baby arrives, I have heard that is pretty common. I potty trained mine while I was on maternity leave the the next child so I knew that I could be home the entire time to concentrate on the potty training for a week or so. Good luck!

I bribed my kids with quarters for their successes. As they started doing it all the time, I went to a quarter a day for staying dry. After awhile, I stopped giving the quarters...they stopped reminding me, so I conveniently forgot. It worked great for my boys...both were in their second year.