Potty Training - Columbia,IL

We started my step daughter when she was about 2 1/2. We did all right, but she really progressed when Elmo started calling her every time she went potty on the big potty. Elmo was my mom, but she didn't know that. I always put her in big girl panties. No PULL UPS. I don't like them because they still gave her the comfort of wearing diapers & not making a mess. In panties, she was uncomfortable if she messed herself! When she got that down, I would take her to Baskin Robbins when she went by herself. She would make me walk away before she went, so I wouldn't help her. Eventually I just bought a box of popsicles since it was happening regularly. Good Luck!!

Make potty training a fun thing to do. Expect accidents, and don't let it get you down when it happens. Praise, praise praise when he uses the potty. I don't suggest giving him a reward. This can become a habit that is very hard to break. All kids really need is LOVE. I can't stress enough how self esteem is built through Praise for doing the right thing.

The best time to start is when your child starts showing interest in the toilet. In my experience, trying to start when they are not ready doesn't work. My son will be
2 1/2 in July and he is starting to take more interest in the toilet and he likes to watch me put his poop in the toilet and flush...just the other day he was holding himself and went into the bathroom!! Good sign, however he had already peed, but he was thinking about it...just a little too late!!
I'm hoping by his 3rd birthday he will be potty trained. My two older children were both 3 when they were out of diapers.
Even if your son is still in diapers by the time the new baby comes, he probably won't be in them much longer after that...
This summer I will start putting my son on his potty chair regularly and see what happens..getting him use to it is a start! Good luck! V.

Try Cheerios! Put six of them in the toilet & let him aim.point & shoot! We know you can't sink cheerios but they don't. They think it's a game & before you know it their potty trained....I've shared this with other mother's on here & they love it! Good luck & God Bless!

There's a great book by Terry Brazelton, I forget the name but you can find it at Amazon or anywhere. He stresses that pushing does not help, and kids are self-motivated to learn potty and do it when they are ready, so they do not need rewards or punishment of any kind. Maybe just an acknowledgement of when they succeed. I didn't think I was pressuring my daughter at all, but I quit encouraging her to use the potty altogether, and for a while nothing happened, we had a new baby, etc, then suddenly she started requesting a pull-up, underwear, etc. It's like she trained herself, but it had to be when she was ready and when she could claim it as her own accomplishment, not something she did for me.

we've had 2 in diapers, and it really isn't much harder than one. Kinda like cats, heh heh. Just wait till your kid is wearing underwear and suddenly needs to go when you are in the car or somewhere inconvenient, then you'll wonder why you were in a hurry to get rid of the diapers!

HI, S.. Unfortunately, this is an area your son will only be able to decide on. You can introduce the potty to him, but he will ultimately decide how long it takes him to get potty trained. Summer is a great time to start, since kids wear less clothes in the summer. It makes it easier for the child to pull their own clothes down to potty and pull them up when they are done. I would start reading books to your son about the potty, and then sit him on the potty one day and see what his reaction is. If he isn't bothered, start monitoring how often he goes and try to catch him at the right time. First thing in the morning is a great time if he wakes up dry each day. That is one of the first signs your son might be ready to be potty trained. When you feel he is really ready, I say put him in underwear and have a go at it. It took my son one day! But, he can't be fighting you at all or it won't work. Good Luck!

S.,

My son was also 2 1/2 when his baby sister came! I, too, wanted him out of diapers so that I only had one to change. However, I realized this was unrealistic. I had also heard from mom friends that their potty trained child sometimes regressed to wetting/soiling their underwear once the baby came.

Anyway, my daughter was born in Feb and my son began potty training in May that year. He was 22 mths at the time. What helped was he had a close buddy who was also potty training at the same time and a little peer pressure to know that his friend was wearing "big boy" underwear with Bob the Builder, Lightning McQueen, etc. and he also wanted to. His friend was rewarded w/stickers when he did the potty thing. That didn't work for my son. I happened upon a dinosaur bank that had a fun way for the money to go in and that was the incentive for my son. One coin for pee, and two for a poop.

Honestly, I found that it wasn't any more work or time consuming to have 2 in diapers. Your son will use the potty when he is ready and if you try and speed up the process, it may slow it down and he may refuse (being a toddler).

Hope this helps.

D.

Hi, S.! My kids are 26 months apart, so a little closer than yours will be. But, I waited until after my second was born to even attempt potty training. I was concerned that if she was trained before the baby arrived, she might regress and make me crazy :-)

My theory with both of mine (they are now 5 & 3) has been to wait until they are really ready for potty training so it is as low-stress as possible for both of us. I've had friends who started early and took a LONG time and got really anxious about it. I would say both of my kids were daytime-trained within a month or two. I still did Pull-Ups at night until they were waking up dry at night.

I hope that helps at least a little :-) Good luck!
S.

Hi
You need to if you have not already start talking about how he is becoming a little boy now and not a baby and how much you love him getting older and talk about how wonderful it is to use the toliet instead of the diaper! Be very positive about it all. Get him little video's about potty training like Elmo's potty time! If you are going to work at this remember that when the baby gets here make sure you tell him often how much easier it is that he is not in diapers! Good luck! Consistency is the key!

My nieces went through the same thing. Try using the reward system, like M & M's 1 for "#1" and 2 for "#2", That's what worked with my oldest niece. My youngest niece's interest in the potty is flippant at best and she just turned three. Just when you think she wont have an accident she lets loose in her panties in public while lying to her mother about having to go in the first place. So as you can see it all depends on the child. once they show interest they need positive reinforcement with things like M &M's or stickers (something cheap, littlem & fun). And once he starts wearing his "Big Boy" pants make sure you have some pullups on hand.

My doctor told me not to even start with boys until they are 3. I trained to early with my first two and it took forever. My youngest is three and when was 2 he started asking about the ptty but I was not ready to teach him. I waited until he started staying dry for long periods of time and he stayed dry at bed time. I was glad I waited and did not rush it. I waited till he could really understand what I wanted from him. Then, and I am not kidding, I took him in the bathroom and said boys stand to pee and sit to poop, and it goes in the toilet. I asked him if he wanted to try and he did. After that he always went to into the bathromm to go. It was so eas. I pushed my other two and it was stressful and a it was a nightmare. I would say to take a laid back approach and don't stress if he doesn't want to.

Hello, Dont push him to potty train - Especially with a new baby on the way. We really wanted my daughter out of diapers before my son came and we pushed her pretty hard and had it down - until the baby came along. Most children will regress a little with the birth of a new baby. She regressed for about 2 months which really made things hard for everybody. My advice would be to wait until the baby comes so that he can feel like a big brother- big brothers dont want to wear diapers, but they can help with the baby's diapers. Just explain it on a level that he can understand. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that the average age for a BOY to be potty trained in 3.25 years. If you wait until he is ready it will go a lot easier for everyone.

You'll have to wait til he's ready. While trying occassionaly to see if he is. We tried twice before he was ready. I have a 3 in a half year old boy. Then one weekend I decided to just put big boy underwear on him and sent him out with daddy to play in the yard. He went thru 3 pairs and I guess he decided he didn't like pee running down his leg and he's been dry ever since. (He did cry each time he wet his underwear and wanted me to put a pull-up back on, and I refused, just kept telling him it's ok and he needed to learn to pee in the potty like daddy. And we were going to keep going thru underwear until he stopped peeing in them) This was about a month before he turned 3. Now, he was completely nite trained for a year prior to this, so I didn't have that battle. We did at this point start keeping a little book (for about a month) and we let him go to the store to pick out stickers he liked (usually monster tucks and fish and stuff) and everytime he went potty he got 1 sticker, if he went poop he got 2 stickers. DON'T run out of stickers!!!!!! =)Daddy then had to look at his book everynight when he came home from work and had to cout all his stickers and make a BIG deal about it, then daddy took over for the evening and before bed I had to count his stickers and make a BIG deal out of them. It worked for us. That's the important thing, find what works for your little guy. Don't get stressed by someone who had their's trained @ 16 months and blah, blah , blah! This is YOUR child and too bad what anyone else has to say!

My 1st son was potty trained by 3. Every child is different. I started working on it by the time he was able to understand the concept fully. I believe it was around 1 1/2 yr old. I would not push it a whole lot if he was sick or not feeling well, and I also would let him sit down when he 1st started learning. I did not push standing up alot. Alot of people told me use cheerios or something that he can act like hes trying to hit in the toilet, I thought that was stupid and w/ sitting down, he got grasped the concept much better and it wasnt too much work for him. Some say 3 y/o is too old, but I beleive they will do it when they are ready, as long as its before 4-I wouldnt worry to much! Also take time throughout the day to take him to the bathroom, every meal and several times in between even if he doesnt have to go-let him try. Good Luck!

I understand wanting to not have two in diapers at once, however, it might be best to wait until a few months after the new baby is born and both he and you have had time to adjust. Often, major changes shortly after potty training can cause a child to regress.

I have been training my just-turned-three-year-old since a couple months before he turned three. He is doing lots better now, but it definitely takes longer for boys and he is not accident free yet for more than 2 days at a time. My mom had five kids all spaced about 2 years apart. She says it always worked well for her to potty train the next oldest a few months after the new baby was born--it was just too much stress and effort during the time of mid to late pregnancy and new baby adjustments.

As far as signs of readiness, you can find a more thorough list pretty easily by doing a search for potty training on the internet, but a few of them are:

staying dry for extended periods of time during the day,
recognizes his bowel movements (by hiding or squatting),
can follow instructions from you,
can dress/undress himself somewhat.

Is your son showing signs of wanting to start? That would be the first thing to look for~for example asking you about going potty, telling you when he has gone and wants his diaper changed, etc.

My son had a July birthday and so I started him right after he turned two. We started off slow (I had time because I was newly pregnant). He had become very interested what we were doing in the bathroom. Mainly what worked for me was letting him run naked (which is why I started right after his birthday). It just seemed to help him become aware of when he needed to go. Granted, we had some accidents, but I kept him off of our carpeting when I wasn't right with him, so clean up wasn't too bad. We spent a lot of time outside too so he could pretty much go anywhere. Another thing I did was take the potty chair everywhere. If he was in the playroom, the potty chair was there, in the living room, potty chair was there, etc. That way he didn't feel like he was missing out whenever he had to go. Even if we went to the park, I took the potty chair and it all seemed to work fine. I also had to make a committment to stay home when I was really wanting him to be completely trained. Meaning-no long errands, playdates, or whatever. If I had to go somewhere he wore pull-ups but normally I had him in regular underwear because he would always go in the pull-ups. We did do pull-ups at night until November but by 27 months he was completely trained.

He also got a reward every time he went. It was only 1 m&m, but it was like gold to him! I know some people put cheerios or some over kind of cereal in the toilet to get little boys to sink the ships, but we never did that. I used the same method of training my daughter when she was 27 months and it worked great for her too. I just took my time so that I wasn't frustrated with either of them. Good luck with it and good luck with the new baby. I will be working on training my youngest this summer too! I have a feeling she will be my toughest.

All three of my children were potty trained by 2 1/2. Two biggest piecesof advice I have to offer is 1. NO PULL UPS-I saw somebody else had mentioned this but I had to second it. Bye training pants (thick underwear)and plastic covers 2. once you start do NOT revert. Yes, this makes it very difficult but my youngest was the hardest and there were a couple day where we went through 10 pairs of underwear. This in no way showed he was not ready, he was testing me to see if he could get his diapers back. After these 2 or 3 days we had about one more week of occasional accidents, most seemed to happen in his car seat on the way out or home. Make a small fuss but don't go crazy when he goes potty, let him know that is what is expected. One more very important thing, if he is not waking up from naps or night time dry then he is not ready. I read that years ago and I really believe it to be true. Some kids will not train "when they are ready" Diapers are very convenient and kids are smart enough to realize this, who wants to drop there toy and run the risk of somebody else picking it up just so they could pee on a potty? You don't have to drop your toy, interrupt what you are doing if you just get to stay in diapers. Again kids are smart!
Congrats on your new baby!

http://www.parentingscience.com/potty-training-age.html

http://www.parentingscience.com/infant-potty-training.html

The websites I posted above are just a couple of site that came up when I Googled "potty training physiology". There are so many sources of good info on this subject. I even saw one that will sell you a book claiming to hold the secret to successfully training a child to the potty in 3 days. I haven't read it, but if I had a baby today, I would likely be willing to invest $7 to check it out.

I truly feel that all pediatricians have the responsibility to educate parents about the biology of potty training. There are developmental stages all parents and day care servers really aught to understand. I am fascinated by how much there is to know about this subject and how much we are still learning.

There is a developmental stage, for example, when a physiological change occurs that allows the child to perceive the discomfort of wet or messy pants. This sensitivity most often occurs between 18 and 32 months, according to most research. No matter what a child 'learns' about 'how' to use the toilet, this is the most natural motivation to 'want' to use it. Then there is the somatosensory and neuromotor development necessary for sensing the need to empty the bowel/bladder and the ability to control the sphincters as a controled process rather than a reflex. Throughout early childhood there are developmental changes that allow a child to gain neuro-motor control of functions that are an inborn reflex in an infant.

For example. If you touch the palm of an infants hand, their fingers curl up into a fist. When this reflex integrates into controled neuro-motor function, the child is able to choose whether or not to grab what touches the palm. If this does not integrate naturally, you will find that the tips of the fingers will curl up when the palm is touched even in an adult. They have learned to compensate and control the reflex to some degree, but any reflex that does not integrate into controled function in the brain cannot be completely controled. This is one of the areas they have been able to correct with Brain Gym exercises for integrating brain function.

It is important to keep in mind that if a child is developmentally delayed, these physiological developmental stages are also delayed. The 18 to 32 months mentioned above are considered normal for children without such delays.

As I said, there is just so much to know about this subject. It seems a shame that so little is commonly understood. Why isn't a basic study of early childhood development required to graduate high school? Almost everyone who graduates high school will be responsible for the care of a young child at some point in their lives! This seems to be one of the most common subjects discussed on Momasource. Maybe Momasource could list a recommended list of info sources.

Kudos to you for being a mom who asks questions!!!!

im not sure i would like to know that also

The summer he turned two we let our son run around bare naked. We had strategically placed potties everywhere (we'd put them around the house weeks before so he could get used to them and we could talk about them). When he would start to go we'd say, "Oh! Get to the potty!" and run over with him so he could finish on the potty. He does not like to make a mess, so it would bother him when he would go on the floor. We also set up a time of day to sit on the potty and push. If he succeeded in pooping in the potty he got a hot wheels car. By the end of the summer he was pretty much completely potty trained; by Christmas he wasn't having any accidents at all (still hasn't had one). He bedtime trained himself b/c he wanted to wear his Shrek undies to bed!
Anyway, when else in his life will he be able to run bare naked? :)