I have received a few emails about potty training, so I thought I would just post something here.
All of my boys potty trained fairly easy. I have never had 2 in diapers. My first son was around 18months when he potty trained and the others were between 2 and 2 1/2.
I am no potty training expert. What I am going to tell you is just my opinion and what has worked for us. I have never potty trained a girl though, so if you have a girl and what I say doesn’t work…I’m sorry!
What I have always done first is to just introduce potty training.
I always wait until they are able to talk and say pee and potty before I start. If they can’t tell you they have to go then how are you going to know? (That’s my thought, but some may have other ways.)
Once they are able to tell me and I am ready to introduce potty training I start out slowly. I try to ALWAYS make going potty a positive thing. If your child has an accident and you get upset and they see this it may make them not even want to go to the potty.
Some people use stickers or treats for rewards when their little one uses the potty. This is fine in the beginning, but eventually you have to stop because you can’t have a 6 year old wanting m&ms every time he poops on the potty…ha ha!
If your child becomes bored with the potty training or seems scared or upset with it then you should back off. We did this with our 2 year old. I started potty training shortly before he turned 2. He went on the potty from time to time, but still had a ton of accidents. He didn’t understand the timing of telling me that it was time to go before he actually had to go. I think he got frustrated with it and just gave up. He was still young, so I backed off.
We continued to talk about the potty and how his big brothers and Daddy and Mommy go on the potty. I didn’t once try to force him to go on the potty, we just talked about everyone else going and about how big they are for going.
The next thing I did was to talk to him about the baby coming (this only works if you are pregnant-if not just skip this part.) I would tell him that the baby is going to come out of my belly in a couple of months and that the baby is going to be really little, too little to sit on the potty, so the baby is going to need diapers. I asked him if he wanted to “share” his diapers with the baby. At first he didn’t want anything to do wit sharing his diapers, but after talking about it a few times he started to say that he wanted to give his diapers to the baby.
One of the other big things is to buy them underwear that they like. If you try to put something on them that they aren’t interested in then they may not care about wearing them or going in them.
I actually took him to the store and let him pick out his own underwear. He chose Sesame Street because he loves Elmo and Cookie Monster!
I told him that Elmo doesn’t like to get wet and that Cookie Monster doesn’t want his cookies wet. He caught on to this fairly quickly. He is still having accidents, but he ALWAYS tells me “Pee Potty” when he has to go. The reason for the accidents is because sometimes he waits until he can’t hold it and then tells me and he goes as we are rushing to the restroom. He gets really upset when he does pee on Elmo or Cookie Monster.
With my first 2 boys I did the naked approach. I would let them run around naked and then just take them to the bathroom every hour or so (some kids require every half hour though, but you don’t want to overdo the bathroom thing and make them bored of it either.)
I can’t really do the naked approach this time around because I am not always in the same room all of the time with my 2 year old. He likes to go into the other room to play with his brothers and I may miss him peeing in a corner, which wouldn’t be good at all!
I think the most important thing is to not push your child, they will eventually get it. If you try and they are not ready then back off for a bit and wait for them to show signs of being ready. It never hurts to talk to them about it though. I just wouldn’t force them to do anything that they don’t want to do.
Make going potty fun and get excited! I sing songs and clap and cheer! Whenever he goes potty we run out and tell his brothers and they get excited for him (which really excites him and makes him want to go more!) If your child doesn’t have siblings then call Grandma and Grandpa or rush out and tell Daddy. They just want someone to be proud of their accomplishment. It makes them want to keep it up.
Oh, and don’t forget to let them pick out some cute little undies. You may think that the cute ones with trains on them would be perfect, but your child may prefer Nemo or something and the fact that he got to pick them out makes them even more special for him.
Good Luck and Please if anyone uses any of my advice I would love to hear about your progress.
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