Potty Training - Newington,CT

At first, I just took my son very often to the potty... every hour at that age should be okay. Taking him often prevented him from having accidents and made the experience more positive.
The "number 2" part was more tricky. I bought a "treasure box" and put matchbox cars in it. These are his favorite toys and whenever he did poop on the potty, he got to have one.
He is 3 1/2 now and never has accidents. It only took about a month, he was 26 months at the time, until the accidents stopped. the most important advise I can give is Stay Positive even though it may be tough to do...

1 mom found this helpful

Well, I had seven children and found a way that was ( and still is, with the grandbabies) pretty successful.
First pump child up with potty stories..Joshua's New Potty, Sesame Street's No More Diapers...ect. All sorts of books out there.
Talk with child, tell them about "big boy/girl panties"
Buy big girl/boy panties with characters your baby is fond of. Talk about his friends or cousins that wear big boy panties and poop and pee on the pot.
Not sure two weeks in July will be enough time tho...and short time for the pump up too. But you can give it a go.
You say, "you wouldn't pee or poop on mummy's floor, no"?
You need to get all these thoughts in the little one's head before you start.
Take off diaper...have potty right handy, in kitchen or living room.
Tons of praise for doing good job peeing in the potty.
You will have an accident or two for sure...
Continue on with bare butt until the habit of running to the potty when he needs to pee is firmly established.
After couple weeks of bare butt you should be able to try the panties..same thing..." you would not pee/poop in your beautiful big boy panties, yes"?
Then you put on trousers one day...tell him he needs to pull them down just like his panties.
Try a run to a corner store, not very far away and if he gets home dry have a treat for him for being such a big boy.
The pooping is more difficult, they are frightened of pooping in pots and toilets. But it follows the pee training and soon he will not like to feel yukky , nasty and wet, nor will he enjoy smelling bad.
Let them "help" empty the potty and flush the toilet.
And so on and so forth.
Only thing is here, you dont have the several months to pump him up and get the potty thing in his head..and rarely have I seen a two year old train in two weeks. It is a good starting time tho...if your day care can continue it.
Best wishes and God bless
Grandmother Lowell

Jelly Beans! I'm not usually into bribery, but in this case it worked flawlessly.

I trained my son last summer. He was pretty much ready and for a few weeks, I would constantly ask him if he had to go and put him on his own potty chair hourly. To make it easier, I also had him run around the house with nothing on. We did have an accident or two, but he quickly realized what happened if he didn't get to the potty and trained very quickly.

Hi M., here's what I suggest:

1. Asking often if he feels like he has to go and taking him to try.
2. Positive reinforcement and praise.
3. Not worrying about blunders and backward steps (normal when they've achieved some progress and stability in training).

All of this will work IF he's ready. If he knows how to tell if he's got to go, then he's ready! Good luck!

Lots of positive reinforcement, dancing, singing the peepee on the potty song, poopoo on the potty. Yipppeeee, yaaaayyyyy! etc. Worked for my son starting at 18 months. He is two now and goes both on the potty. We did have a few accidents here and there and even today he was busy playing and started to pee in the tv room. I just have to remind myself to remind him and ask him if he needs to use the potty. We also bought him his own potty because he was too short and small to use the big one, but now he used both potties. We do use pull-ups for naptime, traveling, and a regular diaper for sleeping. Just make it exciting. Even when you or your husband goes to the bathroom, make a big deal out of. "look daddy went peepee on the potty" YEAHHH!!! The more fun it is for my son, the more he wants to go on the potty. :) Good luck!

Hi!
I'm all for doing it cold turkey - no more diapers or pull-ups! I feel that that is the best way with no confusion. All kids are different! My now 4 yr old was potty trained in a few days and my now 3 yr old took a little over a week and then still had occasional accidents. Just start and stick with it! Don't give up! Be ready with several pairs of underwear and pants each day!
Good luck!!!

You've already received some good advice and will receive more. I'd just like to add that he may be a little young - some kids do it at 2, but many others aren't ready until well past the age of 3. You'll have to see whether he is interested or not, first of all. After that, whether he is developmentally ready is another thing. It has NOTHING to do with intelligence, of course - but the bladder-to-brain signal develops differently in different children, and it cannot be forced. So he may never know if is "has" to go - so questioning him about it may be meaningless until that developmental milestone is reached. My son was very late in this department so I just want you to be prepared - you don't want this to be hugely frustrating for either of you. They all do something "early" and a lot "on time" and a few things "late" - it doesn't matter what order they develop,, you know? If your 2-week experiment becomes an endless series of accidents and there is no progress, then put the diapers back on and wait a few months at least before trying again. I would start with the books and videos and putting out the little potty in stages over the next few weeks, then start in earnest when he's home. Good luck and hang in there - no matter what happens, he won't go to kindergarten in diapers!

put regular under pants on him during the day so he will know when he gets wet and then he will want to stay dry...i potty trained both my kids that way...no pull up diapers during the day..

I tried my son cold turkey around that age, and he did not pee in the potty once for 3 days. And he had been using the potty up until then. But he likes to be in control and was not going to be bullied into potty training.
So I backed off and a few months later, I put him in underwear and set a timer. I told him he just had to wear them for 15 minutes until the tiemr went off. When it went off and he was dry, I gave him tons of praise just for keeping them dry. I did that for 2 days and then went up to a half hour, etc.. Within a week, he was fully potty trained, even at night. It did take him a little longer with the poop on the potty, but that was a method I found worked really well for a headstrong stubborn little guy who likes to feel like he is in control! The more you can give him a chance to succeed and be praised, instead of failing the better I think. I think the cold turkey was frustrating for him because he just kept failing at it, but he succeeded for short periods and received praise (and treats help too!) so it was a much more pleasant experience. Good luck!

Hi M.,

I am a huge believer in consistency and also do not believe in pull ups. :) for both of our girls we've utilized the movie "Potty Power" if you go to Amazon and put that name in, it should come right up. Best of luck, both of our girls were super easy to train...one just being trained less than a month now. A few accidents here and there at first, but they seemed to get it right away. We just put them in their "big girl underwear" and that was it, no more diapers. :)

Hi M.!

I have a 3.5 yo daughter who is potty trained! I hear girls are usually easier than boys... but you never know!

What I did was introduce the potty by video first. She was really into sesame street, and elmo has a potty movie that we watched a few times. Theny I bought her one and left it in the living room (where we mostly are). I mentioned the goal to day care and they were all about helping out!

Then one weekend when we had NO PLANS I told her we weren't using any diapers cause we ran out... I would have to get some at the store later and just put her in undies. We had several accidents that day, but it seemed to get her in the state that she didn't want to be wet. That night I "found" one diaper and she could use that to sleep. Then the next day the same thing... That next week in school she was asked a couple of times an hour, sometimes she would go... sometimes she was wet. Then we did the same thing that following weekend and it clicked. She definatly had a few accidents, but the practice was coming along and she liked her big girl potty. Every time she sat and went pee, she got a sticker. If she went #2, she got 2 stickers and after 10 stickers she got a small prize @ the stoer. I know at school if the kids sit on the potty they got 1 m&m, if they went pee they got 5.

I would say try anything and everything and just keep praising them!! To this day, my dd still gets so excited when she goes and makes us come into the bathroom to see what she did! It's funny!!

Good Luck!
~ T.

That is a perfect time to start! Back in Feb. when my son was about the same age, 28 mos. We had 4 days of no daycare and being home--we potty trained him. We all went out to buy underwear and some special drinks and special treats. (We went straight to underwear and I think it's the way to do it so there is no confusion. B/c a pull up is still similar to a diaper and the kids are going to think so too.) We used some advice from a book, something like Potty Training 1-2-3. They suggested to get these things w/ the child so they know when you start it's a special day. So we gave him the special drink so he would have to pee and while we taught him what to do, we had our son teach his teddy (or special doll). We gave him treats for staying dry and when he peed in the potty. The 1st two days there were a lot of accidents but then he got the hang of it. It was a much better experience than I expected. As for the special treats, they have to be special or the child won't care to go on the potty, etc. We used M&Ms. We gave him 2 M&Ms if he peed and 3 if he pooped. I was nervous that he would want the M&Ms forever but after aabout two weeks, he didn't care. The only thing I would stress is for the first couple of weeks, I would stay around home or close to home, but my son was fine using any bathroom (ours, friend's or public). Oh, but we taught him on the big toilet w/ an insert seat. We never had a little kid's potty. And we began w/ sitting down and peeing. We introduced standing up after he was doing well for a couple of months. And another piece of advice, whenever you go somewhere always have wipes, an extra pair of underwear and pants! You never know when they won't make it or have an accident. And don't yell or scold them for having an accident. Just treat it as matter of factly. Good luck to you!

Hi M.,

A friend of mine used to give her son a star sticker (the small kind teachers used when grading papers) for his forehead every time he used the potty. For some reason this worked! For my daughter, it was either a gummy bear or an M&M every time she used the potty. Also, making sure your son wakes up dry and immediately putting him on the potty in the morning is a good habit to get into.

Hope this helps.

E.