Potty Training - Olathe, KS - Mom with 1 kid

I have 3 boys -- none of them were really "trained" until their 3rd birthdays, even though I used different tactics with each. My advice is: Don't push it, you'll make yourself crazy!
I started by getting them a potty chair, a video and "big boy pants" for their 2nd birthday. I prefered using training pants as opposed to Pull ups, just using them at night.(they didn't feel wet and the boys weren't anxious to get changed when they had an accident) Start in the summer (less clothes to wash). Let Dad help -- my sons wanted to pee standing up like Dad. Also used cherrios in the potty to "aim." This made it kind of a game. With active boys who are always running, you HAVE to keep reminding them. Instead of "do you have to go?" I always would say "it's time to go" & take them to the bathroom when I had to go during the day. Lots of praise, of course and no penalties for accidents.
Be patient and try to make it an exciting, fun experience. Boys don't develop the muscle control as quickly as girls. I found that it didn't matter if I worked hard at it & worried about it, or just let it be -- each boy had his own timetable for getting the job done!

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My son is now 25 months and the same active way. You will get a bunch of responses on there, and they may work, however I was able to train my son in 3 days a week after he turned 2. I suggest googling....3 Day Potting Training and reading that. You do have to purchase the manual once you think you might like it....It's around $20 however it's excellent and it WORKS!!!!!!

My son is 2½ and i just started training him, although I wish I would have started sooner. I had a week of vacation, which helped immensely, and made him wear big boy undies only. He peed and hated the feeling of wet underwear. My boy is also very active. He finally got to wear he would hold his peepee when he needed to go and we would take him right away. When he went we would reward him for going pee by giving him an m&m. We've only been training for a week and we are doing great.

I work with toddlers so I see a lot of kids going through the toilet learning process. We give parents a "potty packet" including a check list for signs of readiness. Some of the signs include the child being able to notice when they need to go, being able to tell you, being able to use words like "pee" and "poo," disliking a wet diaper, being able to pull pants up and down, staying dry for at least two hours, and more.

In addition, in the child's brain, myelinization must be complete before potty training can occur. Parents can try and try, but until this happens, it won't work. This means that long motor neurons reach from the Betz cells of the motor cortex in the brain down to the urethral sphincters, which control the flow of urine. For the child to be able to control this themselves, these long motor neurons must be fully covered with a white, fatty sheath, called myelin. This myelinization allows voluntary control over these muscles and may not happen until about 24 months of age.

Anyway, children are developmentally ready to potty train at different ages. If they are ready, some children will take a few weeks. If the child is not ready, it can take much longer. I'm not sure what kinds of readiness signs your son is showing, but each child will be ready at a different age so it's hard to say a specific age to start. It should be individual to your son. I would avoid power struggles, as it can make it a stressful and tense situation for him.

Many parents use rewards, but I personally do not agree with this because this is a normal body function that everyone does and I don't think rewards really have anything to do with using the bathroom. I've seen so many kids learn to use the potty as "just something you do" rather than something you get a reward for.

Remember, learning to potty train really is a LEARNING PROCESS and, like most other things, not something that can be taught overnight. Even children who are mostly potty trained will have accidents from time to time and this is normal. Just keep in mind, no normally functioning child will grow up to walk down the isle wearing diapers! Just keep it positive and it will happen in time.

S.,
I am of the belief that a baby should be potty trained as soon as they have made the connection dirtying their pants. If they have messed in their diaper and they come and tell you about - it's definiately time to start - If you see them concentrating on going - jump up and try to get them to the potty before they finish.

Every one is different. - trust your instincts more than all the books and/or advice given.

S. ###-###-####

Hi S.,

I am a mother of 4 children and a home child care provider. I was just talking to one of my daycare parents about this last night and here is what I told her. And this is what I work on with the kids in my daycare.
I feel from the age of birth - 1 yr your main goal for your child is getting to all her first milestones, like rolling over, sitting up, crawling, and then walking.
From the ages of 1 yr until 3 yrs, you spend your time working with them on getting themselves dressed, working on good communication skills, using words, learning the body parts and sharing with other kids.
In between the time of 2 1/2 and 3 the potty training comes into play. So now you are setting up for potty training. The ways you start this is by taking them at key areas during the day: 1st thing in the morning when they wake up, after breakfast, before/after lunch, before/after naptime, before/after bathtime and before bed. Now somekids like my daughter were ready at 2 1/2 but I was expecting a new baby and didn't want to be in the middle of potty training, have a new baby, not sure what to expect from that and then I have to backtrack all of the time and effort we had put in. So when I did potty train her we went from pullups to panties and we were potty trained in 1 week.

1 of the daycare girls I watch has/had all the classic sign of ready to be potty trained. Her mom started with her at 18 months. She would and still will bring you a clean pullup and wipes and tell you she pooped, she will say she just peed and go get a clean pullup and put it on and throw the old one in the trash. Everything was goin good but 1 problem she will not poop on the potty and we tried for a couple weeks and she was severly constipated. This was back in November of this year. Now with her new brother is here and mom is on Maturnity leave and home with him and I don't yet have him we are thinking it would probably be a good time to readdress the potty training.
Another thing is maturity, in your child. Some 2 yr olds are different from other 2 yrs olds.
So my advice wait until he is 2 1/2, let him get the feel of being 2. They change so much from the time they turn 1 - 2 and the same from 2-3. All I can say is that with potty training it is about consistency, the child showing signs of being ready, and good communication skills, when you have all of these potty training is a breeze and you will have mastered within a week.

My little boy is strong willed and this presented a problem for potty training, and well, I couldn't "make" him go. After many failed attempts, the summer before he turned 3, I let him run around naked (inside and out-we live in the country). It didn't take long for him to start going potty outside on a bush or a tree. With much praise and no "pushing", he started going on the toilet standing up with his hands leaning against the toilet tank (this was great because then "it" was pointing down the right direction to hit the toilet. I rearly had to clean potty off the floor or wall or running down the outside of the toilet. He basically trained himself just before he was turned 3. I've heard over and over again that boys just take longer than girls in this area and my mother-in-love reminded me that he would not graduate highschool in diapers. So I let it go and let him. Hope this helps!!

My daughter likes to be read to. So, I kept two of her favorite books in the bathroom, and only read them when she was sitting on the tolet. This really helped for those times when she didn't want to sit for more than a second. I hope this helps.

when the time is right you will know. I the mean time take him in and have him get used to the potty. Also have him go to the bathroom with dad to get the Idea each child is different and your lack of time, will make the process slower not your fault I am sure it won't be long and he will be going. Also us traing pants when at home. Not pull up because they can't feel the wetness.

Get a potty chair and start introducing it to him but don't push it until he is ready. Some kids aren't ready until 2 1/2 and if you start too early you just have a lot longer process in training them and you get frustrated if it takes too long.
I started my first too early as someone told me to start him at a year old. Well he did well for a while before he was 2 but wasn't fully potty trained until he was almost 3 so it just made a hard process for me as it took almost 2 years for him to be totally potty trained. We had a lot going on in those 2 years too so he would do well then regress from a move or his Dad being gone to Panama for 6 months while in the Army.

my 2nd I just waited until she was 2 1/2 and she was trained within a month. I think girls seem to train faster than boys.

My 3rd son was also almost 3 and started him at about 2 1/2 but wasn't as consistant with it as I wanted to be as we had a lot of transition going on in our lives at that time as hubby was retiring from the Army and we moved a year ahead of him and I started a job as a nanny watching a special needs 4 year old and a fussy 4 month old so was hard to keep him on a potty schedule all the time and keep up with our other 2 kids with them starting a new school and keeping up with their homework and everything all of the kids were involved in.

None of my kids were bedwetters. We did not put pull-ups on them once they were potty trained either. That just confuses kids. Pull-ups are just like diapers and in their little minds they know that diapers are made to wet in as they have known that their whole little lives. I did get them up once in the middle of the night when they first got trained just to have them try and sometimes they would go but other times they didn't need to. Just make sure you have their mattresses covered with a mattress cover in case they do have an accident, their mattress won't be wet and makes it easier.

If your child is showing signs like knows when diaper needs changed or doesn't like it being wet and strips it off all the time then he is probably ready to start potty training but if he isn't interested at all then don't push it until around 2 1/2. It is also good to have a whole week to just commit yourself to potty training. It will go a lot easier when you have a good week to work on it without a lot of distractions.

He is old enough to start potty training. I hate to tell you this, but it took forever for my son to potty train. I was afraid he was going to go to Kindergarten still potty training! I tried just about everything- the trick that worked for me from the first time was Cheerios. Get him to try to hit the Cheerios in the toilet. I know that's for him standing, and it doesn't help with "#2", but it's a start for when you're ready. I'm sorry that I don't have any tricks for #2, that took the longest with a lot of patience, but eventually it was just like it happened overnight. Good luck!

The best advice I can give you is just to leave him alone. Don't make him sit on the potty for any lenght of time. The more you force them the longer it is going to take. Show them where the potty is, show them how to pull pants up, use the toliet paper, wash their hands, ect but than leave it to him. After potty training 3 of my own kids and helping with 1 friends that is the best way I have seen that works.
Goodluck

First, make sure he is ready and showing the signs of being ready, like knowing when he has peed and pooped, and being able to let you know he's gone; being able to pull his pants up and down, etc.
Second, be patient and expect set backs. It will take time, lots of time. My daughter is just recently fully potty trained and was 3 in December. I think it's best to work on training for peepee first, then poop. That's what we did.
We bought the potty chair for her before she was 2 and taught her about it, had her sit on it clothed, then without clothes before baths. We also got the book A Potty for Me (can't remember the author) and read it to her A LOT! I aksed the pediatrician and a friend who owns and daycare and has 3 boys for advice and this is what we did:
When she was 2 1/2 we started sitting her on it every hour or so (June 2007). We also bought Big Girl underpants that she was really excited about (Disney Princesses) and talked about being a Big Girl and going on the potty and wearing underpants like Mommy, Grandma, her little friend Maia, etc.
I had her watch me go, wipe, flush and wash up.
It took some time, but she eventually started to tell me she had to go pee-pee and we would sometimes make it to the potty in time, others not. Every time we made it, we made a big deal and sang, danced, gave her a special treat. The treat incentive worked the best for her. So did seeing her friend use the potty. We did not ever scold her if she didn't make it. After a while, we stopped with the treats.
We kept her in pull ups or diapers for a while, then switched to underpants for a few hours of the day. She really didn't want to get her Princess underpants dirty, so she did better when she wore them instead of diapers.
She did very well for a few weeks, then got sick so we regressed a little, got back to where we were, then she got a bladder infection from holding it and trying to get to the potty (which my pediatrician said is very common for little girls especially), so another setback.
It took about three months and by September 2007 she was completely pee-pee trianed for the day, but still needed a pull up at night. She started staying dry all night in December or January I think. I kept putting pull ups on her until they ran out and now she wears her underpants.

Poop training was a whole different experience and not a good one for us. She had lots of constipation problems, a fissure, visits to the GI specialist, suppositories, was on Miralax and mineral oil for months, cried when we tried to get her to poop on the potty (so she would put on a pull up to poop, then back to underpants). She is FINALLY going without much fussing after her nightly bath. And last week for the FIRST time got on the potty and pooped without our help! Yea!!
So it can be a long road to potty training. Just be patient and supportive, and know that it will happen. Good luck!

I would sit him on the potty chair tell him what it is used for and ask him to try it out he may enjoy to feel all grown up or resent it all together also aks dad to take him in to the bathroon when he goes maybe he'll see dad and want to try. I started to potty train my son after he was a yr. it didn't last long but he was interested in it he wanted to pee like dad,then we started to buy big boy underwear he wore them alot when he was 21/2 I stopped buying pull up's at this age I was afraid of accident's at the store but did it anyway and to my surprise we had none.Also made a sticker chart every time he went potty he can put up a sticker.Now when it came to go poopie in potty it was alot harder for him to go in the big potty with a reward so my husband did the sucker reward eventually the suckers became smaller then poof no reward at all a simple you did a good job was all he needed now 4 he doesn't want me to help him out at all. As other people will tell you and the DR. don't force it my husband and I did from time to time because we knew he can do it but you'll get draw back's it'll be hard (maybe) but soon all diapers and pull up's will be a thing of the past.

I started my son at 1. I set up a potty schedule, so at the same time each day until he began going on his own I kept to the schedule. Even after he was going on his own I still stuck to it until he was completely independant on the potty theme.
good-luck!

-J. M.
www.themomteam.com/mom2
HELPING Moms Stay Home!

S.,

In my experience, you can do it if you are 100% consistent. It will take several days, depending on your son. Set the timer for every 10 minutes to start and take him each time it goes off. No need to upset him though. If the first day goes well, set it for 15 minute intervals the next. Gradually increase the time, but like I said, you really do have to be consistent with it if you decide to go ahead. Otherwise it will really confuse a child so young.

Blessings!