Potty Training Help - Brooklyn,NY

Start teaching hte before and after steps, so when she is ready to "go: in the potty, all the other steps are in place. Practice her getting herself dressed, so she can pull up and down her pants, getting on and off whatever potty you choose, ripping off hte toilet paper (hold with one hand, rip with the other), wiping, pulling back up pants (practice holding up dresses as well), washing and drying hands. Potty training is actaully many steps, so if you work on the others until her body is ready, you will be ahead of hte game. Instead of trying to teach all of those things at the same time. We worked on one and added on as each was mastered.
Good luck!
K.

Keep a potty in the house and let her experiment as often as she wants and when it's convenient for you, but DO NOT waste your energy trying to train her. It is a developmental milestone and if you wait for her she will do it almost completely independently. My daughter started using the potty for every BM and tinkle a month after her third birthday. She has had a few accidents but in general she has been completely trained with almost no effort on my part. I don't have to remind her, race to the bathroom, clean up accidents, nag, reward, etc. It just is. People told me this when she was little and I was nervous that I was doing something wrong by not pushing thep potty, but I am telling you WAIT FOR HER TO BE READY.

For now just note the times that she does the big number one in a convenient place or in your head what food make her go and what her actions are like before. Does she go in a corner to hide? goes in her room and plays quietly, do her eyes get watery, or does she run around in a circle...

Once you are used to her patterns introduce her to a little book about training with the "throne" potty. You will know when she is ready...
Some mothers place in pull ups or panties they do not like the wet feeling.
Later when you sit her on the potty start two minutes read a book stay with her 4-minutes read a book or sing a song, 6- minutes read book sing song or play a I spy game. It should not feel like time out or punishment ... you do not want her to get constipated. Remember to praise her for time spent on the throne or if she tinkles.

I think the toilet seat hooked on the big seat... is the best.. since they don't get used to the little potty seat and then again you have to get them used to the big potty... it's just easier to get them used to one thing..and as they grow.. just get rid of it. I started both my kids at 16 months old.. and I would put them on every few hours at first.. and if they go.. we would cheer.. and clap.. then after the first week.. (they were going a lot in the toilet.. i started bringing them every hour... they were both trained (boy and girl) by 2!!! night time they were 2 1/2...

Hi!

I'm totally fine with the "long drawn-out process" method, because I figure it's a developmental skill, like walking or crawling or talking. I started my kids at birth (seriously) just by holding them over the potty every time I was changing a diaper, and inevitably I caught a bunch of pee and poop. So, my kids have been used to the potty literally since birth. My 18 month old is now really motivated to learn, so I put her on first thing in the morning and I always catch a pee, and usually a poop. We clap, and she gets to put a sticker on her potty. (I have a little toddler potty that I take with us from room to room so that it's always available and within eyesight--kinda like paper training a dog ;) and I also have a seat that goes on the toilet. No pressure, ever, but lots of praise for "catches". On days when I'm home for a good chunk of the day, I'll let her wear those padded undies, or cloth diapers (I've cloth diapered them since birth), and if she misses, oh well. It's just laundry. I have friends who waited until their kids were 3 and it still took awhile for them to learn, but I'd rather just "go with it" and make the experience available to her. I figure, every catch on the potty is one less diaper I have to buy or wash, right?

My daughter is 17 months and I have been potty training her for the past month. She uses a little potty and we keep it wherever we are playing. I started just putting her on the potty when she had to poop because you can usually tell when they are pooping. After a few times she started taking her diaper off or pointing at the potty when she has to poop. She is now peeing on the potty too. We spend most of our time at home with no diaper on and a lot of time she just runs around naked :) We haven't had any accidents yet and she goes to the potty every time sh eneeds to go. She gets a jelly bean after she uses the potty and we do a little potty dance which she loves! I' not too worried about transitioning her to the big potty. My main reason for potty training her this early was that changing her diaper was getting to be such an ordeal. I am also not trying to get her to use the potty when we are out in public yet. I'm not sure how that's going to go but I figure we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Good luck and happy potty training :)

Hi L.,
I bought a potty in Target (I can't remember what brand). It's a regulare kiddie potty, but you can pop off the seat part and attach it to a normal toilet; then the bottom part of the potty can be turned over and used as a step stool. Then your daughter can decide what she likes better.

I agree that she's probably to young to start, I know it's been done but I started my oldest at 18 months and I trained him for 18 months...I started the other 4 after 2(right around 2 and 1/2 is when most kids are physically capable of control) and 2 of them were trained in less than a week and the other 2 about 1 month. I opted for the lil seats that fit on the bowl...I tried the small potty and cleanup was annoying. when you start/before you start, just pay attention to when you change diapers...one of my kids pees @ 1030 w/o fail...so @ 10 we hit the potty...take them first thing in the morning, before nap and bed...and usually after nap...limit water/drink intake to mealtimes and controled...meaning kids who walk around with a sippy cup are a lot harder to train...when my kids want water they get it out of the fridge and drink at the table or in the kitchen...this way they're drinking because they're thirsty, not because it's convient. Once you start use underwear....buy 20 plus pairs(the first day or so STAY home) expect to go through 7 pairs in an hour until the get used to the wet feeling...and for me after those first days most our accidents were not getting there fast enough, not the child not understanding...pull ups are for sleeping and long car trips only(for us at least). another great tip I got was make childs bed twice...waterproof mat and sheet, then repeat, waterproof mat and sheet...that way when they do have an accident in the middle of the night you just have to strip off a layer not make the bed again...goodluck...most importantly follow your childs lead, she may show intrest for a couple of weeks now and then stop(that's what my last son did, then 3 months later I trained him in about 2 days)don't push it till they're ready or you'll be training forever like I did with my first...where was mamasource 10 years ago?? LOL!!!

Hi L.,
It's great if she tells you after she goes, my kids did that before 2 also, but we're trained til they turned 3. My own experience was that I did not do early training because I didn't feel that having a child who used the potty occasionally, was a tiny bit trained, had accidents, etc was a benefit to me - no patience for the long, drawn out training process, I preferred having a kid in diapers and then training in days or a few weeks.
That said, my method was switching to cloth training pants (at her age, cloth diapers may be better) with the waterproof outer layer. This teaches them that when they pee, they get really wet, and they start to learn what it feels like just before that happens. I made sure to take them to the toilet (I didn't do a pottie for a variety of reasons) about every hour and a half. My youngest is 10 now but when I did this, it took him 2-3 weeks to stop going in the training pants and start waiting til I took him to the toilet but after that, no accidents, he figured it out. Those few weeks were rough and messy but in the end, it worked out well. It was still another month or two after before he would tell that he had to go - a lot of parents wait for the child to tell them, thinking it is the first step in the process. I made this mistake with my daughter. It's usually the last step so you don't need to wait to start the process til your child tells you that they need to use the bathroom
Good luck