Potty Training with Two Small Children

Hi there!

I too have a 3 and a 1 year old. (and also a 5 year old). My son did really well potty training, and I'll tell ya what worked for me.

I picked a time where I could just about completely stay home for 2 straight weeks. The first week, I left him naked to run around the house all day, or at least naked from the waist down. When he started to pee, he would notice immediately, and I would tell him to run run run for the potty!! The first couple days, he would run there, but it would be too late, but he would still try, and I would really praise him for trying. By the third day, he would just maybe start to pee, stop, then run for the potty, and finish up in there. By the end of the first week, he had figured out how to make himself go in the potty, and was getting the whole idea of it down. So, the second week, I only put him in underwear, and he got used to that. By the end of the 2 weeks, we were able to go anywhere with very few accidents, as long as we could go potty kind of frequently. That's it in a nutshell for him. It really did the trick. Oh, and since he would be so busy playing all the time, I also set an egg timer for 30 minutes, and every time it rang, I would excitedly tell him it was time to go try. If he went, then he went, and if he didn't, then he didn't. We just were happy as long as he tried. I think it is important in that 2 weeks too, that you don't go back to diapers or pullups for any reason whatsoever (except bedtime). Once you pull out the underwear, really stick with them the whole time.

Good luck to you!! I know potty training isn't the most fun thing in the world to do, especially with a baby running around.

I have 3 boys and two are of close ages, now 4,6 and 11. I suggest, if it doesn't offend you, to let your son go around the house for a while without any pants on. I found by boys more likely to use the toilet when they did not have the barrier of wearing pants. I don't really remember but I am quite sure they were only going around the house butt naked (still wore shirts) for about a month. Continue with everything else such as asking or telling him to go use the toliet at certain times, praises, etc.

Hey there! Potty training isn't easy and every child is different. My boys (now 14 and 10) potty trained starting at 2 1/2. I didn't push them before that. Boys tend to mature slower than girls. They were potty trained by the time they were 3. It wasn't too hard for them, but they were ready. My 7 year old daughter potty trained herself at 14 months. But my niece who is 10 days older than my daughter didn't even think about it until she was over 3 years old. (It wasn't because she didn't get the concept, it was because she just wasn't ready. She was reading books to herself at the age of 3=) Every child is different. He may not be ready, he may potty train around the same time as his sister. Don't give up! When he's 20 he and his friends aren't going to sit around discussing who potty trained the fastest. Hahaha He'll get it, hopefully sooner rather than later right?? =) Good luck!

My children are the same age difference. Does he ever try to pretend that he's a baby? My daughter did that after my son was born. We had to kind of go along with it but tell her how great it is to be big and all the fun things you get to do that babies don't. That phase passed soon.

She was about three when she was potty trained. I just let her run around naked for a day and go pee in her new potty. They have ones at rofu that play songs when they're peed in. She really dug it.

He may just be having a hard time getting use to having a sister. Someone once told me it's like your husband bringing home another wife and saying "I thought you were so great I went out and got another!"

Another thought...we tried giving a peice of candy everytime she went in the potty. Not the best for their teeth but it did help!

My twins will turn 3 at the end of the month and I have a 14 month old.

It has taken 3 months to potty train. I started by leaving my girls naked from the waist down and rolling up all the carpets. They were so used to just peeing and not thinking about what was happening when they had a diaper on. This helped make them aware of the process and they went from being surprised to anticipating when it was about to happen.

I found pull ups to be no different than diapers in their mind. I had to toss them and deal with them having accidents in their pants because if I put a pull up on them they went right back to the old behavior. We went through a lot of panties and cleaned up a lot of pee - which can be frustrating when you have two accidents in different places to clean up and a baby on the loose who get to the mess before you do.

I reward with a small candy (skittle, M&M, sugar free jelly belly) and a small sticker when they pee in the potty. They get a large sticker and a larger treat (oreo cookie, kinder chocolate, mini candy cane) when they poop on the potty.

It helps to talk about all the great things they can do (like go to school, go to the store with you, go swimming) once they start using the big girl/boy potty and keeping their pants clean and dry.

We even took them swimming and told them they were doing such a great job using the potty that they earned a trip to the pool and that we could go now because we were not worried about having to clean up an accident.

One of my girls will still have an accident here and there, but they are potty trained. We have to plan accordingly and take our potty topper everywhere. We also have a travel potty that folds up small, uses gallon zip lock bags that can be used in our van (not as necessary for a boy). We make sure to afford them the opportunity to go to the bathroom and we do put pull ups on them now if we know there is a good chance we won't be able to stop at a moments notice and have them pee on the potty.

Other ideas: Throw fruit loops in the toilet for your son to aim at - this makes peeing fun. Let him pee standing if he shows more interest in doing that.

When he gets X number of stickers on his chart give him a small car or some other small inexpensive toy for his accomplishment.

Take a short trip(nearby shopping area) and leave him in big boy pants. Expalain that if he keeps his big boy pants dry and uses the potty while you are out, then you can sit down and have food while you are out, and that if he pees or poops in his big boy pants then you have to go home and clean up.

Go into bathrooms and see if he will use them. My girls like to see other bathrooms and explore. They are willing to use a potty in a new place just because they want see another bathroom.