Potty Training Advice - Munster, IN

I am a stay at home mom and former preschool teacher. I have a 51/2 year old girl, 3 year old girl, and 6 month old boy. My girls were both potty trained at 18 months. I never used pullups, and I put my girls in their undies and dealt with the accidents. I used diapers at night for a while though. as long as she is interested in the potty keep at it, but don't push, remember that is the one thing a toddler can control on her own. What also helps is to have her help with the accident clean up. soon she will learn that it takes less time to go to the bathroom then have an accident and clean it up. Good luck

Ok, this may sound crazy to most moms here, and I bet I will hear about it, but... I would start potty training your 5 month old now. Your 2 1/2 year old will see her younger brother going, and will possibly want to be the older sister that sets an example. And she probably won't want him to know how to go potty before she does. On the plus side, your son will be trained probably by the time he is 18 months if not sooner. I started training my son when he was 4.5 months old, and now he is almost 10 months, and he barely ever poops his diaper, he goes on the potty. Though he still goes pee in his diaper, he doesn't hold that. If you do decide to take my advise, please read up on potty training that young. Its very delicate, and you don't want to scare him off. You can't push him to go, and obviously can't punish or be negative when he doesn't. You just try to put him on the potty when you think he needs to go, and wait at most 2 minutes. If he doesn't go, just try again another time. Anyway, I know most of you think I'm crazy :) That's ok.
Here is a link about baby potty training:
http://babyparenting.about.com/cs/pottytraining/f/infantp...

I've trained four children. This is how I do it and it typically works in a few days.

Get the necessary supplies:

Potty chair or seat for the toilet
teri cloth panties
juice to fill sippy cups
coloring books, movies, games...
carpet cleaner

Start the first day in a bathroom or enclosed area with linoleum if you have one. Strip you little one naked and let her play like that. Entertain her and keep giving her the juice. She will pee pee on herself and when you see it happening hurry up and sit her on the potty. It usually only takes one or two times and they figure it out.

When you feel confident that she knows now what pee pee is all about..put some cloth panites on her (don't use pull-ups they are glorified diapers and kids just go in them...I've seen four and five year olds still trying to train because mommy used pull-ups).

Remind her every 15 minutes or so not to pee pee in her new big girl panties. If she manages to make it to the potty and get any pee pee in there...give her one chocolate chip or an m&m. You may need to set the timer to remind yourself to remind her.

It won't take long before she figures in out. Maybe even let her pick out her own big girl panties at this point.

You won't get much done for about a week, but she will train.

Poopies are a little harder. You have to watch the signs of straining and so forth. Often kids will freak out about it. They will try to go in their pants rather than sit on the potty. Make her sit. She won't be traumatized. If she does start to hold it so she only goes at night in her diaper (I had one smart cookie do that) give her a tsp of flax seed in some yogurt and a handful of mini shredded wheats each morning early. She will have to go before you know it. Don't give her a pull-up to go stand in a corner like I've seen some mom's do. They aren't going to be traumatized if you make them sit on the potty.

If you see her straining or hiding to go quick make her sit on the potty. If she cries, then just hold her and hug her and keep telling her that it will be fine. She will go eventually and then figure out it is fine like you said.

If she gets stubborn like I've seen some kids do..mostly boys. But the last one I trained tried this. She pooped in her pull-up that mom sent her in before I could put her panties on. She then told me she didn't need panties because she already pooped. So I put her in the tub with a bag and some diaper wipes and I told her that she had to clean herself up. She was surprised and thought I was kidding. I told her no. I didn't make the poop or the mess and I wasn't going to clean it up. I then gently showed her how to clean herself and put the wipes in the bag with the pull-up and I kept pointing out to her how disgusting it was.

She never pooped in her pull-up again and she was trained that day.

It really works. I have a five year old and a three year old that have been trained since they were 2 1/2 and then I trained my neighbors daughter when she was 19 months. They all go on the potty by themselves and haven't had any ill effects from being made to sit on the potty, clean up a mess, and so on. I'm always gentle about it, but firm that they have to go on the potty.

Good luck!!!

Hi S.. I just potty-trained my 26 month old (I also have a 7 month old at home). Here's a quick idea of what I did:

We woke up and went to the store to buy Bear (a little stuffed animal of his) Big Boy Undies, juice, treats, and stickers for the potty chart I made. We potty-trained Bear in the morning by sitting him on the potty every 20 minutes or so. We also felt Bear's undies every 10 minutes or so to see if he was "staying dry". I praised the heck out of that little Bear all morning! When Samuel woke from his nap I showed him the potty chart I had made for him and let him unwrap big boy undies. We did the same thing with Sam (I was pumping him full of liquids to make him pee a bunch) that we did with the Bear in the morning. He wet through 7 pairs of undies and I thought it didn't work. BUT, the next day I put him on the potty every hour or so and he stayed dry all day! He has only had a handful of accidents since then - about two and a half weeks now!

I'm not saying this is THE method to try or anything, but it did work for us. I say give it a try and see if it takes - you may be pleasantly surprised!

She sounds too young still. If you wait until she shows more interest then it will be easier. If she is very comfortable in wet diapers and doesn't leave play to go you will be the one potty trained not her. Use the panties as incentive. Buy the ones she likes and say (not in a bribing way), "When you are ready to tell me when you have to go to the potty these are the kind of panties you can wear" Keep it simple and postive. Don't say "No, you can't wear these because you wet your diapers etc"

If she wants to put them on before bathtime you could try that and say, "Tell me when you need to go to the potty" and then see if she tells you before the bath. Otherwise wait. It is so much easier when they are ready. A.

This is all apart of trail and error. Give her the panties with the plastic coverings she will do just fine. I think pull ups remind the child too much of being in a diaper only use those at night and travling out for long periods at a time. Remember to consistantly remind her to go to the bathroom, have her take hour breaks. If you think you may forget because of the 5mth old set an alarm that goes off every hour this will prompt you and her until you both get into the routine of toileting. Good Luck!!!

Hi S.,

One thing I tried with my daughter, is I let her walk naked in the house. When she would pee, it would go down her leg, and she didn't like that,It worked for one of mine, but not the other. It makes a mess of your house, but if you tried everything else, it worked for me. I can't remember where I heard that. It was either in a book or I seen it on I want to say Dr. Phil. I also tried with my other one taking her to the store and letting her pick out her toilet seat. She loved Dora, so the only way I would let her sit on it, was if she had to go to the bathroom. None of mine ever used the baby toilet seats, I just got them the seat that goes right over the reg. toilet seat, and the step stool to match. I told them they were big kids. Both worked after about a week.
Good Luck! She will go when she is ready to go.

Now that you started (good for you) you must remain relentless with potty training. Every time she drinks, put her on the potty until she pees...even if you have to run the sink water to give her the trickle effect sound. When she's laying, you psysically have to put her on the potty until she "goes". Again, use the sink trick is necessary. Make sure you hug, kiss and tell her how proud you are. Wash her hands (to teach her) and let her go play. Keep telling her during the day how good she is and she's your big girl. Give lots of love mommy and good luck.

I've heard that if you let them wear the real panties (even if they not potty trained yet)the whole day, it will take about 3 days for them to realize that they're gonna get wet if they don't use the potty. It's alot of cleaning that you would have to do. I know it's a disgusting thought but with some kids it works.

She is beginning to show interest at a great age! Don't rush her. Change her wet diaper and let her know that she can tell you when it's wet so she doesn't just sit in it. Remind her that activities will still be there for her when she takes a diaper (or potty) break. I wouldn't stress about this - see how she's doing a few months from now when she is closer to 3. DON'T potty train your 5 month old. Boys typically take longer and you really don't want to put that type of psychological pressure.

I have two boys - the first I potty trained too aggressively - he succeeded and failed over the course of 9 months; the second I waited until he was 3 1/2 and he was trained in ONE DAY. I waited until he was ready. Good luck!

What I did with my daughter when I was potty training was take her to the store and let her pick out her own panties. I told her she could only wear them if she kept them dry. I probably let her pick out 5 packs or so. It worked! She wanted to wear the panties she picked so she did keep them dry, with an occasional accident, but a lot fewer than we were having.
Good Luck!

I'm on my third child and she just turned two. She instigated the potty training. I know that not all children do that, but all of mine have. My first wasn't until she was three months shy of three years. The other two were around two years old. At any rate, I would try the potty thing for a while using big girl pants. If she doesn't seem to care about making it to the potty or can't, then scrap it for a while. I did that with my first and she came to me a month or two later and said I don't want diapers anymore. At that point diapers left the house (except for naps and nighttime) and she figured out potty training.

My experience is really that it is up to them and not us when and how they do it. The more I stressed the worse it was. And, when they are ready, it can go very quickly.

I hope that helps. Good luck and buy lots of big girl pants for the beginning!
K.

I wouldn't try. The baby is still so new. My oldest didn't start showing signs of jealousy untill the baby was about 3 months old. Their worlds change so much with the new baby, it's just not a good time to try.

I tried potty training my daughter at 2 1/2 and she just wasn't quite ready yet. At 3 it went very smoothly and here is what I did. I bought a bunch of inexpensive toys (all about $1 - $3 each) and they made up the "treasure chest." I told my daughter that when she told me she had to go potty and went on the toilet (she had to do both) then she would get a toy from the chest. This was great motivation and worked well for her. She also loves cartoons, so after the toys were gone, she earned a cartoon each time she went potty on the toilet. Also, once I knew she was able to tell me and go potty on the toilet, if she went in her pants I made her sit in it for about 5 minutes. That was uncomfortable and after about a day or two of that she realized the potty is the best place to go.