Starting Potty Training - Minneapolis,MN

I'm no expert but I am doing potty training with my second child (he's almost 2) and from my point of view you just gotta dive in if you want them to catch on and not go backwards. So we just started one day with the potty chair in the kitchen (on tile floor) and letting him go naked or with underwear from the waist down. I would set the timer for every 1/2 hour and take him (regardless if he had to or wanted to go, I just made him) and then gave him two M&M's or other little treat for pee and a bigger ammount or bigger reward for #2. I have increased the time since then and take him about every hour. We have been doing it two weeks and he now has kept his diaper dry at naptimes a few times and definitely knows when he's had an accident. He is still learning, so he still has accidents, so I have to be on top him, watching the clock. And the other thing is he still doesn't poop in the potty, we're still working on that. Don't know if it helps, but basically I would suggest to find some kind of reward that works for him, something he's going to want and miss if he doesn't get (no reward if you go poop/pee in your diaper/underwear). And stick with it strong and hard for a few days and if you don't see improvements and signs that he's catching on, maybe stop alltogether and try later. The worst thing you can do is do it half way and drag it out over months and months.

Read a book called "On Becoming Pottywise." Great tips. Also, they have one called "On Becoming Toddlerwise" and "On Becoming Childwish" which can deal with tantrums and things!

I agree with Becky W, that once your son learns to go "on cue" it will click for him. Once he feels dry, they never like the wet feeling again. The dry feeling is harder to achieve in a disposable vs. a cloth diaper. Friends of mine switched to cloth training pants for this reason alone. One suggestion for rewards that I haven't seen posted yet is train videos, http://rail-videos.net/ or you tube (they have short video clips). This worked like a charm, we went from putting a screaming son on the potty to him wanting to pee and poop all day long on the potty. We gave our son 1 video for pee, 2 for pee and poop. Once he was dry for a few weeks, we backed off the train videos to receiving one at the end of the day if he stays dry, and one in the morning if he stays dry through the night. Potty training is such a blessing in giving moms a lesson in patience and perseverance. Hope this helps.

We used the sticker chart reward system. When he would go potty he got a sticker and M&Ms and when he filled up a part of the chart he got a small reward. We changed this to having to stay dry for the morning/afternoon to get a sticker. I also had him go naked (no sitting on the couch) too for a day or two and also if he had to many accidents in his underwear. We hid the diapers and told him that they were all gone so he would have to wear underwear. Only used a pullup for going out and sleeping (down to just night time now). Good luck.

I'll let you know what worked for me and you can either take it or leave it. :) We put one of those portable potty chairs in the living room where he spends most of his time, and let him run around naked from the waist down. It took him a week or so before he was using it with any regularity. we would reward him with small treats. (got a box of the 100 calorie cookies and gave him 1 for a pee, 2 for a poop) Once he was doing that regularly we moved to using an adapter seat on the toilet in the bathroom and continued the treats for a while. once we stopped asking for them we stopped offering the treats. When we switched to the bathroom we also started putting underwear on him and the shorts as he became more reliable about it. Hopefully this helps. :)