Potty training

[Andex]

I have a 2 1/2 year old and need some potty training techniques that work.

Please help!

[ronin1701]

What's the issue, could you please provide a few more details? For example:

• is he/she refusing to sit on the potty entirely? or,
• is he/she willing to sit, but just not doing their thing on the potty? or,
• he/she is fine during the day, but just doesn't have any bladder/bowel control when asleep?, or
• he/she won't tell you when they need to go to the potty?
• etc.

[hondanation09]

2 1/2 may still be too young for some. Talk to your doctor...they will usually say if they do not seem ready don't worry at least till 3.

[baz5]

Our kid is almost 2. He goes and sits and pees on it at times.
And now when he poops he goes and hides in his room behind the rocker lol. So he knows he hast to poop which I assume is a good sign. We just need to convince him to sit on the toilet I guess. But I wonder, if we can get him on the toilet, should we be leaving the room to leave him alone I wonder? I'm worried he's get off as soon as we leave the room though.

[Mars2012]

My boys took longer to train than the daughter. I know they say don't reward for potty training, but it works. Try stickers or small candies. When my youngest son was being trained, he had to give me a reason to get a Reisen (chocolate covered caramels).

For the longest time, he would pee but not poo on the toilet...finally one day, I had had enough, and told him he had to sit on the potty until he pooped. I knew he needed to do it. Anyway, eventually he did, and there was the most incredulous look on his face: he said to me "Mom, it fits!". The kid was worried his poo wouldn't fit in the toilet! So, lesson being, check to make sure there isn't some irrational fear behind the potty issues.

Buy a cheap plastic shower liner and use it under the bed sheets. Don't forget, disposable diapers are a lot more comfortable these days, and they won't feel the discomfort of a wet diaper nearly like in the past, especially when we used cloth ones. Make sure they are ready for potty training...don't listen to people who tell you it needs to be done by a certain age. Whatever you do, use encouragement and don't make it into a power struggle.

[cdnNick]

We did something called potty training boot camp, it's about a 4-5 day program that tries to get them to realize when they need to go. You can search for it online, but basically they wear nothing but underwear and usually the first 2-3 days is just accidents in their underwear but then after that they realize they need to go and we put him on the toilet, once he went pee/poop he would get a small reward, little chocolates worked the best. He caught on to the pee part pretty quick, the pooping part took a bit longer but we got there. In the end we just sat him on the toilet until he pooped, there was lots of yelling and crying but he got over his fear of it hurting, he had been holding it in until it became painful.

We know a few people that did this with their kids and we will try it on our 2nd son when he is old enough.

[dayna]

Toddlers are ready for potty training when they have dry diapers after naps and dry overnight diapers (rare overnight accidents are ok).

We also had him sit in the potty before naptime and right after naptime. Same with bedtime, we would take him to the potty before bedtime and first thing in the morning. Normally they will pee when they wake up. At least this would let them familiarize the feeling of the need to pee/poop. When they wake up, you would have to get to them asap and plop them on the potty before they wet themselves though - even though it might not really be time to wake up. You just have to catch them before they wet their diapers.

Once they mastered that, we took him to the potty every 20-30 mins whether or not he had to go during the day. We also look at cues as well. When you see your kid with their hands in between the legs and scratching the area - it's potty time. You just have to be very consistent. You can use stickers to reward them every time they pee/poop and have them decorate the potty. My friend would put a cheerio in the potty and have his son aim at it just like a game. That worked for him.

If you don't have carpet at home, you can use a long weekend (there's one coming up) and just put your kid in underwear and let them wet themselves - you'll have to give up the long weekend and stay at home all weekend. Some of my friends had great successes with that - similar to the potty training boot camp above. Be prepared to clean up and do loads of laundry.

As for poop, our kid seems to have a set schedule for poop. He normally poops around the same time everyday so that made it easy for us. He actually learned to poop in the potty before he learned to pee.

Good luck!

[goofball]

Toddlers are ready for potty training when they have dry diapers after naps and dry overnight diapers (rare overnight accidents are ok).

That isn't our experience. Our boy is potty trained during the day but for naps and overnight, he still requires a diaper.

What have you tried that hasn't worked? At that age, they may not be ready for potty training. It's not defined by age (though closer to 4, i'd be concerned), but by when they are ready. Are they not going at all when seated on the potty? Refusing to sit on the toilet at all? Having an accident after they have sat on the potty for some time?

[nalababe]

As the last poster said, time for potty training is not when the pull is dry after a nap or sleep...that is usually the last stage.

2.5 is still young, no worries.

some keys:
Have multiple potties
Positive reinforcement (verbal, "wow, what a big boy")
Don't shut the door when the parents are going to the bathroom

[Andex]

Often she is refusing to even sit on the potty. When she does, she just sits there. We have some candy we try to bribe her with, but it doesn't work. Sometimes she'll tell us when she has gone in her diaper but thats maybe once per day.

[redrockinhot]

It will take a while. You have to keep trying and stretch your patience a little bit.

[dafunkgirl20]

Don't push it.... I have learned that potty training should not be stressful for the parent or the child.

You can show your child the potty, talk about it, and let them know that the potty is there for when they are ready.

I never push/pushed my kids and yes they were later trainers but we never had the potty training stress in our household, we were all happier and once they decided they wanted to use the potty, we never have any accidents.

This is one thing that the child has control over !

[goofball]

Often she is refusing to even sit on the potty. When she does, she just sits there. We have some candy we try to bribe her with, but it doesn't work. Sometimes she'll tell us when she has gone in her diaper but thats maybe once per day.

What I found helped, was that we made it a routine. So certain times, you just put them on, regardless of if they need to or not. Before bath, before and after nap, before dinner, before going out somewhere, those sorts of things.
Positive reinforcement is great, it's finding out what works. We did high-fives, stickers, and hugs.
Our son never told us he went in his diaper, maybe the fact we used cloth, I'm not sure, and he just was fine with the feeling.
We started at around 16 months putting him on the potty, and then decided at about 2yrs 3months that we were going to start the potty training. There was some resistance to actually peeing on the potty but it was relieved by having new books for him to read.