Tips for potty training??

[Twilightcraze]

Hey everyone, how are u....my son is almost 2 and 1/2 and we are trying to get him potty trained. He was showing all the readiness signs, like not wanting to be wet and telling us when he dirties his diaper. We try to get him to sit on the potty by himself, but the only way he will do it is if one of us sits on the real potty too. Then, he only sits for a minute or so then gets off the potty and says "I done." HELP ME!!! lol.... How can I get him to sit there long enough to actually do anything in the potty? Also, just any other tips that can help me in this journey would VERY helpful since this is my first child and I've never done this before! I am a stay at home mom so I do try to take him every hour to the potty, but nothing has happened yet :( Anyways, any advice would be very helpful~!!

[Mom_of_2]

Hello! How are you? I'm going through the same with my three year old son and right now we're going through potty training with him. I completely understand the frustration. He's delayed in speech which doesn't help the situation and he's in special pre-k. It's been a slow process but, we've just been monitoring the times when he goes in during the day and we monitor the times when he goes during the day. When we have that established, then we've made sure that we sit him on his potty a few mintues prior to when he goes. We have him sit for a few minutes and we've continued from there.

[cay8099]

Your doing it right by sitting on the potty at the same time. It just takes time. Eventually he will pee on the potty, and when he does give him praise, and make him feel special; which will make him want to do it all the time.

[Cassagc]

Make it a game. When we were potty training the boys when I was a nanny, we would put fruitloops in the toilet and challange them to "sink" a certian color.

[ra11en]

Like Cay said - time and patience. Just keep at it and eventually it will happen. And even then, he will 'accidentally' go in the potty and then you might have another span of time trying to get him to do it again. Just keep it up, it doesn't happen over night. :) When my DD was first training, we ended up buying her a little potty that we put in the bathroom and I would get her to sit on it whenever I went potty, telling her how I was going potty in the big girl potty and she could too. We ultimately moved her little potty into the living room when we figured out she just didn't want to miss anything that was going on by leaving to go potty. Within a few days she was going potty in her little potty. Hilarious when she would strip down, sit on her potty in front of the tv with a book on her lap and say "I go potty like Daddy". :)

And after every success, we give our DD M&Ms. It the only time she gets little chocolates, and she knows they are for going potty.

We just move our DD into real panties and she is down to 1 or less accidents a day. It took 6 months to get to this point, so don't lose hope! Just takes lots of time and lots of patience. You're doing everything right from the sounds of it; taking him every hour, being in there with him until he gets comfortable being alone, etc. Our DD kicks us out of the bathroom now, telling us she can do it by herself (she's 2).

[NanaFace]

We are potty training our 2 & 1/2 year old also. He loves books, so to get him to stay on the potty chair i have a stack of books that sit next to the potty chair. Those are his books just for the potty. If he says he doesnt have to go and i want him to try anyways i will tell him to "read" a book then he can get off.

just a thought of something to try :)

Good Luck!!

[always4myfamily]

With my son we gave him books to read while he was sitting there. It gave him something to do while he was trying to go potty. My son is almost four and we have him potty trained for the daytime. Nighttime is a little different. I really would try giving him books. Another thing we did was first thing in the morning we went to the bathroom, after breakfast we went, then after naptime. We just went after every major thing that way he knew he should go. Now he goes on his own. There are times he still wants his books. It just helps him from being bored. So I keep a couple books in the bathroom. He used to want to take a toy also. We gave M&Ms everytime he went pee. When he went number 2 he got more than 2 M&Ms. So thats an incentive. I really hope this helps.

always4myfamily
www.always4myfamily.com

[always4myfamily]

I accidently posted twice.

[michelleone]

Skip the potty you will only have to re-train him when he goes to use the toilet. Don't use food as reward, stickers worked best for my little one. Start by just training in the morning it makes it less stressful for you and him as your not running around all day wondering when he will wee or poo on the floor. Once he has the hang of it go for the hole day, don't use training nappies it confuses the toddler, let him go with just knickers, he won't like it when he wets or soils himself. Be patience, and don't let him see you want him to use the toilet, if he sees you are trying to make him do something sooner or later he may rebel, the lovely terrible two's. The more relaxed you are about it the more he will be. Let him see you or your partner use the toilet and tell him big boy like to try?

[michelleone]

PS: it took me a week and 1/2 to train my 21 months girl, she is now 2 years and 2 months and dry in the day. She had accidents for the first two months, now she may have an accident once or twice a week. Also, take him with you to the toilet and ask him if he wants to go. Get him a special big boy step. Good luck.

[freckles]

Oh I think you are doing great! He will do it one day.

I used to put my babes on the potty right before bath time. Nothing like the sound of running water to make you have to go! The we did a silly dance and song. Then we flushed our poo poo bye-bye.

[chas1973]

I can't remember the exact name of the video but I believe I checked one out from the library called Potty Training in a day. I was curious since I had just begun with my 2 year old. It was pretty much an advertisement for you to purchase their particular products but it did give the gist of how it's done. You are supposed to move their little potty into the kitchen (I know sounds gross) but they want you to be close to the fridge so you can refill their cup all day long. First you feed them salty foods like crackers, pretzels, etc. Then all day long you have a cup prepared for them. Also during the day they will only be wearing a long t-shirt and no diaper or undies. The salt makes them thirsty and of course drinking makes them pee. I can't remember the exact method , not sure if you place them on the potty every 15-30 minutes. If they happen to pee in the floor you are supposed to walk them to the potty and remind them that pee goes into the potty. Also they suggest using a baby doll that pees before beginning training and letting the toddler "train" the doll. This is supposed to encourage the child to show the doll how it's done.

I tried this method with my child and it did really seem to help. He was doing really well and going pee at least 3 times per day ( just no poops) until he got a bad stomach bug and then totally regressed. He actually had just had his very first poop in the potty (which I think scared the life out of him because he wasn't expecting it and also I was making such a big deal out of it he didn't know what to do :) anyway he hasn't pooped in the potty since and he went for months just randomly peeing when he was in the mood to.

I have a new baby coming in the fall and would like to get him out of diapers before then (he will be 3 in two months) My others were much easier to train and were completely out of diapers/pullups day and night by 32 months. I have to keep reminding myself that every child is different and what works for one doesn't always work for each one. It gets very frustrating though when they've shown all the signs of readiness (waking up dry, telling you they peed or pooped in their diaper, even taking off the diaper and wiping themselves) and then totally regressing for weeks and months on end. So I feel like we are back to the drawing board and I am here searching for info myself to figure out how to do the poop training :)

Good luck!

[thirtysomething]

yes, every child is different, I have 7 children and my oldest (17) was easy to train, just throw in a handful of cheerio's and he'd aim for them and I bought him nija turtle and mario kart underwear. My second child (13) just wanted pretty panties and then she used her potty. My third (10) was stubborn and just refused to go, he'd rather hide under the kitchen table and do his business in his underwear until he was just plain tired of it. My fourth (7) wanted princess pull ups and she still to this day has accidents at night because she has an under developed bladder so we have to use under jams or good nites. My fifth (5) was the easiest of all, I bought him pull ups and he didn't like them he wanted big boy underwear... period!! My sixth (2 1/2) is hard to train she goes in the potty then she won't use it again for a while, I've tried pull ups and pretty underwear and even prizes and nothing is working. I really was hoping to get her out of diapers before summer got here but I guess she's just ot ready! I have a 4 month old daughter and I just wonder if she's going to be just as stubborn as my 2 1/2 year old or as easy as my 5 year old.