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My son is currently 2. We have started to potty train him. He can go pee on the potty when you put him on but we are having a hard time getting him to tell us before he goes in his pull-up. He will tell us that he went pee-pee and pooh-pooh right after he goes. Any and all suggestions welcome! I am new to this forum so it might take a little bit for me to get back.
I used the book "oh crap! Potty Training." There were a few things I tweaked because I felt something a little different would work better for my ds, but I followed it pretty closely. Mine was fully potty trained in two weeks including at night. It is very time consuming, and for at least a couple of days your life revolves around your kid's pee and poop. In the end, it was totally worth it! Mine is almost three. Good luck!
We used a paperback book that was available in the grocery store checkout line. It was called How to Potty Train Your Child in One Day. I think there are versions of it available on Amazon.
There's a process, and it works. You get a doll that wets, and you have the child walk around the house in a T-shirt only. Your child gives the doll water with the little baby bottle, and then helps it go potty.
Then you have your child get on the potty at timed intervals. The book explains it.
My youngest was potty-trained at 18 months, mostly because I was finally experienced enough to notice the signs of readiness he exhibited. Once we noticed he was ready to start using the potty, we broke out the book again, and we were diaper free!
One of my older boys did have nighttime bed-wetting episodes around age 5, but we used a bed-wetting alarm and fixed that in about a week.
He is still not keying in on his body's cues that he needs to go. Wearing a pull up especially because it is absorbent, is blocking his ability to learn that. Those should only be used at night, regular undies during the day.
I do bottomless potty training and it has worked great for me twice. My daughter potty trained in about three days at 22 months and my son was trained in one day at 2.5 years. He was actually physically ready to use the potty around two and three months, but I could not get him to sit on it lol. Once he finally did and actually peed in it, he was good to go.
Anyway, they are kept naked from the waist down (or totally naked if they want), and reminded that if they need to go pee or poop to go in the toilet. The key is not to ask them "do you need to use the bathroom?" but remind them frequently, "remember if you need to go pee or poop to go sit on the toilet." This makes them feel like they are in charge of the situation rather than you badgering them about having to use the bathroom. I would remind them as often as every 5 minutes, especially after a meal or drinking. Sometimes if my daughter hadn't gone in a while and didn't act like she was going to, I'd say "I need to use the potty will you come with me?" Then after I went she was usually willing to go as well.
Another thing to remember is that potty training can not be forced. Your kid HAS to be ready. Forcing it can either prolong the training (which shouldn't take more than a week or two) and/or cause trauma. If you try a method and he is just not catching on within a day or two, then I would stop and wait at least a couple months before trying again. It is completely normal for a kid to be going on four and not be ready.
Yeah, pull ups are death to potty training. Bare from waste down is best. If he's not ready (i.e., goes on his car mat and just moves over and keeps playing with cars, lol!) there's nothing you can do about it. Put the diapers backs on and try again in a few months.
We only used pull ups after they were potty trained during the day but not at night or during potty training if you had to go out to the store and didn't want to risk an accident. They should not be used during "active" training. In the case of the store, we put panties/underwear underneath the pull up so they could still feel it if they wet. Then you can go to the bathroom, put undies in a ziploc, (always keep one in the diaper bag!) and give them a fresh pull up. You haven't regressed in training and don't have too big of a mess to deal with.
We have found with both of our kids that the full on throw the diapers away and never look back method of potty training was too stressful for our kids. Even with patience, guidance, encouragement, rewards, and a completely positive atmosphere (no scolding or anything like that), they would both start to hold their pee and poop within days of starting full-on active potty training (running around with no pants on and sitting on the toilet on a schedule). With our first, we just kept going when she started to hold (as advised by the preschool teachers and the books), which resulted in UTIs, constipation, visits to the doctor, and encopresis that took a good year to work through and get back to normal. With our second we didn't let it get that far.
If you see any sign that the traditional method of potty training is too stressful for your kids, and they start to hold, I urge you to go easy. What finally worked for us was to start with 1 hour of "active potty training time" an evening, every evening, but then use a pull up for the rest of the day. During that 1 hour they had no pants on, had their training potty sitting in the room with them while they played, and was encouraged to sit on it often. If any pee got in it we basically threw a toddler party - m&ms and much cheering singing and tossing of little toddlers into the air and flying around the room.
When this was going well, we started to increase the time in the evenings, gradually, over weeks (or months if needed), until finally the pull-up came off as soon as we got home from daycare, and stayed off until the night-time diaper went on at bedtime (about a 5 hour period for us). We stayed like this until the child could reliably go potty in the evenings. Then we waited for a long holiday (Christmas break works really well) and extended the pull-up free time to daytime as well. Since the child was already in the routine of using the potty in the evenings, it wasn't stressful. And voila. A daytime potty trained kiddo.
For night time training, remember that there's no such thing as night time "training" at this age. They can't wake themselves up yet. That part of their brain hasn't developed yet. You just keep on getting night time diapers until they get older and their bodies develop to the point where they stay dry at night on their own. Then you drop the diapers and you're done.
We have found with both of our kids that the full on throw the diapers away and never look back method of potty training was too stressful for our kids. Even with patience, guidance, encouragement, rewards, and a completely positive atmosphere (no scolding or anything like that), they would both start to hold their pee and poop within days of starting full-on active potty training (running around with no pants on and sitting on the toilet on a schedule). With our first, we just kept going when she started to hold (as advised by the preschool teachers and the books), which resulted in UTIs, constipation, visits to the doctor, and encopresis that took a good year to work through and get back to normal. With our second we didn't let it get that far.
If you see any sign that the traditional method of potty training is too stressful for your kids, and they start to hold, I urge you to go easy. What finally worked for us was to start with 1 hour of "active potty training time" an evening, every evening, but then use a pull up for the rest of the day. During that 1 hour they had no pants on, had their training potty sitting in the room with them while they played, and was encouraged to sit on it often. If any pee got in it we basically threw a toddler party - m&ms and much cheering singing and tossing of little toddlers into the air and flying around the room.
When this was going well, we started to increase the time in the evenings, gradually, over weeks (or months if needed), until finally the pull-up came off as soon as we got home from daycare, and stayed off until the night-time diaper went on at bedtime (about a 5 hour period for us). We stayed like this until the child could reliably go potty in the evenings. Then we waited for a long holiday (Christmas break works really well) and extended the pull-up free time to daytime as well. Since the child was already in the routine of using the potty in the evenings, it wasn't stressful. And voila. A daytime potty trained kiddo.
For night time training, remember that there's no such thing as night time "training" at this age. They can't wake themselves up yet. That part of their brain hasn't developed yet. You just keep on getting night time diapers until they get older and their bodies develop to the point where they stay dry at night on their own. Then you drop the diapers and you're done.
This is good advice. It also reminded me that when we did potty train, we only did it until nap time. After lunch kiddos went down for nap and a diaper went back on until the next day when we started again. It gave both mom and kiddo a break and worked very well for us.
We did a "potty training boot camp" with our daughter at 2.5. It was a holiday weekend, she stayed in underwear on hard surfaces only (wood and tile floors). She got plenty of her favorite drinks. The first day, there were 3 accidents ("oh no, I spilled!"). The second day, 1 accident. Third day, no accidents. She's been potty trained ever since.
I think a key part of it all was positive reinforcement when she used the potty, but not yelling at her or doing timeouts when she had an accident. We also did NOT give her any treats for using the potty, but like Penny said, it was also helpful to invite her along to the potty too. That way she saw that it was a normal thing everybody does.
Not to discourage you, but I hear it does take boys a little longer than girls to potty train. YMMV.
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