Advice on Potty Training - Union City,CA

Hi C.,

If you're trying to potty train in a short amount of time, I would recommend the method at www.3daypottytraining.com. I used it a few months ago for my 3 year old son, and it worked like a charm. We are now diaper free both day and night. Good luck! C.

Everyone's advice is much of what I'd suggest. I just potty trained my 4th child - a son 2 yrs 3 months old. Again, same techniques as mentioned. Naked waist down for 3 days, potties positioned around the house, incentives (M&Ms for pee, lollypops for poop). His favorite undies worn on the 3rd day and beyond - but if they got wet or dirty he had to wear plain white ones, so he rarely soiled the Thomas undies. Now never does.

I struggle with naps & night time - I am nervous leaving them in undies - sometimes he wakes with a dry pull-up, sometimes it's wet. I don't want his nap/night sleep interrupted b/c he wet the crib... Is this where I've gone wrong with my girls? My 1st son held his pee all night and through naps since he was trained at 2 y 9 mos. My 2 daughters (ages 7 and 4 1/2), trained right at age 2, STILL wet at night. However, there is so much said about this being hereditary, and I've had several nieces and nephews (and at least one sister as a child) with this same bed-wetting problem for YEARS. Anyone have any feedback on this - how do you handle nights with a 2 year old who is TOTALLY (pee and poop) potty trained throughout the waking hours? Do you use pull-ups at night and wait until they wake at night dry or do you just put them in undies from the start?

Thanks!

If you know that she has a mature bladder and she shows the capability to dive into potty training the best thing to do is "GO Commando!" Get your cleaning supplies ready, have your Elmo DVD ready to watch a billion times and let the little one go diaper free as long as she can. Have the potty training chair anywhere in the house that is the most comfortable for her and show her that when she begins to pee she needs to get to her potty chair as soon as she can, because that's where pee-pee goes.
Also, buy cotton training panties and only use pull-ups and night. You may have some accidents, but she will take a LOT longer to become successful if you give her something to where that feels so much like a diaper. Try and stay home as much as you can (which is the part I found most difficult) this helps her feel secure and get the swing of things in a safe place. When you do venture out and you know that you will be out for hours, make sure she feels secure, these are also the times to use pull-ups. She needs to get the hang of it at home before you can try panties out. However, when she goes to your In-laws if you think they will be supportive and not shame her for her having accidents and it is a safe place for her then let them know that she will also be wearing panties at their house as well. You are going to have to bring lots of clothes and I suggest buying up to 24 panties because otherwise you will run out sooner than you can get them washed.
Oh, and most importantly Praise her and reward her as much as you can! Shout hurray, give her favorite stickers, or anything else you think she'll love. Your In-laws need to be on board with this too! Make her big girl panties a really big and special deal!
I started my daughter at 22months because she was ready and by 24months she was going potty all by herself.
I used colorful marbles (because she doesn't put things in her mouth, ever) and then tattoos when we moved and she slipped with her potty training a bit. It only took her a week to get back in the swing of things after we moved.
Stay consistent, patient and roll up your sleeves for some work, but honestly it goes fast. After one week, my little one was already doing great!
Good Luck to you,
-M. R.
PS. I'm not partial to food being a reward, I think it sends the wrong message, but I know some people do that.

Don't even try unless she is waking up dry in the morning. That is the first sign that a child is ready to potty train.

Putting her on the potty accomplishes nothing. She has to tell you and DO NOT use pull-ups. They feel like undies but they can still soil them like a diaper. They are the worst invention by far.

I bought a doll who wets itself to have my son potty train. You can get them at Toys r us. He was 3 1/2 refusing to go on the potty. This was the only thing that worked.

What we did... he would be responsible for feeding the doll ( each time you gave the doll something to drink, it wet its pants, and he was responsible for taking the doll to the potty and showing the doll how to go on the potty.) It is a one day activity to dedicate just to potty training. The whole family got into it, my 18 mo. old at the time was ready to potty train himself and wanted to be a part of training his own doll. We gave my son lots of fluids to make sure he would need to go to the potty himself. Each time the doll ate we created urgency to get her to the potty before she wet herself. If the doll did have an accident we roll played with my son showing the doll how to get to the potty, he would show the doll 4 times in a row on how to hurry and get to the potty. My son wore only underwear and the key is to not put a diaper or pull-up back on them when you start this.

I worked outside the home as well and did this on a long weekend. We only used the doll until he got bored with it (which was in a couple of hours). We just made sure my son always had something to drink. By the end of the day,he was using the potty (something we had struggled with him even doing) by the end of the week, he was fully potty trained, no pull-ups, no bed-wetting. The day itself spent to just potty training was well worth it. My 18 mo. old who watched all this potty trained himself by 2 years. I learned this from a book. I believe it was called Potty Train in A Day or One Day... I also bought books on Potty training to read to my son. These were the ony books that we read at night during this process. My son at 5 still likes to read the potty training books.

Hope this helps, It did for our family...

When I potty trained my daughter I dedicated a week to the task. I bought her "cute" panties but also bought her the thick panties and plastic pants. I told her we would start with the thick ones and when we had a whole day of no accidents, she could begin to wear the cute panties.
I first made sure to have her consume a lot of liquids. This insured we would have some success on the potty chair. I set the timer for every 1/2 hour and took her to the bathroom. If she was successful (and she was because of the large amount of liquids), I rewarded her with an M&M and lots of jumping up and down, clapping and cheering. Pretty soon, she was going on her own and by the end of the week, I packed an emergency bag (extra clothes and panties) and took her to the mall. She went potty before we left the house and I took her to the bathroom as soon as we got there. Success! I rewarded her with a See's sucker and we haven't looked back.
Good luck!

Hi C.,

Don't worry about it, it will happen in it's own time. I experienced many frustrations in attempting to potty train my 3.5 yr old daughter as well. Finally, I stopped trying & let her know that she could tell me when she needed to go potty. I told her that she was old enough to know when she had to go & left it at that. . no more pressure, no more trying. And shortly after, she announced that she no longer wanted to wear diapers & that was it!

All kids learns & develop at different paces. Don't pressure yourself into thinking your daughter has to be potty trained right now (because your friends' kids are or you've heard that this is the age it should happen).

Whatever approach you take, good luck!

my daughter turned 4 in march and what we did was take her every hour and everytime one of us had to go...i would say "mommy has to go potty, do you need to go too?" and no matter what she said we would sit her on the toilet for a few minutes regardless if she went or not..then it became every half hour..i know it sounds like a lot but if you're home with her anyway, it doesn't hurt! and i actually used stickers for rewards for going..after a while she would want to go potty just so she could get a sticker! and it actually worked for us! i have a 20 month old and we're going to start with her in a few months!! good luck!!

Put some potty training pants on her - no pull-ups or any other sort of diaper, explain what you want her to do and wait. I would ask her periodically if she has to go and take her to sit on the potty, but you will get the most mileage after she has her first accident in underwear. Just don't confuse her by using pull-ups. They are exactly like diapers - kids DO NOT see any difference and they really don't understand why they should go in the toilet when they've been trained to go in the diaper since birth. She needs incentive to use the toilet and wet underwear will provide that incentive. Good luck!

C.,

I agree ditch the pull ups. When the wear pullups and underwear it confuses them as to when it is ok for them to go because they have pullups on and when the have to go to the restroom.

I trained all 3 of my kids in 1 day. I would take them to the restroom every hour and if they didn't go potty then I would take them again 20 minutes later and then that became my new hour marker.

The only accidents we had were #2 with my oldest son. I was told that is because that is harder because it is almost like they are letting a part of themselves go, but that only took a few days.

The most important thing is to never put her in a diaper or pull up again, even at night.

Good luck, A.

Go naked! LOL. Rushed answer - but I'd get cute underpants for her to try on - and reward her with if she succeeds. Let her pick them out - even better.

I was fortuate to have my daughter mostly potty trained at her daycare. To get over the hump at home, I let her go naked around the house for 2 days. And we'd rush to the potty and cheer real big when she peepee'd in the potty. it became a big game that she loved, and then we both knew she could do it if she wanted to.

Put towels on the couch - ok to put a diaper for naps, but otherwise naked at all times at home. You can work on clothes as a next step. It's really less mess than it seems.

If you're going out, you can try putting the underpants on under the diaper and talking about keeping them dry and letting you know when she has to go. To get over the hump, you have to let her go EVERY time. No - 'stuck in traffic, just go in your diaper this time'. I had to whisk off a highway once or twice, and quite a few times she dropped them in the woods or even a parking lot between cars, but it pays off, and passes quickly. Really :)

Note- time to get rid of all those snapping onesies. It about killed me because I finally had so many I liked, but "they're for babies who wear diapers". She can't get them off so it mixes the independence message up. (some that I loved, I cut the bottom off of so she could where as shirts ; )

Good luck.

Ditch the pull ups and diapers completely and go to underwear. That was key for our son to get it. Take her in every half hour. Be prepared for a LOT of clean up (stock up on carpet/upholstery cleaner!). I don't think there's anything too magical to say, but be as positive as possible, even after the 20th accident cleanup.

Even our daycare provider agrees about the move to panties. Critical. She said she's never had it take more than 2 weeks to train a child once the move is made to underwear. You just have to commit to it, mess and all. We're about to start the process ourselves once we pick the right weekend this month.

Good luck!
M.

C.,

I haven't actually trained my 16 month old yet, but I just went to a class by Julie Fellom, who is considered a potty training expert. Her method is described in the Mommy Files on SFGate (the Chronicle website)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/category?blogi...

She says it's the most successful way, and since you have four days home with her, it may be a good time to try.

Good luck!
T.

C.,
I would either put her in underwear or keep her without anything on waist down while at home. That will help her figure out what is going on with her body. I did this with my son. It took nearly 10 months to fully potty train him, but he ran around the first month with no pants on so he could tell me he needed to pee! This is pretty dramatic, but you might want to check out the "Potty Whisperer" segment here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25494632#25057426

Good luck!

hi C.! i'm so glad that you have a few days to devote to this process: it took four full days before our daughter (also nearly 2 1/2) was able to let us know she needed to go potty, and i totally agree with the other moms: underwear is the KEY!!!! kids hate getting their "big girl" panties dirty or wet and that's the difference that counts -
the accidents in the first few days are VERY frustrating (like, i'd JUST get her off the potty and she'd have one), and we're still working on the #2 (she "misses" her poo after we flush it!!!! doesn't want to let it go!!!!!) - just hang in there, before you know it she'll be a potty CHAMP!!!! get LOTS of panties (we have about 25 or so!) and another great tip is that when she DOES have an accident, involve her in the cleanup process - have her put her own dirties in the laundry basket, help you wipe the floor, pick out her clean underwear and pants (and socks sometimes, too!). we also gave out tinkerbell stickers for everytime she pee'd on the potty, winnie the pooh stickers for #2 and star stickers for every time she tried!!!! good luck! also, we keep her in diapers for naps and sleeping still.