Hwo to Know When to Potty Train

Don't push it. No child ever started kindergarten in diapers! He'll let you know when he's ready.

In the meantime, there's tons of good advice here such as buying him cool underwear, putting a potty in the bathroom (I like the kind that easily attaches to the toilet and comes with a step stool...but can be used independently as well).

Try a reward system to go along with all this. I found a Rugrats potty training book that had reward stickers in it. My son loved it!

Good luck.

Get him big-boy undies, cool ones like sponge bob or thomas the train or whoever he likes and tell him they are his OWN, (like daddys, big bro/sis, whoever). And he gets to wear them if he does peepee and poopoo on the potty. Running around naked is a good way to do it in the summer, but also, usually it takes a little longer for boys, so he might not be ready until he is three. But a little motivation like underwear could get him started :)

I wish there was a switch. My 4 year old put my 2 year old in underwear one morning and said look mommy Dylan is potty trained.
We got a hand me down plastic toilet from a friend and put it in the bathroom with us so when we went we took the boys with us. Then when they were ready we sat them on the big potty. My oldest was in undewear by his 3rd birthday. He would love to sit on the toilet and grab a book. He was actually #2 trained before he was #1 trained which was a real treat.
But my youngest has so far is off and on. We make them sit on the toilet when they wake up in the morning and before bed/bath time. He fights it 70% of the time but when he potties he gets so excited and we reward him with an M&M.
I tried the underwear thing but my hubby isn't on the potty training band wagon yet so he sticks him back in diapers when I'm not looking. I too am expectin #3 in 1 month and was hoping to at least start the training process. Oh and he will run around in underwear and go to the bathroom at daycare but not at his own home.
So every child is different test the waters and see what happens.

I have raised 5 children and numerous grandchildren. When a child is no longer willing to sit in a wet diaper or soiled one, they are ready to start the process. My husband potty trained our 3 boys and I think if a little guy has a big guy showing him it connects with their brain. Since you have a new born, it may be more difficult right now as he is no longer the "baby". It is just a hit and a miss.

You can introduce him to the potty (I started by acting how fun it was to use the toilet. My husband and I would both make the biggest deal out of how cool and fun it was and my son would come running and watch us and pretty soon he got so excited and wanted to try) but really it is up to each kid. So introduce it and try, get some pullups or "big-kid" underwear and make that a big deal, but it will only stick if he's ready. I wish there was more we could do about it, but once you create the opportunity realize that it really is out of your hands and we just have to be patient. I do think we can influence it, but that's about it.

Every kid is different, of course...but maybe some things on this site will help with your question. You can also get a free DVD. It only took about 2 weeks to get mine, not the 4-6 week timeline they gave me.

http://www.pull-ups.com/na/index.asp

Good Luck! My daughter turns 2 in July and I'll be trying harder then. Right now she has a potty and she sits on it a lot but doesn't do much. It's a start!

I have always been told a child is ready to potty train when they can sleep through the night with out going potty on themselves. I used this method on both my girls, one who is currently two also. And it works fantastic! It only took my daughter about a week to potty train. But I did not use the pull up diapers. I went gun ho with cotton underpants! I believe this is the way to do it. I know this sometimes can be quite messy but it worked pretty well.

Our 2 kids are 16 months apart, so I understand the whole 2 kids in diapers thing. It's actually easier to have them both in diapers than to have to run one to the potty all the time and change the other. But, obviously, we can't keep them in diapers forever!
Our daughter is 2 and 3 months and she actually decided to train herself. Just one day she wanted to go on the potty and we thought it was like all those other days she went on the potty and not again for 2 weeks. This time, though, she keeps doing it! We just let her pull the reigns since she's so young and we don't have preschool looming close by yet. As long as she's trained by 3, I'm happy.
But if you need/really want to get your son trained, I heard that you should throw out diapers and let your son run naked for a couple of days. He'll probably go on the floor a few times, but mostly he'll be forced to go on the potty.
This is just one way that several of my friends have done it and they said it only took 2-3 days and their kids never wore a diaper (during the day) again.
If you have time to wait and are ok with it, let your son tell you when he's ready. If there is no real hurry, why rush the little guy? :)

Hi, Brandy ~

This is a toughie - at least it was for me - with a boy. I've gone through two boys and neither one of them was cooperative in the process. Both of them are of above average intelligence. Our older boy is probably gifted. Has nothing to do with it.

We tried EVERYTHING the first time around: plenty of encouragement, parties (complete with confetti), stickers, coins, special treats, even Dr. Phil's "fool-proof" method. And we didn't rush him into it at all. Eventually I gave up and decided he'd do it when he was ready. Well, my mom came over one day when he was 3 1/2 and he asked her to change his diaper. She said if he could do that, he didn't belong in diapers, so she stood in the bathroom with him until he went. A little forceful, in my opinion, but she did in 20 minutes what I couldn't accomplish in a year. And I had no complaints when he never again used a diaper.

My younger son was interested way before his brother, probably because of his brother. He wanted to be a big boy like Michael. But we still struggle with occasional accidents (#2 accidents, anyway) and he just turned four.

We bought my daughter, who is 21 months, a potty a couple months back, but she's shown no interest in it whatsoever, so we're still waiting on it.

Each child is different, Brandy. I've found sometimes it's best to push the issue and sometimes you shouldn't. Not sure how helpful this was, but hang in there! You know, since you have older ones, that this phase doesn't last forever. :)

~ R.

Hi Brandy,
I'm laughing to myself because I did just potty train my 2 yo (just turned 3), and if I'd waited and tried to get him 'interested' in using the potty, I would still be changing 2 sets of diapers too (yikes).

Generally, I'm a take-charge person. Once I decided it was, "time" (New baby sleeping through the night; had all equipment; had a week off from work -- these were what I needed to start, you may be very different), I jumped right in.

Told my son, "Today's the day." He wasn't 100% trained right away, I'd say he was about 90% daytime (0% night time) after a week, but the rest came soon enough.

How did you do it before, with the other two?
Good luck!
T

I started my son when he was about 2 1/2 took him about 2 weeks to catch on. Like you said about your son mine is also very smart. He's always wanted to be a big kid. We let him pick out his own potty and his own undies of course. Also when you do get him his own potty have dad take him with him when he goes. With my son also we put a little chart in the bathroom and everytime he even tried to go potty he got a sticker for it.

The advice I got from our pediatrician was to wait about 4 months after the new baby is born. Also, we just finished potty training my son who is 3 1/2. Once he turned three every month I would test him to see if he was ready. I would put the big boy underwear on and try to put him on the toilet. If it was a struggle, I would wait till the next month. Just shy of 3 1/2, he welcomed everything that came with the potty training and it took three days to train him. I prefer waiting till their ready and not killing yourself trying to do it.