Mom Needs Advice on Potty Train

I know all kids are different and it is different for boys and girls but when I potty trained my daughter the only thing that made her want to use the potty was making her clean up herself! If she used the bathroom in her "Big Girl" panties she would have to take her own panties off and wash them out and her body off all by herself. I also had a kitchen timer set to every 20 min. and when it went off I would take her to the bathroom and make her use the potty and everytime she went tete she could put a penny in her piggy bank and everytime she went poo poo she could put a nickle in there and when she was completly done we took her money and let her go buy her something!

Two years old is a good age to start training, don't get up set some kidds are faster than others. Boys are not as fast to pick up on this as girls are.keep working on him. A good thing is to watch when he drinks and 15 to 20 mins later take him to tryput M&M in the potty to see the water change colors and maybe that will help.

He's not quiet 2 yet. If you start him this early its going to be very frustrating for you and him. Boys are usually older than girls to potty train. My daughter was 2 she started taking her diaper off at 17 months. She had other kids older than her that she wanted to go potty like them. My son was 2 but closer to 3 when he finally mastered it. I would wait a few more months. you've introduced it, now I would wait for signs that he is ready before I started up again.

He is most likely not ready to start potty training. Usually people start training girls at age 2 and boys at age 3. My boys all started training at age 3 and by that time they are for sure ready or at least getting there. Does he keep his diaper dry all night long? Does he tell you when he has to go to the potty? If he doesn't do these things then he isn't ready.

I have 2 suggestions for you. My son is only 9 months, so it will be a while before we start potty training.
My first suggestion is to put a few cherrios into the toilet and have him aim and try and shoot them! I read this in one of the parenting magazines and they say it not only is a fun way for them to learn to go potty but also a way for them to get the aim down so that you have less clean-up around the toilet!

My second suggestion is to try a potty training chart. You pick something that your son really wants, like a specific toy.
You place the toy on a shelf that is too high for him to reach and put a chart below it.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
POTTY
That is an example to start off with. You will add items below potty and all the way over to the left you will put the toy name. Every time your child goes potty he will earn a sticker. When the chart is full he gets the toy that is up on the shelf above the chart. This chart was designed by some people that have a Thomas the Train store and said they would use a train as the reward because their son loved Thomas. They said it worked with both of their boys and when they were done they were very proud of themselves for earning their reward AND learning to use the potty! You can do this with anything you are trying to teach your child. I used to work at a montessori school and it worked well with all 22 of my kids then and I also plan on using this same system for my son as he gets older!

I hope this has helped some!

Hi Adrian,
I am the mom of two boys and have found that often times, though not always, boys are slower at this than girls. At least in my circle of mamas and kids this has been the case. My boys did not potty train until they were closer to 3.
I am a big believer in having potty chairs available, modeling and being really relaxed about it.
Lots of luck!
A.- mom to Dominic (9) and Julian (6)

Some kids just take a bit longer to catch on. A year is pretty early to try to start.

Well, he does seem a bit young. But everyone gets started at different ages. I would suggest making time for three days or so, and you could be outside most of the time. Go out and go shopping for underware with him, and pick some out. And just put them on, and keep an eye on him and when he looks like he has to go, take him, accidents are ok. I get a bit upset when parents get upset when they have an accident. That's why it's called an accident.

GOOD LUCK!

Hello! My advice is...Once you decide that the time is right for potty training,DO NOT put him/her in diapes or pull-ups That confuses them. Get girls or boys underwear. They will have accidents but be consistent. I even put a plastic diaper cover (rubber pants)over their underwear. That way it will keep them from having accidents in the bed everynight. Good Luck and Stick with it! It takes time....
:o)

I used real training panties during the day and only pullups at night! Seems they understand better when they actually can feel the wetness!

It may be that your son is just not ready for potty training. My son is now 3 and I desperately wanted him trained right when he turned 2, however, there was too much going on; a new baby and moving to a new state, and he just was not ready. I waited a few months, but I did talk about it telling him that big boys go potty in the toilet. When I decided to go forward with training him, it took about 5 days and he was fully trained. It was important that I rewarded him (he needed an insentive to use the potty) so for him a small candy, like 1 M&M worked. Some people don't like the reward thing, but if you have a child who really doesn't want to get out of a diapper, it can be a really useful tool. My son did not receive any rewards for using the potty after 2 weeks. He had become so accustom to going potty that he would forget all about getting a candy, so I just stopped offering them.
I hope this helps, but just keep in mind that kids progress at their own pace, and some are just not ready to be potty trained as early as we would like them to be.

S.

It's so common now to have children in diapers well into their toddler years. According to my mom, when I was little, it was very common practice to have children out of diapers by their second birthdays and almost unheard of to have diapers on three-year-olds. I realize that times have changed but my view is of the old school ways so my son was completely trained by two and a half.

Once our son was able to keep his diaper dry at night, we started training by putting him on the potty every hour on the hour. I know it sounds tedious and time consuming but it was totally worth it. After a few weeks, he knew when he needed to go and would tell us. We kept up the hourly trips though for about a month and a half. There are certainly accidents to clean up but that's all part of the process. I'm also completely against pull-ups. They're confusing to the kid who doesn't know when he/she can and cannot go in their pants.

I wish you the best of luck, I know it's a difficult time.

Biggest suggestion I can give is: Don't push it. At one year, nearly two is too early for him to catch on. You, the mom, can introduce and encourage. I say it's very important to get them use to stopping in the middle of their "play" to go potty, so while you, mom, are playing with him, stop in the middle of playing and say "Hey Damian, I have to go potty, I'll be right back". Encourage him to go with you so he will know what it's like to stop playing to go potty. I have twins who are nearly four (May 7) and they have been in big boy underwear for only one month now. Remember, every child is different. Best to you!

When my little boy needed to be trained on the potty I used my mothers' advice. You drop a square of tolite paper in the tolite and tell your son to pretend its a boat and he has to pee on it to "sink the boat". My son thought it was so funny and he did it. It sounds funny but it worked for him.:)

I am a mother of 3 children so I have potty trained a few times. I agree with the other mothers that a 1 year old especially a boy is a bit early but only you know your child. You will know when he is ready to begin the process and when you do as the other mothers have said....be patient.
I also agree that letting the child feel when he is wet is a good method(old time i guess but works)I used the training panties but would also buy the plastic panties you would use over cloth diapers to help contain some of the wetness.
I used disposables at night as well. As a stay at home mom I would take my child every 30-45 minutes. My main suggestion is to NEVER ask your child if he "wants" to go potty. Just make it fun,light hearted....lets go potty! If you ask a child anything his main response at that age is usually NO. Then by all means make potty time a time for you to read to him if he is having a hard time getting the hang of having to sit for a number 2 or the cheerios suggestion for the stand up method...whichever you find works for you.
Be patient with him and love and praise him when he does a good job. He will get the hang of it soon enough.
Good luck and happy training!

My advice would be to be patient. All kids develope at
different rates. Your child has to be ready physicaly
and emotionally.Try not to pressure him,but keep it fun.
just sitting on the potty playing pattycake, or reading
him a book,so he can relax and hopfully produce something.
If he doesnt produce anything,thats ok. He can still
flush the toilet.Try not to turn it into a fight,because he will win.I give my child a M&M if he does something
very well as a reward,but not as bribery.Dont worry
he will catch on, just not as quickly as we would like.
hope this helps
M. c.

For my boys, training didn't happen until they were older (around 2), which was hard because my daughter, the oldest, trained herself at 20 months. With the boys I found that they will NOT be trained until THEY see it's time. You can't make them go unless they see a reason for it, and the little ones can't always make that connection. One seems kind of young to be training to me. I never did any of the gimmicks with the boys (cherrios in the toilet); I just kept trying. Have patience; my older son wasn't totally trained until 3 1/2; my younger son (thank God!) was trained by 2 1/2. Just give it time. Hang in there!

We had the same problem with our youngest son, Edward. We tried everything. He was all ready four and a half years old and still doing diapers and training pants.
Finally one day I was talking about it to the daycare owner. She told me simply, stop putting diapers and pull ups on him and go buy him some little boys cotton underwear. We went to Target and got him 5 packs of boys underwear. He had Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Cars, and Thomas underwear. He was so excited to wear them. And the first time he messed in them he hated it. Instantly he knew why we were trying to teach him about that thing in the bathroom you sit on. After that he had maybe about two or three accidents a week. Thats why you need plenty of clean underwear. We kept him in pull ups at night for a little while. Then he would only wear his underwear to bed. He is good about getting up in the middle of the night to go potty. Which was a relief, my first son was a bed wetter. Edward has only done that a few times. He just turned 5 yrs old on April 1st. Now its just teaching him to wipe himself. We have to help him with that.
Try the cotton underwear out at home on him. It helped us a lot. We never had to buy diapers or pull ups since. Diapers and pull ups are too absorbant and pull moisture away from the skin. Cotton gets wet and you feel it. Thats what the daycare owner told me that works.

I also had trouble potty training my little one. I tried and tried and she refused, the bottom line? She wasn't ready. I started her at 18 months and all it did was make me and her upset. I saw that she was starting to hate the idea and so I made the difficult decision to hang it up for a little while. I tried again 2 weeks before her second birthday, and we were in big girl panties by the end of the weekend! To accomplish that I vowed to stay at home with her for the weekend. No grocery store, no park, just me, her, and the potty chair. I let her run around and play in just a t-shirt, with a bare bottom She was mortified at the thought of going potty on the floor, so of course she used the potty chair. If you are afraid your little guy will use the floor, why not lube them up with sunscreen and try it outside? I hope this helps.