My son just turned 2 and I know it isn't ideal for a 2 year to be ready at this age, I want to atleast try because I'm due with our 3rd baby in less than 2 months. How do I go about this? I don't remember how I did it with my oldest.
I know it's hard with a 2 year old, but my husband is losing hours at work and that's why I wanted to see if my son would take to potty training. The idea is to save money. Diapers are expensive.
A 2 year old boy is not ready for potty training. You are headed for a lot of aggravation if you try before he shows interest in the potty.
He's still practically a baby at 2.
I had 2 in diapers at the same time. My 2 oldest are 16 months apart. It was not a big deal. Change one, change the other....
If you think he is ready, go for it, but in my experience (early childhood education degree, lots of nanny and daycare/preschool potty training [my son is 16 months, so not ready!]), doing something like that 2 months before a big change could actually backfire on you.
Kids who have a big life change (like a new sibling) often have a digression somewhere else in their life. This could be in the form of behavior or sleep or in potty training. If you had a little longer (like 6-9 months) to cement the potty training before a new sibling, the potty training would be a habit and natural and not something that they would digress on. Seeing as you only have 2 months until your new little one, can you wait until the transition period is over and then potty train? I would just hate to see you go through all that work and then once new baby arrives, everything goes backward and you have to go through it all again.
Also, I dont know how true this is, but many people say that boys take longer to potty train and they arent ready for it until later.
In any case, good luck!
I understand wanting to cut out the cost of diapers but I think that you will be inviting frustration for both you and your son. His body is not mature enough to be able to know in advance that he needs to use the potty. When he is ready he will learn first how to use the potty for pee but it will be as much time as several months before he'll know he needs to poop. You could end up with a constipated child if you work too hard at getting him to do it.
If he's strong willed he is likely to respond to your expectations in a manner that will result in a power struggle. By wanting him trained in 2 months at his age of 2 you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself and him. The fallout from that pressure could last for years. Let him learn at his own pace.
Most first children respond to a new baby by regressing. They can become sad and either withdrawn or more "out there" angry. When I consider the whole picture I would not potty train now. Diapers are expensive in money. A frustrated Mom and baby is expensive in other ways.
My son was potty-trained (truly potty-trained) by age two, but it took us six long months to get there, plus six previous months of prepping him for using the potty and getting him comfortable with going there. Yes, a year. Yes, he started sitting on the potty by 12 months of age.
For us it just made sense. He was learning about his fingers & toes, how to walk, how to eat ... why not potty?
How aware of pottying is your little guy? Does he hide and/or make a face when he has a bowel movement? Does he know what the potty is for?
If you really, REALLY want to be done in two months (which may or may not be possible at that age for your little one), I suggest a LOT of naked time for him. You will be cleaning up a LOT of messes, but that worked for us. I could see the very instant he started to have an accident and say, "Oh! You're going pee-pee. Let's do that on the potty." Very matter of factly, not shaming him, but correcting him. If there was a potty nearby (we kept several of the Baby Bjorn Little Potties at home) I'd pop it under him. If not, we'd go get a cloth and clean it up together. By 18 months he would pee any time I set him on the potty, and would go get a towel and try to clean up any accidents he made all on his own (to the best of his ability -- and not always a good thing, LOL).
The last six months was just him developing the ability to tell me he needed to go. Sure, if I got him to the potty every 45 minutes he'd stay dry in his undies, but I think it was ME who was trained at that point. Right around his second birthday, he finally started to say "pee-pee" when he needed to go, and we'd rush over to the potty and cheer when he went.
Also, you probably won't get good results asking a two year old, "Do you have to go potty?" The answer will virtually always be NO. Whatever they're doing is way more fun, and they have trouble predicting the future at that age. Just say, "Hey, time to go potty, we'll come right back!"
Good luck! Pottying early made a lot of sense for us. I couldn't imagine having a 3-y-old in diapers, or 2 kids in diapers. And pottying early truly worked for us. He was fully trained with virtually zero accidents by two. He is the one of the only children in his preschool (where he started attending at age 3) who has no need for the spare clothes in his cubby.
You'll just have to decide if pottying is worth the trouble, or if it will be easier to have two in diapers. It's different for every family.
Look at it the other way. Do you really want to be dealing with potty training with a new baby. You will be trying to feed, change, soothe the new baby and will have to be running with your son to help him with the potty. He just turned two. Trust me, dealing with a diaper is so much easier! Wait six months. The baby will be a little older and your son will be older. There is no hurry with potty training. All three of my boys trained around three. It literally took two days and they were REALLY trained. By REALLY trained I mean, I didn't have to ask them 75 times a day "Do you have to go potty?" To me that is not trained and to be honest I didn't have time to deal with that. I know people that bought the potty and started training at 18 months and their child is still having accidents at 4 and mom is constantly asking and reminding about the potty. My advice is to wait. There are no awards for early potty trainers. And trust me, it won't make it easier. It will make it more difficult for you.
Trying to get an eldest child potty trained, "because" of another baby on the way... usually does not work out. It is because it is by 'your' timing, not the child's.
A child will not potty train, unless he/she is truly 'ready' cognitively AND biologically. Their body, has to have the brain/nerve/bladder connections as well, for the child to even know if they need to pee/poop. And even if they 'feel' these urges, it does not mean they will know how to pee/poop in a potty chair or toilet. They also have to just be ready, emotionally.
Bribing/rewards will not work... if the child is not ready. And it can take MONTHS, even a year, for a child to do it... if not ready.
Boys, usually potty 'train' or are ready, later.
Then, a child usually 'regresses' in potty training with 'stress' or when a new baby arrives. You need to know, that ALL of these things, affects the child, and they do feel pressure.
I would not, personally, do the potty training until HE shows readiness. There will be too much for him to deal with, with a new baby. Emotionally.
I would concentrate on him, even now, with getting ready for a new baby... and how he fits into it all. So he doesn't have a hard time adapting to all the new changes of a baby around.
We use the "Toiliet Training in Less Than a Day" by Azrin. I see no problem with doing it now. You might still need diapers at night, a baby was never a problem when we trained. It takes one dedicated day and then about 2-3 days of accidents. We never had that many accidents, though. GL! P.S. My boys were trained at 26 and 30 months, my daughter at 20. I never pushed the night stuff until I noticed it was happening on its own.
My daughter finished training the month after her brother was born, she was 23 months.
Go for it. Get an early start potty training book out of the library.
A friend of mine started training her 23 month old after her son was 1 month old. She had no problems.
Every kid is different.
Judi Z is right, diapers are so much easier, but they are bad for the environment, costly and disgusting. You have nothing to lose. Just make sure you go about it in a stress-free way, and I'm sure he will be excited to be a "big boy" My daughter was so proud of herself. It was so worth all the time and energy to get her diaperfree before 2!
