Potty Training Tips

Hey K.! When i potty trained my now 4 year old, I bought a bunch of cheap dollar store toys and placed them in a basket on top of the frige. every time she went potty, she picked out a toy. if she poo'd she'd get two. worked like a charm. BUT I also learned that if they are not ready, it doesnt matter what you do.

Hello K., I am a mother of 3 girls, & grandmother of 3 boys... w/ my daughters potty training was easy.. my oldest was potty trained by the time she was 18 months... she started very young, she started everything very early... but she always followed me every where, so when I went to the potty, she went also... & started "wanting" to sit also (at 12 mos) So I bought her her own potty, she started going every time I did. She even would go w/o saying anything to me, just afterwards, she would come tell me "Mommy, I pee-peed". The other 2 weren't that fast, but they were all potty trained by the time they were 2. The grandsons were a different story, the oldest was trained in 2 weeks, when he was 2, but he also had developmental delays. The next one, didn't get it til he was 3. The other is still a baby, so don't know yet! Good luck!! Enjoy every minute, it goes by very fast...

It's great that you've started getting your daughter used to sitting on the potty, but she is extremely young, so keep your expectations in line with her age. She can't be completely potty trained until her little body is developed enough to hold her urine for longer periods of time. She will also have to have the motor skills required to get her clothes on and off to be going on her own. For now, letting her sit after she wakes up (in the morning and from naps) and before bath time is good because that is the time when she may have the most success. If you can time it right and she will sit there long enough to go, then great, but by all means, don't push her because she will lose interest quickly. Also, if she does say she doesn't want to sit, then respect her wishes at this point. You don't want to make this a negative experience for her.

For my son, as long as he was in his pull-ups, he had an excuse. He would go potty as his day care, but at home he was like "dude, I'm off the clock" and he'd go in his pull-up. One Saturday morning, I slipped on some underwear without him noticing and that was it. I packed extra clothes and undies for him and a couple diapers and kept him in sandals. We went all over town. I took him to every potty I could find and encouraged him to go. If we had an accident, I would pull a diaper out of my bag and soak up the accident and tell him that we were going to the potty to get cleaned up. He would then finish going potty on the toilet and we got cleaned up and started over. He had 5 accidents in one day, but I never put a pull-up back on him and didn't stop our running around town. The next day, he didn't have one accident. He went a full week before his next accident and it was at naptime. I never yelled at him or got upset. After all, for 2 1/2 years, it had been expected, no almost demanded of him for him to go potty in his diaper, and NOW I was expecting him to CHANGE?? It takes time and a lot of patience. He handled it very well.

Good luck.

the one thing ive heard from both my parents and my husbands was to let the child "be friends" with the potty chair. basically what they did, and this also worked on my son, was to introduce the potty chair to them before you actually start the training but let them play with it. its clean so its not going to hurt them. but they can sit on it, bang on it, and so forth, this helps them to not be afraid of it. when you notice their routine of potty time (when they wake up is usually a good one)set her on the potty seat. the other thing that really helped my son was i had bought a training potty that you could record your voice as a praise for them. it had a fake flushing handle so when he got done he would push that down and he would hear Yay Rion! You're a Big Boy! or something to that degree. hope that helps some. good luck

My daughter started potty training at 15 months old too. She is now 16 months old. It is so exciting. We have a little Bjorn Potty, and she has gotten really good about cuing me when she has to go. She says "Poo-poo", often she has just gone, however, at least once or twice a day she actually goes on the potty. Things that have helped us are: a) I actually sit down with her while she is on the potty, otherwise she likes to get right up. We use that time to read books. b) sometimes we nurse while she is on the potty, and that helps to keep her down longer, long enough for her to do her business. And finally c) I try to time her potties, I know that she normally goes right after gettting up from nap, so I make sure to take her then. Patience is good too, they normally don't get it overnight, I guess that is where the training part comes in. Good luck to you all!

15 months is too early for probably 80% of children. I recommend stop the effort and wait until she shows interest it will make your life a lot easier.

My name is H. S and I have raised 3 boys, my youngest child with many special needs and medical conditions. What worked best for me was to tell my children at the potty training age that Mommy, Daddy, big brother, Grandma & Grandpa, etc. all go pee pee and poo poo on the potty and that is why we do not have to wear diapers which can be hot and bulky, not to mention uncomfortable. I bought a kid size potty seat to insert on the regular potty for the kids and told them when they were ready to starting wearing cool (animated heroes) underwear then they could pull out the little step stool next to the potty and step up and sit down and wipe with toilet paper and flush when they were done, and I said if they wanted my help the first few times with the whole routine I would happy to help. I did not pressure them to "do it, or else", I just waited until they were ready...after all, isn't that what life is all about when making a change...you need to be ready and willing to make that change before anyone can help you. The older your child gets and looks around at what others her own age are doing, the sooner she will be ready for her new change. If I were you, I wouldn't make talking about the issue the main issue throughout the day...have the little "potty talk" I had with my children, let her see what other children her own age do and believe me, she will be trained soon -- if you push too hard she will dig in her heals until you let up. Common sense will tell you that if you push anyone (even a young child) to do something they are not ready to do, you are the loser because you become frustrated and distraught and can only concentrate on this issue -- let it go and trust me, she will be potty trained when she is ready -- relax enough so she doesn't feel undue pressure over something that will come quite naturally. :)

Hey K., I love quotes also and I wanted to share my favorite with you by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much!"

I am a stay at home Mom of exactly five children. Two are married and the others are 8, 7, and almost 3.

Have a great day!!

What worked for us was different for our boy and girl. We also used cloth diapers on both our children. We started at 18 months for training.

Boy

Just wearing sweat pants around the house. He was able to pull them down easy and when he had an accident the pants caught most of it. He was able to feel when he was wet. We stayed home for 2 weeks and did constant reminders. We also used food coloring in a regular potty to make it "fun"

We were very consistent and we knew when he was ready because he was able to stop his urine when he was having an accident. We just told him one day that there would be no more diapers and honestly, he literally trained himself.

He is almost 2 now and goes to the bathroom in his little potty or a regular potty by himself or if it is "serious" I go with him and clean him up. We are still working on nightime wetting though, he is a very heavy sleeper.

Girl

We made it fun with a timer. I let her run around naked or with a dress on so she was able to lift it up and go to the potty. She was complete trained by 28 months. She was a light sleeper and woke up when she had to go. We put her potty chair in her bedroom.

GOOD LUCK and stay positive :)

I'm in the exact same boat trying to begin potty training. ONe hint passed on to me was to get potty training books and read them to your daughter. Mine love the book I got her. Please pass on any good hints you get from this site!

The best advice I can give is to let your child lead the way. She will NOT go to kindergarten in a diaper. If you pressure her, it makes potty training miserable and you will be doing laundry constantly. I have 2 boys (17 & 12). The older one I took some bad advice and went "cold turkey" off the diapers. I think everything we owned at the time had been peed on!! The second boy, I relaxed and let him lead the way....SOOOO much better! He was potty trained much quicker and rarely wet the bed...

Be consistent (between you and whoever else might be taking her) with your terminology. If you use teetee and pooh, everyone else (including daycare) should use this, as to not confuse her. When you officially start, make it a huge deal by allowing her to pick out new panties. Have three solid days where you and her are at home all day, so you can start it officially. Use rewards and lots of excitement when she does go. We used a timer and set it for 20 minutes. Every 20 mintues when the timer went off, we yelled and got all pumped and excited about potty time. If she didn't go, we would set it for 10 minutes and try again. If she went, she got a reward and we set it for 20 or 30 minutes. I did this for three days until she got the idea. I then started extending the timer for 30 or 45 mintues.

One of the mistakes I think I made was this: after about ten days of this, I felt like she got the idea. I stopped reminding her about going potty and expected her to let me know. She would just wet herself if I didn't catch the signs (the peepee dance), and make her go. She was excited at first about all of this, but then she would just get caught up in playing and say she didn't need to go. Moral of my story: she still needed me to remind her (and I still have to today at 3).

There are a few books out there that are very helpful. Good luck!

Hi K.,
I went through potty training two of my own. The best advice you will ever get is to wait until she's ready! When my kids, I have a 9 yr old and a 3 1/2 yr old, finally got down to business with potty training, we started a new schedule so to speak. At this age she is so focused on what she is doing that she may not stop to think that she needs to go potty or to have the inclination to go if she does realize it. (I did this for both of my kids, but my son was the most recently trained). We would set a timer for every 15 - 30 min. When it went off, we would ask if he needed to go potty. After an hour or so, if he had not gone, I would take him to the potty and have him sit for a while. I also made him go potty before we left the house and would take him to the bathroom as soon as we got where we were going. After he got in the groove of it, I made him a chart that he could put stickers on for each time he went potty. He was so excited about getting stickers, that he finished up in no time! He still doesn't go when he's sleeping, he's a hard sleeper like me, but usually if we make him go potty before his naps he stays dry. Try to be patient... what works for one child doesn't always work for another and it's a long process. I wish you the best in your potty training endeavors and I hope this helps!

You may want to read up more on elimination communication. At 15 months, this is probably more what you are doing than actual potty training.

We didn't start with my son until he was 2.5. He was asking to go and going, so we decided it was time. Potty training was easy and we had very few accidents because he was ready.

It is much easier when they can tell when they are about to go and they let you know. It will be easier around eighteen to twenty-one months. I am the mother of six children and I am twenty nine years old. I wish someone would have told me that with my first one instead of " you were potty trained at fourteen months". I am not saying it is not good to practice, but it is mostly the mother that is trained at that young of age. Sometimes the confusion on the babies part can lead to horrible messes too. I just don't want you to be to hard on yourself if it goes slowly.
God Bless you,
M.

Best of luck to you.......from experienced moms, potty training at such a young age generally speaking will cause a relapse at a later time. I am NOT a pessamistic person, just a realist. I am the mother of twins. My kids started telling me they had to go to the bathroom when they were about 18 months old. I consulted other mothers as I knew this was too good to be true & it was. I therefore put off potty training until a later time. My twins turn 2 and a half this month & we are now taking the subject more seriously. I am motivate b/c I have the expense of 2 in diapers. LOL, J.

As soon as my girls understood the concept of a "birthday party" (around about 28 months), we had almost instant success with potty training. Here's how it works: I told my girls (3 girls now 16, 14, & 10) when they could go without using diapers we would have a Potty Party where we would send out invitations and invite some friends to Chucky Cheese to celebrate no more diapers! The fun part was (and without my asking) the children brought packs of cute girl underwear as gifts! We ordered pizza and celebrated the event just like a birthday. Wildly successful as it made training easy and fun for them and it took maybe 2 weeks to accomplish the task.

My younger daughter is potty training right now, and started at about 15 months as well. She goes when I or her older sister go to the bathroom. I think it helps that she can go when other people besides me are going to the potty as well. She wants to go. I think that's the key. If she is showing interest then, by all means, start potty training her. I just finished potty training my older daughter (throughout the day at least), and she's almost 3. I think I tried too hard to get her potty trained earlier, and it back-fired. I have a chart with stickers on it. I give them stickers for their efforts. My younger one gets up to 3 stickers a day (one for at least trying, and 2 for actually going potty throughout the day). I have 21 stickers for each week. When she finishes up a row of stickers, she gets a toy that's under $5. When she finishes up the entire chart (4 weeks), she gets a bigger toy. It's the same for my older daughter, except that I only give 1 sticker a day for her (for staying dry all day long). She gets a toy under $5 for each successful week, and a toy under $25 for finishing up the entire month. I think it was easier to start potty training my younger daughter. I don't know if it was more because she wants to stay dry more than her sister did, or if it's because I used these techniques more with her. I think it has a little bit to do with both. Good luck!

I agree with some of the others: 14 months is a little early for potty training. My children are 19, 17 and 13 - potty training was easy at our house (my middle one potty trained in one day, but she was all about the panties, and still is!)but we didn't start until they were ready (about 26-27 months) and could easily communicate their needs. Our best trick was M&M's - we kept a jar of them in the bathroom and pottying meant M&M's! And my son is still all about the candy :) Don't rush - they grown up too fast as it is!

Potty training - such a nuge undertaking. I have a daughter as well, she is almost 3 now and we started the training arounf 18-months. I bought all kinds of potty training seats, toilet seats, training panties, books, DVDs, etc. None of them really worked, she just wasn't ready. We are now about 95% potty trained, she will be 3 next month.

So here is my advice - don't rush her, she will be ready in her own time. That said, I recommend the Once Upon A Potty book and DVD, the Baby Bjorn potty training seat (internet order) and buying some fun panties that she will be excited to wear and sad to get dirty. Another trick we used was setting a timer and having her try to use the potty everytime it went off. I think we started in 10-15 minute increments and are now up to 1-1.5 hr increments.

It is a process and not a short one, so have patience and lots of praise for her when she is successful.

Good Luck and hang in there

I am the mother of a 14 month old girl... We have been going to the potty since my daughter was 6 weeks old. Some people think this is just crazy! To each his own! I think that it is wonderful that you are taking the time and interest in teaching your child. Many people wait until a daycare center or the child finally decides "they are ready"...In theory... we could all leave our children in diapers until they 4 or 5. (They make them in every size!) Potty training is nothing more that communicating with your child. Listening, watching, and waiting patiently!
My daughter enjoys sitting on both her potty chair, and "the big potty." I use a padded seat that sits on top of the regular toilet seat lid! This seems to make her feel secure. (Not like she is going to fall in!) I try to make going to the potty a fun time. I watch my daughter, and look for her cues... After a while it seems to happen on a schedule. Now, when it is time to potty she runs to the restroom and takes off her pants. We still have a few wet accidents, but she is almost there. When we are at home, I put "big girl panties", and sometimes cotton training pants on her. She loves putting them on and taking them off. However, it is very hard to find the training pants in her size. Most stores only carry 2T or 3T. I did have a few pair left over from my 1st daughter, who is now 6. Back then, they sold them in 12 months... But now I think with the help of diaper companies... most only sell them in larger sizes! My first daughter was fully potty trained at 12 months, and I did nothing!!! I bought a fun potty chair with a book, and she did the rest!!! My best advice... Make it fun... don't get frustrated! And do not give up... It may seem like an all day affair, but it will happen very quickly if you stick with it!

My tip is don't start so early! IMO, a fourteen month old is not ready. Wait until your child is truly ready, and PT will be a breeze.

Mom of three - 7, 4, and 2