My son will be 2 in January and my husband and I are looking for ideas to start potty training.
To start, he's definitely ready! He's notifying us when he's had a BM and as of lately, he's..... well pulling himself out of his diaper and peeing either in his bed, on his clothes or on the floor. So not only do we think he's ready... we're ready as well. I purchased a Bjourn potty that looks just like "mommy and daddy's potty". No bells and whistles! And he'll sit on it and he knows exactly what it's for. I ask him all the time, "Where does pee-pee go" and he'll point to the potty.
So all the cards are laid out on the table..... NOW WHAT?!?
My son did the exact same things when he was 18 months. He would pee in the potty when he was naked before his bath. Soooo, on a 4 day weekend from work, I put him in undies. He peed in his undies three times the first morning, hated the feeling & has been potty trained ever since. He will pee in a pullup if he's in one, which is only at nighttime. All the signs were there that he was ready so I just went for it. Good luck!
we did the three day bare bottom method and if I had known about it with my first I would have done it. DO NOT use pull ups or a diaper during the day once you start training only for naps and bedtime. My boys never liked to sit to pee and since your son is taking it out a peeing on the floor he may not like the idea of sitting to pee. We got a very short step stool for them to use until they could reach without using it. They both had bms on the little potty but never sat to pee.
We started around 18 months. I would put him on the potty every night after dinner and read books and tell him it was time to wee/poo. Eventually he would go. (I used the Bjorn seat as well!) No fights though - if he didn't want to - that was ok. But he liked books and would sit most nights and that was that. (I don't think I changed a poo diaper after 22 months?) We started doing the same thing for wees - just start putting him on the potty regularly throughout the day and give him a chance to go. Make it part of your normal day. I didn't do any of the presents, incentives, games, etc....just act like it is a normal thing. You just have to be consistent. I think 20 mins after a drink is the best time to try. (We would "try" after a drink, before leaving the house, when we came home, before naps, after naps, etc....) We did buy a great book for him about going potty - sorry - I lent it to a friend so can't recall name. It was basically - mommy bought me a potty - here is how I use it - i try and try and yeah, i did it!
I think folks make it harder than it really is. Just make it part of his routine.
You got a lot of really good tips so far, I just wanted to add one thing. Some boys are quite social about the potty. If it is okay with you and your husband maybe Daddy can show him how it's done. Not in a weird way just like, hey this is my (insert proper terminology here) and you have one too. We use it to pee in the potty which is way funner than peeing in a diaper. My husband even had pee contests with our youngest who trained in just a couple of days. Poo may be more difficult so just hang in there. No fighting, no weird places to put the potty seat, and plenty of praise. Good luck!
My son started by sitting on the potty chair to pee. Show him how to push "it" down when he does so it doesn't spray everywhere.
It's a process. Can he pull pants & underwear up & down by himself (as that is KEY)?
He sounds very young but you will know when & if he's ready.
Wow - that's an early starter. I do know of a few kids who were trained that early but for most kids it's early even when they seem to be ready. Don't be surprised if this is a false start and you end up back in diapers for some period of time. My daughter had me fooled and started - then went back to diapers until she was almost 3. (Darn.)
That being said, I used the Dr. Phil method. I was at work one day when my mom called me and said Dr. Phil is going to have a surefire way to train your kids - so since I work flexible hours I got my butt home to see this. He was trained by the end of the following weekend (it was a 3 day weekend so it gave us 3 days to reinforce it).
1 - make it a positive thing. No scolding.
2 - tell him that if he's ready to use the toilet you're going to have special rewards for him when he uses the toilet. Ask your son what he thinks is a great reward. My son was a huge fan of action heros and he wanted to talk to the fireman guy, Billy Blazes (my husabnd is a police sergeant - THAT didn't impress him at all). So when he used the potty I "called Billy Blazes" (my husband at work - who disguised his voice) to tell him that my son had used the potty. Billy Blazes got on the phone with my son and told him how proud he was, and how cool that was, etc. He was a very exicted boy. I gave him a few M&Ms and told him we'd have a party when we didn't need to use diapers anymore.
3 - the next time he used the toilet we used those little champagne-confetti-popper-things (think New Years Eve) and we all pulled it at the same time (my husband, me, my son and his older sister) cheered (yay for Mark - good going, what a big boy!, etc.) and had cupcakes.
4 - That weekend, when he used the diaper we just changed it and ignored it. We didnt' comment on it, just went about our normal day. When he used the toilet we had a little soda, or a few more M&Ms, we always cheered, congratulated him, maybe had another cupcake.
5 - Each and every time he used the potty over those 3 days we'd remind him that we'd have a special party once we could get rid of the diapers. Again, we said nothing good or bad, when he used the diaper.
By the middle of the day Monday he told us he didn't need diapers anymore. So we had a party that evening. We baked a cake, hung streamers, blew up balloons, had ice cream & soda, invited grandma & grandpa over. We all marveled at him - told him that he's really getting to be a big boy, told him how great, etc. He never used a diaper again.
2 notes: - it was a long weekend when we had nothing planned - no party, soccer game, no trips to the Mall, no distractions. When he felt the urge he could go use the potty. (We did use a small plastic potty that was "right-sized" for him.) Final note - he did have a few mistakes after that - if we were out at the store, over someone's house and he was having a lot of fun. Again, no scolding, no negative comments - just a change of clothes, and while we were changing I'd say something like "I guess you were having so much fun you forgot to use the potty - next time I think you'll remember..." but it was treated like no big deal.
Good luck Mamma - 2 is early but it's not unheard of and it would be great!
I recommend looking at the Lora Jensen 3 day potty training method.http://www.3daypottytraining.com/
I am a home childcare provider who was approached about a year ago by a parent about trying this with her son. He had never once before gone in a potty chair or toilet, but still we felt he was ready, intellectually. So she tried it over a long weekend (Labor Day). She worked form home Friday for a few hours, then spent the rest of the day shopping and cleaning and prepping for the "war". (she was single parenting due to hubby's deployment in Iraq, BTW).
She mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, shopped and prepped for easy meals (waffles, hot dogs, cereal, frozen lasagna, sandwiches, etc)..and did the things recommended in the guide...like having several sets of sheets ready, about 30 pairs of his undies..and she had small towels all over the house (to attempt to catch any accidents as they occurred).
He wore just undies and a tshirt as the guide suggested and she literally stayed about 3 feet from him for the 3 solid days..24/7. In the first week when he returned to daycare (remember, I had agreed to this as well)...he had 2 or 3 accidents...all week. Nothing for bedtime (no pull ups or diapers).
After a few weeks, she did go back to diapers for night time (he was having a stress reaction rash)...but that was short lived and they eased back into undies a few weeks later and never looked back.
In the last year I have had 5 children train with this method..all with incredible success. The youngest was a 22 mos old girl...oldest were 28 mos old boys. The most recent was a 24 mos old boy who did it over his birthday weekend. It DOES work. You can decide when to train your child. I NEVER ever make a child sit on the potty at timed intervals..who does that train? Not the child! And if you choose to use a potty seat (I don't anymore)...leave it in the bathroom...where in the real world can you go potty wherever you want to?
Begin as you mean to go on. My motto in most things in life!
Good luck..you can do this...you will be AMAZED at the success! I know I have been! I no longer have (nor will I have) any daycare children in my house who are not trained by 2.5 years old!
here are some potty training ideas, they are not specifically for either gender but they should help spark some ideas in getting the process going. my favorite is the rewarding system...it helps the child know and understand that they have to do their business in the potty in order to get a small reward....good luck and check it all out here:
http://www.theskinnyscoop.com/search/potty+training?utm_c...
keep doing what your doing. he has to actually pee in it to get the concept.
We had problems getting our son to stand up and pee in the potty. But one day my husband was going into the bathroom and I pushed our son to go watch him. He came out of the bathroom exclaiming, "He makes bubbles!" He never had to be instructed again!
Wow, lucky you! A BOY who's showing real signs he's ready so young!
I tried the putting cheerios in the toilet trick/aiming to hit them with their stream...
both my boys were not consisantly trained until their 4th birthday. I agree with Rachel about the pull-ups. Let him run around naked waist down whenever you can.
Only other thing I can ad is to follow his lead. If he balks, put it away for a couple weeks and don't push it again until it's his idea.
Good Luck!
And enjoy, teaching him to DRIVE will be WAY more hair-raising than potty training!
