Hi Moms,
My son has been sitting on the potty somewhat regularly for weeks now, but has not yet actually gotten anything in there. (OK, actually, he did once, at the very begginning, a month ago). How do we move forward from sitting on the potty to actually using the potty?
Here's the details: He's pretty young for this (16 months) but we did not push him. We always took him to the bathroom with us and he's been naturally curious about it since at least 8 months. A month or two ago he started to be really interested. We have played at his bears sitting on the toilet, being wiped , etc. So eventually we just got him a potty insert and now he sits on it reugularly - at least twice a day, but when he's home it's often 4 or five times a day. He gets a little chocolate for sitting on the potty if he wants (he doesn't always want it). And he'll say "poop" and "pee" or pretend he's going, then get off. Sometimes he'll sit with us for ten minutes and play with his toys even. Invariably, the poop comes two minutes later in his diaper. Or he pees on the floor as we're trying to get the diaper on him. We just tell him that poop or pee goes in the potty. And if there's poop in his diaper, we always show him that we're flushing it down the toilet. I am convinced that he 100% understands the process, just not sure how to have that first successful landing.
We've been really low key about this because it's so early. But we have been trying to ask him if he wants to use it regularly. Also, I haven't really tried taking him out of diapers and putting him in underwear yet. I sort of want to see a couple of successes before we go that route. Right? Last thing - he used to tell us whenever he had a poop in his diaper, but he's doing that a lot less often and sometimes he seems like he just doesn't want to bothered by the whole thing anymore.
When you are home, Try not to use dipaers at all, and when he does pee on him self, just take him to the bathroom. Give him some time, get him some"big boys underwear" underwears, and i am sure he will be fine!
and keep asking do u ahve to make a pee pee or poo poo?
Our daughter was the same way...very interested at that age. For a few months we just kept rewarding her with stickers for sitting on the potty. (She went a few times, just by chance. We really only had a couple true successes until we took the pull-ups off and just let her be naked or wear underwear.) Her interest varied by day...sometimes all she wanted was to sit on the potty, sometimes she cried at the suggestion. We got her some big girl underwear and she got really excited about that. She talked about them for a couple months and would look at them and fold them and tell me that she would wear them when she started using the potty everyday. Two weeks ago, I asked if she wanted to wear them. She did and that was that. She had an accident about 10 minutes later and that was it. The first couple days, all she wore were the underwear without pants to get in the way of getting to the potty quickly. She had spent so much time just sitting on the potty, she'd seen us use it a million times, and she had taught her dolls to use it....she fully understood. When we put the underwear on, we put a Sesame Street chart on the wall abover her potty for special stickers that she only got when she went successfully in the potty. Stickers aren't just for trying anymore. This was great motivation! She even put a chart up for her babies so that they can sit on the potty and get special stickers too.
I would just keep doing what you're doing. Let him sit on the potty when he's interested, but I wouldn't push it because he is so young. When you're home, take the diaper off and see what he does. He'll probably want to sit on the potty after he pees once without the diaper there to catch it. If he's losing interest, that's ok. That's exactly what happened to us. I got worried, but she came around again and she's still young (just over 2).
Good luck.
Hi N.,
My youngest son potty trained very early too, it great that he is showing interest. Here is what we did; We had a jar of Swedish fish that we called "pee pee candy" and put it high up where he could see it but not touch it we would only give him one once he did #1 or #2. Here is what I think made it really stick, after he did something in the chair we would make a HUGE deal out of it, we would sing our little pee pee in the potty song and tell every one what he did, " You are not going to believe it but guess what ____ did!, he Pee peed in the potty today!" You can even tell his favorite toys!, he will get a kick out of it :)
Hi there, I did a combination of Elimination Communication and cloth diapers with my daughter who was fully potty trained and out of diapers at 20 months. You might want to consider switching to cloth training pants while at home, I like Imse Vimse brand. While I'm all for following baby's lead for when they want to go, you could establish times for trying; first thing in the morning, after naps, and before leaving the house, good habits to get into. Try signaling pee with a pssss sound. Also, I've found that you need to keep making the potty experience fresh and interesting at that age. You may want to get another potty he could sit on by himself so that he has the choice. This is one he could sit on while you or your husband are on the big potty. Hearing you pee might make him go too. Instead of asking, "Do you have to go potty?" you are sure to get a 'no'. You could ask, "Do you want to go on the big potty or your red potty?" I found that giving choices was really helpful. Or saying, "Why don't you pick out a book for us to read on the potty?" Don't give up the moment you are met with resistance. You are getting into the age of resistance anyway, whether it's about using the potty or having a diaper changed. Just keep trying different things and make sure it is fun and stress free. I can't tell you how glad I am to have done infant potty training. My friends are really struggling with their 2 1/2 and 3 year-olds. My daughter just turned 2 and it is a non-issue.
I want to commend you for following thru with your sons potty training. I am a grandma and had my kids potty trained by 20 months. Both day and night. It may be hard to take him to the potty every time he says he wants to but eventually he will do something. It is hard work to potty train. Of course I am from the old school and believe children who are 2 1/2 to 3 should be trained. If I child can ask for what he wants he can tell you he has to go to the bathroom.
Not to sound discouraging, but remember, a child isn't truly trained until they can tell you they need to go, get to and from the potty themselves, and manage their clothes etc. So, they will still require a lot of help for a while. Reading a childs cues as to when they need to go is the parent being trained, not the child. That being said, I think the best way to start is to use cloth training underwear and the plastic outer layer, this lets the child feel the wet, which isn't comfortable. Pull ups are the same as diapers as far as the fact that they don't let the child feel the moisture. In warm weather, just let them run around with underwear outside and bring a potty seat out...
My daughter also showed interest really early and sat on the potty a lot, mostly as a game and imitating adults. We were having a baby and moving, so we decided to wait to really work on it and she lost interest anyway. A lot of little ones go through that imitating phase early, so I suppose if you stick with it and it works before they lose interest that's great!
My son did the same thing at about 18-20 months old. Actually peed in the potty quite a few times, without prompting at all. That was short lived as he lost interest in using the potty. We waited a year or so and then when he was really ready it only took a day to fully train him. (which was a blessing-i didn't realize no diapers was a WHOLE new thing to deal with-especially when your on the highway or at an event with lots of people-the older the better). His interest may pick up or decrease-I would continue at his pace, butlike the suggestion below not push him on it at all as he is still very young.
Hi N.,
I potty trained my daughter at 18 months... we were also low key about it. We used cloth diaper so she new when she was wet, and she would tell us the diaper was wet or dirty. When she became resistive for diaper changes we decided it was time to train. We waited for a warm stretch and left her naked from the waist down during the day and bought several cheap potties from ikea so that we could have one in every room. When ever she would start to pee, we would catch it right away because she was naked and put her on the potty. She soon caught on that there was a more comfortable alternative to peeing on herself and she started telling us in advance so that we could set her on the potty. It took about 3 days before she was ready for pants and underwear. Now she only wears diapers at naps and overnight ( I feel she is too young to control sleeping, although the diaper is usually dry when she wales up). She has been potty trained for about 2 months and rarely has an accident, but when she is detracted we do have to be proactive about putting her on the potty.
Keep in mind though, potty trained children come with there own issues....may daughter does not care for public restrooms and for a long time would not use them, so in the beginning grocery shopping and car trips were difficult, and now I feel like I know the quickest route to the potty in every store! Its better then diapers definatley... but it is a challenge sometimes!
Best of Luck!
Hi N.,
A lot of kids like to play on the potty at that young age. We bought my daughter a potty when she was close to 2, because I thought we were supposed to. She sat on it a few times but never once deposited anything. Both of my kids told me from about 1 1/2 if their diaper was dirty. Different methods work for different people. I was never the type to think using the pottie was cute or to want a kid who was sorta, kinda, a little trained but still needed tons of help to use the bathroom and had accidents daily. I chose to wait until they were turning 3. My daughter trained in 4 days and my son took 2-3 weeks. I never used any kind of bribe or reward because I wanted them to view using the toilet (we didn't train on a pottie) as expected behavior and not something they could choose to do or do to please me.
I'm not sure what type of diapers you use, but if you are using disposables, you might try a switch to cloth. This can help your son's learning of the signals of having to go - realizing that when he pees, he gets very wet, and how it feels just before that happens.
Good luck!
My daughter started training at 18 months. 50% of the world's babies are trained by 12 months...think 3rd world countries where there is limited availability to diapers and where moms wear their babies. You can read all about it in a NY Times article (October 2005).
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/nyregion/09diapers.html...
The article states that we actually train kids in the first 12 months to ignore the signals they get telling them they need to go. It means tuning in to the individual baby's rhythms and signals.
My daughter was not fully trained until she was 2-3/4 years, but we saved a lot on diapers that were not soiled. I'd put her on the toilet as I was getting in the shower in the morning and by the time I'd gotten out she'd be done. She'd sit there happily 'reading' a book. We kept a stack of books and a little step (for me to sit on those times when I wasn't showering) in the bathroom and she got to choose the book. Sometimes it means changing the rewards to whatever the child wants most.
Daycare worked with me. They'd put her on the toilet at the regularly scheduled diaper change, change the rest of the kids, take her off and put her diaper on. Sometimes she'd be successful, sometimes not. Seeing her doing it encouraged some of the other kids to try it and they probably trained earlier than they might have otherwise.
We still put pull-ups on her at night. Sometimes she wakes up dry, sometimes not.
Good luck, most of all, relax. If you're tense about it your son will sense it and will be, too. Then he'll lose interest.
If you know his elimination patterns, continue to try having him sit on the potty when you think he needs to go (or whenever he asks). If you don't know, observe him and see how often and when he's most likely to pee/poop.
Personally, I don't agree with sticker/candy rewards, but definitely continue to encourage him that he'll feel better if he relieves himself away from his body (ie pee in the potty). If you want to know when your son is wet, but don't want to get rid of the diapers yet, you can put a small cloth or paper towel in his diaper so he'll feel the wetness when he eliminates prompting him to let you know. This may surprise him into stopping mid-pee, so once he starts to make a fuss, ask him if he wants to sit on the potty and put the rest of the pee in there.
In toilet training as most things remember it's one step forward and two steps back and then a huge leap ;)
