potty training

fitmom82

How do you determine potty training success?  DS was 2 in May and has shown some signs that he's ready so when I got home yesterday afternoon (I'm a teacher so it was my last day) I decided to put him in underpants and give it a shot.  At 1st I was encouraging him every 15 min, I did that 2 years ago with my daughter and it worked great, and he went once or twice but refused most of the time.  He also wet himself once.  Today I'm encouraging him every half hour.  Many times he's refusing those times I let it go, but he's also gone several times.  He did poop in his pants, but he hasn't wet himself yet.  You think this is just luck or is he getting it?  He hasn't asked to go at all which it what I'd really like to see happen.  He's been up for 5 hours

yeah.

PT success to me is that I don't have to cue my kids (even asking them) and they don't have accidents.

neverblushed

I felt like there were 4 stages of potty training, and kids may progress through them at very different rates.  Some kids may go through more than one stage in a single day, or may be stuck at a certain stage for months.

1.  Child shows some interest in using the potty, but still wears diapers.  Child may use potty when prompted, and may ask to use the potty sometimes, but most of the effort is still coming from the parent.

2.   Child uses the potty enough to begin wearing underwear, but still has accidents.  The parent still reminds the child a lot, although the child may also ask to use the potty quite a bit.

3.  Child becomes more consistent and accidents happen rarely, but parent still reminds child to go before leaving the house, before nap/bed, and when the child is doing "the pee-pee dance."  There are some children who reach this stage for pee, but will not use the potty for poop.  Some kids just have poop accidents or hold it and then let it out in a pull up while asleep.  Others deal with it by asking for a diaper.  If pressured at this point, kids who aren't ready can become really constipated.

4.  Child is 100% consistent during the day for pee and poop.  The parent may still remind the child to pee before leaving the house, but otherwise the child uses the bathroom without the parents' involvement.

I'd say you're early in stage 2.  I've known people who claimed their children were "potty trained" at stage 1 or 2, but those people just seemed like they were more interested in the bragging rights than in reality. Who knows, though?  You could be at stage 3 in a few days, and that's probably a safe place to begin telling people your success story!  Congrats!

fitmom82

I think we're in stage 3.  DS did end up having 2 very small pee accidents yesterday, and both poops were in in underwear.  Today he has not had 1 accident and has even asked several times to go potty.  However, he has not pooped yet today.  He also came over to me while we were at the sprinkle park and told me he was peeing.  I guess I should count that as an accident, but I feel like being in the water and playing around, it's not that big of a deal.  I did take him out today to a few stores and a class and left him in his undies and he was fine.  It seems so odd that this could be going so well while he's so young.