Potty training?
Good morning, ladies!
I am mainly a lurker here, but I do feel you could give me a tip on how to manage the potty trainng issue, a/ when both of are working full time b/ preschool clearly told us they won't start it.
What do I do? Seriously, what do I do? I bought potty months ago, never really made a big deal out of it,... Maxime (26 mo old) never either peed or poopped there, ever! Sometimes he doesn't mind sitting there. Sometimes he does. I never pressed the issue up till now, but i really feel I OUGHT to do smth, that I mised all the windows... etc...
How can I potty train a child if, by the time I get home with him it is 7 pm, at 8:45 he has his bath and goes to bed at 9 (ok, he might go at 9:30 sometiems, but he's already in pyjamas and diapers...)
Ideas? Get the diaper off him as soon as we get home?
please, please, please...
Re: Potty training?
I think I wrote this exact post a year ago. I too felt the pressure, feeling like he SHOULD be out of diapers. My daycare said that we had to start the PTing ourselves & they would support our efforts. I had hoped it would be the opposite way around, but with other kids they have to care for you can't really expect them to be on top of the PTing. So I waited until he was 100% ready & it's been a breeze.
Granted he was nearly 3.5, but it wasn't until then that he had all the readiness signs -- the last of which for him was recognizing when he needed to use the potty. Once that happened we loosely followed the "3 Day Potty Training" method over a long holiday weekend. He was accident free during the day since Day 4. It took a little longer for night training, maybe 2 weeks, but that's less of an issue for me.
So, my advice is to stop pressuring yourself. What's the rush, really? He will do it when he's ready & then it will be easier for all of you.
Read up on 3-day PTing and wait for a long weekend. It'll go even better if you have 4-5 days in a row, but even 3 days should be a good start - maybe that would be enough for the school to start doing it too?
Before you get to your long weekend, you can just work on making him more familiar with the potty. Sit him on the potty as soon as he wakes up, before and after naps on the weekend, and before bathtime and before bedtime. Sit him on the potty whenever you can tell that he's about to poop (some kids are more obvious than others). Make a big deal about it when he goes on the potty - we just clap and cheer and sing a song, some people give rewards. When he doesn't go, don't stress, just let it go. Also, DD *loves* to flush the toilet, but we only let her flush it when she actually goes on the potty.
And he's just 2, so don't worry, that's early for a boy, they are often 3 or older when they PT.
I'm not anywhere close to potty training yet, but I read this blog and she has a potty training portion that has a lot of good tips. Hope this helps you a little at least! Scroll down and it's the 2nd post titled Potty Training 101:
https://www.mycharmingkids.net/search/label/my%20mothering%20style
We did many test trials over weekends when we are home, no diapers at all. Once he was consistently not having accidents, say 3-4 weekends in a row, we sent him without diapers to preschool. He has done fine ever since. They did support us in the PT, but with so many other kids to care for, it wasn't their sole responsibility to "teach" it.
And ditto the age thing. Boys tend to take longer, usually closer to age 3. My ds still has occasional accidents (usually just bm's, which takes longer anyway) and is just 3 yrs 3 months old.
We're currently PTing DS, similar to how skittles described. At first, we'd put him on the potty before his bath. We used treats at first, but after a few times, he no longer needed that incentive to go. Then we added it to the morning routine. (He doesn't want to go right after waking up, which is something we're working on.) You could put him in underwear as soon as you get home, but for us, that's a pretty chaotic time of day already. The last few weekends, we've let him hang out in underwear and put him on the potty every so often. He goes each time, so he gets the concept, but our problem has been consistency. I think he needs a 3-4 straight days of training, but we always have other things to do on the weekends that prevent us from really committing for more than a few hours at a time. Anyway, once I get a solid weekend in, we'll probably send him to daycare with underwear, where our DCP will help with the process.
Macy ~ 10.23.09