Potty training- where to begin??

nvp05

Hi everyone! I haven't posted much lately but I check in when I get a chance! I'm planning to start seriously potty training Rena when she turns 2...which is just a couple weeks away! I don't know how to really start the process. Are there any good books or websites I can check out? I'm kind of freaked out by this whole thing and wouldn't mind if she stayed in diapers a few more years.

She's been going to school for about 6 months now and they sit them on the little toilet everyday. She goes about once a week but I think that's just by chance. I bought one of those Baby Bjorn potty seats but she is more interested in carrying it around and sitting her Dora dolls inside it. Would one of those potty ring seats work better since she sits on an actual little potty at school? She's showing some signs of being ready and I want to get started at home since they are helping out with it at school already. Any suggestions? TIA.

ayersfam20

My advice is not not push her.  If she's not ready it will just be a frusturating process for both of you.  If she is ready then being consistent is the best way to start the process.

Once DD started waking up from her naps dry and telling me when she went potty in her diaper is when we started. She was about 27 months.  I put her in panties and took her to the potty everytime she woke up, before we ate, before we went anywhere, etc.  She did ok with the potty seat but liked the ring on the toilet better. 

ETA: She loved the book Once Upon A Potty.  We read it all. the. time.  I credit Prudence with really potty training her. :-)

nvp05

Thanks for the advice. Rena loves reading so I will look into that book. I also don't know if she's completely ready, but I just thought we should be doing something at home now since she practices at school. She tells me when she's pooped in her diaper and is very interested in watching me when I go to the bathroom.

JamicanBride

One of the teachers at Gideon's MDO suggested getting them on the potty when they wake up in the morning and from naps, before baths, before leaving the house, and before bed (naps too).  If nothing else it will trigger some kind of routine.  Since she is interested in watching when you go, put the potty in there with you and have her sit on it when you go. 

The biggest thing with Gideon was having him without a diaper and if he started going run him towards the potty.  We started out on the weekends when we didn't have any plans, so there was no pressure or anything.  

Good luck and keep us posted

lilycat

We took the advice of my good friend and let Lucas come to using the potty on his own. She told me that if I just introduce the concept, he would eventually get it and it would be easy. She was right.

My husband and I joke that we did the no stress potty training method. We did almost nothing. Just introduce and wait.

We bought a three part toilet seat that includes a smaller seat that fold up when adult needs the bigger seat. We like it because with two we'll need some kind of smaller ring for awhile. This way, I don't have to remove the ring all the time.

Good luck.

MrsGalligan

This was posted on the message boards from my Mommy Group...It's kinda long but I hope it helps...

I bought an e-book on it for Ryan because I was struggling with him and used it for Dillon as well. I can't post the book because it is copyrighted, but I can tell you the basics of what worked for us.

The ideal age is 22 months for training boys and girls alike. I can testify to this because it took me 4 weeks to train Ryan when he was almost 3 and it took literally 4 days to train Dillon at 22 months.

You should have a 3-day period set aside where you don't need to do anything but focus on the potty training - like potty training bootcamp. We picked 3-day weekend holidays so my husband would be home to tend to the other kids and do the basic everyday things like cooking, cleaning, taking care of the dogs, etc.

You get up that first morning and have a ceremonial throwing away of the diapers. Both my boys loved this and got really excited about wearing underwear. We don't use pullups or training pants - just regular big-boy underwear even at night. You just basically explain what is going to happen - when they need to go you will take them to the bathroom now. We used little potties, but kept them in the bathroom so they would understand that the bathroom is the only place that you do that. I also had them sit even though they are boys - since they don't know the difference between the sensations for urination or bowel movements yet it could be messy to have them stand to pee. My youngest wasn't tall enough to stand at first anyway. After they know what they are doing it's fine to have them stand to pee and sit to poo though. Dillon was standing about 2 months after we trained him because he had finally hit a growth spurt and was tall enough. It is basically 3-4 days of constant reminding them that they need to tell you when they need to go potty, running to the bathroom every time they start to urinate in their pants and a lot of cleaning up messes. I had them help me clean up when they peed in the floor and neither of them minded it - I think they even enjoyed helping a little too much.

If you take them and they won't sit on the potty long enough to do anything, don't stress, after a while they will sit for longer then a second. With Dillon I had a come up with an incentive to help him want to sit on the potty. I started bringing in his favorite books to read only when he sat on the potty. This helped him sit for long enough to let things happen.

With Ryan, I had to come up with an incentive to help him keep his pants dry by stopping what he was doing long enough to go to the bathroom. Every time he would make it to the bathroom he would put a ping-pong ball in a big vase (marbles would work too, we just didn't have any). When the vase was filled he would get something big. For him, it was an addition to his train table since that was important to him at the time. Just stick with it and in time they will give in and do it your way. Ryan was VERY stubborn and resisted for about a month. Dillon was resistant for 4 days and woke up the 5th day ready to cooperate. The more times you start and then stop and start again later, the harder it is going to be.

As for night time, you should restrict fluids and make sure they get all of what they've had to drink out before you lay them down. We also have our boys' bed's made twice, with a waterproof sheet in between the layers and one over the mattress (Target for about $5). This makes middle of the night accidents easier to deal with and gets them back in bed quicker. Before you start to train, watch to see how long it takes for your child to empty their bladder from the time they have a drink until it's in the diaper. This will give you an idea of how early you need to cut off drinks. My boys are very thristy all the time so this was hard. We cut off fluids still about 2 hours before bed time. If you start restricting their fluids well before you start training it will make the struggle easier. Make sure you take them to the bathroom before you lay them down and you should be good. If you find that they're still having accidents, wake them up an hour after they go to bed or an hour before they normally wake up to let them go - this will usually take care of the bed-wetting problem. I still wake Ryan up before I go to bed to let him empty his bladder - about 3 hours after he goes to bed - and he hasn't really had a problem since I've started doing that. My younger son really doesn't have a problem at night at all as long as he goes right before bed time. They really are all different in what works for them.

One more thing - both of my boys got very constipated early on. I think the stress just got to them. In boys and girls this can be a problem for holding their urine. I took Ryan to the doctor a couple of weeks into training because he was just peeing everywhere and couldn't seem to control it. The doctor said that if their bowels are full they push on the bladder and cause them to lose control. She said to put a small amount of Miralax in his drink every morning - just a sprinkle, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon. This worked wonderfully and I tapered it off gradually and he has done fine since.

As far as potties and potty seats go, we used Baby Bjorn exclusively. We had their big potties ($30) in every bathroom, toilet reducers for every toilet ($30), and 2 of their small potties ($15) in the car for emergencies. They seemed to have the tallest pee guard in the front for boys. However, I have been to Ikea recently and I saw that they have some similarly styled potties for a lot less ($5). If I had it to do over again I would buy the Ikea potties because seem just as good and are so much cheaper.