Questions about potty training

Kpsbabyzoe

At what age did you start getting "serious" about the PT thing?  We've been introducing the idea of it to DD, and we have scheduled times that she goes.  For example, she always pees on the potty before bathtime, bedtime, and naptime.  Tonight before bathtime she pooped on the potty which was a big first.  And I'm wondering if I should start encouraging her to go throughout the day more, and how you did it.  Did you just start asking every 1/2 hour-hour?  Or did you switch to pull-ups, or did you stick in diapers?

I know there's hundreds of ways to go about this, so I'm just interested in hearing how some of you ladies did it.

Art Teacher

We tried for a week when she was 2 (around October.)  She wasn't ready.  We tried again in May.  She still wasn't ready.  I tried again 2 1/2 weeks ago and it clicked for her.  (She's 33 months old now)

She gets up in the am and we head straight to the potty.  She almost always goes.  Then I put her in regular underwear.  I tell her to let me know if she has to go potty.  I don't remind her every 30 minutes but I do keep an eye on the time. If I feel like it's been a while or if we're about to head out the door, I'll have her try again.  I have her try again before nap.  I have her try after nap.  She sometimes goes again between when she wakes up and bedtime.

She's pretty good with poop on the potty, but she has had a couple of accidents lately.  When she's had the accidents she's told me right after (usually.)  Two of the accidents were when she was wearing a swim diaper for the pool/splash park; maybe she didn't realize what she was doing? 

DD does not wear diapers anymore.  On day 1 we bagged them up - she helped me - and I said we were giving them to another baby.  She wears the underwear during the day and at naps.  She wears a pullup overnight.  She's been dry every morning except 2x.  She's been dry every naptime.

My advice would be to stop using the diapers if you truly think she's ready to fully potty train.

shihtzumomma

We started seriously training on Monday. DD is 2.5. Things are going pretty well. I read all different methods and decided I'd try a modified version of the 3 day PT. We are still using pull ups for nap and night time.

Over the course of the week I have discovered that DD does a lot better when she is bare-bottom. The first day I kept her in panties, and she had lots of accidents (to be expected the first day anyway). The 2nd day we didn't use panties and she didn't have an accident until right before bedtime.

If I ask her if she needs to go, she will always say no. So I have started either telling her to go sit on her potty and try to go or when I go to the bathroom I take her potty with me and have her sit on it. Most of the time she will go when I go. Since she is bare-bottom and the potty is in the center of the living room, she is starting to go sit on it when she thinks she needs to go. Today she said "oh, I have to poop!" and sat down on her potty and did it! I was REALLY proud (and surprised!)

For rewards I have a bag of mini m&m's near by and a chart on the wall. When DD pees she gets 2 mini m&m's and one sticker. For poop she gets 4 mini m&m's and 2 stickers. After 5 stickers she gets to pick a prize out of a bag of toys I bought just for this purpose. This seems to really do the trick for her. After she pees she'll tell me "I need my two em-a-ems, mommy!" and she loves picking out her own prize after she gets enough stickers.

KateLouise

We got serious 3months ago when LO was around 26 months.

Basically I was tired of her kicking and getting antsy having her nappy changed, so one day I said, "stuff it, no more nappies for you." (potentially not the most grown up approach to diapering your child)

She pee'd on the floor all that day. the next day she pee'd in the toilet but needed to be reminded/offered the toilet. Day three she was asking to use the toilet.

Since that first day, we've probably had around 4 accidents, and that's just been her not quite getting to the toilet in time. Still uses nappies for naps/night time.

So it wasn't really the plan but obviously she was ready. 

Before PT, she had pee'd in the toilet a few times, and had shown interest back when she was around 18mths, but then completely lost interest. 

memali26

DD1 was showing interest in the potty, asking to sit, at 18 months. I refused to potty train that early, mostly since I was due any day with #2, so we just sat her when she asked and let her get used to the idea of potty training for several months. We had a few successes, but it was mostly just fun for her. 

Then around mid-May, when DD1 was not quite 27 months, we got a little more serious. I made a sticker chart for her, with a prize every 24 stickers, and the last prize for filling the whole chart was picking out big girl underwear. It took about 3.5 weeks for her to fill her chart (1 sticker for pee, 2 for poop) and we kept her in diapers during that time. We asked her to sit every hour-ish, plus before/after nap, bed, bath.

Once she filled that chart and we bought her princess underwear, I made a new chart with prizes every 50 stickers, and she's in underwear all day, diapers for naps/bed. We ask her to sit every hour-ish still, plus I try to watch closely to catch her "I have to go potty" body language. She's been in underwear for almost 2 weeks and doing well. She had a lot of accidents the first two days, but since day 3 I think she's had only 3-4 pee accidents. Poop is still rough, more often than not it's in her diaper/undies, but she's staying dry for the most part and is asking more and more to go potty instead of us reminding her. We still have a way to go before I really consider her potty trained, but we can leave the house with her in underwear and be reasonably sure she'll stay dry.

brewcitybride

We introduced the concept, and the little potty chair at age 2. I will spare you the details of what happened over the next year and skip to...

Age 3. She was completely trained for pee, but not for poop. That took a few more months. Now she's 100% potty trained and she only uses the big toilet.

My advice? Kids really will do it on their own time. You can do whatever you want, read all the books, try different techniques. But you can't FORCE a child to actually go to the bathroom on a toilet. They have to be completely ready. Especially a strong-willed child like my daughter is. She didn't give a rat's butt about sticker charts, or incentives, or encouragement, etc. She didn't want to do it until one day she did!

So I think 2 is a good starting point. But I would give it lots and lots of time and patience.

kerivp

We started the 'real' training when DS was 32 months old.  I never believed in pull ups for training during the day, since they are essentially still diapers.  We used the thicker cotton training pants with plastic pants over them.  The first few weeks were not fun - lots of accidents (but also lots of successes).  He wouldn't poop on the potty until 3-4 weeks in.

We used sticker chart and treats for a few months to get him in the swing of things.  It helped a lot to get him excited about it.  I never really set a timer per say, but kept on eye on him and encouraged him/asked him to try about every 30 minutes or so at the beginning.

After about a month of a lot of stress and wanting to give up at times, things got a whole lot better.  He's now a champ and is staying dry at night, which is awesome.  Honestly, I just think it takes a lot of patience and trying to stay positive.  They will get there when they're ready.

GL!

Kpsbabyzoe

Thanks for all the advice ladies.  I definitely think even if I get "serious" about it, it's not going to work unless DD wants to.  She's definitely strong willed.  But I think with a little further encouragement she could do it.  I'm going to try at the end of the weekend and then we're going for it.  I'm not sure how we're going to tackle it yet, but I'll see what works best for her.