Potty training is no joke, dude

Mrs.Greg · April 2014

So I put undies on my babies this afternoon. After about 2 hours, we had one pair of undies full of poop (more on that in a minute) and 3 pairs soaked with pee. I set the microwave timer for 20 minutes to put them on the toilet to try and pee. Neither one did even once. Before the timer even went off the first time, Fiona comes running to me and says "I need to go poop in the toilet!" What she should have said is "I already pooped in my pants so be careful when you pull them down or else you'll get poop all down my legs which will make me cry and freak out while you stare at me in disbelief trying to figure out how to clean it up." Yeah. That was a first. Lydia never pooped in her undies. Why won't my babies go pee on the toilet?

Seriously, do I keep putting undies on them? Or not? Do they just not seem ready? I have no clue what I'm doing. Like 6 months ago, they both asked to pee on the toilet throughout the day. They still wore pull ups and peed and pooped in them. But also peed in the toilet a few times a day too. Yeah, that lasted about a week. They've been peeing and pooping in pull ups since. Any advice??

Arnegard · April 2014

Spend time outside if the weather allows and take a toddler potty chair out there with you?

I hated that stage. PT-ing dragged on with #1 & #2 forever - okay a few months. With #3, I stayed home Thanksgiving weekend after she turned 2 and it was done. My SIL made snide comments that my #3 would be like her #2 hiding with poopy pants at 4. Yeah.... ::shudders.::

sunnydays99 · April 2014

Have you tried having them just naked, so no undies. I've heard that that can help some kids.

Also I agree with @nowababy, don't make a big deal about the accidents. Just say "oops you had an accident! Next time let's try to make it to the potty before you pee or poop".

I would give it a few days at least of you being very consistent and see how they do.

Mrs.Greg · April 2014

I've heard people say that letting them run around naked, inside or outside, really works. I have issues with that for a few reasons. I don't get it, number one. When I put undies on my babies, I put tight leggings on them, thinking it would be more uncomfortable and wet feeling than any other type of pants. Being naked just doesn't jive with my theory. My other issue with being naked is that's not a permanant thing and I'm so afraid they won't want to wear bottoms after they start getting the whole potty training thing. Then I'll have an even bigger problem. That's my issue with portable potty chairs. I don't want to have to retrain them to go on the regular toilet after they decide to go in the potty. Lydia never used a potty chair or even one of those little kid seats on the regular toilet. But I did get the little kid seats for the regular toilet for my babies.

trizzie · April 2014

Honestly, I waited until both of my kids were just over 3 (3 years 2 months actually). They both trained in a day with zero accidents (ever). It is a pain to change an "older" kids diaper, but if you wait until they are really, really, really ready - it clicks in a day and is the easiest thing ever.

vlagrl29 · April 2014

I used undies with DD last year around this time and it worked really well. I had always heard wait until your kid tells you she wants to use the potty but DD rarely talked last year so we decided to see if she was ready and it took 2 weeks. I wasn't one of those 3 day method people. We did have the little potty as part of our living room furniture that entire summer before we transitioned to big potty.

Mrs.Greg · April 2014

cjcouple said:
hmmm. are they noticing when they pee? it's good she told you she pooped even if it was after. at least she knew.

if they seem to notice i might try one more day. if it's clear they could care less? stop and give more time.

have you had them go on toilet before their bath? sometimes the water sound helps kick start.

Oh yeah, they did not like pee running down their legs and even into their socks. It was almost funny how bothered they were by it!

Mrs.Greg · April 2014

trizzie said:
Honestly, I waited until both of my kids were just over 3 (3 years 2 months actually). They both trained in a day with zero accidents (ever). It is a pain to change an "older" kids diaper, but if you wait until they are really, really, really ready - it clicks in a day and is the easiest thing ever.

Yeah, this was the approach our daycare lady took with Lydia and she trained so easily. She started just like 2 months before she turned 3.

dmurrie · April 2014

This sounds like my DD. She COULD use the potty but just needed the motivation to do it. I finally gave in to everyone telling me to just put her in underwear... that lasted 1 1/2 days. She'd pee in the underwear, run to the bathroom and strip down, and be off and running, naked. Halfway through the second day we told her no more underwear. Back into diapers. The next day, she looked down and said "I don't like diapers. I want underwear.". We told her if her diaper stayed dry, we could give underwear a try again the next day... and the little stinker made it. For a couple weeks, she would have an accident every couple days, and back into a diaper she would go for the rest of the day. She caught on real quick, though, as soon as she decided she liked under wear better! Nothing else worked. She had first peed on the potty almost a year previously and always went at bed-time and first thing in the morning but refused to sit on it most of the rest of the day, (unless we were out which makes no sense at all except that she suddenly developed a great fear of being on changing tables) despite shameless bribery, etc. It's so frustrating! Anyway, maybe after a couple days, a talking-to and trip back to the diapers could work with at least one of them. Anything is worth a try!

nosoup4u · April 2014

My kids didn't wear bottoms either. DS1 would forget he wasn't in a diaper of we had him in undies, but he did pretty well w nothing. I don't think we did it for a long time, but he spent a month or two in just undies when we were home. Putting pants on him wasn't helpful. And re: nudity, DS1 was never interested in it, but DS2 has (hopefully) finished the "it's hilarious to take off my clothes and streak whenever we have house guest" stage. I think it depends on the kid, really. Some are never-nudes , some aren't.

id012 · April 2014

With ds I just let him be naked and he peed on the floor like 2 times one day and has got it ever since. BUT I cant get him to poop on the potty. Hes been pee trained for almost a year

Dochas · April 2014

3 day potty training method. Follow it exactly!

kcisthebombdotcom · April 2014

LalaMama81 said:

I've said that I lucked out w/ potty training - early and fairly easy. Still plenty of accidents, though mostly pee. Quite frankly, I would much rather deal w/ a month of that than wait another year or 2 until it supposedly clicks in one day. But the thought of changing a diaper for a 3 or 4 year old is enough of a deterrent for me.

That being said, I didn't push my kids, they were ready just not the same kind of ready a 3.5 year old is.

I think that the first step is that they recognize the pee/poop right after it happens, then during and finally before. The upside to no bottoms is that they can get onto the potty quicker b/c they don't have to pull down their pants.

See, I don't get what's so awful about diapers. Heck at this point dd takes her own diaper off and puts it in the trash. The one poop a day would be better in a potty but really it takes all of one minute out of my day to wipe her butt and its a whole lot easier to clean in a diaper than a pair of underwear. Spending a month of potty training and the constant reminders/keeping an eye when they drink and remind them to pee/dealing with pee and poop soaked clothes/underwear sounds like hell. With ds we did it at 29 months when he was fully ready and it was one day of taking him to the potty regularly with lots of accidents; day two was 3 or 4 accidents but him telling us every time he had to go, he had an accident on the morning of day three and that was it. He peed his pants once on public about two weeks later and wet the bed a handful of times in the past two years when he was sick but that's it. That seems so much more ideal than a month of messes.

Mrs.Greg · April 2014

KC_13 said:

LalaMama81 said:

I've said that I lucked out w/ potty training - early and fairly easy. Still plenty of accidents, though mostly pee. Quite frankly, I would much rather deal w/ a month of that than wait another year or 2 until it supposedly clicks in one day. But the thought of changing a diaper for a 3 or 4 year old is enough of a deterrent for me.

That being said, I didn't push my kids, they were ready just not the same kind of ready a 3.5 year old is.

I think that the first step is that they recognize the pee/poop right after it happens, then during and finally before. The upside to no bottoms is that they can get onto the potty quicker b/c they don't have to pull down their pants.

See, I don't get what's so awful about diapers. Heck at this point dd takes her own diaper off and puts it in the trash. The one poop a day would be better in a potty but really it takes all of one minute out of my day to wipe her butt and its a whole lot easier to clean in a diaper than a pair of underwear. Spending a month of potty training and the constant reminders/keeping an eye when they drink and remind them to pee/dealing with pee and poop soaked clothes/underwear sounds like hell. With ds we did it at 29 months when he was fully ready and it was one day of taking him to the potty regularly with lots of accidents; day two was 3 or 4 accidents but him telling us every time he had to go, he had an accident on the morning of day three and that was it. He peed his pants once on public about two weeks later and wet the bed a handful of times in the past two years when he was sick but that's it. That seems so much more ideal than a month of messes.

I totally agree with KC. Really the only reason I'm a bit rushed about potty training is because my babies start preschool in Sept and have to be able to go potty on their own. They are nowhere near that and I feel a little pressure to get them started. But under normal circumstances, I think waiting until the kids are READY is better. Even though I don't make a big deal about accidents, I imagine it doesn't make the babies feel too good when it happens.

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