Who has taken the plunge...

ascheck · June 2014

And potty trained. We are just starting. If you have what method did you use and how long did it take you?

kaleb87 · June 2014

My dd is completely potty trained. We bought a potty just before she was one just to get her comfortable with it. I would just sit her on it while I was going. To my surprise she started going when I would sit her on it. I let this happen for a couple weeks then really started pursuing her going. I would have to ask her every 2 hours if she had to potty. If she'd say no I would still just take her in and put her on the potty.
I don't remember how I got her comfortable enough to poop on the toilet. I think I just started reading books to her while she was sitting on the potty. That is still how we do it a lot of times. Around 17 months we got her big girl underwear and made a huge deal about how she looked like mommy now. The first week or two were rough in underwear but now she is great with them. She does have an occasional accident but most of the time it is my fault for not checking before we get in a vehicle.
I'm not going to lie, I was lucky because she never really went the bathroom throughout the night. It may be the case because she hardly sleeps through the night, but I don't know, so I don't have any advice.
Best thing I can say is once your LO is comfortable just constantly asking, and lots and lots of encouragement. We used to do the happy dance whenever she went, and we had to do it every single time. Good luck!

eyenigh · June 2014

Pfft. I took his diaper off for awhile yesterday and he pooped on the floor. Then he told me "Someone pooped on the floor." Yeah, I wonder who it was. I asked why someone didn't use the potty and he said "Well, I don't use the potty," with a tone that we were still talking about someone else that had done the pooping.

It's gonna be awhile.

nunzchucks · June 2014

@eyenigh That little man really has a mind of his own! Your stories crack me up!

eyenigh · June 2014

LilNunz1 said:

@eyenigh That little man really has a mind of his own! Your stories crack me up!

He's such a wise ass. I'm really in for trouble as he gets older.

krispy83 · June 2014

We are in the midst of it, but it's going really well. I bought one of those seats that fits over the regular toilet seat and we sat him on it every night before his bath for a month or so, just so he could get used to it, but he never did anything. I started actual training this past Thursday. I used the Potty Training Boot Camp method that AlphaMom explains (https://alphamom.com/parenting/how-to-potty-train-your-kid-boot-camp-style/) and followed it pretty closely. I didn't do the trip to "parental hell" but we did go to my parents' house on the third day and he had an accident so I did what was recommended - explaining that there was only one more set of dry clothes - and he very clearly did NOT want to go home, and was dry the rest of the night. Lots and lots of praise (and a couple of M&Ms each time) and not shaming him when he did have an accident seem to help a lot.

Honestly, when I was getting ready to start it last week, I figured it was going to be a long haul with lots of puddles because he had never actually gone in the toilet, but I'm really surprised and impressed with how quickly he's picked it up. I'm still putting him in a regular diaper for naps and overnight though. Once we make the switch to a regular bed, I'll work on naptime training. Overnight training seems to be a whole different animal.

According to some research that I've read, there seems to be a very clear window of about 24-28 months (granted, some kids train a lot earlier than that) where kids are ready, then after that closes, it seems to take them much longer to train. Anecdotal evidence seems to support that as well. One of my friends has a DD who is a year older than DS and she waited until 3 to train her. 6 months later, she's still not trained. I wanted to get DS trained well before baby #2 comes so that I can hopefully avoid regression.. we'll see how well that works!

Whew! Sorry for the novel!

krispy83 · June 2014

Nicb13 said:

KrsCrp83 said:

We are in the midst of it, but it's going really well. I bought one of those seats that fits over the regular toilet seat and we sat him on it every night before his bath for a month or so, just so he could get used to it, but he never did anything. I started actual training this past Thursday. I used the Potty Training Boot Camp method that AlphaMom explains (https://alphamom.com/parenting/how-to-potty-train-your-kid-boot-camp-style/) and followed it pretty closely. I didn't do the trip to "parental hell" but we did go to my parents' house on the third day and he had an accident so I did what was recommended - explaining that there was only one more set of dry clothes - and he very clearly did NOT want to go home, and was dry the rest of the night. Lots and lots of praise (and a couple of M&Ms each time) and not shaming him when he did have an accident seem to help a lot.

Honestly, when I was getting ready to start it last week, I figured it was going to be a long haul with lots of puddles because he had never actually gone in the toilet, but I'm really surprised and impressed with how quickly he's picked it up. I'm still putting him in a regular diaper for naps and overnight though. Once we make the switch to a regular bed, I'll work on naptime training. Overnight training seems to be a whole different animal.

According to some research that I've read, there seems to be a very clear window of about 24-28 months (granted, some kids train a lot earlier than that) where kids are ready, then after that closes, it seems to take them much longer to train. Anecdotal evidence seems to support that as well. One of my friends has a DD who is a year older than DS and she waited until 3 to train her. 6 months later, she's still not trained. I wanted to get DS trained well before baby #2 comes so that I can hopefully avoid regression.. we'll see how well that works!

Whew! Sorry for the novel!

And I've also read and been told that trying or "pushing" them too early can be disastrous! Not saying that's what you are doing, but in MY situation, DS shows zero interest and I'm afraid to try too hard

You're absolutely right. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that you should be pushing him if he's not ready. More that as soon as he starts to show any sort of readiness, that's the time to jump on it. Definitely, pushing it early can be a problem, especially if your kid is strong-willed (as so many of our LOs seem to be!). I know if I'd tried it before DS was ready, it would totally have backfired.

countrygrl5533 · June 2014

We started trying in November. Stopped for a couple of months as she had no interest. Then she was doing really well starting in April. All of a sudden about 2-3 weeks ago she just stopped. No warning, no issue, just stopped.

She throws a tantrum and screams "no potty!!!!" when I tell her it is potty time. I don't push it. Sometimes she does that but as soon as she sees the potty, she wants to sit. Other times, she continues to freak out so we just put her in a diaper and move on.

I had truly hoped she'd be trained by summer as we are on the road a lot. But, looking like we have a long summer ahead of us instead....unless she suddenly decides she likes using the potty again.

JENandJEH · June 2014

Nicb13 said:

KrsCrp83 said:

We are in the midst of it, but it's going really well. I bought one of those seats that fits over the regular toilet seat and we sat him on it every night before his bath for a month or so, just so he could get used to it, but he never did anything. I started actual training this past Thursday. I used the Potty Training Boot Camp method that AlphaMom explains (https://alphamom.com/parenting/how-to-potty-train-your-kid-boot-camp-style/) and followed it pretty closely. I didn't do the trip to "parental hell" but we did go to my parents' house on the third day and he had an accident so I did what was recommended - explaining that there was only one more set of dry clothes - and he very clearly did NOT want to go home, and was dry the rest of the night. Lots and lots of praise (and a couple of M&Ms each time) and not shaming him when he did have an accident seem to help a lot.

Honestly, when I was getting ready to start it last week, I figured it was going to be a long haul with lots of puddles because he had never actually gone in the toilet, but I'm really surprised and impressed with how quickly he's picked it up. I'm still putting him in a regular diaper for naps and overnight though. Once we make the switch to a regular bed, I'll work on naptime training. Overnight training seems to be a whole different animal.

According to some research that I've read, there seems to be a very clear window of about 24-28 months (granted, some kids train a lot earlier than that) where kids are ready, then after that closes, it seems to take them much longer to train. Anecdotal evidence seems to support that as well. One of my friends has a DD who is a year older than DS and she waited until 3 to train her. 6 months later, she's still not trained. I wanted to get DS trained well before baby #2 comes so that I can hopefully avoid regression.. we'll see how well that works!

Whew! Sorry for the novel!

And I've also read and been told that trying or "pushing" them too early can be disastrous! Not saying that's what you are doing, but in MY situation, DS shows zero interest and I'm afraid to try too hard

With DS1, we tried before he was showing readiness signs because everyone, and I mean EVERYONE (to include cashiers at the grocery store, it was absurd), told me he should be potty trained before he was 2 and a half. I started with him around 2 and it was miserable for all involved so I backed off and tried again in a few months...same results. After attempting 3 times, I decided to stop because we were both frustrated and it was a battle of wills at that point. A month after he turned 3, DH took him to the bathroom and told him that big boys used the potty and showed him. We switched to underwear that afternoon and he had zero accidents. He was nap and night trained from that moment on too which is usually not the case as night training comes MUCH later.

With DS2, we're not even attempting until he shows signs or gets closer to 3. So far, no interest at all and a poopy diaper doesn't phase him at all.

badbridey · June 2014

We didn't really use a method. She was showing signs of readiness so we would take her when she would tell us she needed to go. We made it to the potty about half of the time in the beginning (she was still wearing diapers at this point). We did this for a while, then we transitioned her to underwear and started having her sit on the potty more regularly, every hour or so. Then we progressed to just asking her every so often, and she got pretty good about telling us when she needed to go. We did LOTS of praise including a little potty dance for every time went in the potty, but no m&ms - the praise was enough to keep her motivated. We also read books about going on the potty. Her cousin was potty training at the same time, so I think the modelling helped. I think it took us about 2-months to really get her potty trained. We used the training underwear to minimize the mess, and I would put a diaper on her in the beginning if we were going to be in the car for more than 20 minutes or so.

We decided to take it slow, because DD was very young at the time - this worked well for us, but definitely took quite a while before we were completely off diapers for daytime. We didn't night potty-train until about a month ago.

nah82 · June 2014

Not doing anything serious right now. I make him sit on his potty before getting in the bathtub and he will pee then. Sometimes when I am going to the bathroom or big brother is, he will rip off his diaper and sit on his potty too. I'm not ready to get intense with it yet and I don't want to drag it out for months when I could wait a couple months and get it done in 3 days.

With my first, we did the same thing sitting him on the potty as soon as he woke up and before baths starting around 18 months. Then when he was almost 3 I broke out all the tricks at once and it worked like a charm. Three days of dragging him to the potty every 20 minutes (used the free Lightening McQueen timer you can download on the pull-ups site to remind us when it was time!) and gave him a sticker to stick on a piece of paper I hung on the bathroom wall every time he used the potty (no fancy chart, just literally a plain sheet of white paper). He was resistant to stopping what he was doing every 20 minutes at the beginning and many times during the first day I had to carry him to the bathroom, but once he realized he was losing the power struggle the second day he just went with the flow. After 3 days he was in big boy underwear 24/7. Hoping it's that easy this time around.

countrygrl5533 · June 2014

namcgee said:

gave him a sticker to stick on a piece of paper I hung on the bathroom wall every time he used the potty (no fancy chart, just literally a plain sheet of white paper).

That's what we have for a sticker chart too. I take a piece of whole sheet scrap paper (printed on one side but all done with) and tape it up on the wall.

[Deleted User] · June 2014

DS is not interested. Poopy or wet diaper doesn't bother him. We're waiting until he shows signs of being ready.

Wipz · June 2014

eyenigh said:

Pfft. I took his diaper off for awhile yesterday and he pooped on the floor. Then he told me "Someone pooped on the floor." Yeah, I wonder who it was. I asked why someone didn't use the potty and he said "Well, I don't use the potty," with a tone that we were still talking about someone else that had done the pooping.

It's gonna be awhile.

I'm so sorry .. BUT .... ROFLMAO and almost peed my own pants reading that.

Zimger · June 2014

DS is interested in the potty but hasn't quite caught on. We are putting him on the potty when he starts moving over to his "potty corner". I've only just tried recently and even then it was because he can tell us when he has gone potty and has shown interest in the potty.

nah82 · June 2014

countrygrl5533 said:

namcgee said:

gave him a sticker to stick on a piece of paper I hung on the bathroom wall every time he used the potty (no fancy chart, just literally a plain sheet of white paper).

That's what we have for a sticker chart too. I take a piece of whole sheet scrap paper (printed on one side but all done with) and tape it up on the wall.

The stickers were the freebies Disney sends in the mail all the time trying to get us to join their monthly movie club.

I did spring for a 99¢ Chuggington play ball at the grocery store the first time he used a public potty to encourage him to tell us when he needed to go when we were out.

countrygrl5533 · June 2014

namcgee said:

The stickers were the freebies Disney sends in the mail all the time trying to get us to join their monthly movie club.
I did spring for a 99¢ Chuggington play ball at the grocery store the first time he used a public potty to encourage him to tell us when he needed to go when we were out.

We use those stickers too. I also put a plea out on a FB and a bunch of friends mailed us part of their sticker stash. One friend is in her 40s, never married, and apparently has nothing better to do with her time than cut the picture part off those address labels that come in the mail. I think I have enough stickers for potty training DD and the next kid. lol

DD's actually better at going potty out and about than she is at home. It's weird.

nah82 · June 2014

countrygrl5533 said:

namcgee said:

The stickers were the freebies Disney sends in the mail all the time trying to get us to join their monthly movie club.
I did spring for a 99¢ Chuggington play ball at the grocery store the first time he used a public potty to encourage him to tell us when he needed to go when we were out.

We use those stickers too. I also put a plea out on a FB and a bunch of friends mailed us part of their sticker stash. One friend is in her 40s, never married, and apparently has nothing better to do with her time than cut the picture part off those address labels that come in the mail. I think I have enough stickers for potty training DD and the next kid. lol

DD's actually better at going potty out and about than she is at home. It's weird.

HAHA mil saves all the free address labels for when the boys come over so they can sit there and stick away!

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