NCDR- potty training tips?

JNU76 · December 2014

For those of you with older kids, do you have any potty training tips, or things you wish you had known or would've done differently?

blondolphn · December 2014

I need recs for trainers

TJ1979 · December 2014

I agree with MK. We got a little potty and offered to let E sit on it when we woke up, before naps, before baths, etc. We let her watch us use the potty. Then we just waited.
The first time she took the initiative and chose to use the potty, we started using panties. We are still waiting on nap and overnight training, but she does great during the day.

CLLDLL · December 2014

Yep we tried every "trick in the book" with my older son. It back-fired. He hated all things potty until almost 4. Then he woke up one day & said "I want to wear big boy underwear today." He never looked back. Never had another daytime accident, was just done with diapers.

enjoylife · December 2014

Definitely keep it light and pressure free. With my first we intro'd the little potty early around 14/15 months in case he wanted to copy me or DH. High praise when he did go, we had a few potty books and the signing time DVD so he'd get the concept. Around 15/18 months we had some dry days and some not so dry days but he always stayed in the diaper since I was pregnant with ds2 and didn't want to deal with newborn and potty regression. We usually just used the potty before naps, and before bath time until he started signing when he wanted to go then we just followed his lead. Ayer he turned two he started asking and using bathrooms when we were out in public on occasion but not consistently. At 2.5 after we did a vacation we did the 3 day method and let him runaround pants less and he only had accidents the first day. We tried different methods of stickers/fruit snacks/ etc but none of those were really good motivators for him, just had to wait til he was ready. It was another year before ds1 was nap/night trained.

We were planning on the same approach with ds2 but all kids are different, he never really showed any interest in the books or DVDs or following DH and I to the bathroom. I brought out the little potty again when ds1 started preschool and would let ds2 run around pants less for while ds1 was in school and he seemed more interested. He had a few successes and few accidents too, but we did praise and fruit snacks and apparently fruit snacks are his crack. After a month or so he began fighting us when we went to put his diapers back on after his "free" time so I told DH maybe we should try the 3 day method again, so we did, and he potty trained about a week after he turned 2. He's younger and so we have had some more accidents (not wanting to stop playing sometimes to use bathroom) than we had with ds1. This past month we've been dealing with both stalling and regression he stopped telling us when he needed to go, but he still is in underwear and when I told him I was going to put him back in diapers he flat out refuses them lol. He is night and nap trained apparently too with no different things we did with him than ds1, however I'm still convinced he is too young so I put him in a pull-up at night but half the times he takes it off during the night and chucks it across the room.

unaveragejane · December 2014

Also, choose your tactics based on your kid's personality. N is a mini-perfectionist, so I had to be super careful how I approached things when he had accidents. Any negative vibes would really send him over the edge and he would start refusing the potty. If I kept very calm and talked him through, he did better. Pee training only took a few days once he was ready, although he still has accidents if we're out and about too long. Poo raining took a while, and he still needs a diaper at nap and night. He sleeps very soundly.

sarenu1 · December 2014

We only use diapers at night, but E I almost 3.

We just asked if she wanted to wear underwear and explained that she had to use the potty.

Our mistake was asking if she needed to use the potty. We switched plans and just said it was time to use the potty. We started every 20/30 minutes and then pushed it out. Now we let her decide and ask if we think it's been to long between trips.

bumpuser5078523 · December 2014

Today was the first day we went all out on potty training. He didn't do well with the potty seat that goes on the toilet. He kept wiggling around and didn't want to sit for very long. He had two accidents and no pees on the toilet. We went out and got him an actual potty and he peed on it the first time he used it! He peed three times on the potty and one minor pee in his underwear.

He only wears undies and a shirt. We gave him juice (which is a treat) so he would drink a lot and have to pee more. We make a huge deal when he pees. We cheer and clap, we dump it into the big potty and he gets to flush (he loves to flush), then he gets an m&m as a treat.

I ask him an obnoxious amount of times if his underwear are dry and praise him if they are. I remind him to let me know if he has to potty and that we go on the potty and not in our undies. I also ask him if he had to potty.

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