She looks thrilled doesn't she?!
OK Let me start out by saying this is in response to a request...I in no means think I am the Potty Training Expert or anything like that. In fact I have had success with Hailey- 25 months and Karis- 20 Months but have no idea what will happen with Avery. So you never know....But this is how I do it......(And I am fully aware that I am the one trained at first...not the children...but I don't care.....it is worth it to me. And we have had no bad repercussions from this....I have read about the control issues that can happen and all but it didn't with mine...not to say that it isn't true.....I am just saying that it didn't happen here in Hoeferburg).
OK first you need a potty seat that goes on a big toilet. I don't use the little pottys because they gross me out. However...we do have on in the van! Because Target's bathroom grosses me out even more. So whenever we are out and about if someone needs to go we just pull over and they go. This works great on long car trips too. No frantically trying to find a suitable bathroom! I have even used it....
Here are my steps:
1. At around 12-14 months starting putting the baby on the toilet just to get used to the idea. Talk about what a great thing going potty in the toilet is and make it fun. If they resist wait a few days before trying again. You don't want them to get scared of the toilet or anything.
2. Eventually one of those times the child will hopefully go potty on accident. If this happens make a huge deal of it and let them use some toilet paper to wipe. My girls are fascinated and were quite motivated by this.
3. Also at this same time frame or even before start to notice when they are pooping and take off the diaper and run and put them on the toilet.
4. There are some ideal times to put the child on the toilet in hopes that they will go: right after getting up from a nap or in the morning especially! Also right before a bath.
5. Once they will pee when put on the toilet it is time to potty train.
Day 1:
First I don't use pull-ups...I use the thick underwear made by gerber. They absorb accidents but the child still feels wet and hopefully motivated to stay dry. I do use pull-ups in the beginning for naps/nighttime/and long car rides.
Get up and put child on potty. After she goes put her new big girl panties on. If she doesn't go continue to put her on every few minutes. This will not be an exciting day..meaning you will need to stay home. Every 20 minutes (and set a timer so you don't forget) put the child on the toilet. She may go a little or not at all. If she pees in her underwear dunk her head underwater and yell..."you stupid child". Just kidding. If she does pee say something like, "Uh-oh...you need to do that in the toilet." Then go put her on the toilet. Don't say anything to make the child feel like you are dissapointed or that they did something wrong. It won't be a huge mess because you are putting her on the toilet so often that she couldn't possibly have tons of pee inside her. Proceed like this all day long. Praise a ton for going pee...some kids respond well to stickers or m&m's...Hailey did, Karis didn't care.
I don't really act like this is a choice...basically today is the day we start going on the toilet and we go from there. I try and just be really confident in my approach and they seem to pick up on it and go with it.
Day 2:
A lot like day one only if you had some success you can go every 30-40 minutes.
Eventually the time gets longer and longer and then one day they will just tell you they need to go. But until then I put them on about every hour and always before leaving the house, right after getting home, before nap and after etc.
So there you have it....no guarantees or anything....just what worked here......
I have heard the earlier the better because younger children are more into pleasing you where as 2 year olds can be a bit more opinionated.
8 comments:
Now you need to figure out how to potty train boys, and I can just leave Emmett at your house for a weekend and let you do it! I'm thinking once he starts walking...
Thanks for this, but what if (Let's say Cole) goes every time you put him on the toilet, but refuses to tell you on his own. (This has been going on for over 6 months and I think I am going to lose my mind!) Any tips???
Thanks for sharing this Abby! Potty training my son was much easier than training my daughter... she is 2 1/2 and definitely opinionated. You've given me good ideas... we'll try again!
For boys: I used a special pee jar for my son, along with going 'cold turkey' (nothing on the bottom). It worked great for him. It only took a couple/ few weeks. He LOVED being able to pee in his own jar, getting to dump it in the toilet and flushing it away. He got stickers on his pee chart too... then getting a bigger prize. He rarely had accidents, but if you're worried about urine on the carpet, you can put thick (one of mine or my husband's) socks on him to help absorb it. I know, it's a funny picture... 1/2 naked child with thick socks! Whatever it takes, right?! :)
Very interesting Alicen!! Thanks for the tips..when our little boy gets here I will refer back to this!
That was so great. Thank you so much Abby for sharing. No I need to decide when to start. Lauren is really interested in what mommy is doing and asks to be put on the potty before getting in the tub. I would love to get her out of diapers ASAP!!!! Alice is so funny. But hey whatever works right? Thats such a great idea though!
If I could go back and do it over, I would NEVER use pull ups except for night time or nap time and ONLY if the diapers did not fit! I would have also started AS SOON AS my daughter showed interest in the whole potty thing and not postponed it to when it was convenient for me! The delay has made potty training take over a year (the pull ups contributed to this as well!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The "cold turkey" or naked bottom works for girls as well!
Who are you anonymous? :)
Abby I love your potty training ideas. I'm glad I read this because it sounds like a good place to start. Thanks for the advice...I'll let you know how it goes. I especially like the way to respond if they do pee in their underwear... dunking kids underwater is always a good discipline.... :)
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