Potty Training! Any recommendations?

on the bay · ‎03-09-2010

Hi all moms and grandmothers-

My daughter is a first time mom for my 2 1/2 year old grandson and is very nervous about the upcoming need to potty train and also no more bottles soon.

Any book suggestions or ideas you have discovered?

He does go to day care and so does need to be diaper free by 3 years old.

thanks in advance! (I probably won't be able to read replies til late or tomorrow).

I was looking at the book "Potty Training in 5 Easy Steps" by Allison Jandu-anyone read that one?

My daughter is good at researching too but I thought I'd help look out for some ideas too.

"If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew. Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"

bmorechick · ‎03-11-2010

@on the bay Ha funny I should log in and see this! I am most certain you will get scores of advice. My daughter is also trying to train her 3 year old. She ditched the bottle at 14 months as soon as he could drink from the sippy cup. Of course, he was breast fed until 18 months, so he got plenty nutrition. She has a 3 month old and is trying so hard to cajole, bribe, praise and promise her 3 yo Ha! He's got her figured out and will tell her no thank you to the potty...can you put my diaper on?? I told her one day he will do it, but do not press it or punish. When he's ready, he's ready...your brother and his little buddy were 3 and a half. Oh good luck to your daughter...boy I do not miss those days at all.

And yeah I get the daycare rule. My daughter is a nurse and works evenings when hubs is home so that's not an issue.

RedTop · ‎09-01-2010

I raised girls, but shared the tip that helped me, and ultimately helped my SIL potty train my nephew.

In the summer right before my nephew turned 2, I encouraged my SIL to start taking him outside, no diaper, and get him used to peeing in the yard. The first couple of times he wanted the diaper put back on so he could pee, because he was used to that diaper, and his brain told him that's where he was supposed to pee.

After getting comfortable with no diaper and peeing in the yard, the potty appeared. Gradually my SIL learned when her boy was getting ready to go, and she would say they had to go inside real quick to do something, which was really to make him sit on the potty. At this point he needed to go so bad, he couldn't hold it, so he always used the potty, and once that clicked in his brain, he just started started using the potty for everything and wearing big boy pants.

Just like my girls, my nephew was very easy to train.

Kitlynn · ‎03-09-2010

Pullups are a great way to go because they are like underwear but still have diaper protection in case of an accident. They also make them with really fun prints on them that little ones like. Wear them day and night so they aren't going back to a diaper at night time. Take them about every hour and a half in to try to potty. Give lots of praise when they do. Also reading a story to them while they are on the potty is a great incentive also. Just staying with it consistently is key also. Also getting little big boy underwear with their favorite characters on them and letting them know when they get potty trained they will get to wear them. These are things that my niece did that really worked.

on the bay · ‎03-09-2010

Thank you all for these great suggestions! I really enjoyed reading them too. Some were so cute.

I really don't remember it being such an anxious kind of time except for once with accidents. I believe in lots of encouragement and making it fun too. I wanted to make it easier and something to enjoy for her (well sort of😄 ) and not have it seem such pressure or that it will be so hard.

So thank you again. Very encouraging!

"If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew. Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"

cookie16 · ‎02-21-2012

I realize the way I chose to train my daughter was a little different but she was a headstrong little girl who wanted no part of the toilet. She loved M&Ms so I bribed her with 5 candies for #1 and a piece of sugar free double bubble gum for #2. Each visit she made to the toilet and went, she would yell loudly, "I get M&Ms" or "I get bubble gum." Within 2 weeks she had no more accidents but I would give her 2 plastic cups to put the candy or gum in and I said we had to save them for after dinner, 1 gum or a few candies. Maybe a week later and I would say she could have a fruit or cookie or even ice cream after dinner and to save the candies for tomorrow. Shortly after she was trained, no accidents, and she forgot about the candies but went on the toilet like a big girl. Rewards and bribes maybe but it worked quickly and she was not addicted to candy. Also, no potty chair, a seat I attached onto the toilet seat.

CalminHeart · ‎03-09-2010

I raised all boys. Boys are slower at potty training than girls. Many boys aren't ready to train at 2.5.

Get sippy cups and small water bottles. Be sure they have pictures or something that the child likes. My kids were off baby bottles at 14 months and loved their sippy cups.

Don't make potty training traumatic in any way. Yelling and punishing doesn't work and makes kids stubborn.

I let my boys decide when to be potty trained though I encouraged it a lot and made a big deal of letting them pick out their own big-boy underpants. They knew they had to go potty to get to wear them. They fought it for a while and then one day, they decided the potty was a good thing. They never wet their pants again.

Eileen in Virginia · ‎08-25-2010

DS was slow to use the potty and wasn't trained until he was almost 3 years old. My in-laws were visiting one weekend when I was trying unsuccessfully to get him to wear underpants. I told him the man in the store said he wasn't going to sell us any more diapers because DS was a big boy and should be using the potty (that went over about as well as you'd expect). My MIL was with us and said, "Let's put some underpants in the bottom of the box of diapers. When you get to the underpants, you'll start using the potty." He agreed! Once he started wearing underpants, he never went back to diapers, even at night.

FranandZoe · ‎03-09-2010

Regular underpants did the trick for my grandson. He had been wearing pull-ups but he knew they were like a diaper so could still go in them. The regular underpants were suggested by his pre-school teacher and they worked.

ninjawife · ‎11-15-2011

With my first DD, I used the reward method as the poster who said she gave her daughter candy. Everytime my DD used the potty, she got her favorite candy- a sweedish fish. With DD number I was a little lazy about potty training and didn't start until after she was three. It was Christmas break so she had no preschool. I told her that baby new year needed her diapers and I let her go naked for the week. By the end of the week she was trained.

Work on that bottle too. Two and half is much too old for a bottle. It can have an effect on how their mouth and teeth develop as well as motor movements of the tongue needed for clear speech. I wouldn't however take away the bottle and potty train at the same time. It would be too much for the boy.