any potty training advice? the good and the bad!

[SRUAlmn]

I don't have any children, but have a degree in early childhood education and have worked with this age of children. First of all, I agree with some previous posters. Do not use pull ups. It gives the false sense that they are wearing big kid underwear, but they can still have accidents like they can with diapers and it confuses them.

Secondly, if your child seems willing, spend one weekend and really devote it to potty training. If you take him/her to the bathroom religiously every 1-2 hours it will happen. I've seen it work amazingly well.

Also, there was an episode of Dr. Phil dedicated to parenting issues and this was one of them. He suggested buying a doll that wets (even for boys, the sample family had a boy) and having your child help potty train the doll. Then, when the doll goes to the potty make a big deal and have a celebration. When your child sees the attention that the doll is getting he/she will want to behave that way as well. Basically you are leading by example.

From a personal standpoint the only problem I see with rewards such as stickers and parties is where do you stop? It's like paying kids to do chores, then they expect to always be paid for doing something nice for someone. I have always felt that positive reinforcement is better than rewards and makes the child feel more of a sense of accomplishment instead of performing a behavior to get something. Good Luck!!

 

[trola2]

My favorite potty training advice and what worked for us was the theory by Dr. John Rosemond called Naked and $75.

You basically spend a week or so at home with the child wearing a Tshirt that won't get in thier way and nothing on the bottom half. Do all the reminders and take them to the potty every hour or so during the day. Within the week, they will be trained.

For us, we did modify it and had the girls sleep in pullups or diapers, but they were dry all day long from teh age of 27 months on. We didn't train them until 27 monhts and then it was pretty easy. We did use M&M's as a reward and they only got a couple each time they successfully went. Each girl had one accident and that was all. After a month or so, they each refused to wear the diapers at night and they were fine after that!

BTW, the $75 is to get your carpets cleaned once training is complete. I don't know if there is anything about it on his website, but it is www.rosemond.com. Good luck!

~~Beth

 

[Hillbeans]

Well, let me first say my son is 3 years and 6 months. We've been trying to train him for almost a year. Since he turned 3, we've tried a lot more.

In the past few weeks we've really started turning a corner. He must not have been ready earlier. Just this past weekend he started to go standing up, which was pretty shocking. Trying to get him to go # 2 in the potty is torture. We've tried bribes, begging, pleading, Thomas the train cars, even some yelling and all I can conclude is that when they are truly ready they'll go.

He does stay dry most to all nights, and we get him on the potty about 7 times a day. I must confess I like the pull-ups because they're easy to get up and down. I do hope to get rid of them soon but when we're on a long car trip or out somewhere for the time being I just feel safer. I do agree with a previous poster that persistence is the key...make them go every hour or so for a whole weekend at home...that seemed to go very well for us.

Best of luck to you.