How much effort was it to potty train your child?

[Mermaid02]

"Yeah but how did your son do?"

LOL- I told him one morning that I meant business (we had approached the subject many times and he was totally unwilling to even try the underwear). He had control of those bodily functions, and he would start using the potty or he wouldn't be able to go to preschool.... I sent him to his room to think about it. He came downstairs about 20 minutes later and said, "Fine, I'll wear your stupid underwear." But he was MAD. That was it though. No accidents. Nighttime was/is harder.... but that isn't uncommon and we don't sweat over it.

 

[wdwnutze]

All 3 of mine were trained by the time they were 2 1/2. They were all very easy and basically told me they wanted to try the potty to be a big boy or girl. My ds was more independant in the bathroom than the girls.

 

[CEDmom]

It was difficult with DD because by 2 1/2 she knew when she needed to go and would announce it before making a "deposit" in her diaper. She would sometimes even sit on her potty fully clothed and go in her diaper. However, she had no interest in using the potty for real. It wasn't until late last summer when daycare informed us she wouldn't be able to move into the preschool room with all her friends unless she was trained. We pulled out all the stops and even resorted to awarding even an attempt with an M&M.

 

[Pembo]

How much effort was it to potty train your child?

More than I ever expected.

 

[tmli]

My ds was hard--he fought every step of the way. I do think they will not train until they are ready but as parents we must constantly be trying so we know when that is.

Pull ups also set us back a few months. Finally we just took them off and went with underwear, he had one accident--hated the way it felt, and never had another one. He was almost 4 and has never had one since.

 

[Tinks]

DS #1 was a breeze. Always kept dry at night and trained fairly quickly. Completely trained by age 2.

DS#2 is a nightmare. He is daytime trained, but I WOULD worry about night-time training if I were you because he is 5 1/2 and STILL wets the bed. I wash sheets 4-5 days out of the week and I am so sick of it...can you tell? If anyone has a magic pill, let me know. The pediatrician didn't say much at his 5 year old check-up. Any ideas??? We tried waking him during the night and I don't know how many other things. I know some kids have immature bladders longer but give me a break! Thanks for letting me vent! I can't yell at him!

 

[Kallison]

At one point I had all three in diapers (had three kids in 4 years). It only lasted 2 weeks because I took a nutty with the oldest, I made him wash out his poopy pants in the sink by himself. After two washings he was trained. He is 13 now and we still laugh about the pictures of him standing on a chair so I guess he is not traumatized! The other two I said whatever. They both went on a regular toilet (no potty seat). We were just looking at pictures of the 10 year old holding the 9 year old on the potty (they were 2 and 3 then!)

 

[robinb]

Oh man ... potty training is the worst! My DD will be 4 in just a couple of weeks and she still has accidents in her undies during the day and her pull-ups are soaking wet every morning. She is one of those kids who is too darn busy playing to use the potty. It drives me crazy! Of course, I'm angry when she has wet undies and she cries "I had an accident!" complete with real fake tears. She had an accident yesterday right in front of me ... and yes, she was recently checked for a UTI because of the accidents. *sigh*

I have tried encouragment. I have tried charts. I have tried bribes. I have tried "Only babies go potty in thier pants." We have talked about it. We read books. We watched videos. I remind her to use the potty and I ask her if she needs to use the potty. I think half of potty training was training me. We are now 90% day-time dry and 10% night-time dry.

I have been thinking about removing the pull-ups from the equation on her birthday and let her wet her bed every night. That might be uncomfortable enough for her to wake up when she needs to go. I have also heard that having the children launder their own sheets can be a deterant. Lastly, we are thinking about moving her out of her toddler bed into a real bed, but not until she can make an effort to stay dry.

Can you tell this is very frustrating for me?!??!

 

[cali2gagirl]

Robin - The couple times my daughter has wet the bed she woke up very upset crying.... we take her to the potty and change her and clean her up.. She will be 3 in a couple weeks and is in a regular size bed (of course, she comes to ours most of the time too..lol) - I don't know if the whole "I'm in panties and a big bed" makes it easier.
Also...I've noticed the times she has wet the bed...it's when I was lazy before bed and I didn't make her go even when she says she doesn't have to. I've tried to eliminate drinks an hr before bed too. She does CRAVE juice to go to sleep on, so I put half a sippy cup full for her..and it seems to work...
Good Luck!!!

 

[peg2001]

Robin,

Hang in there! It sounds like you are doing all the right things. Here are a couple ideas for you. Try NOT using the pull-ups at night. My oldest daughter was 4.5 years old and still waking up every morning with a soaking wet pull-up. I was waiting for her to be dry at night before using underwear at night. One night, we forgot to put on the pull-up and she woke up dry. WOW! We never used another pull-up and she never wet the bed.

For daytime accidents, here's a method I read on another board that I thought was very clever. Take out 3 and only 3 clean and dry pair of underwear in the morning and announce that if these 3 underwear get wet, the child will have to wear a pair of plastic underwear for the remainder of the day. Each day is a fresh start with 3 new pair of underwear. The plastic underwear is just not soft and comfortable so the child will try to avoid wearing them.

Peggy

 

[swanmom]

A funny story and big support for the ...."they'll do it when they're ready theory." Our DD went to a daycare where the children were pottied or diaper checked/changed shortly before snack. Even at only two years old, she quickly figured out that - if you could potty by yourself and didn't need to wait while all the kids got their diapers changed - you got to the snack table sooner!
She told me on the way home one day that she wanted to be in the 'potty line' instead of wearing diapers. Sent her to daycare in
underpants the next day and other than 2-3 'mistakes' she was clean and dry for then on!

 

[jacksonsmom]

My son was very easy to train. He was 2 months shy of his 3rd birthday.
I asked him if he thinks he is ready for "big boy underwear" He said "yes" We went to the store & he picked out some special underwear.

We had a few minor accidents but that was it. I think we had maybe 3-4 accidents total & that was it.

I did NOT use pull ups during the day, I personally believe those sometimes aren't doing any better then using a diaper. JMO

As far as night time trained, the first few months after being day trained I did use pull up for night time only. After about 5 months I decided to work on the night time training since he was waking up most of the time dry.
After a couple of accidents he was completely night time trained too.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

And never forget THIS can happen
(Turn on the volume)
http://www.madblast.com/funflash/swf/splishsplashbaby.swf

DS was 3 and DD 2 1/2 when they were "ready" and it was fairly painless for us all. Both wanted to wear the Big boy/girl underwear/panties they had picked out.

 

[cati]

When my DD was 2 1/2 we started telling her that if she started going to the potty then Cinderella would let her come to her castle and eat breakfast with her. When the commercials for DW came on tv, we would show her Cinderella's castle. After about 2 days of this (of course we had the DW tapes also to show her). She decided she would start going to the potty. Then everytime she went she would say "Cinderella let me come see her". We took her for her 3 year old birthday. It was wonderful.

 

[robinb]

Originally posted by BibbidiBobbidiBoo
And never forget THIS can happen
(Turn on the volume)
http://www.madblast.com/funflash/swf/splishsplashbaby.swf

Oh my goodness! Thanks for the laugh!