OT: Mastering the Porcelain God

[MyMagicKingdom]

I just wanted to get some opinions and personal experience about every parent's favorite subject...potty training! DS is nearly 2 (July 16 is his birthday) and we haven't really pushed potty training yet. He picked out a little potty chair and we have it sitting in our bathroom and he sits on it every now and then and gets excited about it which is wonderful. About a week ago we went to Target and I told him he could pick out 10 prizes from the $1 bins in the front of the store and when he went pee pee on the potty he could get a prize. Again, we're totally not pushing anything for various reason...long story short, our house burned down the day after his first birthday party and we lost everything including our two cats we've since lived with my parents for 5 months and then moved into a townhouse in the front of our neighborhood because I just couldn't deal with being in the same house as my parents anymore I love em, but I just couldn't! and also because we're doing about 50% of the construction to make our insurance money go further and get a larger house to accommodate our (hopefully someday soon) growing family. Anyway, he's been through a lot in the last year and he's really an amazing little guy. Even though we weren't at the house when it burned down he's definitely still aware of what happened. He makes comments like "house...kitty boo boo. house bye bye." We took away his pacifier last week, which we discussed with him and explained that he's a big boy, etc...and he only fussed about it during his first nap and then after that he didn't care. I told DH that before we actively pursued potty training, I wanted to move into our completed house (which should be the end of May ) because that's a lot for a little guy to experience and I didn't want that to effect potty training or for him to become constipated, etc.

Last night, out of nowhere, before his bath he just sat down on his potty and went . I, of course, was a blubbering idiot because he's my little baby boy. Again, I still don't think its quite the right time to really try to potty train but we also definitely don't hinder him from using the potty if he wants. I'm just wondering when you guys started to really actively train, how long it took and if you used any special incentives. Ie. my cousin wrapped presents for her son and said that Spiderman sent him a present and he could only get it if he went on the potty. Also, so many people tell me boys take forever to train so I was interested to hear some opinions on that as well.

Wow, that was waaaay longer than I intended. Thanks in advance for any input everyone!

 

[mjkacmom]

Try the nakey butt test. Put him in a room with the potty, take off the diaper, and if he pees on the floor more than once, he's probably not ready. I suggest the Once Upon a Potty DVD - my kids loved it. It took me several months to PT my 3 year olds the traditional way (underwear), and a few days to PT my 2 1/2 year olds using the nakey way. I bribed all with m & m's.

 

[MyMagicKingdom]

Try the nakey butt test. Put him in a room with the potty, take off the diaper, and if he pees on the floor more than once, he's probably not ready. I suggest the Once Upon a Potty DVD - my kids loved it. It took me several months to PT my 3 year olds the traditional way (underwear), and a few days to PT my 2 1/2 year olds using the nakey way. I bribed all with m & m's.

That's kind of how things happened yesterday. I was undressing him for his bath and he took off naked and thought it was hilarious so I noticed him checking himself out down there and a teeny sprinkle came out so I said "oooh Nicholas, if you need to go pee pee, please use your potty or lets get a diaper." He ran to his potty and went! I was thinking of trying that more often. Thanks! My sister's been using pull ups with her 2 1/2 year old but I was hoping to limit those because they're soooo expensive

 

[imthatgirl]

My kids are 4,6 and 9now and I never trained any of them. I let them use it when they wanted to. We talked about it, the whys and where. I told them they would be expected to use the bathroom and eventually they all just did it. They were 2 1/2, 3 1/2 and 2.10 when they chose to be potty goes.
I found this the easiest way. I never cleaned up an accident or had to keep putting them on the potty every so many minutes. It was easy.

 

[auralia]

wait until may, but if he starts to do it on his own encourage it big time! my daughter was a little over 2 when she was almost potty trained, then she had an accident in the bath tub, ok we cleaned it up but the next bath she pooped in the tub again and i wasn't there, my husband freaked out on her! yelling screaming just rediculous. It took 2 months before she would take a bath again and she would scream the whole time we would give her a bath or shower those 2 months, she refused to use the potty any more and now she is just over 3 and is still being difficult about it we have to bribe her big time just to get her to use it and she is still leary of bath time, she would rather sit in it than face her fathers wrath still and i know she is manipulating us and i don't give her any reactions/attention for it and i even make her change her own diaper sometimes but she is just so scared of it so just make certain hubby doesn't do anything like that! i could ring dh's neck she went from being in underwear all but bedtime/nap time to being 100% pull ups again and when I put her in underwear she will soil 4 pairs a day sometimes more and will just sit on the potty, refuse to go, and then wet herself 5 minutes later where before the tub incident she liked going potty and was very proud of herself

 

[Sara*s_Mommie]

I stared potty training my DD when she turned 2 in Feb. I had the chair in the bathroom for about 6 months prior and sometimes she'd show interest and other times not but I didn't push it. It's been slow going, mostly because of day care. At home, she wears undies and does very good but is still in pull ups at night, but at day care its always pull ups so I think she gets lazy. At some point, I'm going to have to push the undies onto daycare. We use a potty chart with stickers. She gets 2 each time, one for her chart and one for her hand.

 

[MyMagicKingdom]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I was thinking about a sticker chart as well, we were using that when he helps with chores, he loves putting dishes away and setting the table!

 

[jraymond503]

I don't even START training until 2 1/2, my personal experience is that it is just a waste of time and frustrating for the child before that. I have them wear the cotton training underwear (pull ups to me feel like diaprs to them and they just don't get it) and we start by setting the timer and "trying" the potty every hour. Once they start to "get it" and can start to tell m when they need to pee.... we drop the timer. Poop has always been a tough one, I just try to get them to "try" around times I think they would normally go... my DD "got it" right away and was daytime trained before she was three and nightime trained shortly thereafter..

Now my son on the other hand..................... ug. He was daytime "pee trained" by three, nighttime pee trained by three and a half... but poop..... oy. The kid knows whn he has to go but REFUSES to use the potty... BEGS for a pull up. I recently totally got rid of pull ups as he has been dry at night for awhile now... and now he is holding it because of his "aversion" to pooping on the potty...

I am still waiting to see how this pans out, he can't hold it forever....

Good luck!

 

[taximomfor4]

I did the wait-till-they-do-it-themselves approach. I put the potty chair in the bathroom when they were nearing 2yo. At some point, they'd be getting ready for a bath and would just sit on it and go. I still didn't do anything except at 2yo, one of their birthday gifts was undies. We put them in their dresser. One day (months later), they would ask to wear the undies. I would tell them that it means they have to go in the potty ONLY, that these are not diapers. If they didn't agree, I just told them to let me know when they want to wear them. One day, they say it again, I remind them what it means, they agree, and BOOM! They are potty trained. And I mean 1 accident between all 4 kiddos. (Except youngest, who has issues that cause leaking/drips)

They were 2 y 2 mos, 2 y 7 mos, 3y 3 mos, and 3 yrs 6 mos.

 

[ShannonMB]

When my DD was little, I was actually dreading her being potty trained, because I had visions of being at the back of Walmart or Target and hearing "I hafta go potty!" every time we shopped. Or driving in the car, being at the park, pretty much anything. So let's just say I didn't discourage her, but I wasn't actively trying to make it happen. Right before she turned 3, I figured out if she was going to move up to the next room at her daycare/preschool she had to be potty trained. So I bought some panties, put them on her, had an accident or 2 in them, and voila, trained. She was beyond ready and just took right to it. I did continue to diaper her for bed, but stopped shortly thereafter (maybe a month) when she started waking up dry.

Funny side note...My sister's daughter had this chronic bedwetting thing all throughout her childhood. Wet the bed EVERY single night until she was 12 years old. My sis was VERY concerned, obviously and went to great lengths to make sure she wasn't being traumatized by anything, etc, etc. Turns out her dad did the same thing when he was a kid, and it just stopped on its own right when he hit puberty. Same thing with my neice. Anyhow, my DD has only had 2 bedwetting accidents since potty training at 3yo (she's 9 now), and the first one ever was when she was sleeping over at my sister's house! I told her there must be something about her house that makes kids want to pee in the bed!

 

[mjkacmom]

I don't even START training until 2 1/2, my personal experience is that it is just a waste of time and frustrating for the child before that. I have them wear the cotton training underwear (pull ups to me feel like diaprs to them and they just don't get it) and we start by setting the timer and "trying" the potty every hour. Once they start to "get it" and can start to tell m when they need to pee.... we drop the timer. Poop has always been a tough one, I just try to get them to "try" around times I think they would normally go... my DD "got it" right away and was daytime trained before she was three and nightime trained shortly thereafter..

Now my son on the other hand..................... ug. He was daytime "pee trained" by three, nighttime pee trained by three and a half... but poop..... oy. The kid knows whn he has to go but REFUSES to use the potty... BEGS for a pull up. I recently totally got rid of pull ups as he has been dry at night for awhile now... and now he is holding it because of his "aversion" to pooping on the potty...

I am still waiting to see how this pans out, he can't hold it forever....

Good luck!

PLEASE, for the sake of your ds, run to the store for pullups! It is normal for some kids to poop train after they pee train - it could be a year! There is a horrible medical condition that is caused by withholding (starts with an e, end in sis - there are dedicated message boards). The cause? Parent refusing to let their children poop in a diaper or pullup, so they hold it in, the bowel stretches, and they end up soiling themselves for the rest of their lives. Ask any pediatrician, and they will tell you not to withhold the pullup.

Before I learned about this, my oldest dd got to day 5 before screaming and crying in pain, and thank goodness we gave in. This was before all of this information was available on the internet.

Here's a linK: http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/A-Causes-Non-Retentive-Encopresis.html I'm late for my kids' game, but had to respond to your post.

 

[MyMagicKingdom]

We've been really nonchalant about potty training. I mean, he's not even 2 yet so, like I said, we're not training per say, but we do talk about it and he has a potty in the bathroom and he knows what its for and what it means and he loves running in and sitting on it during a diaper change. Yesterday he did it all of his own accord and peed so unless he gets old enough that I'm worried that he'll be like entering kindergarten in diapers , I'm more or less going to let it work itself out and let him run around without a diaper and go on the potty when he's ready. Not pooping is exactly what I was worried about. My little brother went through a traumatic experience when he was younger, around 5, and stopped pooping, he had to go to all kinds of specialists and such and I just felt awful for him. DS has always been fairly interested in the potty but lately he's shown a lot of interest so I'm definitely going to encourage it and talk with him about it, but not push. Who knows, maybe he'll more or less train himself soon!

 

[MnMomtoboys]

I don't even START training until 2 1/2, my personal experience is that it is just a waste of time and frustrating for the child before that. I have them wear the cotton training underwear (pull ups to me feel like diaprs to them and they just don't get it) and we start by setting the timer and "trying" the potty every hour. Once they start to "get it" and can start to tell m when they need to pee.... we drop the timer. Poop has always been a tough one, I just try to get them to "try" around times I think they would normally go... my DD "got it" right away and was daytime trained before she was three and nightime trained shortly thereafter..

Now my son on the other hand..................... ug. He was daytime "pee trained" by three, nighttime pee trained by three and a half... but poop..... oy. The kid knows whn he has to go but REFUSES to use the potty... BEGS for a pull up. I recently totally got rid of pull ups as he has been dry at night for awhile now... and now he is holding it because of his "aversion" to pooping on the potty...

I am still waiting to see how this pans out, he can't hold it forever....

Good luck!

If your using a potty seat try laying a diaper on that for him. I know sounds weird but it does work.


MymagicKingdom please don't push it. I've learned after doing it with 3 boys the less stress it is the better. In fact with my oldest he was completely trained until he was 31/2. The reason being was that we were still doing eye surgeries and then moved to a different city. I was told to wait until those were done and then trained him. The only accident he had was during the night when he was all twisted up in the sheet(fyi there should be only 1 person doing this, 2 people just tends to rewrap them in the sheet)

Anyway I would wait until after the move and no pressure. There was 1 Mom in our parenting class that decided to potty train her son. He was not ready at all but she insisted. Its been 5 months of listening to her complain about how bad things are. I hate to mention it but then again why should I suffer alone This kid would go and hide and either poop in his pants or on the floor. Sometimes he would decide to do a mural. DON'T let this happen to you. Esp. in a new house

 

[clutter]

Now my son on the other hand..................... ug. He was daytime "pee trained" by three, nighttime pee trained by three and a half... but poop..... oy. The kid knows whn he has to go but REFUSES to use the potty... BEGS for a pull up. I recently totally got rid of pull ups as he has been dry at night for awhile now... and now he is holding it because of his "aversion" to pooping on the potty...

I am still waiting to see how this pans out, he can't hold it forever....

Good luck!

Oh, please please please give him a pull-up!!! I have a friend who's son held it. It was awful. mjkacmom is correct, you can do permanent damage. Please please please let him go his way.

 

[MyMagicKingdom]

If your using a potty seat try laying a diaper on that for him. I know sounds weird but it does work.


MymagicKingdom please don't push it. I've learned after doing it with 3 boys the less stress it is the better. In fact with my oldest he was completely trained until he was 31/2. The reason being was that we were still doing eye surgeries and then moved to a different city. I was told to wait until those were done and then trained him. The only accident he had was during the night when he was all twisted up in the sheet(fyi there should be only 1 person doing this, 2 people just tends to rewrap them in the sheet)

Anyway I would wait until after the move and no pressure. There was 1 Mom in our parenting class that decided to potty train her son. He was not ready at all but she insisted. Its been 5 months of listening to her complain about how bad things are. I hate to mention it but then again why should I suffer alone This kid would go and hide and either poop in his pants or on the floor. Sometimes he would decide to do a mural. DON'T let this happen to you. Esp. in a new house

Does the little boy poop in a toilet yet? Poor little guy! That's what we're really trying to avoid with DS so that's why we're very "whatever" about it. Like I've said, we're definitely not pushing it. We're not even really "training" we just have the potty seat out and he knows what its for. He sits on it a lot completely of his own accord and when he does we smile and tell him he's doing a great job but we never insist he use it. Since he's not even 2 yet I think he's more or less too young to be trained. If he does it on his own, fine...wonderful! But if not, then we're not anywhere near the point where we're going to push him at all. We're planning a WDW trip for fall of 2011, so I'd like him to be trained by then, he'll be over 3 so I think that's pretty reasonable. At this point, potty training is the least of our concerns. Thanks!

 

[ashleyd725@hotmail.c]

About a month before DS turned 2 we found a urinal for kids at walmart and set it up for him... Well that was our ticket I swear it took him two days with no work on our part, it was all him wanting to go not us pushing him and he was completely pee trained it took about two weeks to be poop trained but I never used pull ups... He would pee in the urinal and then go hide in the closet and poop in his underwear and then freak out and want them off obviously... so we got a singing potty for poop time and he enjoyed that... I found the thing very annoying though because any moisture would set the thing off... I would have to completely dry it after washing on left over drop of water and it was music non stop.

 

[Britgirlus]

When my son was 2, he had absolutely no interest in using the potty - in fact, he would totally freak out at the mere mention of sitting on the toilet/potty chair or wearing underwear. However, I figured he was ready at about 2 3/4 - so one Friday, I told him that the following Monday, he would wear underwear, and would use the toilet/potty chair. We discussed it off and on over the weekend - and Monday morning, he got up and quite happily put his underwear on. he had a couple of accidents the first 2 days - and after that was dry/clean night and day. Yes, I know I got lucky - but it's a great story