You see this jar? It’s mini m&m’s, also known as the potty jar.
Bribery, I un-ashamedly use it.
I’m just going to come out and say it, it’ll be like ripping off a band-aid and then maybe you will hate me a little bit.
We didn’t have to do anything for potty training our first.
A month before he turned two, he just started doing his business every morning. We’d give him an m&m each time and high five each other that we weren’t changing poopy diapers. We’re GENIUS parents! Why does everyone think this potty training thing is hard? Then a month or so later, we decided that we might as well try the whole peeing thing too. We let him run around pants-less and a couple days later, he was done. I can’t even really remember him having any accidents.
It was like magic.
This little one though? She’s been bugging us non-stop about going on the potty. We bought this awesome toilet seat with a built in child sized seat and thought we’d kind of let her figure it out when she was ready. So for the last few months, we’d sit her on there and make a big fuss when she went knowing she wasn’t ready or really understanding what she was doing. But she’s getting there and now she’s going a few times a day. We still need to work on the timing, sometimes she tells us just after she went. She wants to be changed any time she feels soggy.
She also hilariously tells everyone in the house what a good job they are doing when they go on the potty. It’s especially fun when guests come over and she’s shouting through the door what a GOOD JOB they are doing! {Poor Finn just yells at her, “It’s my own PRIVACY Tate!”}
It’s getting to the point that maybe we should do this potty training thing in earnest now.
Except we have no idea what to even do aside from the couple of mini m&m’s. Do we try pull ups? Or will those just make her think she’s wearing a diaper? We bought some of the Gerber training panties, but I’m not sure I want to use those when we’re out. Do I put her on the potty at regular intervals? Repeatedly ask her if she’s got to go? Let her figure it out? A friend of ours had a potty seat for the trunk of her car when she was potty training, but I’m so not willing to go that far.
I’ll take all your hints and tips and tricks. How did you do potty training at your house?
{The potty seat is an amazon affiliate link.}
23 comments:
We were in the same boat with Lena a few months ago and now she's 90% potty trained. We still have those days when she just pees all over the floor because she didn't feel like sitting on the potty, but those are getting fewer and farther between. She still cheers for me when I go and it cracks me up.
We completely skipped pull-ups with L, except at night time. She was too excited about her Dora underpants to mess with those silly pullups anyway. Honestly, I've basically let her potty train herself and just cheer and dance around every time she goes. And if she sits on the potty but doesn't go, she gets a high five for trying. What can I say? I'm a lazy mom.
Bookmarking this entry for future use, but really hoping M goes the Finn route when it is her time. Lol.
I only had trouble with my youngest. Bribery did the trick. I just used an insert for the grown up potty. I would ask her every hour if she needed to potty. One day it stuck.
We tried a little bit of everything with Roxy. Candy for going, a reward chart for stickers... It finally took getting her Jake and the Neverland Pirates panties (yes, they were boys') before she was "potty-trained." AND, we are still using pull-ups during the night.
God help you. This is one thing that scares the crap outta me when thinking about having kids. I have no help here other than bribery has to work. Right?
Sorry, I have no advice, I had a boy like yours. Easy. Though he did have a few accidents, and we'd just say, "oh-oh, let's go clean it up" and he would have to stop whatever he was doing to come change and help rinse out the underwear. Mind you, it wasn't a punishment, just sort of 'this is what we do when this happens'. I think he thought it was annoying enough to have to stop playing that it worked! He didn't have very many accidents after the first 2 or 3.
Potty training was the one thing that kind of freaked me out about being a mom. Chloe, currently 3 and 1/2, is my one and only (at the moment). Last year she showed zero interest in the whole potty thing, and at her daycare they want the 3-year-olds to be potty trained (for the most part) before they moved up the 3yo class. There was a list of kid's names near the bathroom in her 2yo class that were potty training... I asked the teacher... how do I get C on that list? And she said. Just do it. No pull ups, b/c they'll think they're a diaper. They brought those kids to the bathroom every hour, and they had extra changes of clothes in case of any accidents.
So a month before her 3rd birthday we just jumped right in, on a weekend. Saturday and Sunday, we tried a few hours in underwear each day, and that Monday I sent her to daycare with underwear. Much to my DELIGHT and surprise... as we were walking into school that Monday... she started wiggling and I said do you have to go potty? And she said yes... so we double-timed it to her classroom and made it to the bathroom and she peed right there in front of me, on the toilet with her teacher helping her, and I was so excited. I think I jumped up and down like she'd just scored a touchdown at the Superbowl or something (well, maybe that's overstating a bit but you get the idea).
#2 was a little different... we had a few weeks of bad constipation, but with abdominal massage (YEP) and Miralax, we got through that. I promised to bake her a cake when she did poops on the potty. Which I did.
She had a few accidents along the way... including one memorable one at Chuck E Cheese ... but for the most part she's done really well.
We used pull ups at night for a few months but now she's just wearing underwear at night.
We recently just went a few weeks with a little constipation... but her teachers figured out it was a privacy issue... she doesn't like using the bathrooms where the other kids can just walk in. So there is a more private bathroom she uses at school (in the 5yo's room). And at home I ask her if she wants me to stay with her while she is sitting here... usually she tells me no. She plays with her Leap Pad and calls me when she's done.
Every kid is different, but Tate might also be too young to physically be able to hold in anything just yet...? I don't remember what C's pediatrician said about that... but one thing is for sure... if she is showing interest, keep going.
I had also bought this video and found it helpful:
http://www.amazon.com/I-Can-Go-Potty/dp/B0000CF31C
Awwww, every kid is different, like ChickenNuggetsAndElmo said. I'm happy that your oldest was a breeze, but I figure that the younger or second/third children, look to their elder siblings and take pointers and want to experience more and are more influenced by what they see and hear everyday.
Keep going! You're doing great, and please do share your success :D
Oh man, am I glad that you posted this! My two and half year old daughter has shown a lot of interest, but any time I ask her if she has to go potty she says, "No thank you Mommy!" and goes about her business!
We have mini m&m's for bribes (and elmo stickers!) but she doesn't seem to really care. It's a process for sure! Good luck to you!!
My son is almost 2, and we've just (this week!) started the whole "sit him on the toilet every hour" routine. We're not being terribly consistent with it yet, mostly because I just haven't formed the habit of turning on the timer! He hasn't actually done anything on the potty yet, but when he does we intend to make a big deal about it (cheers, high fives, maybe a treat).
We also got a toilet seat with a built in kid seat. He's in pull-ups about half the time, but I'm not sure if we'll keep getting them when we use up this pack.
2nd child is so different than the first! He has the peeing down but #2 he does not..Bribes might be the next thing to do to get him to do #2! :) Everyone has different methods and each child is different too!
~Sarah~
3 day potty training. Google it. It was awesome for us! One kid was 3, the other was 2, but they were both ready and it was great. Good luck!
The best piece of advice I got (and works really well) is not to ask them if they need to go but make it a statement. If you ask, "do you need to go potty," the answer they give you will be "no" about 99% of the time even if they really have to go. When it's time (when we leave the house, when we're about to leave a store that has a potty, when I notice she hasn't gone in a while), I just tell her that it's time to go potty. Another thing that helps when we're out is that I always go/try too... "Mommy is trying so you need to try also." There's also an app on ITunes called Potty Time that worked well for us. The "Stop and Go" song was particularly helpful. We also used a sticker chart that we had on the bathroom door... Little sticker for trying, slightly bigger sticker for #1 and big sticker for #2. Good luck!!!
My biggest problem with potty training is that I wind up eating M&M's all.day.long! ;)
We did it like the last commenter. Every 20 minutes we said, "let's go sit on the potty" and she got an reward just for sitting. We spaced out the timing after a while (and the rewards). The hardest thing for me was the car! I wound up buying a little Baby Bjorn potty chair to stick in our trunk because when G said she had to go...it usually meant she had to go right then.
So by the time I found a (hopefully) clean public restroom and wrestled my toddler and baby out of their carseats and into the bathroom, she had usually already had an accident.
Good luck! We're going to embark with potty training with our second in a few weeks after we're done traveling.
Did the M&M's thing...and totally turned the mini-van into a porta-potty. Sometimes you have to do things your pre-mom self would gag at. I would rather chuck a poop out of the car than clean up a car seat! Good Luck!
oh crap. potty training. google it, and you will find her website. i read her ebook. it is basically a naked-bum approach where you go cold turkey with the diapers. oh, and no rewards: i will warn you that she is anti-m&ms, just so you aren't surprised! it's been working well with my almost 2-yr-old so far (though we only began sunday!) good luck!
My daughter does the same. We ask she says no.
I've figured out that if you think it's time enough to ask, then don't bother asking and just sit her down. If she's showing interest, once you start putting her on and encouraging, she'll tell you JUST after she pees in her diaper or undies. [That's the stage we're in now, but she just got over being sick, so her poopies are disgusting and not panty worthy]. So I'm hoping, after fulfilling this stage of telling us directly after, soon she'll realize to tell us directly before, and it will stick. Keep with it!
We're in the midst of potty training Little Man. Admittedly, I'm not really "training" him at all. I put him on the potty a few different times (when we first get up, before we get in the shower, after we get out of the shower, before lunch, right after a nap - if he takes one, right before we put jammies on, etc.). Sometimes he goes, other times he won't. He doesn't know how to tell me that he needs to go or when he's gone...so that's half our problem. Basically, he's not quite ready...and that's okay :)
We started just before two and traveled all over the world (seriously) just a few weeks after potty training. Oh Crap Potty Training...she's great. Do it...go cold turkey. We do still use diapers at night but they're dry every morning. Next step is pulling the night diaper.
My cousin told us about the "potty alarm". Basically you set the timer on your stove for every 45 minutes. It goes off and you say, "it's the potty alarm! Time to go potty!". And then try to potty obviously. It seems kind of simple, but it works really good, because you're not ASKING "do you need to go potty?" all of the time, then having your kid say "no" while he pees his pants. :) Eventually ours figured out when he really had to go and the alarm went away. Now if we could only get him to stop peeing in the yard....
I potty trained my first (aboy) in one weekend and it was easy. My second (a girl) resisted until she was ready. Anyway, I did the 5 min in the potty every 15 min and I let them set the alarm on my iPhone. I did the portable potty that we placed near the tv b/c it was the only way to hold their attention for 5 min straight. Like I said, with my son, I started Friday evening and he was all set by Monday. My daughter, did it all on her own and lasted about 2 weeks. Goodluck!
We are currently using m&m's as well. It is really the only thing that is getting us over the do-you-have-to-go? every 5 minutes. Once I took those little chocolate pieces of heaven out, she started telling us when she has to go. I am also a little unsure about what to do when we are out. Right now she is just going in her diaper & is fine with it. I thought about taking a little container of candy with me at all times.....good luck to you. I am right here with ya! :)
We are currently using m&m's as well. It is really the only thing that is getting us over the do-you-have-to-go? every 5 minutes. Once I took those little chocolate pieces of heaven out, she started telling us when she has to go. I am also a little unsure about what to do when we are out. Right now she is just going in her diaper & is fine with it. I thought about taking a little container of candy with me at all times.....good luck to you. I am right here with ya! :)
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