Friday, January 8, 2010

Advice Solicitation

Aric isn't quite ready for potty training, but we thought we should take some steps towards getting him familiar with the potty chair.  Does anyone have any great advice on potty training?







Of course I'm not fooling myself.  I realize that given children's temperaments, genders, and maturity levels Kellyn could be potty trained before Aric.  But I hope not!!

5 comments:

mommy to Kaden, Brody and angel Ava said...

My first piece of advice, don't let them stick their feet in the potty...it could result in a very big mess ;). Good luck!

Briggs said...

I did not do a method but we did start putting Joshua on the potty naked at bathtime around 20 months. I only left him on there for brief moments and talked about pee pee and poop in a fun way. Once that was fairly comfortable we got a potty chair out around 28 months and let him see it and sit on it but no big deal. He'd sit on it clothed while we'd use the potty. Around 2.5 years we had him walk around naked from the waist down and when we thought he was about to pee we'd put him on his potty seat. He actually trained with poop first because he was so predictable but he got the hang of it fast but we had no real time line. It takes a lot of effort if you plan to do a method but if you can roll with it he'll probably feel less stressed. We did use M & M's to get him to sit on the potty because for our little guy that was the hard thing getting him to be still long enough. Actually using the thing was his big challenge! Just a note: Joshua potty trained at 2.5 but continued to have random accidents up until recently (2 years!) It happens! Best wishes.

carrie said...

Oh the potty-training stories and tips I could give you... Being an early childhood educator who has experience with toddlers as well as preschoolers, this is one area I will admit to knowing a little something about. However, I don't want to type it all. ha! let's do lunch. :)

Rudy said...

All you have to do is put some fresh litter in a box that is easily accessible. After that you set him on top of the litter, he will get the idea. Oh wait...

Kimberly said...

I potty-trained both boys with what I lovingly called a "boot camp" method. There are a few varieties of how to potty train your child in one/three days available, and I read lots of them and then adapted them to our situation. Basically for one day we do nothing (seriously) except eat salty snacks, dring LOTS of liquids and have potty drills. If after that day, they seem to be catching on to the concept, then we'll do a second day with fewer drills and reminders. If they are not making it cleanly to the potty on their own by the end of this day, then we slip back into diapers and don't even mention the potty again until the next potty training boot camp in 3-6 months. What I love about this, is that if they are truly ready, then by the end of day 2 they really are potty trained, and although accidents will happen, they are few and not the norm at all. On the other hand, if they just aren't quite there, then there is no pressure to continue fighting a losing battle of potty accidents. It really let me and my boys be relaxed about the entire thing. Tucker potty trained at 2yrs. 9mos. on his 3rd boot camp. Mason was done at 2 yrs. 6 mons. on his 2nd boot camp.

There's my 2 cents! Hope you find it helpful...but feel free to disregard. :) Potty training WILL eventually happen.