Potty Training

[bloodbinds]

Right, i'm thinking about giving this a go... only i have no idea how to go about it really.


So how did you do it? Or are doing it? What worked best? How old is/was your LO?


Any tips/tricks would be very useful, not sure what the best way is!

 

[Bexx]

We're not actively potty training, but the potty is always offered when Zachary has his clothes off ready to get in the bath.

We've been doing this for about three months (started just before he was a year old) and so far he's peed in it a grand total of once. He prefers to play with it lol.

I think we'd do better if we offered it more often, but I'm never sure when is a good time. I can't tell when he's about to pee and although he does a poop most mornings, it's not at precisely the same time. He gets bored sitting on it for more than 10 seconds so we'll probably end up having lots of accidents when we do start doing it properly.

 

[polaris]

We potty trained Thomas about three or four weeks ago, so 21/22 months. It took about two weeks but we did a couple of weeks preparation first. I gave him a few goes on the potty in the evenings over the previous couple of weeks and he had a pee once or twice by luck but without really knowing what he was doing. Every time I went to the loo I would bring him with me and explain what was happening and that when he was a big boy he wouldn't need nappies anymore and would go in the potty. I also got him a book about potty training so he knew what it was all about. I definitely recommend getting a book, it really helped a lot. We got Pirate Pete but I'm sure there is an equivalent that is geared for girls.

Then I had four days off work in a row and decided to just give it a go. When he got up that morning I told him he didn't have to wear a nappy today and that he was going to pee and poo in the potty. I just left him bare from the waist down. Then I watched him like a hawk and whipped him to the potty anytime he looked like he was going to pee. I had a sticker chart and at first I was giving him a sticker if he even sat on the potty and two stickers if he actually went. I also gave him snacks and read to him and played with him while on the potty - anything to create pleasant associations! I also kept track of all the times that he peed for the first few days so I could get an idea of his schedule. He had a few accidents but got the idea very quickly and by the third day he was pretty much trained for pee. It took a couple of days longer before he would poo in the potty and he was going in his nappy after I put him to bed. Then he got the hang of pooing in the potty too. I left him with no bottoms in the house for the first ten days or so but put him in 'big boy pants' to leave the house (short journeys only at first). After that he wanted to wear 'big boy pants' all the time so I put him back in clothes full-time. So I would say about two weeks in total until he was trained. I still encourage him to go if I know he hasn't been in a while and I still have to pull his trousers up and down but it's been ages since he had an accident so I consider him basically trained now. It's been a lot easier than I was expecting, so my advice is to go for it and see how she takes to it. I still have Thomas in nappies for naps and bedtime though which wouldn't solve your nappy removal problem obviously!!

 

[xx~Lor~xx]

We potty trained my daughter just after her 2nd birthday. We had the potty around, put her in big girl knickers, and just kept asking her, and got really excited! Initially it was very difficult to get her to go for the first couple of times, (and we had some accidents, expect that) so I had a little help with a couple of sweeties, and it worked! After the inital few times, she was contented with mummy dancing around like a crazy woman, cheering and clapping while she did her business on the potty

..however, now, she claps and cheers for me everytime she sees me go to the toilet particularly bad in public loos. Oh the joys of toddlers!

 

[bloodbinds]

Ohhh, well this is all really encouraging! Thinking maybe i'll keep Bella off from Nursery for a week and just do it - do you think that would be best?

shall i get a sticker chart then? Maybe encourage her with sweeties when she does a wee, or just when she sits on the potty?

What pottys are you using? Just a standard one? Are you putting them on the toilet at all?

 

[polaris]

Ohhh, well this is all really encouraging! Thinking maybe i'll keep Bella off from Nursery for a week and just do it - do you think that would be best?

shall i get a sticker chart then? Maybe encourage her with sweeties when she does a wee, or just when she sits on the potty?

What pottys are you using? Just a standard one? Are you putting them on the toilet at all?

I just got a standard potty and a basic toilet seat. I started off with just the potty. I think a potty is easier at this age because you can carry it from room to room and you can get them to sit on it without leaving their toys etc. Also it is easier to tell if they have gone and they can see what they have produced too! On the big toilet you can't always see if they have done a pee. Recently I have started putting Thomas onto the toilet and also moving the potty into the bathroom more. He still wants to bring the potty into the sitting room sometimes though. I give him the choice now if he wants to go on the potty or the big toilet.

 

[wishingonastar]

We started on friday with my 26 month old...she wants to sit on the toilet like us so we got a step and child toilet seat. We have a potty as well but only one from pound shop as useful if I can't get to toilet with her (if feeding baby or something)

We've found so far that if we ask her if she needs a wee or poo most of the time she'll say no then have accidents. Now we tell her we're sitting her on toilet to do wee or poo and tell her she'll get a sweetie if she manages it

Yesterday and today have been sooooo much better with only one accident so far.

I didn't want to do sweets as reward but took easy route as have baby to care for as well!

We have pullups for daytime if we go out and nappies at night still

 

[JadeEmChar]

With DD1 i started her at around 18months..I would encourage her to use the potty every so often like after a meal or after a drink after a nap and put her in big girl knickers. It took us awhile but she was fully potty trained at 3yrs old.

 

[cleckner04]

Thanks for this thread! We are a week into our potty training and I can use this same advice right now. Google the fellom method of potty training. It's supposed to be a 3 day training. It hasn't worked in 3 days for us but I haven't been following it to a T either. Emma point blank refused to sit on a potty until last week. But she holds her wee all night and refuses to wear a diaper in the day so I knew it was time to start. She now pees in the morning after waking up, holds it all morning and naps than pees on the potty after her nap. But I haven't managed the evenings yet with her. We just use a baby bjorn potty which is a standard little potty. It's easy because I just take it with us whenever we move to a different room. If she pees on it, I cheer and do the 'pee pee' dance and than we go dump it in the big toilet and wave bye bye to it. She loves that part of it.

Good luck to you!!

 

[Lu28]

I can give you my experiences but she's still in nappies so not sure how much use it'll be!

I've had a potty lying around for months and the toilet seat thing and would get her to sit on them but she really didn't show any interest. She had started getting upset about going for a wee in her nappy though a few weeks back so thought it would be worth doing. I took her out and let her choose a new potty to buy (figured we could do with one upstairs and one downstairs anyway) and a book (Lulu's Loo). Bought her big girl pants and explained to her the day before and on the day that she'd be wearing pants and going for a wee / poo on the potty. I watched for any signals that she was about to go but she really doesn't give any. Constantly asked if she needed to go, the answer was always no. I sat her on it once an hour and nearly every time she'd have an accident about 5 minutes after standing up again. She did once accidentally have a wee in the potty and got extremely upset and stopped herself. She then got hysterical every time she started to wee and I tried to get her to finish on the potty, she'd stop herself weeing and just hold on to it until bedtime/nap. So she just wasn't ready and we'll try again in a few weeks.

 

[Blah11]

Amelie potty trained really quickly. We took her nappy off and asked her maybe every 30-45mins if she needed a wee (she'd say no lol) then when she did a wee on the floor we immediately put her on the potty/toilet even if she'd already finished. Took a day or 2 to get the hang of it but we had very few accidents after that. She self night time trained a few weeks later Just woke at 11pm asking for a wee then refused to have a nappy put back on. We had no night time accidents at all. One thing I will say though is keep a few days free where you can just stay in the house and don't put a nappy back on her unless its bedtime as it will just confuse her.


eta - we never used the potty really, we had far more success just going straight from nappy to toilet.

 

[bloodbinds]

Well today i got her a new potty, and we decorated it with stickers and what not, i've convinced her a few times to sit on the potty for a little while and gave her sticker for doing so - but no wee so far! She went for a nap this morning before lunch and wore a nappy then, however she had a wee in the nappy while sleeping! But no more wee since then so haven't had a chance to potty train her yet really! Lol.