Opinions on the right way to potty train are varied and readily given. Amongst my acquaintance I have heard many bizarre stories. A colleague tells of her eldest daughter who at 18 months demanded her “potty chair” for weeks, before finally in exasperation took her diaper off in the kitchen and screamed “I WANT MY POTTY CHAIR”, and they never changed her diaper again. A friend at church watched as her son (pictured left), walked into the bathroom, took off his diaper, and perched atop the seat, self-taught. An unusual style but it worked for him for quite some time. Then another friend ignored her son’s interest in the potty and she was unable to have him completely trained by the time he started Kindergarten.
Everyone has a unique potty training experience. For my part, Toby started telling us when he was going to poo about two months ago, so out came the potty. He sits on it every night and every morning, and we read to him from Boys’ Potty Time. He has yet to do anything, despite a few false starts, but he is very excited about two things in the book; new underpants, and “NO MORE DIAPERS” which is always yelled very loudly. Since he hates having his diaper changed, we’re hoping he makes the connection soon.
If you haven’t yet decided how to broach this subject then check out some of the options available to you:
- The Diaper Free Baby offers help on how to potty train “early” and naturally.
- Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, which offers exactly the advice you’d think it would.
- There is also the option of training your baby from day one and having a 100% diaper free baby.
- You can now get the classic Once Upon a Potty as an app; soggy books are a thing of the past.
- You might also want to slip in a rendition of Everyone Poops to keep yourself entertained!
At the end of the day there is no right and wrong, the end result is the same. Do what feels comfortable for you and for your child. Come summer I plan on employing my cousin’s technique: Let Toby run around naked for a few days and see what happens! Luckily Nanny (Grandma) will be visiting that week. I’m sure bribery will play a small role in this.
Both my kids were ready around age 3. We tried pretty panties with my daughter before she turned 3 and after having to clean up the couch, the chair, and the carpet in a two hour period along with her being upset we decided to wait. Soon after turning 3 she was completely ready on her own- including at night.
Our son was very much the same- except I didn’t even try earlier with him. When he was ready, he was ready.
All kids are different. Some are ready earlier; some later. Listening to their cues is important, but I think a lot of parents are “trained” rather than the kids being trained. Diaper-free is a totally other category of course.
Good luck! Just remember… it will happen when he’s ready 🙂
iPad + Netflix = best potty training device ever.
Especially with an autistic boy who wouldn’t sit long enough to BM. A 30 minute episode of Thomas or WordWorld and he learned!
Weaning from the iPad was much easier than getting him to sit down for 10 minutes (or 2 hours …)
I have 2 boys that are now 11 and 13. My advice? Let them watch dad. Really. Boys have to get the general idea of how it all works…and moms can’t really show them that with our…er um….equipment? Of course, when first starting out, you will want to teach them how to go sitting down…but soon they will need to learn how to go standing up also.
Another tip…I used to keep a jar of dried cereal (like fruit loops or cheerios) on the back of the toilet. These aren’t for eating, but for little boys to use as targets! Have them drop one in the toilet and aim for it when they pee! Granted, I used to catch my youngest munching on them for a midnight snack sometimes…but they help teach boys to keep the pee in the potty and not on the rim! (eww!)
I was so worried about potty training my son. Everyone told me that boys were so much harder than girls and my daughter was not easy. But Zachary got it in about 2 days at 26 months. Some kids just “get it” right away and some take a while.