Friday, 18 July 2008
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Potty Teaching
Here are my tips for the wonderfully frustrating stage called potty learning. I don't really like the word training, sounds too much like training a dog. I see it more as them learning how to do it.
by Mama Fox- DON'T RUSH THEM!! Seriously, I don't care if your sister's/brother's or best friend's child was completely potty trained at 18 months or 2 years old, you pay attention to your own child. You try to push them, and you are making it harder on everyone. You can't make a child sleep, eat or pee/poop if they don't want to. Don't even try.
- Watch for signs. Those include telling you when they are about to go/have gone, asks for diaper change, are interested in the bathroom, knows the words for pee/poop or whatever you want to call it in your house. Here it's potty and "shooie." Don't ask.
- Cloth diapers are a big help here. Unlike with disposable diapers and pull ups, they can actually feel when they are wet.
- Let them pick out the potty chair/ring and underwear. Being apart of the decisions will make them feel more confident. Both my boys prefer the ring that fits on the toilet rather than a potty chair.
- Don't expect it to happen all at once. There will be accidents. Just because there are no accidents during the day doesn't mean there won't be any at night. It took Fox1 almost a full year to stay dry consistently at night and even now we still have an accident now and then.
- Don't EVER EVER get angry with them for an accident (or at least don't show them that, I know it's frustrating). It makes it so much worse. Just clean up the mess, give them a hug and tell them it's okay to have accidents sometimes then move on. Shaming, threats, discipline have no business here.
- Make sure you have enough time. Don't try potty learning right before a trip so you don't have to take diapers, or right before he's going to preschool. Again, it doesn't happen overnight.
- If things start getting really frustrating, take a break for a week. Try again when things aren't so stressful.
- Expect regression if there's a big change, especially a new baby.
- Above all, love your child and celebrate the little successes. They won't be in diapers when they start college, trust me.
Potty training 101 is a good start point.
When and how did/will you potty teach your kids? If your kids have already successfully learned to use the potty, what methods worked best for them?
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Comments (5)
Following cues worked great for my three boys, and they were "done" respectively at 3.5 yrs, 2 and a little over 2. Then I had my daughter, and at this point I'll be happy if she gets it down before she has to go to kindergarten.
I definitely agree with following their signs and not using diapers/pull ups. I have very thick cloth 'undies' that I have used with all my kids so far. Monkey 3 - who is 22 mon - just started showing some interest with the toilet. He will say 'poo' and walk to the bathroom. So, I sit him on the toilet. He hasn't gone at all yet, but to me this is one sign he may be getting ready. He has such a proud look on his face when he gets off the toilet. Just have to wait and see.
I go straight from pampers to undies. And I try to keep sweats or something easy for them to get up and down by themselves, and easy to change out of. My children all really liked the "rewards" for going potty, like a piece of candy (special since it's not something i keep on hand unless potty training) Stickers and reward charts they could have cared less about, so that didn't work. Each child is ready at a different age, some are so easy and others not. My oldest would wake up dry at 1 1/2yrs old but didn't decide to fully potty train until he was 37 months (and he did decide... no matter how much persuading we tried to do) my little girl at 26 months, was a breeze, she loved "new potty's" and always wanted to go when we were away, then we struggled with it at home a little - she did awesome for one week and was so into it, the next week and the rest of the month she was dead set against the potty, so we let it rest and in a few weeks she was "back on" again and that was the end pampers. My other son at 24 months basically trained himself on a long road trip, he wanted keep up with his brother and sister - and be out of his carseat longer to run into the restrooms with us instead of a change in the car! Something my kids love is washing their hands, and of course they get to do this after using the potty!!yeah! I tried to make it a big exciting thing. I used to try to keep a stool in the bathroom so they could reach the sink, but it's to enabling - they can get into to much other stuff, so they now use the tub. I think it works great, they can reach the knob themselves and most of the splatter stays in the tub instead of running down arms and elbows onto the floor!
Thanks. I'll be needing this soon.
With my first son he always let me know, he watched how his daddy used the 'potty' and from the start copied him.At the time he began to walk approximately 9 months old he began on his own. He loved his own little version of our potty as it looked exactly as ours did. and he was completely a self starter.He went to the terry cloth undies with the thicker lining for 'that area' during the day and only slept in a pampers at night for the first month of his trial run I will say. After that he refused the pampers at all and was wearing the terry cloth undies full-time.No mistakes until he was in a daycare at 3 years old and left outside while the daycare provider worked on her car and allowed him to be neglected until he wet his pants. Very disturbing for him and I! needless to say, I pulled him out of that daycare permanently !
With my second son it took until he was at least 2 years old and using the stickers on a poster board for incentive reward deal. But it worked . Same deal though, pampers to terry cloth undies. pampers at night terry cloth undies during the day. I never believed in pull ups. In my opinion they bear too much resemblance to a diaper and the child will still wet and poop their pants while wearing them. Patience, and many trips to the bathroom! Especially after every nap, meal, snack-time, before bye byes, and after bye byes. Was always our routine.