Potty Training - Graham,TX

Hi A.,

When training my children, I did not have a specific strategy in mind, but I did do a few things to make the process easier. First of all, I found that Pull-ups were an impediment. If my daughter had one on, she would go in it. So it didn't take me long to take my hubby's advice to nix the pull-ups altogether.

This brings to mind the concern of having accidents when we would go somewhere. What we did was buy one of those Baby Bjorn potties, and we kept it in the van. When she needed to go, we pulled over, and she would get in the back and do her business. I also kept a pack of flushable wipes back there. I would discreetly dispose of the waste in the ditch, and we would be on our merry way. I know it seems gross, but it's better than cleaning up a huge mess in your car!

The other thing that I know made this process way easier was the fact that I bought like 30 or 40 pairs of underwear so if she had a #2 accident in them, I just flushed the poop, and threw away the underwear. I hated the thought of putting those nasty things in the wash! Pee in her panties did not bother me at all. The biggest thing though, was not pushing her,and letting her communicate that she was ready to train. She wasn't trained until she was a little past 3, and I dealt with all kinds of rude comments, especially from my cousin. Guess what? Her almost 4 year old daughter is still not trained! I had to laugh, and tell her she shouldn't judge, unless she has been in the same boat. I think she understands now:). Good luck. It sounds like she's definitely ready.

K.

I second A.'s voice on
NO PULLUPS! they're just an expensive marketing product for the darn diaper companies to keep earning your money ;)
They are NEVER necessary, as mothers have been training kids for HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS of years without them..
A good ol' bucket of water with OxyClean is fantastic to soak soiled clothes ;)

A., It sounds like half the battle is already behind you with your 2 year old! She sounds a lot like my 2 girls. Both were potty trained within 2 months after their 2nd birthday. If she has already gone potty at day care and is telling you about her dirty diapers then she sounds like she is ready to move on! Buy some pull-up training pants and have a talk with her about what they are and what she can/can't do with them. If she does the same thing in pull-ups (tells you when she is wet or dirty) then move her onto panties, again explaining what they are and what she can/can't do in them. My kids did not like the feeling of wet panties and got to the point where they would start to have an accident and then bolt to the bathroom before it got worse. Same thing with poop--they realized when they had a poopy accident in their panties it felt different and worse. They learned from their 'mistakes' and did not want to feel gross so they new they had to go to the potty before anything could happen in the panties. Another thing I did was offer the potty every 30 minutes whether they had to go or not. I progressed it up to an hour as I saw them progressing. This helped a lot as kids get busy and therefore distracted by playing and other activities. If the Teri Crane book works for you then great! Good luck either way!

Hi A., I really never understood this being ready thing, I know I'm old school, maybe that's why. Before I was ever pregnant, I told my husband no 2 year old's in diapers I didn't wait until my kids were born then decide when I would train them. I always used reward AND discipline (I know many mom's today don't like that word) but any kind of training takes discipline, I was patient I made it fun, and I had a 21 month old, 19 month old and a 22 month old completely potty trained including nights and naps. Julia