Potty Training - Trenton,NJ

N.,

You're doing just the right thing right now... Encouraging him to use the potty when you do or when you enter the bathroom. He's probably too young to try formal training, but it won't be long from the sound of things.

Both my girls started just like your son, around 18 months. To make it easier for myself, I put them in Pampers Easy-ups (they were the only ones small enough), so we could just pull them up and down when they wanted to try. When we began training in earnest at around 23 months we made the switch to underwear. I used the book "Potty Train in 3 Days" by Lois Kleint. Complete training (when they tell you they have to go) definitely takes longer than 3 days... so be patient. As someone else said, make sure you have the full support of your child's care giver or all your efforts will be futile.

Happy training!

-J.

My son started to show interest around 18 months, but did not master the potty until 3. Do not get discouraged if he loses interest for a while. Sitting on the potty can be more of a game for him at this time, and encouraging hime without pressure is the key to potty training success. Clap, jump up and down, when he does it in the potty, but I would not expect him to be diaper free for a while.

Good for you and your son! I do elimination communication with my 15 month old daughter (since she was 4 months) and she loves to go on the potty, she even wipes herself afterwards (pee pee only:). We have a baby bjorn potty that she can sit on herself and a potty seat for the big toilet and I ask her which one she wants to use and she will point to it. We have books in the bathroom and other toys. Offering the potty first thing in the morning, after naps, before leaving the house (a good habit to get into) and before baths and bed are good times. In my experience it is an ever-changing process so you just need to go with the flow...so to speak:) For instance sometimes I get the sense that she has to pee but if she's in the middle of doing something I'll put the potty in her sight and say, "I'm here to help if you feel like going potty." She'll go over when she really feels the urge and then I help her sit down. Cloth diapers or training pants really help the process too. Good luck and have fun (it should be fun for both of you).

Hi N.,
If you go to www.pull-ups.com you can request a free potty training DVD. When I was potty training a girl that I babysat for, I checked lots of books out of the library. Some for me to read on my own, some for me to read to her. GOOD LUCK!!!!

That is great!! Congratulations....just keep praising him and praising him. This is what I did with my two older boys and my second one just got potty trained fully out in public and through the night. My oldest was 2 1/2 yo when fully potty trained and my second one 2 yo. They are 1 year and 3 wks apart and of course my second one was watching my first one and it helped that way too. What I did with my oldest who is now 3 1/2 yo, after having him go commando (naked) on the bottom and have him do that at home and that way he can just sit on the potty chair without fussing to get his pants down and so forth. Then after I have seen him going and had it set, we put on an underwear on him with spiderman on it and said that Spiderman does not want to get peed on and he understood that which I was not sure if he did and then he said, "spidey no wet" and I knew then he knew what that meant. I had to teach him before then that he is to do # 2 on potty and caught it on the floor and told him and pointed to it and it goes in the potty. The next day I saw him wanting to do #2 and I quickly put him on the potty chair with a book and have him be calm and he did it and I said yes, that is where your poop goes in the potty. Then after that great. We had to keep at him at home and then tried out in public. The best time was one day he was fully potty trained because he did not wet himself during the nap in the car and when we went to the church where there was funral and he kept saying he had to go potty and my husband took him every time. Did the same thing with my second, but quicker with teaching him no peeing or pooping on spiderman and my husband took him to bathroom every time and it worked and now I have both of them potty trained and now I have almost 8 month old and that will be a while longer. Take it step by step and maybe he'l go faster, or slower, go at his pace and stp by step and praising him will work for him too. God sure hleped me and gave me wisdom on that!! Any questions, let me know or e-mail me at ____@____.com

When my 22 month old appeared to be interested in going to the potty on his own, and after he had used it frequently enough (this included #1 & #2). I took him for a big exciting trip to the underpants store. We got him Spiderman, Elmo, and Thomas underpants. We put them on and he saw how wet/messy he got when he didn't go to the potty. We had an accident a day for about a week, but then he consistently went to the bathroom. (We used pull ups at night until he was 3).
My 2nd son is now 18 months old and is doing what your son does. Unfortunately, I don't think he's ready for the big "underwear trip" yet since he's only done it once. I'm hopeful that in a couple of months he'll be going more frequently.
I think the most important thing is to let them do it on their own and not force them or the issue. Lots of praise and excitement are also pretty key.

sounds like you are doing great. not much advice since my daughter is 3 and isnt fully trained:( but we let her have a stamp after she went, not sure if you were looking for rewards, but they were the best. cheap to get started, no reoccuring cost, wash off, ect. good luck!!!!!

I am a grandma and commend you on starting to potty train your little one. My belief is to introduce to potty early.
When ever my children were on the potty I would read to them and tell stories. You have to use your imagination. Since you know what your child likes take that into consideration.

We started potty training our son at 18mo and he was completely trained one mo after his second birthday. A few things we did.

1. We didn't use a potty. we just put a kiddie seat on top of the regular toilet and bought a stepping stool - this eliminated the need to later make the transition from potty to toilet. And when we were out and about he didn't baulk at foreign toilets.

2. I had an imaginary puppet who only came out when he was sitting on the toilet (literally just my hand and a funny voice) He LOVED talking to his puppet friend. And since it was an imaginary friend we could bring him anywhere.

3. We rewarded peepees with 2 m&m's and poopoos with 5. He only got m&ms when he "produced" and words of encouragement every time he tried.

4. We talked up big boy underpants and pointed out all his friends and cousins who were wearing them. We bought a pair with Elmo on it too. And let him know that he could only go to school once he was wearing big boy underpants. He's really pumped about starting school in the fall, so that was the motivation that put him over the top.

Remember, it's a process and it took us a good 7 months to get him completely trained, standing up and sitting down. Good Luck and have fun.

My question is why you need to start so early. I have 2 teenage kids, one pre-teen & one in elementary shcool. I started with potty training when they were 2 years old. I'm from Japan and they start early like 1 year old but they did that because parents had to wash all the daipers with their hands! My mother did that, too. I think you should find some good book and DVD for potty training. What they say is the baby must be communicatable. It won't be effective if you start too early. my first son to complete training like more than 6 month. And he get back down when we had to move (change in the environment has big effect). But my 3rd one finished potty training in a few month. I think it's important to be sensitive to your baby's growth and do it in right timing in right way.

Hi N.,

I never did early toilet training because personally I wasn't interested in a process that took months (or over a year) to complete, I didn't think the whole going to the potty thing was cute, and my friends who started with their kids before 2 didn't have a final result before I did. However, my suggestions if you really want to get him out of diapers asap would be to put him in cloth diapers or cloth training pants with plastic pants or waterproof outer layer. This will teach him what happens when he pees - he gets very wet. Kids who are disposable diapered and in pullups don't experience this. I'd suggest taking him to the toilet about every hour and a half. Don't ask or suggest, just make this the routine. If he's peeing more often than this, it's not realistic to train at this time. My son was older when we used this method - a little before three, but it only took a couple of weeks for him to wait until I took him to the toilet rather than pee or poop in his training pants.

Good luck!

I also did both of my children "early" and they are now 5 and 7. I found at this age it was training mom and child to see how nice it was to stay dry. My kids were put in underwear with plastic covers on top so we could see how long it was between drinks before the bladder went and that my child felt wet. I rewarded with possive responce on my part-- doing a silly dance that was only used for potty behavior. :-)At times I used food, and even drink as a reward, but didn't rely on that heavily. Does your childcare support you in your endevors so that there isn't confusion and you all are working on this together? We also used to watch Bear and teh BIg blue house. He has a "Bear teaches the Potty" or something like that. I remember a couple of the songs to this day.

It was slow going but I knew I needed to always have a complete change of clothes or two around with me ( at one point that helped keep things possitive as at 2 they had favorite shirts and pants they liked to wear as they had to change thier clothes again).

Oh one more thought- we taught our children a sign, no the real sign for tolit but one that we would catch on to so that they could begin to tell us when they had to go. For our oldest we had her use both hands and clap her knees. It helped with the communictaion aspect of things.

Good luck I found it was worth it and both of my kids a boy and a girl were entirly trained by three-- no more but the occasional accident !!! No more diapers! ( except for pull ups for night)