Potty Training - Centerville, UT

L. the one thing that helped my son out was to see different colors in the toilet after he did go potty, we would use food coloring, just one or two drops, at first I had to put the drops in before he would use the potty, but after a few days it was almost an exciting reward for him to see the water turning colors. That helped him with the pooping part also. He was about 2 1/2 when he finally went potty and no diapers at night.
I hope that helps.

N.

My son turned 3 in March we have finally gotten to the point where we can call him fully potty trained. I knew that my son was ready to start training when he would ask us to change him when he was wet or dirty. At his three year well baby I talked to his doctor and she said never force the potty training or they will start holding it and become constipated and when the do go it will be painful. The best advice I can give is patience and a lot of praise when they do go on the potty. And don't get upset whne he does have accidents, and he will. Treat like it is no big deal. That way he will feel comfortable and at ease. I hope this helps.

Hi, L.. I am just about to potty train my third child. The first two were so easy - I just hope this one will be, too! I read the book about potty training in a day and just felt like it was too extreme for me. I know a lot of people like it, but it didn't really seem to fit for me. However, my first two kids were essentially potty-trained in one day. I'll tell you how...

First of all, he is ready if:

1. He can express verbally the concept of "poop" or "pee."
2. He can pull his own pants up or down.
3. He occasionally tells you if he needs a diaper change - at least when its poopy.

So, here's my trick. I decided to make a chart for my kids - but it was not just any chart. I made it big (out of poster board) and made it look a bit like a Candyland board game where you travel along a path from start to finish. Every time my child went to the bathroom and their underwear was still dry, they got to put a sticker in one of the squares along the path. Every few squares, there was a bigger picture of a reward. For instance, one was a picture of McDonald's. When my child progressed to that square, we hopped into the car and went to McDonald's - immediately.

At first, there were only a couple of squares until a reward space, then there were progressively a few more squares to each new reward. So, they had to stay dry a little bit longer each time. And the rewards got bigger and bigger. At first, it was something small, like a candy. Then a small toy (like a Matchbox car), then an ice cream cone, a trip to the park, McDonald's, swimming as a family, etc. The last prize was something each of my kids really wanted. For my daughter it was a rocking horse. For my son, it was a play castle.

The best part was the pictures. My kid could count with me to see how much further to each prize and the picture was a great reminder that they really did want what was coming! It is very important that the reward be immediate, so I made sure my schedule was clear for a few days so that I could be ready.

If my child went on the potty, but they had dripped a bit in their underwear, I still let them put a star on the board - just in the same square they had already put on in. They didn't progress unless they were dry between trips. I did this because I didn't really want to reward just sitting on the potty, I wanted to reward the fact that they were DRY.

I asked several times during the day if they were dry and reminded them to use the potty as soon as they needed to go, but I never forced them to use the potty at any regular times.

The miracle is, they put on their new underpants (no pull-ups because they're too much like diapers) and they never had an accident. Even at night, I thought for sure they would wet the bed, but neither of them did.

When my child reached the last square (the big reward), we all gathered around as a family and cheered as he put the sticker on. I will never forget the proud look on his face.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

P.S. We started out potty-training our boy sitting down for both pee and poop. After he was confident in making it to the bathroom (and tall enough), then we focused on standing up. Dad taught him to lift the seat, aim, and then put the seat back down. I am really grateful for that!!!

We just finished training my 2 1/2 year old son. He was definitely not ready so it was an extra challenge (but he had to be trained for preschool) We visitd the Dr. phil website and did everything on it. We did not use pull ups so I bought a lot of underwear (my son helped pick it out. We started with just having him sit and go (every 30 minutes) After about a month of hits and misses I started a sticker chart (blue smileys for potty and green for poop) and he got three M&M's for potty and a half of a little debbie brownie for poops The visual helped him to to see what he was doing and what he had earned. A friend of mine bought little toys (cars, bouncy balls etc) And rapped them up. Every time her son went poop he got to open one. He was trained within a week. I recommend small steps. I waited until he really had the poop thing down until we started working on how to wipe. Then we worked on how to get on his own underwear and pants. I think it is best to do the Dr. Phil plan and get them right into underwear. My son hated to have wet or dirty underwear. Good Luck

Signs of readiness:
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/refcap/preschooler/pto...

We used the Dr. Phil "potty train your child in one day" (after months of agony and many, many accidents) and it worked (in about a week to be mostly accident free). Many moms suggested this to me and I was shocked when it worked.
http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/264

Good luck!

I had wonderful results potty training my son, here's what we did: I bought a training potty for Christmas when he was 1 year and 9 months old, we lived in a small apartment so I took it out of the box and set it in the hall way, At around his second birthday, he started showing signs of being ready to train when he went poop in the training potty and I didn’t even know it. I just looked in there while walking down the hall and noticed a little poopie in there. SOooo..I bought a book called "Potty train you child in just one day" Me and my mom read the book, thought "yeah, right" and followed the book exactly, that way if it didn’t work, we knew it wasn’t because of us not doing what it told us to do. There is a prep period if I remember correctly, but on the "BIG DAY" where we dedicated 1 full day to potty train him, I swear to you, he was indeed potty trained!!! I actually felt like "NO, he cant be, he was in diapers just this morning" but one word of advice given to me was "once you put them in big boy (or girl) underwear, don’t put them back in diapers" so that evening I put him in some Buzz Light-year Underwear, and he NEVER went potty or poop in his pants, It worked like a charm. I actually felt gypped, (not that it was a bad thing) but I felt like I skipped over the whole potty training experience that I see so many parents struggle over and went on to the next learning milestone. He never even peed the bed. So there is my experience, I hear Dr. Phil has a book with the same concept, Good luck.