Potty Training - El Paso,TX

I potty trained my daughter at 2 and this is what worked for me. I got a potty chair. I found she was more willing to go and stay on the potty until she peed if she could sit and watch tv while on the chair. If she went pee she got a piece of candy and for poop she got 2 pieces. That worked really well. I kept her in undies all day when we were at the house but I put her in pull ups at night. (it takes a different part of the brain to learn to hold their pee all night so the night time training might take a while before she gets that) better to wait until she wakes up dry before attempting night time in undies. I also put her in pull ups if we were going to be out all day or going for a super long car ride. I think pull ups were ok for stuff like that. The reason they can back fire is that when some parents put their kids in pull ups they just treat them like a diaper and stop worrying about their kid needing to go to the bathroom which will send mixed signals to your child. For me if I knew we were going to be gone for a couple hours I would put her in a pull up but after an hour or so I would still take her to whatever public bathroom was around so she still new she had to pee in a potty and not in her pull up. Plus I would put an extra one in my purse so if she did have an accident out in public I treated the situation the same as if she was in undies. I took her to the restroom right away and put on a new pull up on her. But then at least she wasn't getting pee everywhere in a public place. After a while she was good and trained then I just stopped the pull ups all together.

Between 2-3 a childs connection from the nerves of the spine to the brain that signal the peeing and pooping responds begins to kick in. They start to become aware because their brain is now able to connect the two. One major thing is NO PRESSURE. Bring the child in with you whenever you use the bathroom, speak in toddler terms, and maybe pull his/her pants down just to make them aware.

You can either buy them a potty chair of their favorite character OR just a toilet seat thingy so they dont fall in :) If the child has NO interest, becomes upset at the idea, or wont even listen, then wait another month. If your child can pull their pants down themselves thats a great start. Pull ups are good for this to help with that.

My son is 2 years and 4 months old. He is becoming more aware but still is not interested. Just today he actually pulled his pants down and sat in his potty. It was only for 10 seconds while I peed BUT it was a start.

Never pressure, yell, look disappointed because this affects them behavioral wise.

I am in nursing school and in my pediatrics semester now and am learning TONS! Try reading up on Freud's anal stage. http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/p...

A good tip is if they do pull their own pants down in FRONT OF THE TOILET then reward reward reward... If they sit reward some more... and so on.

Good luck :)

I am just kind of starting with my 2 year old too. He has always come into the bathroom with us and we talk about pee and poop and he knows how to flush the big potty and daddy has shown him how big boy pee...so there's an introduction. For Christmas he got an Elmo uses the potty book and it has flushing sounds, etc. We read it almost everyday and he's learned to say potty and poop, so I kind of started by building a vocabulary of what it is and where it is, etc.

From here, my plan is to buy a potty chair and some big boy underwear and treat it kind of like a surprise or a gift and transition to having him sit on it. He follows me to the restroom and sits on my lap, so I figure this should be pretty easy, cause it will be fun to have his own potty.

Just take it a day at a time and make it fun! I highly recommend the potty books or videos with a favorite character, I love that my son learned the word potty so quickly and I can say, I have to go potty now and he knows what that means, I think that's a huge start.

Here are some tips below and a link with more info on potty training:

http://blogs.goddardsystems.com/Cedar-Park-TX/2009/12/13/...

Transitioning from diapers to the potty chair can be a scary time for a toddler. Anything new has the tendency to frighten toddlers, so you should do your best to ensure your child that this is not a bad thing. Make it fun. One of the best potty training tips is to present the potty chair like it’s a special gift just for him. Wrap it up in pretty paper, with a big colorful bow, and let your child open it like a present. You’d be amazed at how excited a toddler can get over a potty chair. This will make his introduction to the potty a happy experience, instead of a frightening one.

If you have time and are willing to "do the potty thang" every hour or so then you might try just pants or undies ect, but at night and outing ect, I would use pull ups. Or you can do cloth diapers because they keep the wet closer to the skin (which is the best way they realise the "went") but protects their pants. Giving lots of praise for going to the potty is good even if they don't go. NEVER get upset at your child because they don't do anything when sitting on the potty...this confuses them and they will just associate the negitive with sitting on the potty. I started potty-traing as soon as they could walk to the potty. You have good days and bad days. Also, it is NORMAL to regress at times...ESSPECIALLY if they have a younger sibbling or new sibbling. Good luck! :)

I happen to be in the same boat as you are with my 2 ( almost 3) year old. We have tried everything from the pull-ups to going without any panties and still nothing. I have heard that using candy or a child's favorite snack as a bribe can help, or putting the potty chair in the living room with the child to kind of play with. If and when you find out anything that works please let me know. Good luck!!!!