Potty Traininga 22 Month Old Boy

I have heard of putting underware on under the pull up. They have the feel of big boy pants and you are safe if they have an accident!

y

It is time to graduate to the pull up stage. I buy son pull ups because he is learning how to use the potty. Huggies make a really nice brand of pull ups. Their pull ups have these tabs on the side that you can adjust and untape for easy access. When they have to go you just unvelcor the sides and let them go in the potty and when they are done you can Velcro it back on them. They also make pull ups that have cool sensation when they wet in the pull ups that is great. My son is 24 months and he loves these pull ups. Go to huggies.com and sign up for their emails and they will send you great coupons for their pull ups.

I second the recommendation for the book "The No-Cry Potty Training Solution". Her approach is nice and takes into account your needs as well as your child's.

My guy has been in pull ups since he was about 20 months old. He just wouldn't lie down for a diaper change anymore and I was tired of the struggle. They are a little more expensive than regular diapers but just keep your eye out for coupons and sales. Wal-Mart and Toys R' Us often have the bigger boxes on sale and with a coupon it's not bad price-wise.

I haven't had much problems with them as far as leaking but I think the Pampers Easy Ups are more like a regular diaper as far as absorbtion compared with Huggies. Pampers pull ups are in two stages though. The Easy Ups are for that transition period between diapers and potty training and then they have another type that has that cool alert system for potty training. My son does like the Huggies designs better (Cars for daytime & Toy Story for the nighttime pull ups). You may want to use pull ups during the day and regular diapers at night if you are worried about leaking. We have never experienced day time leaking (or poop blow outs) with the Pampers or the Huggies pull ups.

What I'm trying to do now with my little guy is let him run around naked or in big boy underwear when we're going to be home for a period of time. I can't find training pants in his size (he's a small 27 month old) so I think we are stuck with the pull ups.

I also recommend taking you little guy with you to the store to pick out the potty. My son got so excited about the Elmo potty when I took it out of the box to look at it that he started taking his pants and pull up off right there in the aisle of Babies R' Us. He loves the Elmo potty and has even used it on his own without my having to ask him if he has to go.

Good luck!

I found potty training difficult and for me the best advice anyone gave me was to let your child tell you when they have to use the potty and not to push too hard. Both my children weren't ready at 2 1/2 years. They had some interest but not enough. Most children's bladders aren't quite ready that young. I found that 3 1/2 years was better because they were a bit more mature and they were more in control of their bladders. One night when my husband, son, and I were at a Pizza Hut, my son, then 3 1/2, shouted at the top of his lungs: "I HAVE TO PEE!!" That was the beginning of the end of his diaper days.
I realize this may be individual for everyone but I think there is alot of pressure out there to "quick get your child potty-trained" by 2 years. I know of some children who didn't do well till they were closer to 4 or 5 years just because of the emotional pressure put on them. I admit from the parent's perspective, it is nice when they can use the bathroom and don't need diaper changes anymore. A little bit about me: I am a mother of an almost 21 yr old son and a 14 yr old daughter. Yes, they will out grow diapers! I promise!!!
As far as graduating to pull-ups goes, I found pull-ups to be a glorified diaper that was a pain to change. There may be better pull-ups now but I think I'd go to underwear,when they're ready, because you have to change pull-ups too and I found that annoying.

We have two boy 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 and even the young one is pretty much potty trained except for accidents on occassion at night. We went to pull-ups early too because they liked standing to be changed, but we had to switch with diapers sometimes for the following reasons:

1) Pull-ups DO NOT hold as much as diapers so they leaked more since they weren't yet potty trained when we started them.

2) Pull ups keep the wetness closer to the skin so the kid can "feel" that they peed....this means you go through more of them in a day or risk super diaper rash. It gets expensive.

3) The idea benind a pull up is really just a back-up method, with the assumption that you kid will use the potty most of the day. So if you're out and they go in the pull up you either have to take off all their shoes, pants, etc, to pull the new one on, or again get the reclosable ones which are more expensive. Even the ones that do open and close are not easy to situate that way while the kid is standing...it's like trying to get a good fit from a diaper on a standing kid, but with no tabs (just cheap fake velcro along the seam.)

4) A big gross poop in a pull up is hard to contain while you're dealing with the mess because of the lack of tabs.

I also noticed that both kids were big on the "big boy" transition, so pull-ups might be something nice to show him and tell him that he can start wearing them when he starts using the "big boy" potty. And then later when he's using the potty almost exclusively you can make the same big deal about graduating to undies :)

there's no harm in going to the pull ups, especially if he is showing some interest. it may even help him make the association between what he's doing and why he should be doing it on the toilet.

how long is a regular diaper lasting on him? you get less pull ups for the $, but if he's going for a decent amount of time between changes, then it may not be too much of difference price wise.

my son (now almost 4.5) was in pullups before he turned 2. he wouldn't keep his diaper on, so i switched him over so that he wasn't taking it off every time i turned around.

good luck, and remember that he'll do it when he's ready, and he may regress before he moves forward.

He may or may not be ready for potty training. One thing that works well, is a schedule. You must stick with it. I set the timer on my stove for every 20 minutes at first and would take mine to the bathroom and have them sit for a few minutes. Once they start actually going in the potty and not their pants, you still need to time it to get them there, but you can slowly taper the time back to 30 min...45 min.... etc.

I don't agree about the no pull ups.... If you are going to be at home, then I would have them wear underwear most of the time, but pullups will most likely be used for overnight? But, I did find that the pull ups with the "cool" sensor could help trigger your child to know when they need to run to the potty (I can't remember what it's called, but when they start to tinkle it turns cold)

Best of luck, but you have to be diligent when training....stick to a schedule!

I HIGHLY recommend "Diaper Free Before 3" - it's a great book. Our son was very interested in the potty early on and I wanted to follow his lead but didn't know what to do. That book helped a lot. We don't push and we don't consider ourselves formally PTing, but our 22 month old is extremely interested and goes for days without going in his diaper and only uses the potty... then he will skip the potty for days and only go in his diaper. We're waiting to see how he responds to #2 who will be here in 6 weeks before deciding how to continue.

Good luck!

My little guy is 23 months old and is doing the same thing, he'll tell me when he does a stinky either while he is doing it or right after. He's been doing that for awhile so we just got him a potty so he gets used the idea but I don't want to start pushing the issue yet because I'm due in two days with his little sister. And want him to adjust to a new baby before I start changing his world too much.
But it sounds like your guy is ready or close to it. One thing to consider is if he knows how to pull up and down his own pants. That tends to make potty training easier. Once you get the potty chair I'd also get the pull-ups then once he can stay dry and is doing well move on to the real underwear, let him pick out his favorite, my son loves thomas the train so for him he'd prob pick them. That way it's easier to keep them dry (or he'll get thomas all wet) for example. But first start with the pull-ups until he has that down. If you start running into any trouble it's ok to stop and take a step back for a little while. If you start too soon or push him when he is not ready it'll take longer usually.
So even though he seems ready to you, and it sounds like he is, don't get discouraged if he changes his mind about the potty once you start or part way through the training. Just watch and listen to what he is telling you.
Good luck I hope to hear how it goes, soon my guy will be heading down that road in a month or two.

Strictly speaking from my experience PTing 2 boys, here's what worked for us (take it or leave it)...

- NO Pullups! They look/feel just like a diaper. Move right to cotton underwear or training pants. To start, you might even want to try Gerber's "all in one" trainer - they're like waterproof training pants.

- For long car rides or questionable situations, I'd put a diaper either over or under the underwear until we were "safe". This is a temporary (couple hours max) fix.

- Get the potty seat (the simpler, the better), introduce your son to it, and let it go. Occasionally encourage him to sit on it; don't nag.

- RELAX. Let him go at his own pace. Trying to force it will only stress both of you out and may even stall the process. When they're ready, they're ready.

- No rewards (stickers, toys, etc.). This can backfire on you. For a time, I would let J flush after he went potty. Ok for a while. Then he'd pee JUST so he could flush again!

- Naked is good. When he's at the point where he knows when/how to use the potty, but forgets (too busy playing, etc.), let him run around the house naked - or at least pantsless. At worst, you'll have a couple messes to clean up, but they're nothing compared to the messes puppies make. This step "sealed the deal" for both my boys...and it usually happened in the summer.

- Be prepared for regression. PTing is scary. Just when you think he's making progress, he may take a huge step backwards. That's normal. Don't punish him for it. He'll get back in the game when he's ready.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck!