Potty Training 101
I am currently potty training my 3rd child before the age of 2 and keep coming across people asking me how I do it...or commenting that my kids are amazing. So I thought I would dedicate a post to my methods on how to potty train a toddler.
I will start with my philosophy. I do not believe in "waiting until they are ready" like you hear from the Dr's office and on all the suggestion fliers you get from diaper companies in the mail. I believe in teaching them how to succeed. 30 years ago (and still today in other countries), it was totally normal for kids to be potty trained at 18 months to 2 years old. Why are people waiting until 3 or 4 now? I believe it is because they are waiting for the kid to be ready. By waiting, you are then dealing with an opinionated preschool rather then an eager to please toddler which I believe CAN make the process more difficult. There are plenty of success stories of kids being trained in a few days at older ages, but I've heard many frustrated parents venting that their 3 or 4 year old has no interest in even trying to potty train. I believe they have missed the window of opportunity at a younger age when their child may have trained easier. I know my view on this is not the standard and I don't expect others to accept my view, but this is my blog where I get to express my opinions...and maybe my viewpoint can help someone who reads this.
So...now that I have covered that...how do you go about potty training a toddler? First, you have to have a lot of patients. Second, you have to be willing to clean up messes. Third, you have to be persistent and not give up.
Here we go. First...I start sitting my kids on the potty to get them use to it. I give them a skittle or small candy for "trying to go potty" every time that they sit on the potty. This helps them to want to sit on the potty because it earns them a treat.
Once they are sitting on the potty regularly, it's time for naked baby! Let them be bottom half naked. Put a potty chair in the living room (or whatever room they are in most often). Set a time for 30 min and have them sit on it every time it goes off. Do not expect success until they have an accident. They really don't understand yet why they are sitting on the potty. Stay right there with them because you need to catch them when they pee on the floor. When your little one pees on the floor, if you are fast enough, catch them and set them on the potty. Tell them, "Uh oh! We are suppose to pee on the potty, not on the floor! Look, now there is a mess! Can you pee on the potty for me?" When they are done sitting on the potty, get them a towel and have them help clean up the mess. They made the mess so they can help clean it. Once this has happened, they can start to understand what the potty is really for. This will probably happen a few times before you start having success. Pretty soon, they will start actually peeing when you sit them on the potty.
Continue with naked baby phase as long as necessary. With my older 2, day 3 was when they first recognized that they needed to go potty, walked over to the potty and went by themselves. With my toddler, she did this in the late afternoon of the first day. Once the child is recognizing that they need to go potty before it comes out, you can stop using the timer...or use it less. Transition from rewarding every time they sit on the potty, to just when they actually pee. Offer double rewards for pooping on the potty. As they get the hang of this, you can add panties (or underwear). You will need to help them pull them down and up. Remember, we are teaching them to go potty...we didn't wait for them to figure some things out on their own first...so we have to teach them to undress and dress too. With my experience...we were daytime diaper free with all 3 of mine in less the a week. That is worth it for the effort as diapers cost about $1000 a year! My kids got the hang of pulling panties down and up by the time they were 2, but still needed help if they were fully dressed until about 2 1/2.
What age did I do this at? With Titus and Raquelle, 22 months. With Kez, 21 months.
1 more consideration. Boys and girls are different. We had Titus out of diapers at 22 months old, but he took a lot longer to transition from knowing that he needed to go potty to being fully potty trained then Raquelle
I believe this post now contains the vast majority of my knowledge of potty training. I do not claim to be an expert, this is just written from my own personal experience. I initially tried to potty train because someone told me that a 9 month old is as smart as the family dog...I thought...the dog is potty trained, why can't my 22 month old be potty trained? I approached it the same way as housebreaking a dog. I put her on the potty to try, and when I caught her peeing on the floor, I moved her to where she was suppose to be peeing...then had her help me clean it up. Amazingly, it worked. I hope this post was (or is) helpful to someone out there with young children.
I will start with my philosophy. I do not believe in "waiting until they are ready" like you hear from the Dr's office and on all the suggestion fliers you get from diaper companies in the mail. I believe in teaching them how to succeed. 30 years ago (and still today in other countries), it was totally normal for kids to be potty trained at 18 months to 2 years old. Why are people waiting until 3 or 4 now? I believe it is because they are waiting for the kid to be ready. By waiting, you are then dealing with an opinionated preschool rather then an eager to please toddler which I believe CAN make the process more difficult. There are plenty of success stories of kids being trained in a few days at older ages, but I've heard many frustrated parents venting that their 3 or 4 year old has no interest in even trying to potty train. I believe they have missed the window of opportunity at a younger age when their child may have trained easier. I know my view on this is not the standard and I don't expect others to accept my view, but this is my blog where I get to express my opinions...and maybe my viewpoint can help someone who reads this.
So...now that I have covered that...how do you go about potty training a toddler? First, you have to have a lot of patients. Second, you have to be willing to clean up messes. Third, you have to be persistent and not give up.
Here we go. First...I start sitting my kids on the potty to get them use to it. I give them a skittle or small candy for "trying to go potty" every time that they sit on the potty. This helps them to want to sit on the potty because it earns them a treat.
Once they are sitting on the potty regularly, it's time for naked baby! Let them be bottom half naked. Put a potty chair in the living room (or whatever room they are in most often). Set a time for 30 min and have them sit on it every time it goes off. Do not expect success until they have an accident. They really don't understand yet why they are sitting on the potty. Stay right there with them because you need to catch them when they pee on the floor. When your little one pees on the floor, if you are fast enough, catch them and set them on the potty. Tell them, "Uh oh! We are suppose to pee on the potty, not on the floor! Look, now there is a mess! Can you pee on the potty for me?" When they are done sitting on the potty, get them a towel and have them help clean up the mess. They made the mess so they can help clean it. Once this has happened, they can start to understand what the potty is really for. This will probably happen a few times before you start having success. Pretty soon, they will start actually peeing when you sit them on the potty.
Continue with naked baby phase as long as necessary. With my older 2, day 3 was when they first recognized that they needed to go potty, walked over to the potty and went by themselves. With my toddler, she did this in the late afternoon of the first day. Once the child is recognizing that they need to go potty before it comes out, you can stop using the timer...or use it less. Transition from rewarding every time they sit on the potty, to just when they actually pee. Offer double rewards for pooping on the potty. As they get the hang of this, you can add panties (or underwear). You will need to help them pull them down and up. Remember, we are teaching them to go potty...we didn't wait for them to figure some things out on their own first...so we have to teach them to undress and dress too. With my experience...we were daytime diaper free with all 3 of mine in less the a week. That is worth it for the effort as diapers cost about $1000 a year! My kids got the hang of pulling panties down and up by the time they were 2, but still needed help if they were fully dressed until about 2 1/2.
What age did I do this at? With Titus and Raquelle, 22 months. With Kez, 21 months.
1 more consideration. Boys and girls are different. We had Titus out of diapers at 22 months old, but he took a lot longer to transition from knowing that he needed to go potty to being fully potty trained then Raquelle
I believe this post now contains the vast majority of my knowledge of potty training. I do not claim to be an expert, this is just written from my own personal experience. I initially tried to potty train because someone told me that a 9 month old is as smart as the family dog...I thought...the dog is potty trained, why can't my 22 month old be potty trained? I approached it the same way as housebreaking a dog. I put her on the potty to try, and when I caught her peeing on the floor, I moved her to where she was suppose to be peeing...then had her help me clean it up. Amazingly, it worked. I hope this post was (or is) helpful to someone out there with young children.
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