My son is three years old, and he is very interested in going to the "potty" he has been ready for this every since he was 18 months old, but he is our first child and neither me or my husband has even changed a diaper before him let alone potty train. We have asked many other parents what to do or if they had any tips, and most of them say "oh, just go with the flow." or "He will go on his own when he is ready." and "I dont know you just do it." Amazing even my mother cant explain to me how to potty train a child and she has done it 6 times. My husband and I are completely clueless. We feel like we are failing at this becuase we have no idea how to do this and he wants it really bad. So my question is, How do you potty train a child? Are there any tips to make it easier for him? Please help And thank you in Advance
dee0121 answered Wednesday July 6 2011, 10:25 pm: Hey don't be so hard on yourselves. Your doing a great job by just asking and acknowledging your son's urges. Ok, so everyone has different techniques, if your home most of the time just leave him in he's underwear not a diaper. the purpose is so he can feel the wetness if he does go himself. Take him every hour to the potty, or when you have to go yourself so he can see how the whole potty thing works. You can even have him in a routine potty session. right after breakfast, a bottle of milk, snack, lunch, ect, take him to the potty. When he goes make a huge deal,alot of hoorays, clapping, smiles, hugs etc. Kids love that it gives them the sense of achievement and will mostly likely do it again successfully.
Im a single mom I didn't read the books or anything I kinda thing my own thing and it worked with patience f course. some people may say go with the flow but toddlers dont know when they have the urge really cause they go in a diaper at any given moment. So try it for at least a weekend only diaper at bedtime. it will get messy but if he's curious all ready then he's ready (if that makes sense). Good Luck [ dee0121's advice column | Ask dee0121 A Question ]
LM answered Tuesday July 5 2011, 12:27 pm: Parenting books also contain useful advice on this and are often available at libraries. Unlike parenting itself, which most parents do by following instincts and learn through how their OWN parents and families raised kids, potty training is something we're often clueless about and it's normal! We are not inborn with this natural knowledge of how to get our offspring to sit on a big bowl and pee ;)
Anyway, what I've seen work in my family is incentives rather than a reward EVERY time the child uses the toilet. I, for example, refused to give up diapers until my mom picked out the cutest, softest underwear and showed me. Suddenly I wanted to wear princess underwear instead, and was told I couldn't until I learned to use the bathroom. My parents also bought my "big girl bed" and set it up in my room, again with the incentive to be trained. I was 100% trained before age three.
Patience is also important but that's sort of a given, haha. My cousin refused to do #2 in a toilet for whatever reason, so in that situation my cousin's father instituted a reward: three M&Ms each time. (My cousin already knew to eat candy in moderation and to brush his teeth, so tooth decay wasn't a problem there.) He then preferred 3 M&Ms to messy training pants so he soon used the toilet (almost) every time. :)
So rest assured, it can be done. You aren't failing and you sound like great parents; making the effort to come on here and ask for help says a lot :)
Attention: NOTHING on this site may be reproduced in any fashion whatsoever without explicit consent (in writing) of the owner of said material, unless otherwise stated on the page where the content originated. Search engines are free to index and cache our content. Users who post their account names or personal information in their questions have no expectation of privacy beyond that point for anything they disclose. Questions are otherwise considered anonymous to the general public.