dreaded rite of passage is looming in our very NEAR future! Although we have been through this FOUR times already, some smoother than others, I wanted to get some tips and pointers from my readers.
Considering the many different theories out there, I thought it would be fun for you to share what has worked with your kids and even what has NOT worked. That way we can learn and grow from one another. What might work for one child (or family) may not work for another. And maybe others who read this will find something that will be perfect for them to try.
**Edit–A reader left a comment asking for tips for potty training a child with special needs. I thought it was a great question and recognize that some of you may have helpful tips for her and that more of my readers will also have concerns similar to hers. Here is her comment: “Any potty training tips for children with special needs? My son is a high-functioning child with autism, but he doesn’t understand “if, then” statements, like “if you go to the potty, then you will get a treat.” He also doesn’t seem to care about sitting in his dirty diapers. He is almost 3 and I feel if we don’t start soon, he’ll be 10 before he’s trained!”
And…the person who comes up with the best idea will win an all expense trip to my house…to potty train my daughter. HeHe! Sound good?! (I wish I could…that would be fun…for me!)
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from experience… pull ups DO NOT WORK! Each kid just thought it was a diaper, and my kids were not opposed to sitting in "it"… What worked for me with my son was a little tought love… I was pregnant with my second daughter and was so, so tired of changing underpants and clothes… Basically, i let him sit in it till he really really wanted me to change him. It took two times and he was trained!
Good luck. That is by far the worst and one of the hardest lessons we have to teach these kids!
I agree with the pull ups. Our pediatrician told us that if your child is a disposable diaper child then you need to go to cotton panties, if they are cloth diaper babies then the pull ups might work. It needs to feel different for them. We tried the rewards system of stickers, candies, toys, money. Nothing! My daughter is just a stubborn little thing so the only thing we could do was wait for her to be ready. Lots of positive reinforcement helped with her. Lots of calling the Grandma's to tell them about her success. That was her favorite. Good luck! -Kelsee
Endless patience, time and energy. I have got four of my own plus minded and nannied children potty trained. I decided when the time was right with reading books the week before and then introducing the idea. Older siblings can help by leading the way.
Then its basic what goes in has to come out so it was vast quanities of their favourite drink in unlimited supply ( not so much food was eaten for a couple of days as full of fluid)
I did not bother with pants until they new what was happening then once that was mastered varied from 1-3 days pants went on fluid went down food went up number twos followed naturally. We also made a great big thing of waving bye bye to the wee. And I am afraid I did also use edible treats that were not normally allowed whenever.
Hope I win as I would love an all expenses paid trip to your house. Oh did I mention I am in UK lol I wont hold you to that one.
Happy potty Training
I am right in the midst of my first time potty training.
I bought a seat that sits on the "big person's" toilet and Isabel absolutely refused to go. She would hold it in ALL day and then have accidents all over the place. Then Grandma bought her a simple plastic potty that Isabel could sit on whenever she decided.
I was busy a couple of days ago and she was doing her usual I need to pee dance and I said to her that she "needs to sit on that potty until she's done a pee pee and don't get up until you do". Wonder of wonders, she did it!! We are now just going through the motions of practicing and getting it right ALL the time.
Pull ups didn't work for us and having her own little potty worked. And maybe a cranky mummy!
i would sit the little potty in front of the tv and put my naked kid on there drinking juice.
at some point they peed and we made a big deal of it. both of my boys were 2 yrs 8 months when i did this and they were trained with in weeks.
not sure if it was me or the tv overload…
Wait until she begs to be out of nappies. She will get to the stage where she demand to use the toilet, and refuses to ware nappies. Wait until then and save your sanity
I have no revolutionary advice so I'll just tell you what we did with our 3.
A friend told me when I thought about potty training our first son that the best advice she could give me was to wait until HE WAS READY. So I did.
He decided on a road trip when he was 3 years and 2 months old that he was ready to go on a big boy potty. SO, we stopped at a gas station (yuck).. and he went for the very first time, and he's been potty trained ever since. He's 10 now. :) no accidents ever.
I did the same thing with our second son..he was a little over 3 when he was ready, too. However, he had many #2 accidents for a couple of years. I have no idea why except that the #2 thing really freaked him out. Finally, after a couple of years, he stopped having accidents. It was always the #2 thing.
Our little girl decided when she was about 2 1/2 to go to the potty, and she's only had 1 accident in the 7 months since then.
So, if I have any advice to offer…each kid is different so don't compare them to each other. And, in my experience, girls are easier than boys to potty train.
My best advice is to know your child and what motivates them. For my son, he needed a tangible reward each and every time he used the potty. We kept a giant basket of new toys next to the toilet. He was only allowed to look at the toys when he was using the potty. Then he could pick one out when he was finished. He trained in less than a week at 34 months old. My daughter is not so easily motivated. She is much more stubborn and independent minded than my son. She's only 24 months so we haven't started yet.
Go Diaper/pull-up free. Expect accidents, but don't make a big deal of them. Put your kiddo on a potty seat with juice and read them books or let them watch a show. Check out potty books and let them see you going!
We JUST got J potty trained. I live in Ft. Wayne, home of DeBrand Chocolates. We promised her a trip to the "chocolate store" and talked about it non-stop for days and days. We didn't push her at all. One day she just said that she wanted to go potty on the big-girl potty. Needless to say, we were at DeBrand that night! Just this week we got her to go on the big potty (she was using a little seat that sits on the floor). She was scared of the big potty but was too big for her little chair. All it took was a little overflow on the little chair to convince her that the big potty was ok. Good luck!!! Keep us posted :o)
we had our son potty trained months ago (as far as being able to go on the potty). He was clearly not ready to do it though, he was still way too in to diapers! we decided to not push the issue and now at 38 months he decided one day that he was and we haven't looked back since. Rarely an accident, and it was nearly "issue" free.
We just finished potty training our third child. A mommy mentor told me when my oldest was almost 2 and I was fretting about getting started that I could either spend a year banging my head against the wall, cleaning up accidents or I could spend a week doing the same if I would just be patient. So patience won.
We have both kinds of potties and have let the kids choose which they like (the seat for the toilet vs. little potty). We read lots and lots of potty books in the week before potty day. Then it was allowing him to be mostly naked for a few days while he figured it out. We did let him have marshmallows when he went at first and gradually just "forgot" them.
It also helps to really know your child's habits. We struggled getting our youngest to poo in the potty til I kept him up a little longer before nap til I knew he needed to go. A few days of this and it was a normal thing, not so scary! Good luck!
the only thing that was successful for me, twice, was waiting until they were dry at night. It happened both time at around 2 1/2 almost three. After that, the whole thing was so easy. We have been potty training for two weeks with two pee pee accidents, no poop accidents. Pull ups do not work, but another method that kinda works but takes a little longer is t let them run around with no undies on and take them potty every two hours or so until they gain better bladder control. Then you go longer and longer until they just start telling you they need to go. Good luck, I have decided it is one of the worst parts of raising a kid. Not fun.
It is my opinion, that kids do better when it is their idea. This seems to only apply to potty training and getting their driving permit though :) That way you know they are both emotionally and physically ready. I have trained four, and the only one I had any trouble, or accidents with was the first one, because I pushed too hard, and he just wasn't ready. Books help too, read a book about using the potty until it is memorized by every member of the family!
A friend of a friend made a map/game thing that they hung on the fridge at their level. It was like a path I think, and the kids got to color in the next star each time they went on the potty with no beginning or ending accidents (peeing early, or not going enough and then peeing a few minutes later). Once they got through a certain number of stars, they got a prize or to go somewhere. She had prizes already bought that she knew they would love, or they got right in the car to go get ice cream etc. She said that was the key for her kids…to have the prizes right there to give them.
I don't know from first hand experience though because my son is only 10 months. 2 more years of diapers doesn't sound fun though, so I'm taking note of all these tips!
Have to agree with others – wait until they are ready. My kids were almost 3-1/2 and I know that's old for some but when it came time, pt'ing was done in a week or so. When I tried to initiate it myself, it became a nightmare and no one was happy. Be flexible, be patient and remember no child goes to college in diapers :) PS: We made Sandy's cake the other night – yummy!
When my son was almost 2 1/2, we had been working on potty training for a while and he had proved to me that he was completely capable. However, he got lazy, and decided that he didn't want to anymore. So, I got really frustrated with all the puddles, and I said, "Fine. Do you just want to wear a diaper?" and he said, "YEAH!" So i put a diaper on him, and then proceeded to take away all the "big boy toys" like trucks and puzzles and blocks. I told him that babies don't play with these things. He had to take two naps, because he was a baby. When he asked to do something special, like watch a video or help me make muffins, I said, "no, not today. Babies can't do that." It was a miserable day, but the next day he wore underpants and never looked back (literally NO accidents after that). It was rough, but it got the point across. :-)
We have used the cotton underwear with the plastic diaper covers to reduce messes. It feels different than diapers, but I don't have such a big mess if there is an accident.
Ok…first I HATE POTTY TRAINING! If I could give up one thing of motherhood…THAT would be it. I do not like pull ups when we are HOME. Undies are the way to go. That way I am more responsible with reminding them to go. However, I do like them for when we go out & about.
With my oldest, we rewarded him with quarters. He did really well & came out $70.00 richer.
With my second, I did 1 M&M & he loved it. It took him a little longer, but he is REALLY stubborn.
When I first stared potty training my daughter, we used pull ups. They didn't work at all.
One day after Christmas, I saw some advent calendars on sale. Not the kind with candy. These had little toys inside. I bought 3 kinds. My Little Pony, Littlest Pet Shop and Barbie.
That weekend we didn't go anywhere. We stayed at home and my daughter ran around without pull ups or panties. Each time she used the potty, she got to open a day on the calendar. (2 days if she poo'd)
By the end of the weekend, she was totally potty trained, and I was constantly stepping on little toys!
Good Luck!!
& 1 more thing to add…the praise. When they went potty we called EVERYONE! Daddy, Memaw, Grandpa…anyone who would listen & be excited. They loved that part of it. We would get so excited & sing "pee pee in the potty" & so on. They loved to sing & dance..so they liked to go on the potty more.
The one and only thing that worked for us, was this. We took them to the store and let them pick out ANY ice cream they wanted as well as any small piece candy they wanted…like M&M's, Skittles, ect. If they peed in the potty, 1 small candy, they could choose. If they poo'd, in the potty of course, they could have ice cream!!!
Sticker didn't work, charts didn't work, nothing else did. I just PT'd #4.
I agree with the other commenters, don't use pull-ups. My mom got my 2 1/2 year old a candy machine so when she goes potty, she gets to put a penny in the machine and get candy. My daughter also started preschool recently and they are very diligent about pottying so that has helped as well.
With my son, I put him in long denim pants – yup, lots of laundry, but jeans are not fun to be in wet, at all. I had tried everything I could think of prior to this, all the advice people gave me, and none of it worked until he was uncomfortable. Did the same thing with my two girls. None of them would register until it left them uncomfortable. Then, while changing their clothes (again) we would talk about how if they would go in the potty, they wouldn't have this feeling of being so uncomfortable. After a day or two of tons of laundry, things started to click, faster for some than others.
Good luck!!!
I was getting to the end of my rope trying to attempt to potty train my daughter. Tried every trick in the book. Then during her annual (4th) physical, the Dr said quite plainly, "No more diapers." She heard the Dr say it and next day I told her the Dr said no more diapers and you have to wear underwear now and within hours was going on the potty and no accidents. This won't be much help since my daughter decided to wait soooo long to get potty trained, but she needed to hear it from someone else and it worked.
Any potty training tips for children with special needs? My son is a high-functioning child with autism, but he doesn't understand "if, then" statements, like "if you go to the potty, then you will get a treat." He also doesn't seem to care about sitting in his dirty diapers. He is almost 3 and I feel if we don't start soon, he'll be 10 before he's trained!