It’s official! My 3yr old boy is finally potty trained!! Woo-Hoo!! He wore “big boy underwear” this past weekend, all last week and the weekend before last!!
Potty training is an interesting thing to me and it seems that no two experiences are alike. For instance, just two weeks ago, I thought it was hopeless that my boy would ever potty train. It seemed that I had tried everything to get him to use the toilet consistently. Once he started hiding to “use” his diaper, I figured he knew exactly what was going on but didn’t want to use the toilet.
Then, what seemed like all of a sudden, he woke up two Saturdays ago and said he wanted underwear on – he has only had two wet accidents and zero “other” accidents since then!!
I wondered if anyone else out there is at the point of hopelessness with a potty training child. I would like post some of the things I have tried to give you some more ideas.
Ideas For Potty Training
- Wait! That is by far the best piece of advice I can tell you. I’ve heard this before and thought the person giving the advice just, frankly, being lazy. I thought they didn’t want to put in the effort to train their children on the toilet and so, wanted to let time be the trainer. Not so! In the long run, all the ideas I have tried may have helped my children learn about potty training and learn what to do on the toilet, but that teaching didn’t become habit until they were ready for it. So, if nothing else works, just keep smiling and hold on until they wake up one day and say, “Mommy, I want big kid underwear on today!”
- Give them something tangible, something they can SEE as a reward. When training my oldest, I would say, “If you go on the toilet three days in a row, we’ll go to the store and buy (insert reward here).” But that promise never seemed to hold the power I thought it should. When it came time to train my daughter, it occurred to me that she would forget about the promise. She couldn’t see it – out of sight, out of mind. So, we bought her a special backpack filled with pens and paper (she LOVES Hello Kitty, so all of it had that logo on it) and hung it in the bathroom right at her eye level. We put a chart (Hello Kitty, of course) right next to it with seven boxes – I just made and printed the chart in about two minutes at home. When she filled all seven boxes with, you guessed it, Hello Kitty stickers, she got the bag. She earned a sticker by being dry all day and at night we put up the sticker. She got that bag in exactly seven days and has been dry ever since.
- Don’t make them go too long before they get a reward. A
month is entirely too long to have to wait. A month is too long for ME to wait, how about a small child! Seven days or less is about all I think they should have to wait before they get that reward in their hands. With my most recent trainee, if he “used” his diaper again after the days were up, we took back the item – in his case, a bouncy ball. He could earn it back again by going on the toilet a few more days. - Try to have a consistent schedule with consistent potty breaks. In my estimation, this is entirely how my oldest was potty trained. He was in day care at the time and they had a VERY consistent schedule. He was done potty training, including nights and naps, just before he turned 2yrs.
- Give small gifts every time they have success. Many people already do this, but it bears repeating that children do well with positive reinforcement. Every single time my children had success on the toilet, whether it had been ten days since the last success or ten minutes, they got some kind of small reward. You could use M&Ms or gummi bears, stickers or small $1 toys. You could make up coupons and give them one or two for each success. Then, have a box full of small toys, goodies, and other rewards for them to earn with their coupons.
Night-time training is a whole different subject. Most nights my 4yr old is dry, but at least once every two weeks she has a wet accident while sleeping, sometimes more often. I don’t give a second thought to night-time training as I really don’t think it’s something they can consciously control. As those muscles get used to holding it in for longer periods of time, they will be dry at night more often. I am not expecting my newest trainee to be dry at night for another year or so – if it happens earlier, I’ll be thrilled, but I’m not setting my expectations too high. They have lots of different big kid night-time “diapers” that aren’t embarrassing for a child to wear. If it becomes a problem through older ages such as 8 or 9, you could try some herbal remedies and see if that helps.
Above all, be encouraging! A beaming smile and a kind word from Mommy can go a very long way to confidence in the bathroom. It is very easy for me to get frustrated in the process – so, if you are frustrated, you aren’t alone. Just put a diaper on him/her and go read or play together. Have fun and do some more potty training tomorrow!
Until next time, keep on growing!
Related Posts
