Potty Training 101

[cl8badb]

Since we are all going to go through this soon-ish i figured we can share our plans. Moms who have btdt or moms who have already started the process can maybe give us some advice about whats worked/working and what didnt work.

Are you using the naked method? Training pants? Pull ups? A combo?

What are you using for naps?
Car rides?
Bed time?
Any special situations where you handle things differently?

Feel free to add questions. These are just a few off the top of my head.

[cl8badb]

I know all kids are different and respond to different methods but this can help us tackle the process!

[workinit]

[daffy2k]

We are using the naked method. I really had no intention of starting right now since I'm due on Thursday. I'm a little worried about a regression but we will cross that bridge if/when we come to it. Basically she has just started to really hate diaper changes and is way too quick for me to get a new diaper on her before she runs away (I move slow these days). Her potty has almost always been somewhat accessible and when she was naked she would ask to go on it. So I moved it into her playroom to make it very easy to get to. She's had one accident in the last week, but we are still using diapers when we are out of the house. I haven't been really consistent up until now, but since she does seem really into it I decided that this whole week we will do 100% naked time at home, while awake. Keep the diapers when we are gone. If all continues to go well, next week or the week after I'm going to try putting her in panties at home so she has to verbalize more when she has to go and wait until she gets the panties off. From there we will work on our out of the house training. I'll probably use the reusable trainers that I have. They look like undies and are much thinner than her diapers so I don't think she will mistake them for a diaper but it will hopefully be enough to keep from having major messes to deal with on our first few trial runs

[everydayimshuffling]

I'm glad this thread is starting now. I don't think K is quite ready yet but she is getting there. We put her in her potty in the morning, before and after nap and before bed. She had peed a few times in it and is super excited when she does that, but it's more fluke than anything. She is otherwise quite happy to pee and loop in her diaper and only tells me after she popped by asking for my phone (she has an app that I let her play if she is a good helper during changes). So I'm thinking we will wait a bit until she is more interested and motivated.

Out of curiosity though, what is the naked method? I mean I obviously get that they are naked, but what do you actually do. It might sound like a silly question but I'm sort of mystified about the whole process and how I'm actually supposed to teach her.

[daffy2k]

everydayimshuffling, M is quite content to pee or poo in her diaper too if she's wearing one. But she was less impressed when she peed on the floor. My naked method (no idea if this is right) is just to leave her bottomless while we are at home with the potty easily accessible. I haven't had to do much prompting. In fact, I'm less successful when I do try to prompt her to sit on the potty. I tried to catch her mid-accident at first and put her on the potty to finish, but she caught onto that really really fast and now just runs to the potty yelling "hurry, hurry" and sits down. Or if she is far away she might look at me and tell me she has to potty, then we run together to it. I also reward pees with smarties. So, that helps. She does not like to poop on the potty though. I'm hoping by increasing our naked time that will come

[vasc]

#diapers4lyfe

[daffy2k]

mcbush, that's what I figured but I also have done very little research on the subject, lol. I'm straight up just following her lead right now because I had no plans to start this until after baby #2. We are going to be getting at least 1, if not 2 more potties to have on different levels because we also have an issue with the potty seat on the toilet. And we just have standard toilets. She hates it. I'm just going to take it very slowly and accept that it might take us a little longer with adding the new baby to the mix. I'm hoping that having mil around to help will keep her from getting too off track, since I'd hate to get a good groove going and then just stop.

[musicalsilver]

We started back around Christmas when LO would start telling us when he was peeing or having a BM. We'd been sitting him on the potty first thing in the morning and before/after naps and before bed. In January they started full time training pants, so we did the same at home. We took LO to the potty before and after any new activity, and that caught most of his toilet needs. He's finally gotten to the point where he's telling us that he needs to go instead of us reminding him, so that's awesome in my books! He's pretty much mastered pooping in the potty (apart from some accidents back when he had a GI bug, but that's totally understandable), and has about 1-2 accidents a day. 1 is normally at nap time (though he stays dry through more naps at school most of the time, I guess because he takes shorter naps), and the other is not a full bladder release, just enough to get his training pants wet and not his shorts.

What are you using for naps? At school they nap in training pants, at home we use a diaper.
Car rides? Training pants with a washable pee pad made by the carseat manufacturer (we haven't had to use it yet fortunately since any accident he has had was small enough to be contained by the training pants/only get his shorts a bit damp).
Bed time? Definitely diapers. Nowhere near ready for nighttime training. While he wakes up drier than he used to, it's still a pretty wet diaper.
Any special situations where you handle things differently? Not really, no. I'm working on replacing the elastics in his old diapers, and he's wanted to put them on again, but I just emphasize that diapers are for sleeping. So if he wants to wear a diaper, he has to go to sleep - it's worked so far :-P

Oh, and we keep a little potty in his room which he mostly prefers to use.  It's awesome because he can run and use it all by himself these days.  He does like to use the big potties (and climbs up there without a potty seat or anything, brave soul), but we still have the childproof locks on the bathroom doors for now. 

[colieann31]

I honestly have no idea. I don't think G is ready yet but he did sit on the potty a couple of times at school today. Never peed or anything but he sat got on it. I'm hoping that once he sees other kids doing it that it'll click for him.

[madlizmom]

I'm scared to death to even start. This is the one area of parenting where I'm literally scared to death. I have no idea what to do, how to do it, where to start... I would hire someone if I could.

DH has sat her on the potty a lot and she's pooped on it twice. That's as far as we've gotten. And honestly I just don't have time during the day with E to try and mess with it. One of these days I will just have to bite the bullet and do it.

Anyone done the three day boot camp? I have friends that have had good success with it.

[michelin82]

We haven't started yet. With DS1, we let him lead and basically tell us when he wanted to start. He saw other kids at daycare wearing pull ups, so he asked to wear them, too. I wasn't planning to do pull ups, but since he asked, we gave it a shot. We never really "pushed" him to use the potty - he just kind of started doing it on his own. When we realized that he was consistently keeping the pull ups dry, we asked him if he wanted to try big boy undies. He was excited to do it and so we made the switch. We honestly never once had any pee accidents from that point forward, but had some troubles getting him to poop on the potty.

We used treats to get him to poop on the potty. Probably not the best method, but it worked for us.

We used pull ups for bedtime for probably about 5 months after he was fully day trained. There was a very clear and distinct timeframe in which he showed us he was ready to quit the pull ups overnight. He started waking several times a night to use the potty instead of peeing in his pull up. Once he kept the pull ups dry overnight for 2 straight weeks, we let him start sleeping in his undies and he's done so great!

tl;dr - we let him lead for both day and night training and don't have one regret. It's gone very smoothly.

[cynthia2007]

I'm with madlizmom on this...terrified of this process!
mcbush daffy2k when you started the naked method, was LO asking to go to the potty? Did you have any initial accidents that you had to explain to use the potty? I feel like A would just pee on the floor and run off laughing!

[lioness13]

I think KJ is doing pretty well. She still has accidents occasionally, which is expected. Right now we send her to daycare in underwear and she wears them most of the day. They asked for pull ups so I guess they want her to wear them sometimes too. I think the most important thing I learned was not to wait for her to ask or agree to go to the bathroom when we are out. She's fine at home but when we are out she is too distracted. I just take her pretty regularly and there are no accidents. We were out a lot on Sunday and that worked out really well. I learned from Saturday's pee on the chineese food restaurant floor incident. Last night I had dinner plans with a friend and took KJ. I put her in a pull up because I knew she would be distracted. I'm glad I did. Otherwise she would have peed on me! I'm thinking about getting the training pants since they hold some pee. Otherwise it goes right down her leg and onto the floor wetting her underwear, pants, socks and shoes. She wears diapers at night.

[daffy2k]

Jun 9, 2015 6:48:58 GMT -5 cynthia2007 said:

I'm with madlizmom on this...terrified of this process!
mcbush daffy2k when you started the naked method, was LO asking to go to the potty? Did you have any initial accidents that you had to explain to use the potty? I feel like A would just pee on the floor and run off laughing!

She would basically ask to use the potty right after she went in her diaper (in our case).  We have had a couple accidents on the floor where I had to explain to use the potty.  I tried to catch her mid-pee and move her to the potty to finish, where I explains that we use the potty and praised and rewarded her for finishing there.  Pees need no help right now if she's naked, but so far she really isn't interested in pooping on the potty.  She requests a diaper and if you don't comply it ends in tears.  I don't want it to be scary for her so I've been letting her go in the diaper for now.  Last night in the bath I could tell she had to go, so I asked if she wanted to go poop on her potty.  She said yes (and of course we had been watching the hockey in the basement so the potty was down 2 flights of stairs) so we got out and ran downstairs.  But she was still not so interested in sitting there to poop.  She ended up having an accident on the floor, but I'm calling it a win since she didn't beg for a diaper.  Hopefully today we will have better luck.

[trutru127]

Nothing to contribute bc as much as I want to get this done while we are home with him this summer but I'm not sure he is ready. I do think this thread needs to be saved to share with the LOs when they are older!!

[daffy2k]

thelorax, we aren't there quite yet but I know cl8badb (and maybe a few others) found small, folding potty seats to slip into the diaper bag or a purse while out and about. Before we can get to outside of the house potty training I need to get her to be ok with using a big potty. Because as of right now we are at total meltdown stage if she's even asked to try. I'm going to look online today to get a little seat though, just so I'm prepared once we do get there.

[cl8badb]

Jun 9, 2015 9:07:17 GMT -5 daffy2k said:

thelorax, we aren't there quite yet but I know cl8badb (and maybe a few others) found small, folding potty seats to slip into the diaper bag or a purse while out and about. Before we can get to outside of the house potty training I need to get her to be ok with using a big potty. Because as of right now we are at total meltdown stage if she's even asked to try. I'm going to look online today to get a little seat though, just so I'm prepared once we do get there.

Yep, I have a folding potty seat and i also have a potty in the car.

I also have liners that go on the toilet. The liners can be used alone but sometimes i also use the liner under the folding potty seat. If i dont then i wipe the down with wipes after i use it (bc it touched the toilet) and then clean it better at home.
I also wipe the toilet down before i put Js seat on it.
Its a process. Lol

[melohdy]

I don't think Lilly's ready yet. We have plenty of naked time at home but she'll pee randomly without any indication. She sometimes tells us before she poops in her diaper but sometimes not. We put her on the potty but not with any consistency.

[musicalsilver]

Jun 9, 2015 9:01:17 GMT -5 thelorax said:

How do they use the toilet when you out and about? Do you hold them?

LO is apparently very adventurous, and likes to sit on adult sized toilets all by himself.  At home, he just climbs up and climbs down himself, but when we're out and about I put him up there, but don't have to hold him.

[mommycoffee]

We've done the naked method some. She knows when she needs to go & will grab a diaper and say "diapey?" We have a training potty but the splash guard makes it hard for her to sit down on it easily. I need to find something better. She is obsessed with her Once Upon A Potty book too. It's very clear about what comes from where but the words used can make it a little confusing. "Wee wee" for pee, "pee pee" for vagina.

[madlizmom]

Its as if Pampers can read my interwebz- got this link in an email for potty training help!

www.pottytrainwitheasyups.com/

[ciahanna]

We're no where near this, but when my MIL trained my nephews she'd set the oven timer for 30 minutes and whenever it went off it was time to sit on the potty. We all made a big deal of it whenever they actually did anything. She rewarded on boy with Skittles and the other with m&ms.
At Gia's party Sunday the younger one(he's 4) announced to everyone that he made 4 poops on the potty. Everyone was in hysterics! He really just wanted to tell Uncle Joey(my DH) but hasn't figured out whispering yet.

[lioness13]

Jun 9, 2015 9:01:17 GMT -5 thelorax said:

How do they use the toilet when you out and about? Do you hold them?

She can hold herself up. At home she holds herself about 50% of the time since we have 2 levels and only a potty upstairs.

[bcandlm]

Daycare is currently having him wear underwear with plastic pants and putting him on the potty every half hour or so. He has gone several times for them and even had a couple of days without accidents. We just started having him do this at home on weeknights up until bath time; then he goes in his diaper. He still won't go on his potty at home, though.

We haven't tackled out of the house yet, but I am thinking pull-ups to begin with, then move to underwear/plastic pants.

[anw39]

We are starting next week. Going out for big girl panties today. Totally nervous but I'll have 4 full days of being at home to do this...she's not wanting her diaper with a diaper change and has asked for panties. ...so it's on..

[colieann31]

Ok, so Grayson has started telling me when he's peed after he's done it. He'll come up to me and grab himself. I'll ask if he peed and check him and he has. What do I do to get him to tell me before he pees? I really need to find that potty training book a bought months ago...

[musicalsilver]

Jun 25, 2015 9:40:04 GMT -5 colieann31 said:

Ok, so Grayson has started telling me when he's peed after he's done it. He'll come up to me and grab himself. I'll ask if he peed and check him and he has. What do I do to get him to tell me before he pees? I really need to find that potty training book a bought months ago...

For us it was a LO-led transition.  He started out by telling us after he went, graduated to telling us while he went, and eventually started telling us before he went.  It was a long process for us.  We started things by taking him to the potty at intervals, not waiting for him to tell us.  But you certainly don't have to jump on things ... it might just mean that Grayson will be ready a few months down the road from now!  Just keep encouraging his awareness.

[colieann31]

Jun 25, 2015 9:59:41 GMT -5 musicalsilver said:

Jun 25, 2015 9:40:04 GMT -5 colieann31 said:

Ok, so Grayson has started telling me when he's peed after he's done it. He'll come up to me and grab himself. I'll ask if he peed and check him and he has. What do I do to get him to tell me before he pees? I really need to find that potty training book a bought months ago...

For us it was a LO-led transition.  He started out by telling us after he went, graduated to telling us while he went, and eventually started telling us before he went.  It was a long process for us.  We started things by taking him to the potty at intervals, not waiting for him to tell us.  But you certainly don't have to jump on things ... it might just mean that Grayson will be ready a few months down the road from now!  Just keep encouraging his awareness.

I'm definitely doing it on his terms! Everything else has worked out great for us that way. I just didn't know if there was something I should be doing at this point since he's telling us when he went. I know at school he will go sit on the potty during diaper changes but hasn't peed in it yet. 

[cl8badb]

I figured id bump this to ask my question...

J is a rockstar if he is nude. He will use the potty 100% of the time if hes nude.
If he has training pants on he will pee in them and not care at. all. Like soaked trainers and a wet shirt not a care in the world.
However if he has to poop he will tell me so that i undress him.

I obviously cant keep him nude forever so what are your thoughts?
Im thinking about trying pants with no undies. Maybe that will help? He will (hopefully) feel nude and not go in the pants.
Maybe after a while i can then add briefs?

What say you?