Potty Time - Wynnewood,PA

My sister went the lazy way and let her two children potty train themselves. When they were ready they asked to go to the bathroom, to take off the diapers and to wear big girl panties. I thought she was nuts but I tried the same thing with my daughter. She has NEVER wet the bed and has had only one accident. You can't teach children to be ready to feel the need to go to the bathroom.

I read a little book about potty training boys. I have not started, yet with my 2 3/4 years old boy. However, the first thing I would consider are the typical signs of being interest in going potty. If he can tell you when he needs to go peep or poop, whenever he has a BM he squads a little bit or stop doing what he was doing before having the BM, BMs are regular, he shows interest in going with you, or any older member of the family, when going to the bathroom. these are some of the things the book spells out. However, I've being the lazy one, postponing the potty thing. Bottom line, it is when your son is ready, not when YOU are ready. The worst thing you could do is pushing the issue when he is not interested or ready. Personally, encouragement to see if he is interested will not hurt, but leave it up to him.

The fastest way is to have some little treats standing by, buy some 6 packs of cheap plain underwear, put him in the BIG BOY UNDERWEAR, and take him to the potty every 20-40 minutes or so. Give him plenty to drink so he does have to go. Be prepared for crying (he'll hate wetting the underwear) and messes until he gets it. Shockingly after a day of numerous puddles and tears, my son peed in the potty the first night! As soon as he does it once, he'll 'get it' and enjoy the reward candy or whatever and it will get easier. If you do pull ups or diapers, it will take forever, because there is no down side to not going to the potty. Learned that the hard way with my first.

Wait 6 months to a year. It will save a lot of tears and frustration. Potty training is over rated. You'll have to stop *everywhere* for him to go to the bathroom and he'll touch the toilet and he'll be too short to stand up and pee and his "business" will touch the seat....ick.

We just potty trained our son. The way we did it was we had a pee pee box and a poopy box. Every time he went pee pee, he got something from the pee pee box and the same with the poopy box. We put him in underwear not pull ups. The pull ups are the same as diapers and pull the pee away from him. We use pull ups at night only. Within 2 weeks, we were done with the pee box. we are still working on the poopy box, but it has only been 3 weeks. Oh, yeah, we had him fill the boxes so he knew what was in them. We filled them with lollypops, tootsie rolls and small toys from the dollar store. The most important part is to make sure you don't get angry when he has accidents.
Good luck.

Stock up and plan to not leave the house for the whole weekend.
Leave the bathroom door open
Keep the pullup/underwear in the bathroom
Buy lots of carpet cleaner
Buy the flushable wipes
Pack you patience

He will not get it the first go round, and the BM is always a shock when trying to cleanup. Just take it all in stride. Don't stress or get too upset because it will upset him. When you need to change his clothes, change him IN the bathroom only.

Here's what worked for us:
Put him in underwear. No more diapers. Sit him on the potty every 15 minutes. If he goes in the potty, wait 1 hr before you have him sit again. Praise (and maybe stickers or a treat) when he goes. Wear a watch. Keep your rug cleaner on hand. Sticking with underwear is important because they feel how uncomfortable it is when you have an accident in your underwear. You're kind of tied to the house for a few days, but hopefully it won't take too long. It took us 6 days, and then no accidents.

If this is your idea and your son hasn't yet started showing interest of his own, be aware that he may not be ready. Training will go very quickly when a child is both physically and emotionally mature enough. If he's not, it can drag on for frustrating months. Some boys (and many girls) do train at 2.5; others need longer.

I took my sons diaper off and had the potty out when he got out of the bathtub and he peed on his potty. Go to the store and buy him a potty to train on. Have him pick out one that he likes. It is going to take a while to get totally potty trained and he may still have to wear a diaper at night. Be paitient and praise him when he does well and be paitient when he does not.
Have stickers or something else that will encourage him. The poop part is a little more involved. My son sat down he he peed at first and now stands. The poop part involved telling him he would not get a diaper when he asked for it. I told him to sit on the potty and go poop and he would get a special present. It was the right incentive and he went. Also when you go out is the part where you will have to ask,do you have to go? It all takes time but he wil figure it out. Good luck