Potty Training - Haymarket, VA

My mom gave me this book called Toilet Training in Less Than a Day. I am reading it right now (it's less than 200 pages). I have not tried it yet because the child has to be able to follow directions consistently so I am working on that first. But it sounds very promising and as clinical psychology major the methods they are using are very sound. They use several different techniques that are affective with children, positive reinforcement, shaping etc. The authors are Nathan H. Azrin and Richard M. Foxx. Hope this helps you and me.

When my daughter was about to turn three, we picked a weekend to be close to home and put her in underwear and a t-shirt for about 48 hours. Gave her lots of juice, and made a very big deal out of it being "big girl weekend." Sat her on towels or in the kitchen and took her to try the potty every 1/2 hour. Prior to tha tweekend she had gone in the potty maybe 2-3 times since she was two and we had a sticker shcrt and everything, but she was just too young. After the weekend, she had one or two accidents and then was done.

As a matter of fact, within two weeks I noticed she was dry each morning in her pull-ups. I told her she could have one M&M each morning if she worke up dry and went right to sit on the potty. That ws a big deal to her sinc eshe never really had candy. She has never had a night accident.

I think the most important thing is to wait until he is ready and capable. The first 6 months after you train is hard, because it is a lot of standing over them making sure they wipe, wash their hands, etc. It is easier the longer you wait. So, don't push it. But it sounds like you are halfway there.

I will also add - I sort of resisted the whole naked approach because I thought it sounded too much like housebreaking and I thought it was disrespectful to the kids. But it really really works although I did a modified version of underwear and t-shirt.

I highly recommend: The Everything Potty Training Book by Linda Sonna:

Why: It has several methods included, so you can choose the one that fits you best, or combine elements from several methods.

It is research-based... you are not just getting someone's personal adventure.

It has awesome troubleshooting tips that really work.

My experience: With my 3 yr old son, we adopted one of the slower methods, the "practice" method, combining elements from the "fast-track" method that seemed to fit our schedule. All went well until accidentally one day my son pooped in the bathtub while he was taking a bath. Unfortunately, he decided that this was very comfy, and it got a great reaction out of mommy. So the next day he did it again. And again. And again...

The central lesson of this book was... no negative reactions, no matter what happens, ever... Positive feedback only. I tried. I tried rewarding him for using the potty instead of the tub. The reward offers got bigger and bigger, and turned into massive bribes. No dice. Pooping in the tub was just too fun. What was a mama to do? If I started punishing him for pooping in the tub, I risked messing up all the great progress we had made so far. But I absolutely could not stand cleaning up that horrible mess one more time. No way. I was about to lose it.

So I went back to the book. And I found a little story about something Dr. Sonna's mama had said once, about pooping in pants. "In OUR family," she had said, "we do not poop in pants. We poop in the potty." Well, I thought, I'll try. So the next time my son was about to get in the bath, I said to him "Son, there is something you should know. In OUR family, we do not poop in the bathtub. We poop in the potty." I said it very proudly, like the Queen of England. His eyes got very big. Clearly he had not thought of this as a matter of family pride. He never pooped in the bathtub again. Sometimes I had to issue reminders. Once, I added, "I don't know about those OTHER families, down the street. But in our family..." Worked like a charm. My husband never got the hang of saying it with a straight face, though.

Like Regina recommends... read the book Toilet Training in Less than a Day. I followed it almost to a T. I think it's a little "old school" (written in the 70s) compared to how parents potty train nowadays, but I think the concept of kids going to the potty and doing everything by themselves is just what they should do (that's what humans do!), so train them that way in the beginning. It makes it much MORE difficult when you teach your child to tell you when they have to go and if you help them pull down their pants, wipe, wash hands, etc. (I do help with wiping after my child has a turn though, just in case.) When they are independently going, they do much better!

As for a doll it recommends in the book... I used a teddy bear and hid a little squirt bottle behind it and squeezed it when it "peed". It worked great!

Best wishes!!

He sounds like he's pretty much potty trained , if he can tell you when he wants to go that's the biggest hurdle over with! Just keep him out of diapers in the day and tell him to let you know when he needs to go , after an hour if he's not said he needs to suggets he sits on potty/toilet to see if he needs to pee.

Good luck

If he is asking/telling you that he needs to go then he is very ready. SO just take him to the potty and thats it. ON days that he doesnt ask/tell you, then its up to you to take him hourly (or more often as needed) so that he doesnt have chance to mess his undies. It will become habit very quickly. But you must be consistent, do it everyday the same way. Doing it a day here and a day there and not in between, isnt teaching him anything.
At his age it should be easy and quick. Just expect he will have some accidents, reprimand him, remind him and change him, then move on. I just trained my son right before he turned 3. He has been ready for a long time. It was easy. Good Luck.

I trained my son when he was 26 months old using many ideas in this book: Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day: Proven Secrets of the Potty Pro by Teri Crane. Since he was so young I did it in a week instead of a day, but she uses all positive reinforcement which I totally believe in. In 4 days he was pretty much pee trained, then we added overnight because just like the other mom mentioned, he was dry all on his own, then the next week pooping on the potty. I do recommend working on pooping while he is still feeling like a big boy and wanting to learn this skill because I've heard of many kids who don't poop on the potty for some time and there can be fear, power struggles, etc. On the overnight training, since he was young, I had to help him get fluids early in the day and then he would be dry at night. He had one or two accidents a month when I didn't help him with this...but he and I were both proud of him and I thought the extra laundry was WELL worth it. For pooping I let him pick out a toy at Target (about $10) and he was so self motivated, the next morning he sat on the potty every five minutes for two hours until he pooped. I gave him some juice to help him along, and he's never had a poop accident in a year. The day before we potty trained we went on a potty party tour and I had him sit on his bare bottom on toilets (with no pressure to pee) at the grocery store, library and other places we frequent, and he hasn't been afraid of those places after he was potty trained. (I knew several kids who only pooped at home, and this seemed to help.) Now that he's three, he doesn't like the auto flushers because he says they are too loud. So I bring two sets of stickers. One is to put over the auto eye so it doesn't go off while he's on the toilet, the others are Thomas stickers to use as rewards. He only uses the reward stickers about 25% of the time, but it's nice to have them. Good luck! If you are positive, it will work out!

Hi.

totally unofficial, no books, but it worked with both of my boys... I left them naked until they used the potty. It took my first son 3 1/2 days. My second it only took 2 days. Both were completely potty trained nights and days. It helps for control if you eliminate juice and sugar, (diurectics) after 5p. Combined my boys have had maybe 10 accidents! That includes night and day. I honestly have no idea how much was me and how much was them, but it worked for us.

Good luck.

M.

Since it's the summer i would just top putting diapers on him. While he's home I would start either boing bare bottomed or underwear on him. Start taking him to the bathroom every 1.2 hr or 1hr and give him a chance to go. Until he goes for th first time successfully. From there i would extend it a little between trips. I would put diapers on him when you leave the house for Extended times. I don't like pull ups kids don't see them as underwear they know they are diapers and treat them as such. good luck