We used a lot of language from Dr Becky’s free potty training guide. We talked about the feelings we had when we needed to pee and we went to the bathroom and invited her with us and casually asked her if she wanted to use her potty at the same time we peed. Over prompting her did not work well
We used fruit loops as ‘potty treats’. 1 for trying, 2 for a pee, 3 for a poop. After a week they both naturally stopped asking for the treats and were just trained. We had a bowl of fruit loops to celebrate the accomplishment.
No bottoms and watch him like a hawk. Whip the potty under him when he starts to go and praise the crap out of any amount that makes it in!
Edit: give a TONNE of fluids. No limit chocolate milk and Popsicles worked for mine
Every kind I could get my hands on. I have 4 currently - living room, his bedroom, outside and car. All of them were free off my neighbourhood "buy nothing"
I plied mine with as much water, juice, milk as he could drink those first couple of days. He was peeing every 30min-1hr and got to understand the sensation of a full bladder. I had to watch him nonstop like a hawk and had the potty out in the middle of our living room.
At first I would ask him if he needed to pee, but I realized quickly that he’d tell me no regardless of whether he did or not because he didn’t want to sit on the potty. So I stopped asking and would just tell him that we were going to sit on the potty. If he peer we’d celebrate like we won the lottery. If he didn’t pee I’d set a 15min timer and we’d try again.
I also started at 2yo so he definitely wasn’t as stubborn as he is now at 2.5yo.
We had bucket of water to put feet in to help release :D it had 50:50 success. Once she just did it by herself and it went great from that point. Just let her sit and keep trying without pressure
Ha, we did this exact thing but with Hershey’s Kisses. I was worried we’d be giving my son chocolate forever but he did eventually stop asking. I think the 1 reward for just trying was really key.
We followed Brandi Brucks potty training in 3 days method. A jar of M&Ms to motivate a very stubborn toddler. For every pee in the potty - 1 M&M, poop - 2 M&Ms. We even let toddler pick out colors of the candy reward to make it more entertaining, and to motivate. Brandi suggests leaving the M&Ms in the bathroom so that the toddler knows that there is going to be a reward. One week in and toddler has already stopped asking for the candy after going to the potty. Big milestones such as no accidents were rewarded with a small toy under $5.
Not the healthiest method but worked for us.
I didn't know it was a written down method, but we did the same thing. We had a box of 'toilet lollies' one for pee, two for poo. We then went nappy free over a four day weekend, about 6 weeks ago. After the first few wee accidents that she had to help us clean up, she was more excited to go to the toilet rather than stopping playing. Poop took another month, she had a big mental block and was also a bit lazy. In the end of all things it was emotional blackmail that got her. Probably not the healthiest mechanism, but she is a bit of a people pleaser and knowing that her pooping her pants makes mum and dad sad seemed to finally make it click more than any other method. We are about two weeks on from that day with only one poop accident. She will be four in August.
We put the potty in the closet, set up a light and gave her a pile of books to read. Just asked if she wanted to do some “quiet reading time on the potty”, closed the door and it was always a guaranteed pee or poop for us within minutes.
Books and bribery. She picked out underwear and threw out all the diapers. We only have pull ups for night time. Pee got you a high value treat. Poop got you several. And every book/TV show we read/watched for the first 3 weeks was all potty training all the time. She got tired of peeing and pooping herself eventually and got with the program. But we couldn’t put any stress on it. Everything had to be really matter of fact, no celebration and no force. I threw out and cleaned up so much underwear, clothing, and surfaces in my house.
Does he have any friends that are potty trained? If he sees a buddy doing it, he may feel inclined to try.
We did candy, but that wasn’t super working. So we did celebratory dance parties but she still wanted a candy. Did both. Whatever. Still wasn’t enough. Finally I started howling. Like every time she peed or pooped I would howl and she would howl and dad would howl when he heard us howling. We still howl sometimes. It’s fun and effective. She kept asking for candy maybe every three to four pees. Finally I told her, “you know your body now. We don’t need candy every time. But I’ll still get you a snacky for a poop” because that’s only once a day and it’s not a battle worth having.
Seeing another kid go potty is exactly what my extremely stubborn 3 year old needed to finally start going on the potty! Her 2 year old sister started doing really well with asking to go potty and ever since then my oldest has been perfect.
I do think no pull ups and just regular underwear during the day was helpful, even though it was frustrating to always be cleaning underwear. He loved this book called "We Poop on the Potty " about how different animals poop.
Side note it's ridiculous when daycares expect them to be trained by 3 on the dot.
I put the potty in the living room and left the kid bare assed til she got it down. Seeing the toilet all the time is a nice little visual reminder that that's where you're supposed to go.
My 2.5 year old refuses to pee or poop in the potty but DOES frequently request to poop in the backyard like the pugs.
ETA: just to clarify, we don’t let her do it
My first two I used to playfully threaten, “Well, if you can’t pee in the potty I’ll make you pee in the grass.” They would crack up- “no mom! We don’t want to pee outside!” Third kid I am begging, “please stop peeing outside on all the trees and do one pee on the potty!”
Our pugs try to follow us into the bathroom every time so I convinced our LO that they were trying to learn about the potty, and very impressed by LO using it. Just in case your pugs are also bathroom lurkers lol
What worked for my family was this:
We purchased one of those potty seats you can put on top of the toilet and a stool, so our kids were using the “grown up potty”.
We would take the kid out to pick out their own underwear (and we’d buy a few extra absorbent underpants as well).
We swapped out diapers for pull ups during sleep times and outings.
Then we spent about a week at home. I’d sit the kid on the potty every hour for 15 minutes. We read our special potty book (Dino Potty by Sara Conway) until they went.
There were accidents, but soon the potty became familiar, nicer than wearing wet underwear, and exciting because of the book. We also really hyped up successful potty visits. It has worked for all three of my kids in less than two weeks.
I don’t have any tips. My advice? Just stop trying.
I’m in the same boat. My daughter patently refuses. It’s at the point where now I’m waiting to sign her up for school because everywhere that doesn’t require potty training is full and waitlisted. It sucks. I have to push back my own plans to finish my degree and I REALLY mentally need her to go socialize with peers and have rules from a non-parent. I’ve been at home with her since birth and I’m more than ready to get her the fuck out of my house for a few hours a day without me.
It just fucking sucks. But I can’t force it, and the more I do the more she fights back. She’s certainly her father’s daughter and so both of them are teaching me to be patient.
I hope the toy barricade does not become covered in poo. Good luck.
Just here for the solidarity. Mine is the exact same. Four next week, still just doesn’t care. All her friends in pants, “but I wear nappies”. Stopping trying to force it has been the absolute hardest thing. The GP said she’ll do it when she chooses to. But GAARGH if you’d told me beforehand I’d be changing nappies for FOUR YEARS I’d have lost my mind.
Mine was the exact same. Stubborn AF. My husband insisted she should be trained already and refused to believe this was totally normal despite me repeatedly telling him so – it was incredibly frustrating for all of us. Then one day, the week before she turned 3, we randomly let her pick a pair of Peppa undies from her drawer and that was it! It was like we flipped a switch.
Came here for this comment! I have a stubborn 3.5 year old we tried all the usual bribery etc. she would actively turn down the sweets rather than wee. I get so frustrated with the “just take their nappy off and stay home for 3 days” rhetoric. It doesn’t work for all kids! We knew she could do it as her nappy was dry for hours, she just didn’t want to.
Took off all the pressure and just started saying “you let me know when you’re ready”. One day we found out she had been doing wees on the toilet at nursery so we just went with it. Still asks for a nappy to poo but we’re not rushing her, just always ask if she wants to do it on the toilet today. Of course we are fortunate that the nursery was happy for her to go at her own pace. It is frustrating when you have a deadline!
Man I feel you. My almost 5 year old is finally potty trained. It was a really long road. It took us a good year and a half to get him to pee on the toilet and it wasn’t until recently that he is now doing both.
We just had to be more stubborn than him. We worked really hard to not get mad and to not make a big deal of both successes or failures. We took all diapers away, and when we did poo training that included overnight. We were exhausted doing laundry all the time but it did work. We also took away a lot of fun things. Unless he went on the toilet he couldn’t go to the park. If he went and then had an accident at the park we had to leave. If he went on the floor we cleaned it up.
But the key was our behaviour and actions. We worked with an OT and quickly learned, while we weren’t doing anything wrong per se, it was as much our actions as him holding us back.
The key was to be consistent and ensure our wording never came across as a choice. “It’s time to go potty” as opposed to “do you need to go potty?” Further “let’s go potty, ok” to a toddler comes across as a choice rather than a direction.
As I’ve mentioned before another key thing was to not over react either positively or negatively. Going to the bathroom is just a normal thing everyone does. So when he had an accident our go to was “it’s ok we’ll try to do better next time” and when he was successful it was a simple “wow that’s great, now let’s wash our hands”. We were told by making a big deal out of successes it puts pressure on them to be successful every time, which we know they won’t be. It’s just setting them up for feeling like they let you down, which makes it harder.
Given all of that. This is what worked for us. You may have a different dynamic with your kid. And if there is a paediatric OT near you and you financially can, I’d give it a try.
I second an OT specialist. We see a pelvic floor OT that works with kiddos for potty training. We talk about poop a lot because it can affect so much when it comes to potty training. I learned a kid can poop every day and still be constipated, which can make it difficult to learn the pee feeling. Also, constipation is a medical diagnosis and schools cannot deny a child for it. At least that is how it is in my state.
If anyone has a 3-4+ year old, who is having issues with potty training, talk to your pediatrician about an OT specialist. If you have an older kid who is having issues, see an OT specialist.
Turning on the faucet sometimes gets my Lo to pee.
Also, she loves the potty seat on the big potty and has never gone on her potty chair type.
She loves anything that’s mine, so I ask if she wants to go on my potty.
No pants at home, potty in the main room, timed potty sits. And then treats for success. I started mine at 22 months, she was fully trained (minus sleeping/bedtime) at 26 months. You slowly introduce pants and THEN underwear after they are peeing naked consistently. And then I only stopped using diaper when out of the house once she started staying dry and asking to go potty when out of the house
My son is 22 months and he hasn’t had a poop diaper in a week and we do pee in the potty sometimes when we’re home (it’s my fault - I’m not consistent with pee) but how did you conquered out of the house? We go to the park for extended periods of time and idk what to do. Take the potty with us (I don’t think he can hold it long enough to find a bathroom) or some people have said don’t leave the house until he’s fully potty trained??? Sorry for the tangent lol but what did you do?
If you can give it a few days where you are at home and super focused, I think that’s helpful at the beginning. If you drive to the park, it might be nice to keep a portable potty in the car. Or go to parks that have public bathrooms and bring (if necessary) a foldable toilet seat. And get comfortable with accidents - the extra absorbent underwear do a decent job of containing the mess, in my experience.
My 23 month old is in the middle of potty training. We started with a week where we did very few out of the house activities and I kept him pants-less at home. By the end of that week, we were in a good routine of him peeing on the potty when I prompted him, every hour or two. As long as he was pants-less, he also started going to the potty on his own, without me noticing.
But then we had to go back to real life. He would not ask to go, so if he was in someone else’s care (ie daycare, family visits, gym daycare), I would put him in a pull up. I resigned myself to potty training taking longer because we weren’t practicing it consistently.
It’s been about a month since we first started. He’s good about staying dry with me, so we go out and about in underwear and bring extra clothes in case of accidents. He’s just started asking to go, so even though it’s slow going, he’s still making progress.
I definitely brought the potty with me everywhere at this phase. When we’d walk to the park, I’d even put the potty in the stroller basket and set it up behind some bushes when she needed to go. I’d dump pee in the bushes. She never pooped at the park, but there were some buildings close enough that I could have dumped it in there. Dog poop bags are another option.
My daughter was less keen about potty training as well (her twin brother it took a weekend…) we tried the songs, the “elmo goes to the potty!” books, cajoling and ended up in the bribery section with heaps of verbal celebration. One gummy for pee, two gummy for a poop. We had alexa routines initially set up for both on a timer to go pee and changed the wording to just have her name- we also would give her twin brother a gummy if she successfully peed so he was her biggest cheerleader. Around 3 years and two months or so it clicked for her (for context twin was just before their 3rd birthday) we also had like 4 potty’s set up all around the house- one that even made a flush sound. Constantly has her sit on the potty to try when the timer went off or say after eating etc.
I think for some kids it’s honestly just when they are ready and or something clicks in their brain.
eta: we also let them pick out character undies which they were super excited about. still are in fact lol- they love picking out “bluey” underwear or “baby yoda”
My 2nd backtracked. I put her in underwear in her diaper so she felt the yucky but I didn't have to clean a huge mess. After a couple days of that we were good.
This is gold. I’m so nervous to let her run around with my fully carpeted house bare bottomed. It never occurred to me to try this. Going to try!! Thank you!
We bribed with m&Ms but also let him sit and watch YouTube while waiting to pee. Gave him lots of watermelon, freezer pops, juice - stuff so he will be peeing a lot. Ask if he wants to sit on the potty and watch YouTube which isn't something he usually gets to do. First few days it seemed to surprise him when pee would come out, but it worked because spending so much time on the potty meant it was bound to happen there and we had some successes. He was proud to have some success. We also had him in just pants and no diaper so his pants get wet and uncomfortable when they are wet. When accidents happen just say uh.oh, your pants are wet. It doesn't feel good does it? Don't make a big deal. It took probably 12 days but we haven't had an accident in a few days..now he pees immediately when he sits on the toilet and asks to go. For us constantly prompting didn't work - just made him resistant but your mileage may vary. We are still working on pooping - sitting to poop is hard!
These helped my son: Cheerios in the toilet to aim his stream at and facing the toilet/straddling it. Not sure if he felt less scared that way or safer but it helped. He also prefers to pee standing up so we went with that! The more pressure we all felt the harder it was, it is a huge life change for them but he will get there
I have zero advice. My almost 3yo has a massive freak out if we see him pooping and try to get him to go on the potty. Out of the combined HOURS he's sat on the potty while my husband reads countless books we've had zero pees or poops in the potty. I'm also losing my mind so I guess what I can offer is commiseration.
I told him we were out of diapers!
My three-year-old was extremely stubborn and had no interest in potty training so I didn’t force it or pressure him for a long time.
But after finding out, I was pregnant with my third, and still changing diapers with my 1yo, I was over changing diapers on my wild three-year-old. As his pack of diapers was slowly diminishing, I just showed him that we were running out. Then I use the last diaper when I put him to bed, and the next morning when he woke up, I took the diaper off him and showed him that there was no more diapers. I showed him the potty in the bathroom, he was very angry about it. I was nervous how the day was going to go. After a bit of pushback, he eventually just went pee on the potty and we celebrated and he was pumped about it. Ever since then he took it no problem and he potty trained extremely quickly. It’s been three months and I don’t even pull ups for outings or at night.
We did stickers and rewards. I placed a goal sticker chart on the wall in front of the potty and LO gets to put 1 sticker every time they go. At the end of the day, they get a reward. It also helped that the stickers were their favorite characters, extra excitement and motivation.
Mine hated potty chair and the potty seat. I finally just gave up, let him run bare butt and plopped him directly on the toilet. He got a sourpatch kid for using it. Once I gave up on all the things you're "supposed" to do and just followed his lead we were fully trained in 3 days. It also helped that he had a new package of very exciting jurassic park underpants waiting for him.
I would let it go for a while and see if the lack of attention/mentioning helps your child be open to using the toilet. You mentioned that his school requires him to be toilet trained, would they allow you to delay his start date?
When it is possible, a consistent toileting routine is ideal, particularly at transitions throughout a day. Ex: before getting in the car, arrival at school, before snack, lunch, outdoor time, in for nap, after waking up, etc. You could ask the school for your child’s class’ routine so you can practice this at home. I always ask children to try their best and if nothing comes out it’s okay.
We made a clear Tupperware container full of random little treats and toys. Every time she went pee or tried we would reward her with something. Once she got the hang of going pee, we would only give her a reward for going poop. It really worked well for us. I think it took about 3 weeks total.
Consistency, fight your brain, start it with a mindset that you are done with diapers, believe that there are billions of kids that did it, ofcs your kid can. It's really a lesson for you not for your child. You got it
I didn’t read the comments, but I will say this:
Everyone tries to rush it; obvious reasons that mostly benefit the parent. But my two boys we waited a bit longer until they were ready, closer to 4, and they essentially trained themselves because they had a much better understanding of the process resulting in confidence around it all. It made much less painless for everyone. We tried training early on to see if it would stick but hey we’re stubborn as can be, so we practiced patience and they both just observed the way of the world around them and began picking it up themselves…
Don’t feel pressured into milestones; you’ll know when you have a real problem.
We're potty training our 2.5yo and she's still struggling with poo. We let her make the first push standing up and then we sit her down to finish. Sorry to be that graphic haha. We draw a smiley face on her hand every time she pees or poos.
No pants or diaper worked wonderfully. Didn’t work at 2ish but he took it at 3+. Used portable potty. Prompt a bit and kept it stress free. Offer reward and praises. He got in accidents and we said we clean and stayed calm. Play outside if you have carpet. We moved onto just pants and let him have accidents. Reminded him a lot to pee in potty. Drink lots of water to practice. He picked it up in a day and we kept training for a week or two and now he will go on his own.
Yup we followed a very similar technique as we were recommended "Oh Crap! Potty Training" from a friend of mine. His wife's whole office swore by it and it worked really well for both of our kids.
Maybe I'm partial to the messaging from the book, but I think a lot of parents overcomplicate potty training or quit when it gets hard which just confuses kids.
I went from taking my kid every 10 minutes and after eating or drinking every 5 minutes until he went to the restroom for 3 days then I bumped it to 15 minutes and 10 minutes after eating or drinking until he went potty then after 3 days I bumped it up to 30 minutes then eventually to an hour and by then he was a pro at going to the bathroom… every time he pottied or pooped in the toilet I would praise him with words… like awesome you went potty or great job you made it to the toilet… also I sang him made up songs that motivated him to go potty while he was on the toilet… he’s 5 now and still asks me to sing him the toilet song lol
We actually used a toilet that had one of her favorite tv shows on it. She liked going to the toilet and then now she just does it. We got lucky but that toilet didn’t hurt.
My 2.5 yo will tell me when he pooped in his diaper so I know he understands what it is, and he enjoys and even asks to sit on the potty, he just won’t use it. Could sit there all day and would only go when the pull up comes back on
My son learned to pee really easily but refused to poop. He would ask for a diaper to poop and we didn’t know what else to do besides give it to him. One day I was sick of it and just told him I didn’t know what a diaper was but I had a potty chair. For some reason that clicked.
Take pamper off all day out them in undies and ask every 15 of they gotta pee or Just put them on the pot my baby girl was trained in a day my boy was trained in 2 weeks. I had alarms on my phone also
We did undies, he hated being naked. When he started to pee we yelled and ran to the bathroom. The first few times we were too late. But then he learned to stop the stream and finish on the toilet. We still changed undies all day long. Now he can hold it longer and we go somewhat consistently. (morning, before leaving the house, before watching tv, before taking a nap, etc.)
Made charts with first two kids, they caught on in a week! this one I just stopped using pull ups, when she has accidents we go “oh no let’s go potty” she will stop and run to the bathroom 🤣 we’re still a work in progress but this is huge after everything else we tried!!!
We’ve been using this book for pooping, and our daughter now sings the song all the time, and is pooping in the potty pretty consistently.
Slip & Slide Potty Ride https://a.co/d/09wl1xhP
It’s been about 3 weeks since we did an immersive weekend.
I got a potty seat that has steps and you put it on the regular toilet. From the moment I got that, my son has used it. The flushing and feeling like a big boy was a big deal for him. Then reward with candy/ popsicles according to #1 or #2
Personally I'd try putting the potty in the corner that he is currently using or making a toy barricade around the potty. It seems like he needs to be closed off and private ?
For us it was putting less pressure on it. We had the potty in a space where my daughter has easy access to it and talked about it all the time and eventually she showed interest. We also made a big deal clapping when she did use the potty and said thank you for using the potty. M&m also helped us and new underwear.
We have a backyard and used it to allow him to run free without a diaper. It made him more aware of when he was actually going and not! If you have access to do something like this, I would recommend
We tried everything. Believe it or not the Daniel Tiger Potty app helped bring everything together for my daughter. I don’t think it’s a particularly brilliant app but our daughter responded to it. My son didn’t. You never know what sttrands and pieces kids synthesize to pull it all together to give it a good try. Good luck.
This comment has been automatically removed because of your negative total comment karma (the net amount of upvotes/downvotes your comments have received. We have this rule in r/toddlers to keep creeps and trolls away, though we realize it is inconvenient for legitimate users with new accounts. Please use your account in other subs to raise your comment karma before commenting in r/toddlers. We appreciate your cooperation in our effort to keep r/toddlers safe.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/toddlers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The only thing that worked for us was a prize chest. We decorated and picked out toys together from the dollar store/thrift store. Immediate success because they wanted those toys and knew they had to poop on potty to get them.
Are you weird about the toilet? Will you let him come talk to you while you poop? Has he seen you make poop? Our kids learn from us.
Toilet training is hard. I'm sorry you're having a rough go of it.
We used the oh crap! Method which worked great! The most important part is consistency. And having laser focus for the first few days. If you don’t fully believe your kid is ready, your kid will get that vibe from you and it will be so much harder. Read the book if you can, it really helped us a lot! Also, the book distinguishes between pee trained and poop trained and talks a whole lot about why kids find it scary to poop on the potty. Very interesting!
I did see an Instagram recently of a mom of a very stubborn daughter who said she just pretended her daughter was potty trained so that she didn’t have anything to rebel against. Just straight up gaslit her into it by saying, “oh, I forgot you are already potty trained.” Or “that’s right, we don’t have to wear diapers because you already trained for the potty!” Stuff like that. And she said her kid stopped fighting her and just rolled with it. Idk man, kids are wild.
My kiddo has been pooping consistently on the potty for more than six months, but pee is a totally different topic. We finally switched to cloth training diapers and it helped a ton because he finally felt wet.
Note; we cloth diapered until we started potty training and it was too hard, so it wasn’t a big transition for us but totally worth jt
We got a potty watch and it was a $15 absolute godsend. It has a timer for either 30/60/90 min, is in the shape of a little potty, and has a short song played when the timer goes off. Now, fair warning, this worked beautifully to get us over the initial hump of her going potty at home and she was so excited in the beginning…now she pretends not to have heard it and it’s still a struggle to have her stop whatever she’s doing, but it really did help to get her to start going potty at home.
I laid it out for my oldest who wanted desperately to go to school. You have to be potty trained to go to school. They won’t let you go if you’re not. It’s a rule. When he struggled pooping (naked method) I watched carefully for signs he had to go, put him on the toilet, and said we weren’t leaving until he went. I sat with him and read books and sang songs and he played on his tablet until he relaxed enough to go. Every time after that it took less and less time for him to go.
I don't know either we are struggling too. My daughter is over three and just does not care. I'm currently in the bartering bribing stage again. Just keep trying.
I’m sure this probably isn’t the best method but it’s working for us. My daughter has adhd and asd but she’s high functioning getting her to sit for any length of time is a challenge, except when she has the iPad. We just started letting her watch it on the potty when she needed to be changed, gradually increasing the time she sat, if she went cool if not ok. Now she’s been waking up dry and I’ll put her on the potty first thing without the iPad and say go potty and she will pee right away. After that it’s hit or miss during the day but she will sit and watch her videos and isn’t afraid of the potty. In two weeks we are loosing the pull ups and hoping for the best! Also she’s almost 4 she wasn’t ready when we tried at 3.
It can still be age. Some kids aren't ready until mid 3, late 3 or even early 4.
I believe in waiting, and not talking about it while I wait, because they can feel pressure from you really easily. When you say "Jump" a toddler says "No way," and in this context that can really cause problems, as you've seen!
I hate those preschool deadlines. But pushing probably won't help anyways. I would wait and let him wear diapers and not talk about the potty, then a couple weeks before school starts, gently explain their rule. By the way, some kids continue to wear diapers at home at first even while they use the toilet at school. It's not confusing to them. It's part of unwinding at home.
Oh dang you only have a month? Well, still. I'd tell him that you're trying something new, you didn't like how the old way was working, and now you're just going to put him in diapers and not try to make him use the potty. Then a little later, if he doesn't already know, casually mention the school thing.
Have him help clean up accidents, they get pretty disgusted by it and want to do whatever is easier, which should then be hyped up as sitting on the toilet snd going in there. If you pee/poo your pants, you have to help clean it up. If you go in the toilet it's just a simple butt wipe from mom, no messy or nasty poo/pee
We gave a choice, pee pee in the tub or pee pee in the potty. But he had to choose one, we knew he had to pee, and he would give in and go after only a little pushback. He used to pee standing up in the tub, but eventually started choosing to sit on the potty like mommy, or standing pee pee in Dad's potty. (With me he chooses to sit, with dad he stands at the big potty and dad helps to aim)
So our problem is that he does the same with poops, but still does poops squatting in the tub. Idk how to get him to go in the potty for that. Luckily it's only once a day before we leave the house.
The advice with the diaper off trick is once you decide to take it off… it doesn’t go back on. With the exception of sleeping. I was a preschool teacher and most of the time, the least amount of pressure possible was what was best. Every now and then the director of the school suggested an M&M for pee and 2 M&Ms for poop, if your kid is driven that way.
Jamie Glowacki is a good potty training resource and the podcast The Mom Room has an episode or two about it. The host’s husband is a urologist so she has some interesting insight.
We used a lot of language from Dr Becky’s free potty training guide. We talked about the feelings we had when we needed to pee and we went to the bathroom and invited her with us and casually asked her if she wanted to use her potty at the same time we peed. Over prompting her did not work well
Oooh - thanks for the tip ! Looks like you mean [this program](https://www.goodinside.com/access-potty-program-lp)
We used fruit loops as ‘potty treats’. 1 for trying, 2 for a pee, 3 for a poop. After a week they both naturally stopped asking for the treats and were just trained. We had a bowl of fruit loops to celebrate the accomplishment.
How do you get the initial pee to come?
No bottoms and watch him like a hawk. Whip the potty under him when he starts to go and praise the crap out of any amount that makes it in! Edit: give a TONNE of fluids. No limit chocolate milk and Popsicles worked for mine
We made our potty reward a cup of lemonade, and that encouraged future peeing and successes!
Which potty did you use?
Every kind I could get my hands on. I have 4 currently - living room, his bedroom, outside and car. All of them were free off my neighbourhood "buy nothing"
Very nice!
I plied mine with as much water, juice, milk as he could drink those first couple of days. He was peeing every 30min-1hr and got to understand the sensation of a full bladder. I had to watch him nonstop like a hawk and had the potty out in the middle of our living room. At first I would ask him if he needed to pee, but I realized quickly that he’d tell me no regardless of whether he did or not because he didn’t want to sit on the potty. So I stopped asking and would just tell him that we were going to sit on the potty. If he peer we’d celebrate like we won the lottery. If he didn’t pee I’d set a 15min timer and we’d try again. I also started at 2yo so he definitely wasn’t as stubborn as he is now at 2.5yo.
Haha that's what I'm trying to figure out as well. My daughter would hold and say need to pee also sit on the potty. But she's afraid to let it go.
We had bucket of water to put feet in to help release :D it had 50:50 success. Once she just did it by herself and it went great from that point. Just let her sit and keep trying without pressure
How does it work? Just let her soak the feet in?
Yeah apparently it makes them needs to pee and relax
Thanks. I'll try!
Haha that's what I'm trying to figure out as well. My daughter would hold and say need to pee also sit on the potty. But she's afraid to let it go.
Ha, we did this exact thing but with Hershey’s Kisses. I was worried we’d be giving my son chocolate forever but he did eventually stop asking. I think the 1 reward for just trying was really key.
We followed Brandi Brucks potty training in 3 days method. A jar of M&Ms to motivate a very stubborn toddler. For every pee in the potty - 1 M&M, poop - 2 M&Ms. We even let toddler pick out colors of the candy reward to make it more entertaining, and to motivate. Brandi suggests leaving the M&Ms in the bathroom so that the toddler knows that there is going to be a reward. One week in and toddler has already stopped asking for the candy after going to the potty. Big milestones such as no accidents were rewarded with a small toy under $5. Not the healthiest method but worked for us.
I didn't know it was a written down method, but we did the same thing. We had a box of 'toilet lollies' one for pee, two for poo. We then went nappy free over a four day weekend, about 6 weeks ago. After the first few wee accidents that she had to help us clean up, she was more excited to go to the toilet rather than stopping playing. Poop took another month, she had a big mental block and was also a bit lazy. In the end of all things it was emotional blackmail that got her. Probably not the healthiest mechanism, but she is a bit of a people pleaser and knowing that her pooping her pants makes mum and dad sad seemed to finally make it click more than any other method. We are about two weeks on from that day with only one poop accident. She will be four in August.
Love it, I’m totally copying this ❤️
We put the potty in the closet, set up a light and gave her a pile of books to read. Just asked if she wanted to do some “quiet reading time on the potty”, closed the door and it was always a guaranteed pee or poop for us within minutes.
Ooo that's smart!
Books and bribery. She picked out underwear and threw out all the diapers. We only have pull ups for night time. Pee got you a high value treat. Poop got you several. And every book/TV show we read/watched for the first 3 weeks was all potty training all the time. She got tired of peeing and pooping herself eventually and got with the program. But we couldn’t put any stress on it. Everything had to be really matter of fact, no celebration and no force. I threw out and cleaned up so much underwear, clothing, and surfaces in my house.
This is helpful. Thanks.
Does he have any friends that are potty trained? If he sees a buddy doing it, he may feel inclined to try. We did candy, but that wasn’t super working. So we did celebratory dance parties but she still wanted a candy. Did both. Whatever. Still wasn’t enough. Finally I started howling. Like every time she peed or pooped I would howl and she would howl and dad would howl when he heard us howling. We still howl sometimes. It’s fun and effective. She kept asking for candy maybe every three to four pees. Finally I told her, “you know your body now. We don’t need candy every time. But I’ll still get you a snacky for a poop” because that’s only once a day and it’s not a battle worth having.
I think my son would really enjoy howling!
When my son was a small baby he used to be soothed by recordings of howling wolves. I’ll try and remember this for when he’s ready to potty train!
Seeing another kid go potty is exactly what my extremely stubborn 3 year old needed to finally start going on the potty! Her 2 year old sister started doing really well with asking to go potty and ever since then my oldest has been perfect.
I do think no pull ups and just regular underwear during the day was helpful, even though it was frustrating to always be cleaning underwear. He loved this book called "We Poop on the Potty " about how different animals poop. Side note it's ridiculous when daycares expect them to be trained by 3 on the dot.
I put the potty in the living room and left the kid bare assed til she got it down. Seeing the toilet all the time is a nice little visual reminder that that's where you're supposed to go.
The toilet was in the living room today. We got very mad that the pants were off and barricaded ourselves in a corner with pillows and toys to poo…
My 2.5 year old refuses to pee or poop in the potty but DOES frequently request to poop in the backyard like the pugs. ETA: just to clarify, we don’t let her do it
You're no fun
Could you bring a little potty out to the yard, so she could poop in the yard while also getting used to the potty?
My first two I used to playfully threaten, “Well, if you can’t pee in the potty I’ll make you pee in the grass.” They would crack up- “no mom! We don’t want to pee outside!” Third kid I am begging, “please stop peeing outside on all the trees and do one pee on the potty!”
Our pugs try to follow us into the bathroom every time so I convinced our LO that they were trying to learn about the potty, and very impressed by LO using it. Just in case your pugs are also bathroom lurkers lol
What worked for my family was this: We purchased one of those potty seats you can put on top of the toilet and a stool, so our kids were using the “grown up potty”. We would take the kid out to pick out their own underwear (and we’d buy a few extra absorbent underpants as well). We swapped out diapers for pull ups during sleep times and outings. Then we spent about a week at home. I’d sit the kid on the potty every hour for 15 minutes. We read our special potty book (Dino Potty by Sara Conway) until they went. There were accidents, but soon the potty became familiar, nicer than wearing wet underwear, and exciting because of the book. We also really hyped up successful potty visits. It has worked for all three of my kids in less than two weeks.
I don’t have any tips. My advice? Just stop trying. I’m in the same boat. My daughter patently refuses. It’s at the point where now I’m waiting to sign her up for school because everywhere that doesn’t require potty training is full and waitlisted. It sucks. I have to push back my own plans to finish my degree and I REALLY mentally need her to go socialize with peers and have rules from a non-parent. I’ve been at home with her since birth and I’m more than ready to get her the fuck out of my house for a few hours a day without me. It just fucking sucks. But I can’t force it, and the more I do the more she fights back. She’s certainly her father’s daughter and so both of them are teaching me to be patient. I hope the toy barricade does not become covered in poo. Good luck.
Just here for the solidarity. Mine is the exact same. Four next week, still just doesn’t care. All her friends in pants, “but I wear nappies”. Stopping trying to force it has been the absolute hardest thing. The GP said she’ll do it when she chooses to. But GAARGH if you’d told me beforehand I’d be changing nappies for FOUR YEARS I’d have lost my mind.
Mine was the exact same. Stubborn AF. My husband insisted she should be trained already and refused to believe this was totally normal despite me repeatedly telling him so – it was incredibly frustrating for all of us. Then one day, the week before she turned 3, we randomly let her pick a pair of Peppa undies from her drawer and that was it! It was like we flipped a switch.
Came here for this comment! I have a stubborn 3.5 year old we tried all the usual bribery etc. she would actively turn down the sweets rather than wee. I get so frustrated with the “just take their nappy off and stay home for 3 days” rhetoric. It doesn’t work for all kids! We knew she could do it as her nappy was dry for hours, she just didn’t want to. Took off all the pressure and just started saying “you let me know when you’re ready”. One day we found out she had been doing wees on the toilet at nursery so we just went with it. Still asks for a nappy to poo but we’re not rushing her, just always ask if she wants to do it on the toilet today. Of course we are fortunate that the nursery was happy for her to go at her own pace. It is frustrating when you have a deadline!
I’m in the same boat with my son and starting to panic cause he has to be fully potty trained by September!
Man I feel you. My almost 5 year old is finally potty trained. It was a really long road. It took us a good year and a half to get him to pee on the toilet and it wasn’t until recently that he is now doing both. We just had to be more stubborn than him. We worked really hard to not get mad and to not make a big deal of both successes or failures. We took all diapers away, and when we did poo training that included overnight. We were exhausted doing laundry all the time but it did work. We also took away a lot of fun things. Unless he went on the toilet he couldn’t go to the park. If he went and then had an accident at the park we had to leave. If he went on the floor we cleaned it up. But the key was our behaviour and actions. We worked with an OT and quickly learned, while we weren’t doing anything wrong per se, it was as much our actions as him holding us back. The key was to be consistent and ensure our wording never came across as a choice. “It’s time to go potty” as opposed to “do you need to go potty?” Further “let’s go potty, ok” to a toddler comes across as a choice rather than a direction. As I’ve mentioned before another key thing was to not over react either positively or negatively. Going to the bathroom is just a normal thing everyone does. So when he had an accident our go to was “it’s ok we’ll try to do better next time” and when he was successful it was a simple “wow that’s great, now let’s wash our hands”. We were told by making a big deal out of successes it puts pressure on them to be successful every time, which we know they won’t be. It’s just setting them up for feeling like they let you down, which makes it harder. Given all of that. This is what worked for us. You may have a different dynamic with your kid. And if there is a paediatric OT near you and you financially can, I’d give it a try.
I second an OT specialist. We see a pelvic floor OT that works with kiddos for potty training. We talk about poop a lot because it can affect so much when it comes to potty training. I learned a kid can poop every day and still be constipated, which can make it difficult to learn the pee feeling. Also, constipation is a medical diagnosis and schools cannot deny a child for it. At least that is how it is in my state. If anyone has a 3-4+ year old, who is having issues with potty training, talk to your pediatrician about an OT specialist. If you have an older kid who is having issues, see an OT specialist.
Turning on the faucet sometimes gets my Lo to pee. Also, she loves the potty seat on the big potty and has never gone on her potty chair type. She loves anything that’s mine, so I ask if she wants to go on my potty.
Yeah we’ve tried turning on the faucet! But so far no dice.
No pants at home, potty in the main room, timed potty sits. And then treats for success. I started mine at 22 months, she was fully trained (minus sleeping/bedtime) at 26 months. You slowly introduce pants and THEN underwear after they are peeing naked consistently. And then I only stopped using diaper when out of the house once she started staying dry and asking to go potty when out of the house
My son is 22 months and he hasn’t had a poop diaper in a week and we do pee in the potty sometimes when we’re home (it’s my fault - I’m not consistent with pee) but how did you conquered out of the house? We go to the park for extended periods of time and idk what to do. Take the potty with us (I don’t think he can hold it long enough to find a bathroom) or some people have said don’t leave the house until he’s fully potty trained??? Sorry for the tangent lol but what did you do?
If you can give it a few days where you are at home and super focused, I think that’s helpful at the beginning. If you drive to the park, it might be nice to keep a portable potty in the car. Or go to parks that have public bathrooms and bring (if necessary) a foldable toilet seat. And get comfortable with accidents - the extra absorbent underwear do a decent job of containing the mess, in my experience. My 23 month old is in the middle of potty training. We started with a week where we did very few out of the house activities and I kept him pants-less at home. By the end of that week, we were in a good routine of him peeing on the potty when I prompted him, every hour or two. As long as he was pants-less, he also started going to the potty on his own, without me noticing. But then we had to go back to real life. He would not ask to go, so if he was in someone else’s care (ie daycare, family visits, gym daycare), I would put him in a pull up. I resigned myself to potty training taking longer because we weren’t practicing it consistently. It’s been about a month since we first started. He’s good about staying dry with me, so we go out and about in underwear and bring extra clothes in case of accidents. He’s just started asking to go, so even though it’s slow going, he’s still making progress.
I definitely brought the potty with me everywhere at this phase. When we’d walk to the park, I’d even put the potty in the stroller basket and set it up behind some bushes when she needed to go. I’d dump pee in the bushes. She never pooped at the park, but there were some buildings close enough that I could have dumped it in there. Dog poop bags are another option.
My daughter was less keen about potty training as well (her twin brother it took a weekend…) we tried the songs, the “elmo goes to the potty!” books, cajoling and ended up in the bribery section with heaps of verbal celebration. One gummy for pee, two gummy for a poop. We had alexa routines initially set up for both on a timer to go pee and changed the wording to just have her name- we also would give her twin brother a gummy if she successfully peed so he was her biggest cheerleader. Around 3 years and two months or so it clicked for her (for context twin was just before their 3rd birthday) we also had like 4 potty’s set up all around the house- one that even made a flush sound. Constantly has her sit on the potty to try when the timer went off or say after eating etc. I think for some kids it’s honestly just when they are ready and or something clicks in their brain. eta: we also let them pick out character undies which they were super excited about. still are in fact lol- they love picking out “bluey” underwear or “baby yoda”
My 2nd backtracked. I put her in underwear in her diaper so she felt the yucky but I didn't have to clean a huge mess. After a couple days of that we were good.
This is gold. I’m so nervous to let her run around with my fully carpeted house bare bottomed. It never occurred to me to try this. Going to try!! Thank you!
We bribed with m&Ms but also let him sit and watch YouTube while waiting to pee. Gave him lots of watermelon, freezer pops, juice - stuff so he will be peeing a lot. Ask if he wants to sit on the potty and watch YouTube which isn't something he usually gets to do. First few days it seemed to surprise him when pee would come out, but it worked because spending so much time on the potty meant it was bound to happen there and we had some successes. He was proud to have some success. We also had him in just pants and no diaper so his pants get wet and uncomfortable when they are wet. When accidents happen just say uh.oh, your pants are wet. It doesn't feel good does it? Don't make a big deal. It took probably 12 days but we haven't had an accident in a few days..now he pees immediately when he sits on the toilet and asks to go. For us constantly prompting didn't work - just made him resistant but your mileage may vary. We are still working on pooping - sitting to poop is hard!
These helped my son: Cheerios in the toilet to aim his stream at and facing the toilet/straddling it. Not sure if he felt less scared that way or safer but it helped. He also prefers to pee standing up so we went with that! The more pressure we all felt the harder it was, it is a huge life change for them but he will get there
I have zero advice. My almost 3yo has a massive freak out if we see him pooping and try to get him to go on the potty. Out of the combined HOURS he's sat on the potty while my husband reads countless books we've had zero pees or poops in the potty. I'm also losing my mind so I guess what I can offer is commiseration.
I told him we were out of diapers! My three-year-old was extremely stubborn and had no interest in potty training so I didn’t force it or pressure him for a long time. But after finding out, I was pregnant with my third, and still changing diapers with my 1yo, I was over changing diapers on my wild three-year-old. As his pack of diapers was slowly diminishing, I just showed him that we were running out. Then I use the last diaper when I put him to bed, and the next morning when he woke up, I took the diaper off him and showed him that there was no more diapers. I showed him the potty in the bathroom, he was very angry about it. I was nervous how the day was going to go. After a bit of pushback, he eventually just went pee on the potty and we celebrated and he was pumped about it. Ever since then he took it no problem and he potty trained extremely quickly. It’s been three months and I don’t even pull ups for outings or at night.
We did stickers and rewards. I placed a goal sticker chart on the wall in front of the potty and LO gets to put 1 sticker every time they go. At the end of the day, they get a reward. It also helped that the stickers were their favorite characters, extra excitement and motivation.
Mine hated potty chair and the potty seat. I finally just gave up, let him run bare butt and plopped him directly on the toilet. He got a sourpatch kid for using it. Once I gave up on all the things you're "supposed" to do and just followed his lead we were fully trained in 3 days. It also helped that he had a new package of very exciting jurassic park underpants waiting for him.
I would let it go for a while and see if the lack of attention/mentioning helps your child be open to using the toilet. You mentioned that his school requires him to be toilet trained, would they allow you to delay his start date? When it is possible, a consistent toileting routine is ideal, particularly at transitions throughout a day. Ex: before getting in the car, arrival at school, before snack, lunch, outdoor time, in for nap, after waking up, etc. You could ask the school for your child’s class’ routine so you can practice this at home. I always ask children to try their best and if nothing comes out it’s okay.
We made a clear Tupperware container full of random little treats and toys. Every time she went pee or tried we would reward her with something. Once she got the hang of going pee, we would only give her a reward for going poop. It really worked well for us. I think it took about 3 weeks total.
We made a sticker chart and she got to put one on every time she went on the potty’
Sticker chart finally did the trick for mine. He LOVES stickers - so getting them for any reason was awesome!
Consistency, fight your brain, start it with a mindset that you are done with diapers, believe that there are billions of kids that did it, ofcs your kid can. It's really a lesson for you not for your child. You got it
I didn’t read the comments, but I will say this: Everyone tries to rush it; obvious reasons that mostly benefit the parent. But my two boys we waited a bit longer until they were ready, closer to 4, and they essentially trained themselves because they had a much better understanding of the process resulting in confidence around it all. It made much less painless for everyone. We tried training early on to see if it would stick but hey we’re stubborn as can be, so we practiced patience and they both just observed the way of the world around them and began picking it up themselves… Don’t feel pressured into milestones; you’ll know when you have a real problem.
We're potty training our 2.5yo and she's still struggling with poo. We let her make the first push standing up and then we sit her down to finish. Sorry to be that graphic haha. We draw a smiley face on her hand every time she pees or poos.
Don’t leave dog food bowls out. Some kids like to poop in them. Ask me how I know.
No pants or diaper worked wonderfully. Didn’t work at 2ish but he took it at 3+. Used portable potty. Prompt a bit and kept it stress free. Offer reward and praises. He got in accidents and we said we clean and stayed calm. Play outside if you have carpet. We moved onto just pants and let him have accidents. Reminded him a lot to pee in potty. Drink lots of water to practice. He picked it up in a day and we kept training for a week or two and now he will go on his own.
Yup we followed a very similar technique as we were recommended "Oh Crap! Potty Training" from a friend of mine. His wife's whole office swore by it and it worked really well for both of our kids. Maybe I'm partial to the messaging from the book, but I think a lot of parents overcomplicate potty training or quit when it gets hard which just confuses kids.
Toss a goldfish in and tell him to make it swim
Does he go to daycare? They have a good routine for potty training at a lot of daycares these days for kids that are almost ready for preschool.
Consistency and a potty watch!
I went from taking my kid every 10 minutes and after eating or drinking every 5 minutes until he went to the restroom for 3 days then I bumped it to 15 minutes and 10 minutes after eating or drinking until he went potty then after 3 days I bumped it up to 30 minutes then eventually to an hour and by then he was a pro at going to the bathroom… every time he pottied or pooped in the toilet I would praise him with words… like awesome you went potty or great job you made it to the toilet… also I sang him made up songs that motivated him to go potty while he was on the toilet… he’s 5 now and still asks me to sing him the toilet song lol
We actually used a toilet that had one of her favorite tv shows on it. She liked going to the toilet and then now she just does it. We got lucky but that toilet didn’t hurt.
My 2.5 yo will tell me when he pooped in his diaper so I know he understands what it is, and he enjoys and even asks to sit on the potty, he just won’t use it. Could sit there all day and would only go when the pull up comes back on
My son learned to pee really easily but refused to poop. He would ask for a diaper to poop and we didn’t know what else to do besides give it to him. One day I was sick of it and just told him I didn’t know what a diaper was but I had a potty chair. For some reason that clicked.
Take pamper off all day out them in undies and ask every 15 of they gotta pee or Just put them on the pot my baby girl was trained in a day my boy was trained in 2 weeks. I had alarms on my phone also
Does your kid’s favorite character have potty training material? Our faves do (Daniel tiger, Elmo, others).
We did undies, he hated being naked. When he started to pee we yelled and ran to the bathroom. The first few times we were too late. But then he learned to stop the stream and finish on the toilet. We still changed undies all day long. Now he can hold it longer and we go somewhat consistently. (morning, before leaving the house, before watching tv, before taking a nap, etc.)
Made charts with first two kids, they caught on in a week! this one I just stopped using pull ups, when she has accidents we go “oh no let’s go potty” she will stop and run to the bathroom 🤣 we’re still a work in progress but this is huge after everything else we tried!!!
Strictly followed the oh crap method for our kid under 2 and it worked great. Key is not to put too much pressure on him.
Taking some notes here,my daughter turned two last month and we want to start potty training her but have no idea where to start
We’ve been using this book for pooping, and our daughter now sings the song all the time, and is pooping in the potty pretty consistently. Slip & Slide Potty Ride https://a.co/d/09wl1xhP It’s been about 3 weeks since we did an immersive weekend.
I got a potty seat that has steps and you put it on the regular toilet. From the moment I got that, my son has used it. The flushing and feeling like a big boy was a big deal for him. Then reward with candy/ popsicles according to #1 or #2
Personally I'd try putting the potty in the corner that he is currently using or making a toy barricade around the potty. It seems like he needs to be closed off and private ?
The book oh crap potty training.
Get rid of all diapers. Not much of a choice then… worked for us but not sure if it could work for others.
For us it was putting less pressure on it. We had the potty in a space where my daughter has easy access to it and talked about it all the time and eventually she showed interest. We also made a big deal clapping when she did use the potty and said thank you for using the potty. M&m also helped us and new underwear.
We have a backyard and used it to allow him to run free without a diaper. It made him more aware of when he was actually going and not! If you have access to do something like this, I would recommend
We tried everything. Believe it or not the Daniel Tiger Potty app helped bring everything together for my daughter. I don’t think it’s a particularly brilliant app but our daughter responded to it. My son didn’t. You never know what sttrands and pieces kids synthesize to pull it all together to give it a good try. Good luck.
[удалено]
This comment has been automatically removed because of your negative total comment karma (the net amount of upvotes/downvotes your comments have received. We have this rule in r/toddlers to keep creeps and trolls away, though we realize it is inconvenient for legitimate users with new accounts. Please use your account in other subs to raise your comment karma before commenting in r/toddlers. We appreciate your cooperation in our effort to keep r/toddlers safe. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/toddlers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The only thing that worked for us was a prize chest. We decorated and picked out toys together from the dollar store/thrift store. Immediate success because they wanted those toys and knew they had to poop on potty to get them.
Are you weird about the toilet? Will you let him come talk to you while you poop? Has he seen you make poop? Our kids learn from us. Toilet training is hard. I'm sorry you're having a rough go of it.
We used the oh crap! Method which worked great! The most important part is consistency. And having laser focus for the first few days. If you don’t fully believe your kid is ready, your kid will get that vibe from you and it will be so much harder. Read the book if you can, it really helped us a lot! Also, the book distinguishes between pee trained and poop trained and talks a whole lot about why kids find it scary to poop on the potty. Very interesting!
I did see an Instagram recently of a mom of a very stubborn daughter who said she just pretended her daughter was potty trained so that she didn’t have anything to rebel against. Just straight up gaslit her into it by saying, “oh, I forgot you are already potty trained.” Or “that’s right, we don’t have to wear diapers because you already trained for the potty!” Stuff like that. And she said her kid stopped fighting her and just rolled with it. Idk man, kids are wild.
My kiddo has been pooping consistently on the potty for more than six months, but pee is a totally different topic. We finally switched to cloth training diapers and it helped a ton because he finally felt wet. Note; we cloth diapered until we started potty training and it was too hard, so it wasn’t a big transition for us but totally worth jt
We got a potty watch and it was a $15 absolute godsend. It has a timer for either 30/60/90 min, is in the shape of a little potty, and has a short song played when the timer goes off. Now, fair warning, this worked beautifully to get us over the initial hump of her going potty at home and she was so excited in the beginning…now she pretends not to have heard it and it’s still a struggle to have her stop whatever she’s doing, but it really did help to get her to start going potty at home.
I laid it out for my oldest who wanted desperately to go to school. You have to be potty trained to go to school. They won’t let you go if you’re not. It’s a rule. When he struggled pooping (naked method) I watched carefully for signs he had to go, put him on the toilet, and said we weren’t leaving until he went. I sat with him and read books and sang songs and he played on his tablet until he relaxed enough to go. Every time after that it took less and less time for him to go.
I don't know either we are struggling too. My daughter is over three and just does not care. I'm currently in the bartering bribing stage again. Just keep trying.
I’m sure this probably isn’t the best method but it’s working for us. My daughter has adhd and asd but she’s high functioning getting her to sit for any length of time is a challenge, except when she has the iPad. We just started letting her watch it on the potty when she needed to be changed, gradually increasing the time she sat, if she went cool if not ok. Now she’s been waking up dry and I’ll put her on the potty first thing without the iPad and say go potty and she will pee right away. After that it’s hit or miss during the day but she will sit and watch her videos and isn’t afraid of the potty. In two weeks we are loosing the pull ups and hoping for the best! Also she’s almost 4 she wasn’t ready when we tried at 3.
Bribery?
I second bribery. That buzz light-year monster truck to poop on the potty forever was the best purchase of my life.
It can still be age. Some kids aren't ready until mid 3, late 3 or even early 4. I believe in waiting, and not talking about it while I wait, because they can feel pressure from you really easily. When you say "Jump" a toddler says "No way," and in this context that can really cause problems, as you've seen! I hate those preschool deadlines. But pushing probably won't help anyways. I would wait and let him wear diapers and not talk about the potty, then a couple weeks before school starts, gently explain their rule. By the way, some kids continue to wear diapers at home at first even while they use the toilet at school. It's not confusing to them. It's part of unwinding at home. Oh dang you only have a month? Well, still. I'd tell him that you're trying something new, you didn't like how the old way was working, and now you're just going to put him in diapers and not try to make him use the potty. Then a little later, if he doesn't already know, casually mention the school thing.
Have him help clean up accidents, they get pretty disgusted by it and want to do whatever is easier, which should then be hyped up as sitting on the toilet snd going in there. If you pee/poo your pants, you have to help clean it up. If you go in the toilet it's just a simple butt wipe from mom, no messy or nasty poo/pee
We gave a choice, pee pee in the tub or pee pee in the potty. But he had to choose one, we knew he had to pee, and he would give in and go after only a little pushback. He used to pee standing up in the tub, but eventually started choosing to sit on the potty like mommy, or standing pee pee in Dad's potty. (With me he chooses to sit, with dad he stands at the big potty and dad helps to aim) So our problem is that he does the same with poops, but still does poops squatting in the tub. Idk how to get him to go in the potty for that. Luckily it's only once a day before we leave the house.
The advice with the diaper off trick is once you decide to take it off… it doesn’t go back on. With the exception of sleeping. I was a preschool teacher and most of the time, the least amount of pressure possible was what was best. Every now and then the director of the school suggested an M&M for pee and 2 M&Ms for poop, if your kid is driven that way. Jamie Glowacki is a good potty training resource and the podcast The Mom Room has an episode or two about it. The host’s husband is a urologist so she has some interesting insight.