What Method of Potty Learning/Teaching did you use?

[Super Glue Mommy]

For those who have successfully potty trained, I would appreciate if you would please share your potty training/learning journey - what you tried, what worked, what didn't, how long it took, age you started, age they figured it out, any details about your child that relate to your potty training experience etc. thanks in advance!

[Murihiku]

Rule of threes!

What finally worked for my three-year, three-month son was keeping him totally naked and at home for three days and teaching him to, at first, pee against a tree in the back garden.

(This isn't a "method," just a trial-and-error experiment on my part.)

[Super Glue Mommy]

LOL

my son will always use the potty when naked. He has on 2 occasions used the potty when he had a pull up on, never when having underwear on, and is WILLING to sit on the potty (I have him sit every 2 hours - but he never goes when I have him sit - he sits additional times to that on his own without any suggestion as well, but just doesnt go!)

He has at time cried for a diaper to be put on him when he has to poop. I can get him to poop on the potty at those times (again only if naked though - pee is always on potty when naked)

I just need him to be potty trained - with pants on! my DD is a whole other story. she was ready at 15-18 months - sometimes taking her diaper off and using the potty on her own. I was pregnant then and figured I would start when my son started school and totally missed my window of oppotunity with her, waiting for a new window to open.

Hopefully I can get some ideas here!

[Alyantavid]

With both my boys, we brought out a potty seat when they were around 1. We talked about it, let them explore it and do what they wanted with it. They both gradually figured out what it was for and then I happened to catch a pee. Once I felt they were completely ready, we took a weekend and that was it. A whole lot of naked time and spending an entire 2 days focused on it.

My youngest struggled the first day. By Sunday, we were both frustrated and I just put a diaper on him to give us a break. After that, he started telling me when he had to go and that was it. I think for him, he needed the pressure to be off because he knew what to do.

My oldest was 2 years 3 months and my youngest was 2 years 1 month.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

we use the naked method, too. He's 2 and has been pretty good about peeing on his little potty when naked. He grabs his penis and yells "pee pee potty!" and runs over. We just got a potty seat for the big toilet, and he's been using that too. He's very excited to stand up and pee, and can just get his little penis dangling into the potty. We also read "I want my potty!" and "Diapers are not Forever". He actually started pling at 15 mos, before he even could walk, but it rolled back when walking came around.

Our two biggest obstacles now are:
1. realizing that there is not a diaper under his pants when they are on
2. realizing that underwear are NOT diapers

If you have a boy, keep an eye out for the tell-tale pre-pee erection...and if he has one, his hands will be on it! ( I guess some things never change!)

[JBaxter]

My 3 boys werent hard. I picked a date and we did a 7 day count down to by by diaper. On that day we put away all the diapers ( day time and naps we did use pull ups) We spent a week naked and I stuck to them like glue. It took about 3 days to get good at it but all 3 were potty trained day time between 2 and 2 1/2. I will use my naked potty boot camp once Jack hits about the same age.

[maryjane]

I was lucky and had an easy time with both my boys. Both were CD, but not exclusively. And I will say that I was certain they would never learn, since neither could have cared less about being in a dirty/wet diaper.

So, with my first, he started expressing interest in the toilet a little before he turned 2. But we never really pursued it, just let him use it if he asked. Then when he was 2 3/4, he had a 2-week break from daycare coming up. We started telling him that he was going to start wearing big boy underpants like certain friends of his. We talked it up for about 2 weeks ahead of time. Then, the first day, I let him run around with nothing on the bottom. I took him to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so and he had a few accidents in between. The same thing the next two days and by day 4, he had figured it out completely. He had one accident on day 4 and after that he was accident-free and we were able to go out without any incident. I kept him in a diaper at night until about 6 weeks later, at which point we put him in undies then, too. (He was already fine for his 90 minute nap). At first, I'd bring him to the bathroom around midnight, before I went to bed. I did that for a couple of weeks, but I dropped it quickly and he also never had a nighttime accident. I could not believe how easy it was. (He is NOT an easy kid, so this was a real blessing!)

With #2, we did the same process, but we started him around 2 1/2 since that's how old he was at this 2-week break. He also had not expressed any interest in the toilet previously, so I was much less confident. It took him about 6 or 7 days, as opposed to 3 or 4, but he got it. The first two days, he pretty much refused to sit on the toilet, but we just cleaned up accidents and went about our way. By day 3, he was sitting and making there with some consistency. We also switched him to nighttime undies within about a month of being day-time trained. He had a few more accidents than #1, and I've noticed that he still has them during transitions. For example, when we moved this summer, he had a couple the first two weeks. He wasn't yet three, though, and had been sleeping in undies for less than 5 months at that point. He hasn't had an accident at night in a couple of months!

I know a lot of people really struggle, so I don't know what to tell you in terms of why this worked so smoothly for my kids. Probably dumb luck, to be honest! Good luck and I hope you have an equally easy go of it!

[JamieCatheryn]

Well, we started with pooping in the potty mainly for less mess and since his signs he was about to go were obvious. Before a year I'd put him on the potty seat to poop. He took to that well, with some breaks for days or weeks when he didn't feel like it. So he was familiar with the potty for a long time and had that part down pretty well. On occasion after 2 years he'd pee in the potty to copy his dad, never for me though until he was really ready to switch.

Now he's like 2.75, he decided to take off diapers and run around naked from the waist down all day and to pee in the potty. He got a little congratulations from us each time. He got in the habit that way. So we bought him some XS underpants. He had like 1 accident a day for about a week and now it's been several days since he wet his pants. Most of the time he wears just the underpants, not pants too, just to help him remember and to have easy access. Oh and he is thrilled with the "penis door" on his briefs.

I'm so impressed by how well my son takes to things when he's ready, no working with him needed. We are go going to have to unschool this kid.

[mirlee]

: Bribery.....

We had a potty for him and he would once in a while sit on it. He also liked to pee on trees...naked in the front yard. (Thanks, grandma! ) As he was nearing three, we were really concerned that he would never use a potty consistently. I know, eventually, they all will, but you get to the point where it feels like they won't.

So, there was a series of action figures that he really liked. We bought 5 of them. At the end of every day we told him that if he had peed and pooed in the potty, he would get one. He wanted those action figures so much, by the end of the week we had a boy who used the potty and got all of his action figures. He always figured out when he had to go and never had an accident.

[Satori]

Well it might not be popular but I used the lying method with dd #1. I told her they stopped making diapers and she HAD to use the potty now becasue they didn't make diapers anymore! (she either 4 or just shy of 4, don't remember and had known how to use the potty for over 2 years, she was just refusing). She threw a huge fit though when we ran out of diapers and a few months later had a total cow when we were at the store and she discovered they had in fact not stopped making diapers and demanded I buy more (I didn't)

With #2 there's concerns about CP and until the past couple of days she showed no signs of awareness of when she needed to go at all so I figured we were in for a few more years. I decided to chance it last night and pulled out the potty and let her run naked. She suddenally had a major freak out and wanted her diaper NOW! I couldn't do it right then (preparing dinner) and 2 minutes later I hear mama! pee pee in the potty! yep, she peed in her potty! She was dry when she got up this morning so I put her on the potty and sure enough she peed then I let her go diaper free and just wear her thermals, she sat on the potty and peed but I think we need to work on the concept of pull your pants down first She's 2y 7m and we have a months worth of diapers left, hoping she will be day trained by the time we run out In case you missed it, were using the naked method

[CarrieMF]

3 girls

Tirza was 18months when we started. I would ask if she wanted to use the potty, sometimes she did & others she didn't. We kept the potty in the living room & she was in dresses with no undies. She was almost trained within 2months but then got diarrhea for 6 weeks & I was NOT training during that.lol she regressed. When she was 2 years & 2months I told her 1 day she had to use the potty because the baby would need the diapers & she didn't use diapers again.

Asha was 18months when we started. She was fine as long as she was naked. It took 2-3 weeks of her being naked & then we could move onto panties for a couple of weeks. Then light pants for a couple of weeks. Then finally jeans. She was fine peeing. Pooping was a whole other story, she would get constipated from dairy & then not go. We ended up putting her on the toilet around midnight(when I went to bed) & she'd poop then because she was still mostly asleep & couldn't fight it. We cut milk & other dairy out, once the dairy was out she was better but it still took a few months for her to stop fighting it & if she got too much dairy(3oz a day was her limit) we'd have to start over.

Nadia was older due to her limited speaking/communication abilities. She was 2 years 4 months when we started. Her sisters were gone for 2 weeks so I figured that was a good time to start as they couldn't distract her. She was perfectly contect peeing on the floor, I of course wasn't as content with that arrangement so after 3 days I gave up. 2 weeks later I had a friend from out of town come over on her way through town. Nadia chose THAT moment to decide to train. I put her on the toilet & went to visit. A few minutes later I went to check on her & she was walking towards me with her pants down. I checked & she had peed. She was trained from that moment on. It took no effort on my part, she rarely had accidents, it was great.lol

[Red Sonja]

I just used the naked method for both DS and DD1. For DS, he had trouble whenever he wore underwear (would just treat it like a diaper) so we transitioned from naked to loose sweatpants with no underwear. That worked great, though he still doesn't like to wear underwear. DD1 does fine with cotton trainers on.

[Sasharna]

When DS was about 22 months old he started asking to pee in the potty. So I put him in underwear and just washed his clothes whenever he wet them. He was proud to be in underwear. It only took a couple weeks before he went in the potty most of the time. I didn't expect him to stay dry on outings until he was three though... public toilets are scary. I still put him in diapers at night and on long car trips where he might fall asleep (he is 3.5 years old).

Nakey bum didn't work for us... he would just go on the floor. He did go through a stage around 2.5 years where he would take off his clothes and poop on the floor instead of going in the potty. What solved this was a lower potty chair, so he could have his feet on the floor while going.

After he turned 3 he started having pee accidents because he gets very involved in his play. He only does this at home, where he is very comfortable. He tries to hold his urine for a long time (too long!)... so sometimes I have to tell him he simply can't move on to the next activity in our day before he pees in the toilet. I also involve him in doing the laundry.

I know this can be a touchy point because many parents like the fact that pull-ups prevent clothing from being soiled in the event of an accident ... but based on my experience helping preschoolers use the toilet, I really feel that using pull up style diapers as a part of daytime potty training tends to make the process more difficult and drawn out.

Good luck finding what works for your child!

[MarchMummy]

Originally Posted by Alyantavid

With both my boys, we brought out a potty seat when they were around 1. We talked about it, let them explore it and do what they wanted with it. They both gradually figured out what it was for and then I happened to catch a pee. Once I felt they were completely ready, we took a weekend and that was it. A whole lot of naked time and spending an entire 2 days focused on it.

My youngest struggled the first day. By Sunday, we were both frustrated and I just put a diaper on him to give us a break. After that, he started telling me when he had to go and that was it. I think for him, he needed the pressure to be off because he knew what to do.

My oldest was 2 years 3 months and my youngest was 2 years 1 month.

This is exactly what I did with my DD.

[MommytoTwo]

I waited till both of my kids were close to their 3rd birthday and told them 3 year olds didnt wear diapers. On their 3rd bdays they wore regular underwear and that was it for daytime. I think my son had one pee accident. I dont know how well that would work for everyone, but it worked great for us. Obviously that isnt the approach you would take with an 18 month old, but since I waited till they were older, it worked. I had seen my friend go through a nightmare of potty training her daughter starting at 18 mo and I just didnt want to experience that. Not that all 18 mo olds would be like that but it was just what Ihad seen.
Nighttime came about 2 months later for my son. My daughter took a lot longer, she is only dry at night now and she is almost 4.5. But I consider nighttime a whole separate thing.

Here's hoping #3 is so easy! LOL

[fridgeart]

E started showing signs of readiness around 18 months: signalling when she had to poo, and wanting to be changed as soon as she'd peed/pooed. She was also really interested in potties and toilets, and wanting to be like us. she talked about wanting undies like a big kid. We figured these were enough signs of readiness, so we spent about 5 days naked, with a potty in whatever room we were in, and we'd sit her on the potty periodically and read a book. If we happened to catch a pee/poo, we'd really talk it up-oh look what you made! Wow! She looooooves praise, so it kind of snowballed from there.
This was around 20 months. She was in dipes for naps for another 6 months or so, and at night for another month after that (mostly b/c we were worried that she'd pee, but most of the time she'd wake up dry).
Oh wait-I remember the first time we tried to get her to pee-DH remembered that slumber party trick of putting your hand in warm water-so we tried that-and it worked! LOL...it was enough for her to understand.
GL!

[JJ'sMom]

Both boys wore CD and sposies at various times, but by one year to 18 months refused to wear a diaper to bed and night trained themselves.

We do put towels under them for quite a while though. DS2 just turned 2 and he gets up in the am and asks for toilet and goes toilet every night before bed. However, he is not day trained at all. He will ask to have his diaper changed though.

DS 1 took a long time to day train. He would use the toilet or tree or shower for peeing, but scream for a diaper for poohing until he was 3.5. He eventually used the toilet when he found it was easier adn faster to clean up.

[becoming]

Just before age 3 (like a week or two before), I put them in cloth underwear/panties and told them we'd be using the toilet from now on. Worked like a charm. Neither ever had more than 2-3 accidents after that.

We use sposies, though, so I'm not sure how the transition would go if you were going from cloth diapers to underwear. Not much of a difference there.

[Satori]

Well the naked method seems to be working for us today! dd (2.5 yrs) has peed on the potty on her own 5 times, had 1 accident where she was sitting on the potty but forgot to pull down her pants (she's been naked since) then she started peeing twice but stopped and ran to the potty to finish Overall a very good day so far for it being day 1!

[dawncayden]

We part time EC'd from 6 weeks, but I'm a very lazy mama and of course didn't want to push anything so we went back and forth using the potty and not.

What worked was going camping for 3 days and putting a potty in the middle of our camp and keeping ds (2.5 years) bottomless. He didn't have one single accident night or day when we were camping, even on the drive home and we just kept the diapers off. We always kept a potty close, kept him bottomless as much as possible and didn't remind him to go pee or poo. We really wanted him to know the feeling of having to go himself without looking to us to tell him when. After a week he was fine wearing loose sweat pants or shorts, and after a month he was wearing underwear.

It worked for us, he has had two accidents at night since last summer, one was because he was sick and one was because he fell asleep without peeing before bed. Now he will wake up and ask to be taken to pee if he has to go.
He's also had about 2 accidents in the daytime since the summer and both were because he was wearing jeans and couldn't get them down fast enough.