Gentle Potty Training

[pasqueflower]

My 3.5 y/o boys don't like diapers, but go through 8 or more pairs of pants a day. We potty everywhere...restaurant floors, inside, outside...I try hard to remain calm and ask questions. But I am starting to loose it. Yesterday I pulled out the entire dirty clothes bin overflowing with the smell of urine saturated clothing. We talked about how hard it is to keep up with all the clothes and I hoped they would consider wearing diapers again. Five minutes later there was another puddle. I hear my words becoming harsh and negative. I really want to remain calm....any words of wisdom?

[Momma2Gianna]

Have you tried pull ups instead of diapers? That way they slide on and off like big boy underwear, but not to the point where you are doing laundry twice a day every day.

[_ktg_]

DH just got our ds potty trained, and he's about the same age as yours. This was after us constantly asking - did you go poopy? did you go pee-pee? Did you feel the tingle? and just him giggling about it or announcing after it was done.

Finally we just set aside 5 days of at home time and had him run around without pants & without a diaper. As we moved from room to room we took his little potty with us so if he had to go, he went there and it eliminated the mad dash to the bathroom until he got better control.

We're now on 2 weeks of this and only a couple of "oops" at night or because I couldnt get a door open fast enough and he's just fine. I think for you you have say - if you can't pee-pee in the potty then you have to wear a diaper, and have your boys own it a bit.

Oh and do you have any kind of incentive system - we had a "marble" jar and the first couple of times we filled it up and he got a reward and lots of praise. then we decreased the # of marbles for each successful poo/pee in the potty and now its like any other expectation we have for him.

[BeanyMama]

Originally Posted by _ktg_

Finally we just set aside 5 days of at home time and had him run around without pants & without a diaper. As we moved from room to room we took his little potty with us so if he had to go, he went there and it eliminated the mad dash to the bathroom until he got better control.

Home time!! I can't imagine toilet learning without it. We set aside a week and did naked all the time for a new days, then added pants (sans undies), once that was mastered we left the house and did frequent bathroom breaks while out. A year later (mine were 2 when we did this) we added underwear again

[TopHat]

We EC and my daughter is only 19 months, so this might not be applicable, but I've found that lately she's been very distracted by the things around her. When I know it's about time for her to potty, I'll ask her, "Do you need to go potty?" And she'll say "No" but then pee on the floor 5 minutes later. I've found that bringing the little potty to her helps. She's much more apt to go if it means she doesn't have to leave her toys and go away to the bathroom. Bringing the potty to her has helped to tremendously reduce the amount of misses- we had none last night because I brought it to her at regular intervals instead of taking her to it and breaking up her play.

[ssh]

My DD didn't start using the tiolet until abit after 3.5, but we never let her go in her clothes. She had to wear pullups until she started using the toilet. It just wasn't an option. We did try the letting her go bottomless thing and she just went on the floor, so we just waited until she had used the toilet a couple of times and then pulled out the underwear. Also she hated the little potty but would use the padded small seat you put on the toilet.

[jrabbit]

asking the question "do you need to go?" is never gonna work, in my opinion. I don't know if girls are way different than boys, but DD1 was in diapers til 4, DD2 out by 16 months. We're doing diapers/EC with DD3, and she is vocalizing now when she needs to go (squirmy, crying, and I'm not reading it right all the time, but she clearly is trying to tell me).

I never liked the little potty, but it is sure better than having accidents. We use the padded seat on the toilet, and we just TAKE them to the bathroom at regular intervals. DD1 would tell me "I prefer my diaper" - sigh. DD2 carried her potty seat everywhere for 2 years, she was clearly preferring the big potty.

I don't think it's "not" gentle to take them to the bathroom every 20 mins or whatever you need to do. Maybe I'm missing something on GD, but if it's adding to your stressload to give the child autonomy to pee in 5 pairs of pants in a day, then that isn't working, either.

good luck!