Potty training?

[mrs.t]

My DS is 27 months old. I have been slowly introducing the concept of the potty to him. We went and picked out a potty and made a big deal about it and he loved it. We also have the "Once upon a potty" DVD which he really likes to watch. At this point (it's been about a week) he will sit naked on the potty and wonder why nothing is coming out. I just tell him that we'll try again later and he may or may not continue to sit there and wait, or he'll just run around half naked for a while.

I don't really want to push it on him, and at this stage I'm not concerned about whether he actually learns to use the potty within any particular time frame, but is it ok to introduce it like this? I guess I'm concerned that he will look at it like we're just pretending or playing and won't really attempt to use the potty when he feels the urge. I thought about putting him on the potty at the same time every day (like when he wakes up or around the time he usually has a BM), but this feels kind of wrong to me for some reason. He is very bright and independent, and he was already trying to imitate me when I use the bathroom (he follows me everywhere) so I thought his own potty would be a good start. WDYT?

[skycheattraffic]

Letting him come in with you is a great way to start. Have you tried to put him on his potty in the bathroom while you are using the toilet? That's how DD had her first pees in the potty. Much like yawning, it can catch on.

I'm not sure why you think there is something wrong with putting him on after naptime when he is most likely to poop. I urge you to try it. All it does is stack the odds in his favour. He could spend hours on the potty by sitting a dozen times in a day if he doesn't have a full bladder or bowel and still not be able to use the potty. Morning wake up, after nap, and after meals/drinks are the best times to try. It's not enough to sit on the potty. The timing has to be right so he can feel the urge, eliminate, and sewhy he result in order to put it all together. He spent all his life in diapers, not being aware of how elimination happens. Putting him on when he is likely to need to go just sets him up for success. It's not trickery, but providing him a learning opportunity.

At this stage he needs a lot of guidance. The best thing I can suggest is to make the potty part of the routine. Even once he starts using the potty regularly you will have to provide reminders until he initiates with very few misses.

Lots of people have success with naked time and that is another great tool.

I hope you find some of this helpful. Good luck :-)

[sk8boarder15]

I think that's a great start! I also agree with the above, have him come to the bathroom with you and try then. Even though the anatomy isn't the same he will get it! (my 22 mo old does, he yells Mama pee pee! lol). Naked time is awesome. If he pees or poops at all just say "Look, you're peeing" and take him right to the potty then if he gets anything in you can celebrate if you wish (for my DS just flushing it is fun enough), then take him with to clean up the mess on the floor. 

We have had very good luck with naked time, but it came slowly. We are at the point now where we are in underwear or cloth training pants and we take him potty every 1-2 hours when we are out, and he's naked and goes on his own at home. If he has a miss, he says "Uh-oh" and goes and gets a rag all on his own! We generally do have 1 "accident" a day in the underpants, but its not a quick process and he's getting better all the time. Good luck and try to have fun, it makes it easier for the kid if there is no pressure, just fun! 

[newmamalizzy]

We've had a very similar experience to sk8boarder15, using naked time as the main potty learning technique.  I like it because it's allowed us to give her a lot of autonomy over her pottying.  At first I would keep a close eye on her and make sure the potty was with me wherever we were in the house.  There were definitely accidents, but she learned pretty quickly that "pee goes in the potty."  We only started doing underwear when she got good at taking them off, probably close to 24 months.  Seems like her ability to "hold it" suddenly bloomed at around this age, too.

I don't think I ever actually "sat" her on the potty and asked her to go until we started braving underwear trips. When we first started doing trips out I would obsessively sit her on every available toilet.  And suddenly she'd start having accidents at home again.  So I think the lesson we learned was that, at least with my daughter, autonomy and consistency worked best.  If I don't trust her to be in charge of telling me when she needs to use the potty, then we use a diaper. At 27 months, she's pretty good about letting me know she has to go no matter where we are, diapers are rare, and we've never had a potty battle.