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I’ve been potty training my son for a week now and am wondering if I am doing this right. I have tried potty training him once before when he had just turned 2, and now he’s about 2 ½. He has been able to pee in the potty since before he was 2 but my problem is getting him to keep using the potty. So after trying to just ask him often if he needs to use the potty and him just refusing to use it I decided to go a different way. I started just going up to him about every 1 ½ - 2 hours and telling him its time to go potty instead of asking and I walk him to the potty, sit him down and tell him to go potty. Sometimes he can’t go and I just let him know its ok and that well try again later, and if he does I tell him how I’m so proud, allow him to flush it on his own and give him a sticker to put on his chart as a reward. Almost every time he uses the potty, and has only refused to go a couple of times and in that case I never force him to. What I am worried about is if it is wrong to just put him on the potty instead of him deciding on his own. Is this ok at all? Another thing I was wanting to know is, I haven’t yet put him in underwear and am planning on it soon. Right now I am pretty much just having him practice using the potty often, and as much as he uses the potty he still manages to have enough to use the potty in his training pants a lot, and hasn’t pooped in the potty yet. I figure I’ll have a lot more luck if I use underwear to help him learn he can no longer go any where else other than in the potty chair. How do I do this without it being a huge mess? Will he end up leaking onto the floor or furniture?
 

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Hi there! Well, I'm no expert, but I've got two potty trained kids now (one newly learned) and they both did it very similarly. All kids are so different though so what worked for my kids might not work for anyone else, kwim?

What I do when I'm pting is let them go bottomless at the house for a few days. There's nothing like seeing what happens first hand when you don't make it to the potty. I always explain that pee and poop go in the potty and we run to the potty to make it in. We talk about it alot, even if I'm the only one talking. Accidents happen and that's great- that is totally how they learn. I keep it positive, but I do offer reminders that we want our underwear dry so let's pee in the potty.

When I decide to pt, I try to keep them out of diapers from that point foward. I tend to think it is more confusing if they go back and fourth. I would definitley put them back in if they were extremely distressed about the whole thing, but my kids weren't. I don't use pull ups- too much like diapers. We use the thick gerber training underwear and boxer briefs (they are just like daddy underwear and the kids love to be like daddy). If there is an accident, there is pee running down. I have been using cloth trainers at night just in case, but I'm not sure how much pee they would hold, I'm guessing they would leak.

As for reminding, I don't remind all of the time. I only remind if we are fixing ot leave the house. I announce it's potty time and we all go. In the morning I have to pee, so I announce that I'm going to pee and C comes along and goes too. At night I remind to wake me up if he has to pee. I don't think anything is wrong with asking, but it can become problematic because toddlers love to say no. A big part of the learning process is recognizing the need to go. Naked time really helps with that because they become so aware of their body.

Some incentives: We have played up the color of pee pee- he loves to see yellow pee. With my first son I'd put a little baby wash in the toilet and he'd make bubbles. Cheerios make great pee targets. We have a doll that loves to talk about how fun it is to poop. We got special toddler wipes just for poops on the potty- we made a big deal out of it. We talk about how big his poops are too. He loves to hear about it!

ok, that is all I can think of. I hope that helps! Good luck!
 

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We're just starting the PTing here, and i'm kinda just letting DS figure this out. Sometimes he will tell me when he has to pee, and we'll go to the potty and he will pee, but poop is a little more difficult for him to tell me right then. He'll come and tell me after he's already pooped. I think after we go camping this weekend, we'll start the actual potty training, 'cause I sure would like to be rid of the diaper phase.

No advice, just wanted to write something 'cause I read it and found some helpful hints...thanks mamas!
 
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