Poll Results: Potty Training

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These are the results for the latest poll on the topic of potty training. You can see the original post with the answers here: Potty Training Poll.

 

1-How old was your child when you started potty training that ended successfully?

  • 14-15 Months: 2
  • 22 Months: 1
  • 2 Years: 4
  • 25-27 Months: 4
  • 28-29 Months: 4
  • 3: 1
  • 3.5 Years: 1

2-Did your child have a hard time learning to pee in the potty?

  • Yes: 2
  • No: 15

3-Did your child have a hard time learning to poop in the potty?

  • Yes: 9
  • No: 8

4-Did you ever use pull ups? If so, when?

 

Yes: 9

  • At naps and nighttime: 3
  • Naps only
  • Night only
  • During errands and naps
  • During car rides and errands
  • Just initially as a precaution
  • Naps, night, and plane ride

No: 5

No, but doesn’t stay dry through sleeping: 1

No, but wears diaper for naps and/or night: 2

 

5-How long did it take your child to stay clean and dry in underwear relatively consistently?

  • Immediate: 4
  • 3 days: 3
  • Less than 1 week: 2
  • 1 week: 1
  • 2 weeks: 2
  • 2-3 weeks: 1
  • 3 weeks: 2
  • 1 month: 2

6-How did you have your child dressed from the waist down during potty training? (i.e. bare-bum, underwear only, fully dressed, pull-up…)

  • Fully Dressed: 3
  • Underwear: 8
  • Bare-Bum: 6

7-How long after starting potty training could your child take a nap in underwear?

  • Immediate: 5
  • Immediate but not dry 100% of time: 1
  • A few weeks: 1
  • 1 Month: 1
  • 2 Months: 1
  • 3 Months: 1
  • 4 Months: 1
  • 5 Months: 1
  • 7 Months: 1
  • N/A: 4

8-How long after starting potty training could your child sleep at night in underwear?

  • Immediate: 3
  • Did immediate, but rarely wakes dry: 1
  • Less than one week: 1
  • 3 Months: 1
  • 7 Months: 1
  • N/A: 10

9-Did you do a “dreampee”? If so, for how long?

  • No: 11
  • No, but child wakes on own to pee in night: 1
  • Yes, still doing it: 1
  • Yes, still do sometimes: 1
  • Yes, 1 year: 1
  • Yes, didn’t work: 2

10-Any tips for potty training parents?

AMANDA SAID:

“It’s ok to change methods. We started with a seat insert for the regular potty, but ended up switching to a small potty that sits on the floor. She was interested in the big potty, but terrified to sit on it and release. She is happy to go in her little potty. We’ll transition to the big potty later. 

It’s ok to start, but then stop if your child isn’t really ready. We tried at 18 months because we thought she was ready due to showing interest and wanting to sit on the potty. After 2 days of tears and fighting, we stopped. 10 months later she was ready to go on the little potty, and would tell me when she needed to go. Often times, her diaper would be dry when she did this. During those 10 months of waiting I would sometimes ask if she wanted to sit on her potty, but I didn’t push it. When I changed her diaper I sometimes told her that she could go on her potty whenever she was ready; she just needed to tell me when she was ready. And she did; when she was ready.

Don’t start until you are ready to commit. Her sister is 16 months younger and I knew it would be challenging to potty train with her around and into everything. She started showing interest around 28 months, but we waited to officially train until 29 months. During that month I took her potty whenever she wanted, but didn’t ask her is she needed to go. She also wore only diapers during that month. I was ready when I could send the baby sister to my mom’s house for 3 days so I could focus on potty training. I also waited until we had no out of town trips or even daytime obligations for several weeks. We pretty much stayed home for several days to get her used to the process. We are only 1 week in so I am careful about how long I am out. I also carry a potty seat in the van (along with toilet paper, treats, and extra clothes) when I will be out for a long time.

I loved the idea from the Ezzo’s about rewarding for clean and dry panties as well as going in the potty! My daughter responds well to treats because they are usually rare (hence the words treat) She really wants 2 treats every time she uses the potty, so I emphasize that 1 treat is for being clean and dry, and only 1 treat is for going in the potty. This really resonated with her, and I think helped her get the idea to stay clean. It has been 5 days of training and she has had no accidents that last 2 days! Even during nap time!”

 

JACKIE SAID:

“Be super positive! And don’t force them. Last week we started seeing a little bit of regression and we decided it was probably because we’ve still been reminding him constantly about potty stuff. He knows what to do at this point so we are pulling back a little. He doesn’t like to be told what to do so when we’re constantly saying “tell me when you need to go potty” “keep your underwear dry” and making him go in public places when we have bathroom breaks – it was wearing on him and he was getting upset, saying “no potty! no potty!”. Last week when we started pulling back a bit, he did SO MUCH better. He has been telling us he needs to go and isn’t resisting or holding it as much.”

 

MELISSA SAID:

“We taught her how to perch on the actual toilet seat pretty early on so that we could ditch potty seats and not have as much clean-up to do. Plus, that way we don’t have to drag a potty seat everywhere we go. Unfortunately, we had to break the floor potty out again as a way to encourage her to feel more comfortable pooping when she had her regression, but she still goes on the big toilet quite a bit which saves us having to rinse out the potty.”

 

ELIZABETH SAID: “Try the 3 day method if you can! Child may not be ready yet though, especially for poop.”

 

BARNOLD SAID: “Be consistent–once you decide to go for it, just do it and keep at it.”

 

SARAH SAID:

“#1 TOILETING EARLY IS NOT A MORAL ISSUE. #2 A LOT OF “POTTY TRAINING IS “PARENT TRAINING”. 

We started to potty train with a celebratory shopping trip to buy a potty and prizes and treats–we made a huge deal of the day potty training would begin. She was 15 months old. It was an emotional and long day. Our kiddo is strong willed and is absolutely not motivated by prizes and treats. I vividly remember sitting on the family room floor at the end of the day next to a potty on top of a beach towel and just crying. Everyone said it could be done in less than three days!!

As time went on, we tried every six months or so, but it wasn’t until she was almost 3.5 (and her baby sister was due in a few months) that she started toileting herself. Once she decided it was time, she did it independently with no accidents, no reminders and I only needed to wipe her. Let me tell you, hearing your child put themselves on the toilet is one of the sweetest sounds you will hear as a parent!

In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter how old a child is when they start to wear underwear. My children are well behaved and obedient and smart and loved. Potty training is not a measure of how good a parent you are (I beat myself up about this.) 

It’s certainly worth trying early, but if your kiddos are strong-willed like mine I think it’s okay to put the potty away and try again in a few months. Also, if you’re in a season as a mom where you’re physically unable to pack a toddler to the potty every hour or cleaning up accidents will put you at odds with your sweet little person, just let it go until you can.

As moms of young kids we’re steeped in the stats of our children; growth percentiles, milestone ages, hours of sleep, yadda, yadda. “Age of potty training” is not something that will every be of importance beyond toddlerhood peer group comparisons. Just do what works best for your family.”

 

JENNIFER SAID: 

“I have learned there is not one right way to potty train. It’s more of what the parent can handle. After trying the 3day potty training method I learned I am not ok having my child pee all over my house. I would much rather take them to the potty every 15 mins. Once we switched to a method we were comfortable with potty training was less stressful and went much smoother.

Also, it’s ok to start then stop. We first tried at 2 years and she wasn’t ready. We went back to diapers then tried again in 2 months and she was ready then!”

 

JULIE SAID:

“we tried when he was 2 and he wet his underwear 3 times in 30 minutes so we stopped. then one day he said he didn’t want to wear a diaper so we switched and he never looked back. i would definitely wait until your child is ready. theres nothing to rush and if it doesn’t work out the first time, just wait a little longer”

 

COLE SAID:

“I know a lot of people wait until the child is much older and are successful, but seeing now what a strong willed child my daughter turned out to be, I am SO GLAD I did it before she become obstinate! It seems like it would be impossible right now given her personality at 27mo. So for parents who think they might have a strong willed child on their hands, it might be worth it to potty train earlier, even if it takes a little longer.”

 

JACQUELINE SAID: “Have a game plan. Search for potty training bootcamp posts on Pinterest. I pulled the parts I liked best from a few different ones to devise our plan.”

 

ALICIA SAID: “As cliché as it is, wait till they are ready.”

 

JANICE SAID:

“For naps and night it worked for us to just wait until her diaper stayed dry for a period of a couple weeks and then stop using the diaper. That happened younger than I expected, in our case 32 months. I found that the Oh Crap Potty Training method worked extremely well. I did bare bum for 2-3 days (no forced attempts; just rush them to nearby potty when they start to go until they go by themselves or tell you when they have to go), then pants/dress only on the bottom for a couple weeks and then undies. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be!”

 

ZEPHYR SAID: 

“Don’t panic, it’ll happen. Don’t use pull-ups, they just confuse them. Bare bum made it so much easier for her to realise when she had an accident. It’s worth committing to three days at home to really consolidate the potty for pee-pee”

 

ME SAID: 

“I personally believe earlier is better. In Europe where I come from, early potty training is common; my mom trained her 7 kids before 18 months. My oldest was 14 months and we are currently working with our second. If you can get them trained before the 2-year-old stage comes along, you will save yourself trouble. It was so much easier than I thought. Here’s what I did, I put her on the potty once a day or so from 6-9 months of age, just a couple minutes to get used to it. Every once in a while she’d be successful. At 14 months we went hardcore. I put her in underwear and I set a timer every 20 minutes. She would get 1 chocolate chip if she was successful. A couple days later we were done and she never looked back. Night training went by itself, she was in underwear at 17 months and she has only wet the bed 2 or 3 times since she was trained… she’s 3 now. Another tip I have is to always use your “potty word” whenever you notice your baby is going potty in her diaper. I did this from birth on up and she started saying the word at 8 months. So helpful when they can tell you when they need to go. There is definitely no right or wrong way to go about potty training, but this is my perspective…”

 

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