So today we tried the potty training thing again. This time I tried a new method. We sat in the bathroom armed with a stack of books, M&M's, a water bottle, and all the time in the world. My theory was that I would sit there with him for as long as we both could stand it, read books, drink lots of water, and see what happened. I brought enough books that I thought we could easily sit in there for at least an hour or two. Apparently Will had a different plan. When he started whining about wanting to get off the potty, I checked the clock - 45 minutes. *Sigh* Any mothers who have been through this have any advice or foolproof ideas that I could try? I would really like him to be as potty trained as possible by the time his grandparents come in a few weeks with his new bed, but as of right now I'm losing hope as well as motivation.
6 comments:
You are on the right track, but don't worry if he won't sit for a long time. An hour would be a REALLY long time. Put him on every day for a very short time and then one of these times, he will hear something and start to get the idea. Good Luck
I am by NO means an expert. Jessica and I are (once again) taking a break. I think I started too early. We're going to give it a few months. But here's what worked for us. Every 15 minutes, half an hour (however often he'll put up with) we go and sit for a couple of minutes. If she goes, awesome. If not, we set the timer and wait. I bet it takes kids a while to learn how to relax. Good luck!!
Hey Kristin, I was doing a little blog surfing and came across your dilemma! I have an ebook on potty training if you want to send me your email address I can forward it to you (amberleeparry@gmail.com)
In summation it says to do pretty much what "the hales angels" said:
We set a timer for 20 minutes and every time it went off we did a "potty dance" (got really really excited, jumping around and cheering) and went to the potty. Give it 2-5 minutes if something happens then do a reward (we did gum or m&ms for #1 & #2) if nothing happens then set the timer for a shorter amount (like 12 minutes) and try again. It took a day and half for Cadence and then we didn't need the timer anymore. There were occasional accidents for a while (and even now when she's really focused on something we have to remind her to potty) And now she holds it about 1hr 45min. After a bit I got sick of all the gum and candy and made a cute paper to hang on the wall outside the bathroom with star stickers for #1 and special stickers for #2. She was as happy with that and I was happier with the smaller amount of candy being eaten!
Good luck but keep in mind potty training takes months (an average of 9-12months to get it down really well) and night time training is even harder! Good luck and may you be blessed with the patience that this trying task requires!! Just make sure to always keep it fun or they'll revolt!
Hope that helps and let me know if you'd like the ebook.
I have no advice, but I will try and send you all the encouragement I can convey through this comment! I've lately been struggling with doing the "right" thing over the easy thing when it comes to Ethan...but I wish you tons of luck and know that we're all rooting for you!
Hey, so I was reading the previous post...congratulations! I hope this pregnancy goes well for you! That is exciting news.
About potty training, I obviously have no advice. I got some potty board books at the library, and Benjamin loves to read them over and over again. He's even attempted to go potty several times over the last couple of days, but with no real success yet. I figure when he's ready, it will come pretty easily. For him anyways, it's all about being a "big boy," so eventually that will give him the drive he needs.
I will tell you what we did with Madelyn. On the first day I just put her right in underwear, and loaded her with liquids. Every 15 minutes I took her to the potty. She didn't go. Then all of a sudden, after one of our potty breaks, she went all over herself. She was shocked. I cleaned her up and then took her to the scene of the crime for some "practice." we practiced feeling the poty coming and rushing to the toilet 3 times. Then we continued with the every 15 minutes to the potty thing, all day. At night she was back in the diaper for bed. The next day we were at it again, only every 30 minutes instead of every 15. In between times, I didn't ask her if she had to go potty, I just took her every 30 minutes and praised her like crazy when she felt it coming and had the idea to go herself. We kept on like that for a few days, with a little more time in between potty times each day, and with 3 practices for each mistake. It was exhausting, and hard to keep up the positive attitute, which I think is so important, but she got it and felt like it was mostly her idea, which was important. Anything you can do to avoid a battle about it is vital!
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