BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

I'm trying but we're just not getting anywhere except with pee on the carpet.
Any books or methods anyone can rave about?

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

It can be so frustrating. We started with my DD when she was a little over 2. At first my DH would buy her a new pair of shoes since it was very rare she went onthe potty. After 6 pairs he thought we should get her a new Thomas train. This was getting expensive and we weren't getting far! Somedays she was great, others not so much. Finally I decided to put her in underwear only at home. This way she knew when she was having an accident. She loved her underwear (she picked them out) and if she had a bad accident I told her we may have to through them away next time you mess them. I also made a chart on posterboard and wrote on top Gracie's Potty Chart. I punched holes in the top and attached a ribbon so we could hang it from the bathroon door and move it from bathroom to bathroom. I attached an envelope to the bottom and put all kinds of stickers in there. My DD helped picked them out. Everytime she went potty she got a sticker. She loved it. Poop was the hardest so I would bribe her with 5 stickers. This system was great for us but to be honest she may have just been ready to potty train also. Anyway, its trying, I wish you luck.

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

Bumping for anymore suggestions. This is proving to be a real struggle.

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

How old is DD? My son had to do it on his own terms, so we didn't put up a power struggle with him. He poopy potty trained at 2.5 very easily because he pooped every night after dinner so we made sure he sat on the potty and went and gave him treats (like M&M's and Hershey Kisses).

Going pee on the potty was harder to train in our case. At first, when we went to underwear, he didn't care if he peed and was wet, he just went about his business and never told me. We left him alone for a bit, and on his 3rd birthday, we told him he was a big boy now and the diapers were only if you were 1 or 2, like his sister. So we went to underwear all the time and he was fully trained by day 3.

I just wanted to add that we didn't push or start training sooner because DD came along right when he turned 2 and there was too much going on to give it our full attention.

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

Not BTDT yet but have toilet trained dozens of kids

Toilet training in Less than a day

Not quite less than a day but pretty close. Has not taken more than 2 weeks

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

Rewards chart. It was fun for DD and I. She picked her stickers out, made the chart with me and when she wold go she would put a peepee sticker on that day (if she got 5 in a day she would get a 'prize'. Poop stickers were big fun ones she picked out. We did the book, DVD, talking it up and so on, but the best was the Chart which kept her wanting to always go and do it. I did it for several months even though she was doing it all the time and wasn't in diapers. Good luck.
ETA: within the week she was fully trained. Really took one day, but several months of preparation and hyping it up.

I also did the no diaper/pants/pee on the floor thing too, worked well. As soon as she would start to go, I'd pick her up and run her in the toilet to finish, shortly there after she would realize it's coming to go in her self! It will happen....

Message edited 1/13/2008 1:28:08 PM.

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

Not sure how old DC is but the best advice I can give is they have to be ready. If they don't want to do it, there's no way they're doing it.

That said, if they are on board I suggest bribery with reward charts, a certain number of successful #1's and #2's equal receiving a favorite toy or treat. Let them pick the reward so it's something they really want and will work for.

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

Get the video "Potty Power". It trained Jack in a matter of days. That plus a brand new Thomas video sitting on top of the refrigerator that he knew he could not have until he wore his big boy underpants with no accidents for a week.

Re: BTDT Moms-Please share your best Potty Training tips, books, etc

I loved the book "Mommy, I have to go potty!" by Jari Feull, M.Ed. I used it for training both my girls (they are 7 and 4 now) and plan on using it for my son in the spring. I found that doing more on their terms is much easier and less of a struggle. With my oldest she trained two months before her third birthday and my second dd was about three months after her third. I tried to do it in the spring / summer months (less clothes to deal with) and put them straight into underwear. I brought them to the potty every 1 1/2 - 2 hours whether they had to go or not eventually they caught on to what the feeling was like and how it works. We used a sticker chart for my oldest (one sticker for pee / 2 stickers for poopy). My second could care less about the stickers. I know for my youngest dd we tried right before her third b-day and it was a struggle, so I put her back in diapers / pull ups and backed off for a bit. Each child is different and sometimes it's better to wait a bit longer rather than struggling. Good luck!

Message edited 1/13/2008 3:12:21 PM.