View Full Version : Toilet training. (What age in your home)?
How did toilet training go in your home? Early? Late? Was it a struggle, or did it go smoothly?
Out of my six kids, two were trained around age 3, three around 3-1/2, and one not until he was around 4 (night-time)! :|(
To add, cloth diapers (which I used) had no effect on earliness which I so often hear and read about.
My eldest, a girl, trained the month she turned 3.
My youngest, a boy, announced to me at age 2 year, 3 months, that he was done with diapers and would use the toilet. I didn't expect that - he toilet trained himself! (We did use pull-ups OVER his underwear for overnights to save the trouble of a wet bed at night.)
I had my kiddos (almost 2 and 3) and three other 2/3 year olds I was babysitting and I admit I got kind of lazy about pushing the training, after several disasters decided it was best to just wait awhile. My oldest was almost 4, he just couldn't get it. Finally it took a bribe of a trip to the big town (40 miles away) for a day alone with mama and to pick out a special toy. He'd sit there and concentrate on that toy he wanted. He finally was toilet trained and we had our special day. That evening when we came home and he told his little brother all about our fun day alone, lunch out, toy shopping, etc. The little one disappeared, came back naked holding his diaper, handed it to me and said "Today I will potty train." That was it, he was done. We had our special alone time trip to 'big town', lunch and toy shopping too.
loosechickens
2-3-11, 5:19pm
I put a lot of effort in on it.....taking them to the little potty every hour or so, praising to the skies "catching" them actually producing something, showed them what I wanted them to do, etc., and both of mine were toilet trained, and relatively easily other than the investment of time and energy in stopping what I was doing and taking them to the pot all the time. Once they managed to do it in the pot a time or two and saw how ecstatic it made me, and how much praise they got for being a "big boy" or "big girl", they mostly managed it.
doesn't mean that we didn't have some instances of the kid standing there saying "I have to go potty" as he or she watched the puddle form around the toes, but we didn't make a big deal of it, "oh, I guess you waited too long", and kept trying.
They were both reliably trained in the daytime by 18 months, but still had some accidents at night off and on until about age two, even though we would lift them out of bed before WE went to bed, and carry them into the bathroom and put them on the pot half asleep to try to "drain them" as my then husband called it, so we sometimes put them into diapers at night, especially in the winter, when getting bedding washed and dried was a huge problem.
It was a huge effort for me to wash the diapers, several places we lived I had no access to a washer and ended up washing diapers down on my hands and knees in the bathtub. And then had to have them hanging from improvised lines in the apartment, drying all the time. Nothing like that to concentrate your efforts on getting across the idea of toilet training and encouraging a little kid to achieve it.
Both my kids were really early developers in most things, though. Son walked at eight months, daughter at ten months, both had some words by a year old, and were talkers very early. I was a stay-at-home mom in their early years and spent most of my time with them, talked to them, read to them a lot, etc. Don't know if that helped.
It was as though, once I could get across what I wanted, they did their best to do it. Control was erratic at first, but they tried, and quickly succeeded in the toilet training.
I had a friend who babysat a friend's son who was about 3 1/2 and not toilet trained. She said, "what's going on, Matthew? Why are you still going to the bathroom in your diapers? In this house, kids as big as you use the toilet", and he said, "o.k.", and from that point on was toilet trained.
With several of the parents I've known recently, they've said, "he will let US know when he's ready", which seemed kind of ridiculous to me. How could he let them know he was "ready", when he didn't even have some idea of what was expected?
Kids seem to be toilet trained much later than they were fifty years ago, that's for sure. I don't know whether disposable diapers have contributed to that, although they may have eliminated some of that impetus for parents to get out from under the diaper washing by spending the time training instead.
Less seems to be expected from kids in general than many years ago, and maybe toilet training is just one of the things. By the time my kids were about three years old, you could take them out in a restaurant and they could sit quietly and eat, and that seems rare today given the numbers of out of control kids I see in restaurants.....
then again, maybe I'm just an old fogy....... ;-)
How did toilet training go in your home? Early? Late? Was it a struggle, or did it go smoothly?
Out of my six kids, two were trained around age 3, three around 3-1/2, and one not until he was around 4 (night-time)! :|(
To add, cloth diapers (which I used) had no effect on earliness which I so often hear and read about.
we started using a potty chair at about a year old, before baths and when it was convenient, and it they peed we were happy about it, and if not, who cared. at about age 2 we started working on it regularly, and by 2 1/2 they were in underwear all the time except for night time diapers until about age 3-4 depending on the kid.
My youngest, a boy, announced to me at age 2 year, 3 months, that he was done with diapers and would use the toilet. I didn't expect that - he toilet trained himself! (We did use pull-ups OVER his underwear for overnights to save the trouble of a wet bed at night.)
What a great story! I love hearing about kids, even very young, making decisions like that. Almost makes me want to have one...
I recall from my experience at toilet training that I quickly got the hang of it and soon decided that the little kiddy toilet seat was too babyish for me. So I went into the bathroom, closed the door, and decided I'd use the real toilet the way a big boy should. However, I didn't take into account the fact that the hole in the seat would be significantly larger. So I sat down and slid right into the hole and was wedged in, my butt touching the water in the bowl, and started screaming for help and my dad had to come pull me out of the toilet!
Well my Kids are only about 2 years apart. When DD was born I realized two babies in diapers was crazy so I switched DS to cloth diapers but didn't get him trained until almost his third b-day. We spent hours drinking juice and hanging out with the potty chair. >8). He just wasn't going for it, finally when he was ready he did it.
Once I knew how easy cloth diapers were I used them for DD entirely and by 18 months she was hoisting her little tushey on the potty herself. Completely potty trained by 2 yrs. She was much easier than the boy. I don't know if it is a boy vs girl thing or maybe an older vs younger thing, she learned by example?
We were going to do the three day boot camp this weekend! DD is 2 years 3 months. Unfortunately, she has a bit of a cold and was mopey this morning, and I don't want to push the potty training if she is sick. We already put her on the potty in the morning, before and after nap, and before and after bath, with occasional success.
I love all your stories. :) The fun little incentives are great!
You guys did really well in the department of earliness. I think I grew more lax with each kid as they came along. :laff:
First kid. "I'm going to train her early, by such and such an age, no exceptions".
Second kid. Reality had set in and with the combination of experience I had with the first, along with advice (from other moms), I dropped the time and age thing.
Third kid. "I've done two before you, so let's how you stack up"...
Forth kid. "You tell me/show me when you are ready".
Fifth and six. (They came as a package). "OK, (thinking to myself), let's see now... "Two older daughters, check". "Both capable of helping change diapers, check". "OK boys, the potty is in the corner, if you want to use it you know where it is, if you don't, then fine then"! :laff:
Being relaxed about it made things way more fun and easier in our home.
This thread reminds me of an economist that was on Planet money a while back. He had used jelly beans as an incentive for his oldest child. Then when his son came along he offered his daughter incentives if she helped him. I forget what it was, but she got a piece of candy or something for every time he successfully used the toilet. Since she understood that what goes in must come out she started giving her little brother LOTS of water and then putting him on the potty seat a little bit later. Apprently dad's incentives were working a little bit too well!
Jp1. Laughing hysterically right now over your previous entry about falling into the toilet!!! ROTFLMAO! Don't know how I missed it (first time) but thanks to you posting again I caught it! :)
I used little incentives for my kids too. Baked cookies, a trip to the Dairy Queen, etc. One thing that I found worked wonders for my kids was giving them enthusiastic praise. (Clapping my hands happily when they went and when they woke up with dry diapers/pants in the morning).
My son was potty trained at 2 yrs, 9 months, but not at night.
He's almost 5, and still wears pull ups at night. Somewhere between 9 and 11 pm, he's so deeply asleep and he goes.
Rollergirl
2-6-11, 11:55pm
My boys started to show interest around 2, but didn't actually learn to use the potty unassisted day and night until age 3 and my ADHDer ws age 4.
Welcome additions Mm1970 and Rollergirl. Ten years ago I would have been (and was) embarrassed to admit a child "of mine" wasn't trained at age 4, yet somehow knowing my children were not alone makes things easier. (Knowing I wasn't alone makes it even easier yet).
I have heard that ADHD children and FAS children tend to be later.
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