Rolemommy

My confession is that my son is 2 1/2 and I have no desire to potty train him. He doesn't mind diapers and neither do I. The whole thought of potty training grosses me out :)

adorablyconfused at hotmail dot com

I would love to win this. My son is just starting to get his independence and the potty book would help soooo much!

Disaster: Pull-ups! I honestly think that when it really comes time to potty train and the child is ready and the parents have the time to devote to doing it, underwear is best. Pull-Ups are too similar to diapers. Children don't feel wet and are content to just use the diaper rather than using the potty. So here is my diaper fail story. My husband was watching my son while I was working. He had him in pull-ups....and left him in his room to take a quick shower. My son decided to use his diaper...my husband then hears my son calling out from his room...that's YUCK....needless to say the pull-up failed and the carpet, wall etc. were a mess....Hence the reason why I don't like pull-ups!

When my son was potty training we wrapped little presents and put them on the back of the toilet. When he went potty he got to open one. Worked great!

I could not agree more with Caryn. Pull-Ups seen to do nothing but confuse the child. Too much like a diaper. Real underwear are the best.
When we were potty training, he was doing well so on a shopping trip I let him wear underwear. At every store, I'd ask if he needed to go potty. He kept telling me no. Until at the bread store, when he went around the corner and pee'd his pants.

Tip: Be consistent! I made the mistake of beginning potty training at a very hectic time. For a few weeks things were going well, I was taking her to the potty often, she was enjoying it and she actually peed on the potty twice. I was so happy because it seemed like this would be a cinch. Wrong. We went to Colorado for a week, taking the potty with us of course, but I think she only actually sat on her potty once during the entire time we were there. So we took a step back. Then a few weeks after that we were in California for two weeks for the holidays and didn’t even take the potty. When we got back and the holidays were over we were back to square one. I really believe that had we kept at it daily she would be so much closer to being potty trained now than what she is. So I cannot stress enough the importance of being consistent during potty training and keeping a routine. Once you start moving forward you don’t want to go back! Oh and pull ups are the devil in potty training, definitely go with cloth training pants so they can understand what wet feels like.

Goodness, yes I agree with Caryn pull-ups are a disaster when potty training, my son "always" wets through them! I have tried underwear but my son doesn't like them, he says they are too "Tight"! So I'm trying to find little boy boxers! Anyone know where I can find any? We will sit on the potty but he doesn't do anything as of yet! He's 3 in February I hope to have him potty trained soon , pull-ups are pricey and they aren't working well at all!

kristinia at lovingheartmommy.com

I'm with Caryn, Pull-Ups are a fail! I don't have great advice, but I can attest to not pushing too hard, too young. I really worked and worked with my daugher, and as it turned out...she wasn't ready. Now, if you ask if she'd like to wear panties or sit on the potty she freaks out. It's not pretty.
I'm just left with the hope that she won't go to kindergarten with diapers...right?

my potty tips- and I know people disagree- no candy or treats for going potty- verbal praise and yaya is great but my second sat on the little toliet as soon as he could walk and there were no prizes just praises

My potty disaster is happening right now. My little man is 3 years and 1 month and stuck in those pullups. He handles his front end business fine but refuses to have anything to do with #2 in the potty. He also refuses to wear his underwear even though I let him pick them out. Uggh, I'm frustrated. I'm about to host a Huggies PullUps Potty Dance House Party so hopefully I'll learn some more tips and so will my friends. The first two kids were such a breeze, I figured I could handle kid number three no problem. Boy was I wrong.

Ok ditching the pullups today. We have had some success but I'm going to step it up a notch today. He can definitely hold it when we're in the car but when we are home, that's another story.

My son likes getting to pick a toy from my "treasure box". It has a bunch of new cars, disney toys, stickers, books, etc.

My youngest son (of 4) was the most easy going, wonderful child, very friendly. His teenaged sister had her friends over, she was at that self-conscious age, and we'd started our son on his potty training a few weeks before.

He'd been sick with a virus, so the training wasn't going very well, and he walked into the room where he overheard our daughter and her teenybopper friends discussing her diary, and he said "I have diarrhea too".

Needless to say, our daughter was mortified, but the other girls erupted into hysterical laughing.

He eventually got potty trained, and we all still giggle about that day!

I think it really all comes down to making sure the child is really ready to use the potty. It's so much easier that way. Every kid is different so I don't think there should be a certain age where a kid has to be trained. My daughter did awesome peeing in the potty but took her over a month to feel comfortable enough to poo.

The best thing we did after our first child is letting our child decide when she was ready rather than force her to potty train. It made all the difference in the world.

My advice? If your child says they need to poo, either make sure they have a diaper on or they are on the potty. My daughter was just training and said she needed to go as I was getting her out of the bathtub when my husband brought me the phone with a call for me. I told him she needed to go. He left her naked and they went downstairs. He ran to the basement for something and she poo'd on the floor by the bathroom and was terrified by the poo on the floor. That put a complete halt to toilet training for almost a year!

My tip- give them reward as encouragement. I gave DDs bright stickers and tasty treats, each time they successfully used the potty, they loved it!

My daughter turned two last October and we have been working on potty training. She was doing pretty well with at least peeing on the potty regularly... until last week. She has been using the top off the potty seat on the toilet and I decided to get her a different seat that had a cushion on the seat so it would be more comfy. However, it backfired because our toilet had an oddly shaped seat that is larger than average. Her first attempt on the new seat, it slipped and her and the new seat fell right into the toilet water.

Now she has been nervous about using the potty ever since, and it feels like we are back at square one with the potty training.
Oops.

With my oldest child, we potty-trained him by having one of his stuffed animals sit on the potty first and then we praised the stuffed animal for "going potty". I read that somewhere, and it really did work. I'm procrastinating potty-training my 2 1/2-year-old daughter because I don't feel like I have the energy right now...but I know it will make my life so much easier when she's out of diapers!

My biggest tip is to be patient

I could so use this book. My daughter is almost 2 and has no interest in potty training. Currently she is afraid of the toilet! We bought her a little potty for Christmas, and after several weeks of coaxing, she finally sat on it a couple of times (full clothed). Now she is back to being afraid of it again.

I don't want to push it, and I know I have time, but I am so AFRAID of potty training. The whole idea scares me. I am terrifed! I think I need to read the book to feel better :)

HELP!

We do elimination communication with our daughter and it's worked wonders for us! A lot of people are skeptical about this method, but when they see it for themselves, there is a better understanding of how it all works. Check out Diaper Free Baby by Christine Gross Loh.

Carrie - you win one of the Pirate Potty books...please email me at beyondpr@gmail.com with your mailing address so that we can get it to you. Thanks!

Liz - you win the princess potty book - please email me at beyondpr@gmail.com with your mailing address so that we can send it out to you. Thanks!

I basically follow my kid's lead when it comes to this. I don't want to push. Of course that has led to lots of messes to clean up. I keep reminding myself that this won't last forever and that one day I'll miss this phase. One down and one to go!

Wait until all is calm, they show some interest and take a lot of time and give a lot of praise

I potty trained one of my boys basically outside because we don't have any neighbors and boys just like to pee outside. But the drawback to that is that for instance we are over at my moms house and my son is whipping it out in the front yard for all the neighborhood to see!