I read an interesting article this morning about a potty training class at the Children's Hospital in Boston. This 6 week program uses books, music, and art to help children that are afraid to go on the potty overcome their fears and learn how to use it. While the children are in "poop school", a psychologist talks to the parents in a separate room and gives them advice on potty training.
According to the hospital's website, the average age for toilet training is 27 months. You should not begin until they are ready; it can turn out to be a battle for you and the child. Signs they are ready to begin toilet training include:
• asking to have their diaper changed or telling you they are about to pee/poop
• showing discomfort when their diaper is wet/dirty
• following you into the bathroom to see how to use the toilet
• wanting to do things to make their parents happy
Obviously I will not have to worry about this anytime soon with my own child. My niece (turning 3 this summer) is almost completely potty trained. She loves to get a sticker or an m&m when she uses the toilet. She was fairly easy to potty train, I have heard it is much easier to do it with girls than boys. I know she learned from books and potty-themed episodes of her favorite shows.
Anyone out there have any good tips or tricks to make it easier to potty train your child? Or you can feel free to share any funny potty training stories!
3 comments:
Just like pretty much everything else in my life we took a go with the flow potty training approach. I had seen & heard of way too many ohter parents having major problems with their kids going on the potty and it seemed like they tended to be the parents who were OBSESSED!
At about 18 months my pediatrician had us buy a baby potty and start using an open door policy when we were in the bathroom. We opted to just have our daughter watch me 'cause we thought the man peeing standing up thing might throw her for a loop. We also bought books and the Elmo goes to the potty doll to make things fun. Other than that I really didn't attempt to potty train our little one at that point. A week after Madison's 2nd birthday she started occasionally asking to sit on the potty and even pooped a couple of times. Still no pressure from us. By this past October (3 months b4 her 3rd bday) she was consistantly pooping on the potty at home and doing everything on the potty at school. Several weeks before her birthday she started consistantly asking to go to the bathroom and even stayed dry through the night. She has only had 2 "I'm too busy to go" accidents since then. I just hope the next one is as painless!
Well, my daughter was easy to train- during the day at least! She really wanted to be a big kid and she loved that we could call Daddy when she went on the potty. A little candy and stickers didn't hurt either! We sang the pee pee on the potty song too. Now, I am struggle with the night time battle though. She still doesn't have that down. She trained during the day so easily - she was 27 months actually. Here we are at 4 (tomorrow) and she still is wet almost every single night. big sigh..... I am probably not the one to give potty training advice then!
I was potty trained after my mom promised me a big girl bed. I wanted it so bad I just started using the potty and didn't have any more accidents at night. I was a very determined little girl.
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