i need help with potty training my son. i have no clue where to start or how to do it. any help is appreciated

Question

my son is 18 months. i know people say you have to watch to see when he's ready, but what is the signs. im clueless about this potty training deal. please help!

Answer 1

Some things to show he may be ready: Does he have a vocabulary developed enough to have understandable words for toilet, urine, and bowel movement? These words can be whatever your family is comfortable with. At our house we use potty, pee, and poop. It is easy to begin using these words during diaper changing time. Has your son shown interest in what goes on in the bathroom? It is fine to allow him in to see you using the toilet. A sign that I use most reliably is when a toddler begins to wake up dry from his nap time. An infant has a spinal-cord reflex that automatically empties the bladder when it gets a certain amount of urine in it. As a baby grows, the brain begins to send out signals to inhibit this reflex and no child can have consistent bladder control until this happens. Potty training is a process. It will take a while to reach the point where he can consistently announce he has to go with enough time to make it to the bathroom, can remove his clothes, and call you for help when he is done. In my experience, 3 years old is about the time when this happens. At this point in your son's life, I would suggest talking about going potty, perhaps put a small potty chair in the bathroom so he can get used to it. He may enjoy sitting on it before or after bath time and may even go pee in it a few times and perhaps poop, too (but, these are usually done quite by accident). He may also find the potty chair a good place to just sit with his clothes on for awhile and perhaps read a book. This is all good as it gets him comfortable with the toilet. Don't rush him to be diaper-free. It is not uncommon for children to be 3-4 years old before daytime dryness is reached. My youngest daughter was the longest hold-out I have ever come across, she REFUSED to sit on the potty until 2 weeks before she turned 5. Then she just announced she was going potty now and was day and night trained in one day. Highly unusual, but it worked for her.

Answer 2

I think 18 months is kind of young to start potty training your son, three and a half is typical for a boy. I have three boys 8, 5 and 3. The older 2 were three and a half the youngest was three but he took it upon himself to do it. The older two I told about three months before I took their diapers away that I was going to do it. The day came, their diapers were gone and that was that. I can only remember them having one or two accident each. I know there can be a lot a pressure to potty train early but I would wait

Answer 3

I don't think you son is going to be showing signs ag 18 months old. My sister lets her kids choose when it is time for them to decide and they were like 3 and 4. If you child is pottying at the same time everyday then that would be a sign for you to start but other then that I don't know.

Answer 4

I started potty training my son at this age too! Everyday we would just make it habit to stop what we were doing and sit on the toliet for a few minutes.. Don't make them sit until they go it will only frustrate them! We put him right on the "big boy" toliet and would spread his legs so he could see what he was doing! Everytime he would go, even if it was only a drop we would clap and sing.."Tony (pooped or peed) on the toliet! He loved it. We would then wipe him and then once we were finished we would let him wipe himself! He like to do that! Afterwards we would let him flush the toliet and put the lid down.

Now my son is 20 months old and he is getting the idea.. he will go if he has a diaper on but only because thats what he did for 18 months! He is starting to bring us to the potty now and sometimes it may already be too late but once we get him cleaned up we sit him on it anyways- just in case!

Your son will get the hint eventually, you just need to go at his speed and not rush him. You don't want to scare him or make him afraid of the toliet!

Watch his facial mannerisms for clues on when he needs to go. You'll know them when you see them!

Good Luck!

Answer 5

First find out if he is comfortable on the big toilet. If he doesn't like it get him a potty chair. Now this can be as easy or hard as you wish.

The easy way. Introduce potty (big or little) to child and praise him when he sits on it. When he is okay with chair now comes the critical part where it becomes a long ordeal or a short one.

Make sure child is ready for potty training.
-He is dry several times during the day.
-Is showing interest in the potty chair or toilet.
-Doesn't like wearing his own pee on his hinny any more.
-Introduced pull ups to son already.

These are just the basics now try him out, one of two ways. Run him back and forth to the toilet after eating and drinking all day for about two weeks or try the easy way.

Put potty chair in the living room and make it okay to sit on at all times.
Take underoos off and just go through your normal eating routines during the day.
-Encourage child to sit on potty through out the day.
-Put in his favorite short cartoon or movie only when he sits on the toilet, or promise a gift if child eliminates in potty (which if this is the first time will not understand what the heck you are talking about).
-Yes this is bribery, but how long do you want this process to go.
-Work with the child through out the day closely, all attention is on praising him on the potty chair and going potty in the chair.
- Promise the child the moon and when child does preform as you wish, deliver the moon and make a big deal out of the first time going potty. Child will love the praise and the gifts and want to repeat as often as possible.
-However never continue gifts and such after the first day, if you had success the first day.
-Immagine a 12 year old on the potty coming out and expecting a gift for what he needs to be doing any way. Not a pretty thought?
-Do, however give stickers or suckers or what ever you are comfortable with giving on a regular basis to continue to encourage going potty in potty chair or tiolet untill it becomes a habit to seek out the potty.

Good luck and God bless. Hope this helps you out.

Answer 6

I started training my son at that age and he will be three in Feb.
He still has a bit of trouble going full time all the time to go pee. however he does not poop in his pants at all anymore. One hundred percent in the potty for all poops now WOOHOO!!

Start by getting some pullups or training pants of your choice. get his own potty chair that is all his, makes him feel special, also i would suggest start out by teaching him to sit and pee, you can work on the standing later on, but when you do put cheerios in the potty to give something to aim at, also the disolve and are safe to flush.

Remember every child learns at different ages/stages. Yours may learn quickly or more slowly. Don't fret, don't get upset with him over accidents, just keep at it. Once you start on the training pants, don't vary it will confuse him. I only used diapers with my son at bedtime. and now he only wears pullups full time.

Get a couple books from your local library (cheaper than buying them) on potty training. they have some aimed at kids from elmo and blues clues, and other kids characters. they also make movies too.

make a praise plan too. let him pick a special prize out of a box for everytime he goes, like the little plastic dino's or trucks from the dollar store (cheap and you can buy oodles and stock up for under 5 bucks also better than candy or cookies as a treat)

cheer him everytime and if he has accidents, remember this is new to him too. only give treats when he actually goes not just for trying. and as he progress, give them less often only to where he gets them for going poop and not for both.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

One of the first signs that he is ready is when he wakes from his nap every day dry. Another is when he tells you as soon as he wets his diaper that he needs to be changed. Girls are normally ready at 27 months and boys at about 30 months. That is what my doctor told me just a few months ago.

Answer 8

Cheapest hassle free way~ throw 4 or 5 Cheerios in the potty and make it a target game. Worked for all three of my boys.

Answer 9

The best way I found was if they started letting you know (examples: bringing the diaper to you, laying down in front of you to be changed on their own.) When you do start potty training (Yes this sounds silly but works) try throwing cheerios or fruit loops in the toilet (just a few) & tell him to "aim" for them.LOL

Answer 10

Buy this book. I swear it works. "Potty Train in Just One Day" by Teri Crane. We used it, potty trained in 3 days flat.

www.tericrane.com

Good luck.