Potty training. These two words have been haunting me since my son was born. As a first – time mom I was feeling completely lost with so many questions in my head. When my son is supposed to be ready? How much time will he need to learn to go potty? Will I have the patience to teach him without discouraging him? Which potty training method to use? Should I follow my own guts instead? In brief, I just wanted to know how to potty train my son and forget about it ASAP?
And here is my “how to potty train” story and encouragement to all the moms of boys who sooner or later will have to face…the potty. I hope you will find here at least one thing that can help you in this adventure. Though this method is tried and true for boys and believe it should be good for the girls who don’t like to be in a hurry too.
How To Potty Train – When to Start?
A month ago, when my son was 19 months old, I finally gathered all the courage I had and decided it was high time for him to learn potty. How did I know he was ready? Just my guts and the fact that he was understanding everything we were telling him and was very responsive to some small orders I was giving him (e.g. sit, stand, bring, go and etc.). I also didn’t want to wait for too long before giving up the diapers completely as I know that “prolonged increase in scrotal temperature in early childhood may have an important role in subsequent testicular health and function, with implications for male fertility”. You can read more about this here. My other concerns were financial as well as environmental.
How To Potty Train – Preparations (duration: 2 weeks)
The first thing I did was to start putting my son on the potty at least three times per day, while still keeping his clothes on. I thought that putting his naked bottom on the “cold” potty from the very first day would only discourage him. There was still resistance and I was trying hard to focus his attention on a toy or a song. After 2 days, he was sitting on the potty without a problem, while then my goal was to keep him there at least for 1 minute. In about a week, he was ready to sit on the potty without his diaper. And what do you think? Of course, he resisted, while I was really trying not to be pushy as I knew I could spoil everything. Another week passed till one evening, just before bath, he peed in his potty. HOORAY! I was so happy about his progress though I knew he was not even half way before using exclusively the potty. I took this as a sign to proceed with what I later called “execution step”.
How To Potty Train – Execution (duration: 1 week)
On the following day, he was wearing his big boy pants. This was the day when I changed his clothes 8 times, while I was considering myself lucky for not having carpets to clean. Despite the mess, I kept putting him on the potty and explaining him again and again where he needs to pee. On the next day, I had to change his clothes may be 3 – 4 times, while on the 3rd one, he used exclusively the potty.
That’s it with how to potty train a toddler boy. While I expected long months of never stopping resistance, cleaning and frustration, it turned out to be really simple. How? Mainly with patience and taking it slowly. No stress, biscuit bribery or naked methods. Since then my son wears his big boy panties at home and outside with not even one accident. We are not yet potty trained at night, but this time I am fearless.
Have you already potty trained your toddler? How did it go for you and your kid? Did you use any popular method or just your own? Any ideas about the potty training at night?
