How to potty train your stubborn child

If you are like me, you have a child at home who knows how to use the potty, but would rather stay in his or her pull ups until they graduate high school. Although truly frustrating, this method worked very well for me, and will hopefully work for you too.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• underwear
• toilet
• lots of extra clean clothes
• sticker chart with stickers
• patience
• positive attitude

1. Determine your child's readiness. Have they ever gone on the potty? If they have, but are just not interested in doing it, then this will help you.
2. www.childavenue.com provides this printable chart go to any store, particularly one that sells school supplies. Buy a sticker chart with stickers (or you can print one like the one below off any internet site) and display it proudly in an area of the house easily accessible to your child, so that they can see their progress. Determine which is more difficult a task for your child (peepee or poopoo) and assign that task a 2 sticker reward and the other a 1 sticker reward.
3. Pull ups can be used, but they will not help the child understand the true meaning of an "accident" like underwear will. You can start with the pull ups, but my son was so accustomed to pull ups that we jumped right into big boy underwear. If you throw your child in cold turkey they will quickly learn they do not like the feeling of being messy, and will strive to get to the potty on time.
4. Letting the child pick out their own underwear at the store also helps them get a feel for how BIG they are growing up to be. They will not want to mess up their new underwear!
5. Every time they go, reward them with a sticker. Make it a big deal. Give them something to look forward to, for instance, after they reach the end of their chart they can go to Chuck E Cheese, Toys R Us, or some other special activity they seldom get to participate in. You could even throw them a party!
6. The most important thing to remember is that every child will make mistakes. Accidents will happen, but do not make the child feel as if they are at fault. be patient, clean up the mess and remind them to go often! If you remind your child to go then it will help cut down on the number of accidents, and not hinder their self esteem.