Comments on: How to Toilet Train Your Toddler

on 12/30/2006 I found the easiest way to train my little boy was to tell him the "toliet" was hungry! My child could not wait to pee and poop, and everytime we flushed the toliet, we told him the "toliet" was now very happy and content!
It worked and tried and true with my second son as well!

on 8/7/2006 First of all, try not to compete with other parents. This was a huge setback for my son, because I pushed him before he was ready. The second try was when he thought it was cool that I went to the bathroom as part of my daily life. I began putting him on his own potty and sat in the room like he did with me. If he went, I would do the "Duty Dance." I would jump around and clap and cheer and be a total loser, but he loved it.

Another proven method I used was no undies. It wasn't fun for either of us, but she learned very quickly.

The third method was a combo of allowance and a mini bubble gum machine. We were teaching our 3 year old about money and it dawned on me. When he "went", he was allowed to buy an item from the machine, but if he had an accident, he would have to pay me a penny to clean up the mess.

on 12/15/2005 I started first thing in the morning and after naps with my kids, as soon as they were able to walk well and get on the potty by themselves. They usually had to go a few minutes after waking, so I would get them on the potty and wait a minute or two and they would pee. After a few days of that, I had them on the potty more frequently through the day.

on 11/22/2005 Twenty plus years ago I used the treat method to train my kids, and it worked for both. I am now training my 18 month old grandson the same way. Using the candy idea as treats, I bought the flat suckers that you can find strung together (you know, the ones where the plastic wrappers are connected in a strand). We called them "Potty Pops" and tacked them to the bathroom wall with a push pin. Each time they would use their potty chairs, they would be rewarded with a potty pop. They were not allowed to have them unless they did, which made the treat seem more special. My kids were both trained before 2 years of age and I found it quite easy. Good Luck!

on 11/22/2005 I hung a Ziplock bag on the wall and filled it with gummy LifeSavers. When my daughter went to the potty she got one. But, only when she used the potty! It worked great.

on 11/22/2005 Potty train in the summertime. Your child can walk around the house in just a pullup diaper. That way he or she will have easy access to the pullup if they have to go to the potty suddenly.

on 11/22/2005 When my son was 1 and a half we took him Trick or Treating for Halloween. We used the treats as an incentive for going like a big boy! On November 1st we started potty training, Brenden got one piece of candy if he went potty, and two if he went poo-poo (He was terrified of going poop, but he wanted the candy) It worked like a charm. He was trained in two and a half weeks, no accidents, or bed wetting cuz he wanted more candy. When the candy was gone he was a Big Boy! I am now doing the same with my Daughter!

on 11/22/2005 i used to be a preschool teacher and potty trained a bunch of kids by offering a reward. a sticker progress char,t a stamp on the hand or even an m & m works wonders. strart by giving a treat just for sitting on the potty, then just for peeing, then just for a bm then for staying dry wrking your way down to no treats at all. and then you have a potty taught child!!!

on 11/22/2005 Using a little bit of cheap dishsoap in the toilet water makes great bubbles and seems to encourage the boys to have a little fun. I used it for my son and now for my grandsons. Has worked great.

on 11/22/2005 I found that using "big boy underwear" instead of pull-ups helped my child because the pull-up kept the urine and stool off of him whereas the underwear didn't. This helped encourage him to use the potty.