Last night Hyrum went poopy in his potty chair! Woohoo! No, not because he wanted to but because his mean mother forced him to. Poor kid, it took half an hour but he went alright. I asked him if he wanted to go again tomorrow in his potty and his response "probably not, maybe another day Mommy." Hyrum is the kind of child that will not be coerced into doing anything he is not ready and wanting to do. I have been learning that in the last (almost) 3 years. And I really don't think he is ready for this. But I think Jeremy is ready for this. So, I think we will try it within the next month or so.So, the purpose of this post is for some much-needed, very much solicited for advice on how-to-potty-train your stubborn child. PLEASE! Tell me the secrets. Even if you've never potty-trained one yourself, I'm sure you've heard stories before so please share your wisdom. (or email us if you have our email address)
On a happier note, Hunterbug said the word 'ball' today over and over again while holding his much beloved nerf football. He has been saying 'ba' for ball for a bit but decided to attach the L's at the end.
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With Evan, we went to a toy store and he picked out a toy he "really" wanted. We put the toy up high on a shelf over the toilet. (Our friends who told us about this method screwed the toy to the wall.) Then we made a sticker chart with 30 spaces on it. Every time he went potty, he got a sticker. After it was full, he got the toy. If he made a mistake after that, we would put the toy back up and he would decide to get back on the toilet. We were pretty much 100% in less than a month
We've been starting really casually with Jenna. We got a potty chair and sometimes (usually after a nap) we'll put it in front of the TV and let her sit on it for a while, occasionally telling her to "go pee pee in the potty" and if after a while she decides to get up and go do something else, we let her, but if she is successful, then we make a really big deal about it and jump around and point to the pee pee and get excited and a bunch of other stuff we'd be embarrassed to do at a dinner party. Then Jenna gets a whole baby bowl full of Goldfish (her favorite snack that she only gets at Nursery and after going pee pee in the potty).
Again, this is still pretty early in the process, but we have found that she is starting to ask for the potty - sometimes too late - and also has been more aware of when she has a dirty surprise for us.
With Brynne, I just happened to run out of diapers and told her I wasn't buying any more. She would sit for hours on the potty, playing, reading stories, etc... but never doing what she was supposed to do there. She would get off the potty and immediately go potty on the carpet! How frustrating. So, I just kept to my guns and put pullups on her, after about a week of this, we had to go to the store, I had one more diaper left and told her I was going to have to put it on her, she protested, probably because she liked the feel of the pull up better. I told her I was bringing the diaper just in case. Immediately when we got into the store, she told me she had to go potty, we rushed to the bathrooms and she finally did it!!! We hardly had an accident since. I guess the idea of having an accident in a public place was embarrusing enough for her to be a "big girl". So, there you go. That's not much advice, but I don't think i really have much.
Amanda
don't you just LOVE having a stubborn child...it's like drake is a mini-male version of me haha
You know, we didn't potty train Abram at all. We introduced him a few times to it(with no stress), but then, when he was about 3 1/2 he decided he was ready and went on hi sown. I never had to coerce at all! As for Isaac, Abram is potty training him. Isaac is happily following his brother. I guess that was a benefit of having them so close together, they kinda potty trained together. I've had it really easy, as long as you don't count 2 kids in diapers for about 2 years.:)
Good luck to you all!
Great Job for Hyrum going poopy in the potty! I remember the first time Sophie went... I couldn't have been a prouder parent:). I don't really have much advice. She was ready long before I was and since I put her in panties last May, she has only had a couple accidents. I wish you the best of luck though!
CANDY!!! It is all about candy. I thought that the use of candy was a bad idea until we started training Eli. And I also think you really have to wait until they are ready. I know that stinks (literally), but I think the process is much smoother. But this is all coming from someone who hasn't fully potty-trained a child, so take it with a grain of salt.
I really feel like it's not worth pushing until they are ready. I am potty training my 4th girl (I hear boys are harder.) Our 1st practically potty trained herself before turning 2. 2nd and 3rd were pretty average but potty trained before 3. Our 4th (turned 3 in Nov.) had absolutely no interest at all! I thought she was going to be in diapers forever. However, I would try a few things then give up for a bit. 3-4 months later I would try again for 2-3 days. Well, last week, out of nowhere, she decided she wants to do it. All the other times I tried with her, she had a ton of accidents. Now that she is all about being big and going, everything is working (that never worked before-- same stuff.) She has been in panties for a week, even out in public, with very little problems. She is so excited about telling everyone about her triumphs!! :) Good luck!!
In the hospital, if a patient is having a lot of skin problems due to incontinence, we'll sometimes put in a rectal bag, but it only works if they have severe diarrhea. Even then, it sometimes leaks around the edges.
So try this: every time Hyrum doesn't go in the potty. put a dollop of mayonaise on his head and say, "That's what you get for pooping." Then tell him that next time, he'll get the mustard.
I am so glad that you got to be with your WHOLE family for Christmas! How fun! Thanks for the great pictures. And I love the scarfs all the ladies are wearing.
So, I'll join in on the potty-bang wagon. :)If Hyrum is showing signs, like sometimes waking up dry from a nap, or hiding when he has a messy diaper, I say go for it. My boys never had the desire to be "potty-trained". I never asked them and they never mentioned it. And I may have told you this, I just stayed home for a week and sat in the bathrooms A LOT. We stopped cold on all diapers and never used any pull-ups. My boys had a few accidents at night, but they quickly learned.
With Cal, he did not want to urinate sitting down, so finally Lee showed him how to go standing up. (And he did a demonstration.) Plus we put cherrios or some sort of cereal in the toliet and told him to shoot them. That worked really well and he caught on. Clark learned just fine sitting down.
Both boys we did the sticker charts and lots of candy. Plus they got a toy when they filled up their chart. And when Cal was potty-training, we had a chart for Clark so that when Clark would do a job or be nice, he would get a sticker too and could earn a prize.
I seriously think that if you stick with it, he'll be good in a week. And Lee had to force Cal to have a bowel movement on the toliet, but it worked, so good job!
Good luck with it all. I am curious how things will work out for you! And being a "mean" mommy is what might be totally necessary at this time!
PS--with my great success with the boys, it will probably flop with the twins! At least I am not going to even deal with it till next year!
OH, and PPS: When you officially starts...sounds like you are going to wait a little longer, start on a Sunday afternoon. That way after working on it all week, he should be good when Sunday rolls around when he's at nursery. (I think he's still in nursery, right?) That way you don't need to put a pull-up on him or anything. Just let the nursery leader know to look for signs and she can take him or come and get you. Or hopefully he'll just go potty right before nursery. Or Primary.
You know I don't know really anything about potty training a child, but I saw this great idea about having a penny or coin jar. Every time he goes on the toilet he gets to put a penny in the jar. When the jar is full then the he gets to pick out something at the store. Just an idea. But what do I know
Hi Megan! (This is Angela Hawkins.) Welcome to the potty training world.
The best advice I received is to be patient.
The best advice I can give is to give a good look at Hyrum and determine 1) why he doesn't like going poop/potty and 2) what incentive will work for him.
Some kids are afraid of the toilet, some love to play so much that taking time away from playing is torture, some don't know how or when to go, etc. If you can figure out how to make the toilet a fun place to be by eliminating whatever is making the process scary or bothersome or boring, you can move on to the second consideration: incentives.
Some kids love stickers (not Elliot), some love candy (not Elliot), some love toys (this was Elliot), and some love movies (this was Elliot). Some kids understand and are OK with delayed gratification (like going somewhere special or getting a toy or something like that), but Elliot needed something tangible that he could see and get right away.
For going potty, I was lucky that Elliot was excited about some dollar store bugs that he could choose from each time he went. Pooping wasn't that easy. It took a huge incentive.
First off, I figured out that Elliot was afraid of the toilet, so I had to try a lot of things to help him feel more comfortable on the toilet. Since I rarely let him watch movies, watching a Winnie the Pooh episode on our portable DVD player helped a lot. When I knew he had to go, I let him watch the episode and took him off when it was over. In the beginning he didn't always go poop, but that was OK since I was helping him become comfortable with the toilet.
Once Elliot could poop most of the time, I began weaning the movies. I took him to the store to select a toy he loved. We bought it and, like the first commenter mentioned, kept it up high in a place that he saw often to remind him how much he wanted it. Fortunately for us, Elliot chose a Little People set with lots of pieces and I let him select one piece each time he went poop. It worked for us (after trying MANY other tactics). In the end we had to buy a few toys like that to keep him going, but I was OK with these sort of bribes since I knew we were saving money not buying diapers AND we were moving forward with regards to training.
No child is the same, so you have to find what will work for Hyrum, but I think if you can pinpoint why he doesn't want to go and then find an incentive that'll work, you'll see progress. Good luck!
My vote is that you wait until he is ready. That is what we decided to do with Aubriel. I introduced the idea and let her start wearing pull ups, but she didn't care that much. When she started showing more interest I started giving her quarters every time she went. Then we talked about how she could buy something with all the money she earned. I know you will find something that will work perfectly for Hyrum. Good luck
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