From The Past: June 23, 2007

I have a friend whose little boy turned two a little while ago. She sent me an email saying he is showing signs of interest in the potty and she wanted advice as to what worked and what didn’t work for me concerning potty training.

Having potty trained a boy and a girl; I believe boys are much harder to train. Way back when I trained Andrew, there were no such things as PULL-UPS, but even if they had been around, I wouldn’t have used them. Ever since I saw them, I have had a natural aversion to the things. To me, they seem just like a diaper as far as texture goes. The only difference I can see is they open from the sides instead of the top. My nieces used these for a time, so I have seen them, put them on, and taken them off a child. If I were a child, a Pull-Up would confuse me. I think I would forget I had a Pull-Up on and not a diaper because they feel the same, and just pee in the thing anyway.

That’s nothing against people who use Pull-Up’s out there. I’m just giving my personal opinion. My sister used them on her kids and that was fine with me and none of my business. I do remember washing MANY, MANY pairs of little underwear when I was training Andrew; with Pull-Ups, you simply throw them away. I do think the potty training process takes longer when using Pull-Ups though.

This is the advice I gave my friend:

I bought a piece of poster board and lots of stickers. I hung the poster board right on the bathroom wall with thumb tacks. It was bright yellow, which I thought would attract her attention. Every time Ashley would pee, she would get to choose one sticker and place it anywhere she wanted on the poster board. When she pooped in the potty, she got two stickers. I always made a big deal out of it. It helps if you let them choose their own stickers at the store; that way, they REALLY want them, but I already had a lot also!

This was Ashley’s potty poster board:

I wish I had thought to use poster board with Andrew, but back then, I just used a sheet of notebook paper.

Also, I didn’t let Ashley drink anything after 7 PM and I asked her constantly (about every 30 minutes or so) if she had to go. You have to stay on top of it at all times.