Anna says:
Now folks, my mother has been asked for advice on the subject of child rearing, potty training, marriage, homeschooling, canning and gardening by all of the younger women who've ever come to church. I've heard the same advice (rehearsed for each lady who asked) at least a ga-zillion times. This is what she'd say:
You must wait until the child shows interest - starts feeling "wet", talking about wanting to "go" on the "big potty". (Insert Mom: Hiding behind furniture to have BM's was a big indicator that the child was "ready". - For my children that happened much earlier than the experts said was normal. All of my children were completely potty trained by 15 months of age, except for one who had accidents at night until around the age of 7.)
Mom: I know this is crazy, but I checked the moon sign calendar and started training on the specified date. Here is a list of the Best Days to Potty Train for the next 60 days as published in the Farmers' Almanac.
May: 6th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st
June: 1st, 2nd, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th
Here's a link to that site: http://www.farmersalmanac.com/calendar/best-days/parenting/potty-train/
Anna: At this point, you break out the big-girl panties - the baby will definitely be feeling "wet" and babies do not like to feel wet. Whenever you catch them starting to go, you rush them to the potty.
Mom: The first two or three days will be you observing your toddler. (Don't plan to go anywhere outside of the home that first week and keep your baby in the same room with you at all times.) All other duties are secondary to potty training at this point! Your goal is to catch your child going potty. As soon as you see him/her going, run and place her on the potty. Praise the child, clap and tell her what a big girl she is to go on the potty and when there is even a minute bit in the potty give her a chocolate chip for going. Do NOT give her a chocolate chip for her efforts - there must be evidence in the potty.
Anna: Kara's got it covered from there.
Kara says:
Step 1: When you see the child using the bathroom drop all things
Step 2: Rush said child to the toilet
Step 3: Remove child from toilet
Step 4: Reward child with chocolate chip
Step 5: Return to normal duties
I'll leave mom to explain keeping the little chil'ens dry throughout the night. ;)
Mom: Honestly, my children were completely potty-trained through the day, in one week using this method. It takes commitment and constant vigil, but it worked for us.
Be prepared to clean up the accidents right away and make sure you do not show any frustration when the accidents happen. You are training the child and your job is to catch them before it gets all over the floor. We stayed in the kitchen, so clean-up would be easier.
In just a few days the child would catch on and begin telling me that she needed to go potty.
For nap time I would take her potty before laying her down and then put a pull-up on her. When her pull-up was consistently dry for a few days, I'd let her sleep in her big-girl underwear. Again, I would reward her with a chocolate chip every time she woke up dry and praise her like crazy. (Obviously, I took her to the potty AS SOON as she woke up.)
I repeated the same routine at night time. I would wake her up a couple of hours after she went to sleep to go potty and then every four hours through-out the night. If her pull-up was wet, I knew I needed to wake her up sooner the next night. (For instance: instead of every four hours, I'd wake her up every three hours.) After a couple of nights, I began to stretch her sleeping time by another hour. (I found that I still needed to wake her up about two hours after going to sleep, but I could stretch the four hours to five and then to six until she was sleeping all night.) It normally took about two weeks for the child to be completely able to sleep through the night without having accidents.
Just for laughs:
When Becca was about two years old, she decided to potty train her dollies. She would take them to the potty, then she would say, "Mom, Janie just went potty! May she please have a chocolate chip?" Being a good Mom, Becca would eat the unhealthy chocolate chip for her dolly!
After about a week of Becca eating lots of chocolate chips, my youngster who had accidents at night asked me, "Mom, If I don't have accidents at night, could I have a chocolate chip when I wake up in the morning?" I offered said child five chocolate chips! That child never had another accident!
Also, it is helpful to watch how long it takes liquids to pass through your baby's system. I found that she normally had to go potty 15 minutes after drinking milk or water. That would vary by child, but it is helpful to monitor. Also, I limited dairy products and watched how much they drank before bed-time. I never punished a child for having an accident.
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