Potty Training Boys

There are so many factors that come into play when learning a new skill. The first question to ask is, "Is your child ready?"

This can be easily answered by meeting just three criteria.

1. Can your child walk well without assistance?
2. Can your child say potty, pee pee or any other term you choose to use?
3. Can your child pull down their pants with little assistance?

That is it. If your child can do that at 15 months, then they are likely ready to start learning. If your child cannot do that until after 3 years, then you will have to wait until they are ready.

Many people tell you that you have to wait until the child is aware that they need to go potty. Or, they may say that they need to be able to undress themselves or be able to do this task without assistance. I disagree.

Coming from having child care in my home for over 20 years, I have gone through this transition with over 100 children and my six children. I have seen children potty trained as early as 13 months and as late at 5 years old.

My personal opinion is that the younger the child is, the easier it is to go through the learning process. I typically start training my own children between 15 and 18 months. I have had one of my own children not go through the transition until after the age of two.

I realize this may go against all the popular discussions with today's physiologist. I have heard that it damages the child's psyche if trained too soon. Call me old fashioned but I say, "Hog wash!" If you potty train your child before the age of two, the likelihood of them remembering that after age 10 is next to none. Do you have memories of being potty trained? Most of us don't.

I am not saying that a really bad experience will not affect a child in life. But most of us would not subject their child to a really bad experience. A little common sense goes a long way. If your child goes into a panic every time you mention the potty, this is a really bad experience. If they fuss and don't want to go, that is normal for some children.

Step 1 Assessment

Assess your child's readiness to learn. To do this assessment, you first must watch your child walk.

1. Can they walk across the room without falling down?
2. Can they walk without someone holding their hand?
3. Do they stumble many times (three or more) when walking from the living room to the bathroom?

You can asses the walking ability by allowing the child to walk into the bathroom to comb their hair or brush their teeth or go potty with you.

Next, assess whether or not they can use the terminology that you have chosen to use.

1. Talk to your child.
2. Can they say potty?
3. Ask them to repeat the words after you.

You say, "Say potty." Then they should be able to say, "Potty," or some similar sounding term. Keep in mind that they don't have to be extremely clear in saying potty. You just need to be able to understand them.

If you have other adults caring for your child, you should let them know how the child communicates this term. It may be more like "Pawy" or "Eepy". If should be enough to get the point across.

The last part of the assessment is whether your child can pull down his/her pants with little assistance. This can be a painful task for parents to find out. We always just want to do things for our children because we have had to.

It is time to see where your child's skill level is. There are many things that you can do to assess their ability in this area.

1. When getting ready for bed, ask you child to get undressed.

The tip here is to allow them to do it to a point of almost being frustrated. Do not let them get frustrated because it will deter them from trying again in the future. If they can get the front of their pants pulled down, tell them what a great job they did.

Help them put their hands on the sides of their pants/underwear and help them to physically pull them down. This shows them how to do it and gives them a sense of "doing it themselves".

You will be amazed at how quickly they will learn if you show them two to three times and then step back and allow them to "practice". They can only learn if they are allowed to practice. We, as the adults, need to step back and allow them to do this.

Let's start with clothing. It is important that you decide whether to use pull-ups or training underwear. Personally, I have found the training underwear to be more affective.

Part of the process of learning the feel is to actually recognize that you are wet. Pull-ups have gotten better about allowing the children to feel the wetness but it's not the same as cotton underwear where they feel it immediately and the feeling doesn't go away. Again, this is a personal preference.

Personally, I use the training underwear and when we go out of the house I use a wool cover%u2026many people use the plastic diaper covers which are like plastic underwear over the top of the underwear. I use this double system only when we go out in public and that is to protect the car seat and/or other people's furniture.

The other part is outer clothing that is easy for a child to take down. The underwear should be loose enough that it is not too difficult to take down but tight enough that they don't droop or fall off. The pants or shorts should be elastic waist so your child can pull them down by themselves.

If you are home, you may decide to forgo the pants/shorts altogether and have a t-shirt and underwear day. It really is okay for a child to run around in their underwear%u2026.but that is your choice.

Most of you have asked, "So what makes you the pro in potty training boys?" Well, I'll tell you.

First, I am a mom of 6 children. Yes, I have six children. Three are girls and three boys. They range in age from 22 down to 4 years old. That alone gives me a bit more experience in potty training boys since most people don't have three boys.

Next, I have had daycare in my home for 22 years. You could say that I love children. Over that 22 years of service to children and my community I have literally helped potty train over 100 children.

Now, I don't know the exact numbers of children potty trained because I didn't always keep great records. However, I know that I have had well over 100 children during that time. That is a lot of potty training.

So, there's your answer. Yes, I am actually qualified to give advice on this topic. Can you say the same for the rest of the "free advice" out there on the internet?

Stay tuned for tips, tricks and tools that will help you in your endeavor of potty training boys

There seems to be a debate about whether little boys should sit to learn to go potty or stand. If they sit, what type of potty chair should you use? Or, should they learn to go potty on the toilet?

My experience is that, honestly, I didn't want to have to empty and wash another potty ANYTHING so I went with the regular toilet. We used a stepping stool and toilet seats that go on the toilet. That's what we used for BM's anyway. There is a new urinal out that is flushable. I would have used that in a heartbeat!

If you truly want an easy way to toilet train boys, the easiest and, in my humble opinion, best way is to have a male role model%u2026preferably dad, take the boy in and show the little one by example. This works for younger or older children.

Think about this. Many of us are visual learners. Some are auditory (hear it) and some are kinesthetic (using all senses) to learn. If you think about it, having daddy go in and show little "Johny" how to use the toilet, standing up, covers all the senses and the child will learn much quicker.

I realize that not all dad's are around these days, but most of the single mom's can find one GOOD male role model. The trick to this is training the Dad as to what to say AND teaching him to flush, put the lid down and wash their hands. Okay, I'm being a bit silly on this one, but you ladies can relate, I'm sure.

It's best if dad can be there for a full day or two and be devoted to doing this every couple of hours. The easy way to convince dad that he can do this is to let him know that you are not changing diapers anymore, so if there is a mess, he gets to clean it up. This is usually enough motivation for dad to give up a couple of days.

That being said, please help him out though. Make sure there are snacks, drinks and fun activities for them to do together. Make sure to set a timer as a reminder though. We don't always remember how long it's been.