Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Wow! I got quite a response from last week's potty training article. Thank you all for the support and empathy. You left me with several suggestions to ponder.
Jim Reynolds told me underwear is the key. "Get her princess underwear," he said. "Don't do Pull-ups or diapers during the day. … Tell her, ‘You don't go pee-pee on princesses.'"
Now that's some logic my girl could understand! She hates to get wet. She screams every time she splashes something on herself. Surely she can grasp the concept that a princess might want to stay out of the rain! I think this method deserves a try.
Lee Simons said the underwear method also worked for his daughter. "At the first ‘accident' she did not like getting wet," Simons said, "but I told her ‘next time' to go to the potty and that would not happen."
As for the potty training methods I suggested in the previous article, well, they got mixed reviews.
- For the most part, potty-training DVDs got a thumbs-down. Though they helped the children understand the concept, they did nothing for actually encouraging them to want to use the toilet.
- The rewards method seemed to work well for most parents. Many used a system that rewarded their child with M&Ms every time he or she went potty, and money worked wonders for Desiree Black. "I do use treats or money for reinforcement," Black said, "but what I do is when he goes potty I give him a penny. And he has a jar in the bathroom that he puts it in right after he goes potty. Then if he doesn't have an accident all day, I give him a dollar." (Yet another concept that would work for my little one — the girl does love money!) Still, some said rewards were not needed. Simons said the only reward he gave his daughter was that of staying clean and dry. "There was not retribution for not making it to the potty (either)," he said.
- As for the diaper-free method, those who used it say it's a winner. "My wife and I did the no-diaper with the reward," Kortt Burningham said. "Took us around one month to get her to go on her own without wanting a reward." "I have potty trained both my kids before age 2 with the three-day method," Angela Sanderson said. "The key to success with this method is you need three full days at home with your child for it to work. You also need to be open to cleaning up messes, and don't give up."
On that note, I'd like to learn more about this diaper-free, three-day method. I'm not sure it will work for me (I'm not too keen on the idea of cleaning up the messes), but you never know. More to come on that.
For now, I think we're going with the princess panties in my house. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it goes.
Email: jormond@ksl.com
