Phase 1 and 2 of Toilet Training

My friend, Jolene, has two kids, and she has toilet training pretty much figured out.  Both of her kids were potty trained (at least during the day) by 18 months without tears and frustration.  When it was time for Little Will to start using the potty, I sat her down and asked her to divulge her secrets.  Her are the 5 phases of Toilet Training, according to Jolene.

Phase 1:  Introduce the potty but keep all clothes on.  This first stage is really just getting the child comfortable with the potty itself and to get them sitting on it.  She described her kids dragging the potty from room to room like it was there little friend.

Phase 2:  Naked time.  Take off the diaper.  Learn to get pees and poops into the potty and not on the floor (less stressful if you have hard-wood floors).  Jolene would get her kids to sit on their potty while watching a cartoon or during story time, and eventually pee or poop would go into the potty and her kids made the connection.  Will was old enough that we were able to explain it to him, but we also did lots of stories while he sat on the potty.

Phase 3:  Put underwear or some sort of training pants on child and teach them how to put on/remove underwear.  Continue to encourage use of the potty.  This will be the next stage for Will.

Phase 4:  Work on using potty while fully dressed.

Phase 5:  Night time toilet training - a whole other ball game.  I'll post on this when we get to this phase.

So, Little Will has completed phase 1 and 2 of Jolene's Potty Training Program :).  We actually started him at 23 months, but it wasn't going well and so we decided to take a break and come back to it.  At 25 months, just over the age of 2, Will is doing much better.  During this second try we've only had a few little accidents on the floor and feel comfortable enough letting him on furniture with no diaper on. We place his potty where it will be handy for him when he needs it.  If he's playing in his room, I place his potty next to him.  If he's in the kitchen, same thing.  It reduces the amount of time it takes between realizing that he needs to pee and actually sitting on the potty.

 If you are worried about your carpet or upholstery, I would still recommend having some naked time.  Maybe you could do naked time for an hour in an uncarpeted room of the house, or go outside if it's warm enough.  Going "bare bottom" seems to help the child connect the bodily sensation with pee or poop actually coming out (wearing a diaper takes away the need for such a connection).

I'll post more on this as we go, but so far I think that this type of potty training is the way to go.