Let’s all take 20 to 30 minutes and go for a walk and clear our heads.

– Linda Lynn   

Here are some good ideas I received from readers:

1. Cheerios.  This was an overwhelmingly popular method.  Teach the little guy to “aim” and sink the round O’s and it’s almost as fun as Duck Hunt and Battleship.

2. Rewards.  Gumball machines, dollar store toys, getting to go with adults on errands because they’re “big kids,” and countless others.  Most parents are big on using positive reinforcement – lots of reassurance, compliments and even dancing. Yes, dancing.

3. Timers. Set it for every 20 or 3o minutes minutes and have them sit on the potty. Eventually they’ll get conditioned to go as soon as they hear the timer go off.

4. “Naked and $75.” Let him go around the house without a diaper for a few days to get him to want to use the potty.  The $75 is to have your carpets cleaned when he’s done.  A few parents really endorsed the “naked” method and putting a portable potty in rooms where the kids are most comfortable (living room, play room, etc.) and maybe using lots of juice to help things move along.

5. Just wait. I got some helpful feedback from parents who were concerned that I was maybe sending the wrong signal to my son by making him use the potty.  They suggested waiting until he was ready in his own time and finding a day care who accepted that.  One parent said this is his decision, one of the few a toddler has.  Another said parents who haven’t had success potty-training their kids shouldn’t feel like failures, that patience is key.

Well, I have big news for my fellow parents.  My son is now potty-trained!  What seemed like an impossibility Friday afternoon is now a very real accomplishment for my little man. I was all set to get a huge box of Cheerios and kitchen timer after work when my son had a bad “accident” in a public place and I had to rush home with him. We got home, I sat him on the potty once more, gave him some juice and waited for a miracle.  It happened. Not just once, but all weekend.  I have never been so happy to be woken up at 6:30 a.m. by my son who wants to go potty and stayed dry all night. I never thought this day would come.  No more Pull-Ups, no more diapers. What a change.

So I thank our readers for their wonderful responses and ideas. In the end, my son did it in his own time and on his own terms … although the two glassfuls of juice did help him find his own time a bit quicker. It just happened to be the same day as my very public plea (but maybe he planned it that way all along).

-Erica Smith

esmith@opubco.com

I’m at my wit’s end.  I am here to solicit advice from anyone and everyone who has had to potty-train a toddler.

My son is near impossible to potty train.  I thought I could just back off for a while and he’d get it eventually but his day care center is closing the end of June and for me to place him in a new day care’s 3-year-old class, he needs to be able to use the potty.

Here is what I’ve already tried:

1. Briberies.  I’m talking candy, chocolate, cupcakes, Hot Wheels cars and stickers.

2. Big boy pants.  He’ll go to the bathroom in them and still want to keep them on.  It’s disastrous.  Pull-ups don’t help either.  He treats them like diapers, even the cold-alert kind.

3. Sitting him on the potty for extended periods of time, hoping he’ll have to go eventually. He’s sat on there for an hour and finally when I take him off, he goes right on the floor.

4. Trying all kinds of ‘equipment.‘ We have the Sesame Street potty seat.  The SpongeBob stepstool. The potty chart.  We have it all.

5. Making sure he knows all his friends use the potty.  He knows, sees them go, and doesn’t care in the least.

6. Giving him things to do on the potty.  He’s had books, toys, made a racetrack around the potty rim, had me sit and sing ‘Wheels on the Bus’ on end, played the guitar and eventually unraveled a brand new roll of toilet paper and put it all in the toilet.  That was fun to clean up.

What else can I do?  

-Erica Smith, Copy Editor

esmith@opubco.com

I’m always saying I’ll do things different but there is no better time to set goals than the first day of the year.  

Here are my Top 5 parenting resolutions for 2009:

1. Make my toddler eat vegetables.  My friend bought me the cookbook “Deceptively Delicious” by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry’s wife).  I resolve to get broccoli or squash into every dish my child eats, even dessert.

2. Try to overlook the grosser things my boy does … such as drinking the bathwater.  Or sticking his dirty fingers in his mouth. Or dropping food on the floor then eating it before I can pry it from his hand. (This is going to be that resolution that I end up NOT keeping.)

3. Try to limit how many times he watches Cars or WALL-E.  We’ve both become addicted to those movies.

4. Try the “not-using-the-word-no-all-the-time” method.  For example: Instead of saying “No, you can’t have another cookie,” say “Yes, you can have another cookie … tomorrow.”  We’ll see how good that one works.

5. Get him potty trained.  I would literally pay someone to do this for me.  Or my son can use the “not-say-no” method just this once … “Yes, Mommy, I’ll sit on the potty … next year.”

What are your parenting resolutions?  Did you make any last year? Let me know by commenting below or emailing me at esmith@opubco.com.

Have a happy, safe and healthy New Year!

~Erica Smith

I had read in a book that it could take YEARS! How was I going to handle this?

Since that time, I’ve received words of encouragement and heard stories about potty training that weren’t too far from the experiences of training a typical child to go to the potty. I know, however, it really depends on the individual child. And, whether it takes three days or three years, I’m there.

So, this weekend I’m armed with a book from our daycare. I plan to take Cade to the potty as much as possible, make it fun and see how he reacts. The next part is up to him.

Do any of you have some positive experiences with potty training boys? Any miracles? 

I would love to hear from you … just in case this venture goes south … but not in the potty.  — Linda Lynn