Potty Training Method Six (6)The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests waiting until two-years of age to potty train. Click here to see the development chart. Dr. Phil encourages caregivers to demonstrate, or use a pee pee doll to demonstrate, the process of "going potty." Use the child's favorite fictional character or superhero as motivation in this process.
Before starting you will need a pee pee dolly, a potty chair, and big kid underwear (not diapers), and lots of liquid for the doll and child to drink.
Step 1: Teach a doll that wets how to go potty. Your child will learn by teaching the doll how to go potty. Have your child name the doll and give it something to drink. Then walk the doll to the potty chair with your child. Pull the dolls big kid underwear down and watch the doll go potty together.
Step 2: Next throw the doll a potty party! Make it a big blowout with party hats, horns, and celebrate. Give lots of attention to the doll so that the child understands that going potty is a good thing. Let the child know that when he goes potty, he will have a potty party too. Not only that, the child gets to call his favorite fictional character or superhero to report the good news!
Step 3: Get rid of the diapers. At the beginning of the process you placed big kid doll underwear on the child's doll. Now it's time to take away the diapers and put big kid underwear on the child.
Step 4: Give the child plenty of fluids to drink. The sooner she has to go potty the sooner you can begin potty training.
Step 5: Ask the child if he needs to go potty. If the child says, "No,"that's okay. If the child has an accident in her underwear, don't scold her. You want this to be a positive experience. Instead, take your child to the potty and pull his underwear down, and have him sit down. Do this ten times. This builds muscle memory and the child will eventually go.
Step 6: Let the celebration begin! When the child successfully goes potty have a potty party. Most importantly, the child can now call her favorite superhero and tell the hero about what she just did! Enlist the help of a friend or relative to play the hero and take the phone call. When the child has an accident, simply take him to the bathroom ten times in a row as you did before. This will continue to build muscle memory. And don't forget to keep up the positive reinforcement.
Have you tried this method of potty training? How did it work for you?
This absolutely works! The girls was taking a bath with the pee pee dolly. After the bath I simply said let me show you how the dolly goes pee pee. She loved it. We kept giving her water and letting dolly go pee pee in real toilet.
ReplyDeleteThen I asked, "You want to try?"
She did and that was it for pee pee! Then on she wanted to go pee pee on the potty!!
It works great!
Sarah's Nanny in NJ
I agree that these are the best potty training tips I have ever tried. I like the tips you incuded from from Sears, Spock, child orientated and Dr Phil. All encourage enthusiasm and make it fun.
ReplyDeleteBest thing I heard Dr Phil say was that you need to motivate the child to use potty or why do it? It is much easier to sit back and let mommy or adult do all the work of changing, wiping, cleaning, discarding diapers. So easy for the child. Going potty requires a lot more work for the child. So, encourage him any way you can!!
Yes, using the potty party and potty dolly worked great for me and my charges!
Melanie M
It works it definitely works! Nannies just keep up the encouragment and excitment!!! This definitely works!
ReplyDeleteMeggy Thompson
Boston MA
Yes this method of parties and the first methods described earlier in the week work the best. The dolly works wonders if the child is old enough.
ReplyDeleteForcing too early or any negative vibe about the process (yelling or punishing) do not work.
I have potty trained 5 children in my career. Each child is an individual. Any method might work better than the other depending on the child. Any book is as good as any other if it works for each individual child.
ReplyDeleteI have had most success with Dr Phil's method. Perhaps because I could watch the video of how to do it. But, I think it might be because I approached the child with more enthusiasm when I tried using Dr Phil's approach. Also I used it on the 5th child so I probably was more relaxed.
Extended family members would tell me what to do, but I typically do whatever my Mom Boss or Dad Boss want me to do.
Potty training is a huge part of development and best advice is to be patient and have fun with it. Yelling, punishing, getting frustrated slows down the development. Why would anyone use potty if they were to be scolded?
Sandy G.
21 Years Experience
Professional Nanny
Household Manager
Darien CT