Hi
I have just succeeded in potty training 3 year old twins. What an experience.
I dedicated 2 weeks to training them. First I made a great big poster that the children helped me paint with their names on it and big circles that were for gold stars if they went to the toilet and if they did a poo they got a Huge smiley face sticker. This was on the wall in the toilet so it reminded them that they would be rewarded for going to the toilet.My daughter refused to do a poo, but plenty of weeing, so when I saw that she may want to do a poo, I sat her on the toilet, and got a chair and sat in the bathroom and read her a story, she soon forgot she was on the toilet and did a poo. We made a huge fuss and she got a treat for this.
By the end of the first week, they were coming to me saying I need a golden star.
Also I explained to them that if they got more than 5 stars they would be going swimming. Throughout the two weeks I asked them if they needed to go to the toilet ever half an hour or so, just to remind them and it worked like a dream.
Neither have had an accident at all.
The first day of the training, when they did a poo in their pants I made them go in the bathroom and take their pants off and put as much of the poo down the toilet and gave them a plastic bag to put their soiled pants in. You can imagine how displeased they were that they had to clean their mess up themselves. Funny that they never did it again.
Good Luck and happy Potty training, just think you will never have to changed another nappy again.
Calls for a celebration.
Thats a brilliant idea. I too have problems with my 2 1/2 yr old. he knows what to do but is so fussy about new things he cries even when I suggest putting pants over his nappies. He starts nursery in September so I want him out of nappies by then. My first son was brilliant at weeing in the toilet like a big boy but I too had problems with pooing. He used to ask for a nappy to do a poo. So I used to put him on the toilet with nappy but tear the back of the nappy so the poo would fall through the nappy and into the toilet. This worked but he still insisted on wearing a nappy on the toilet. The next time he wanted to do a poo I told him I had run out of nappies and he would have to either poo his pants or sit on the toilet. He pooed his pants, although he did manage to make it to the cloakroom beforehand. That was the last time he asked for a nappy and since then has pooed in the loo. Now you would think that a second child would be a piece of cake. I wish. He is so set in his ways and hates change of any sort, even wearing new clothes, shoes and even different makes of nappies.
Yes, I did finally resolve it. We tried everything people recomended to us. The charts, the rewards, nothing worked. Finally my husband came up with a brilliant idea. We sat him on the potty and put a portable dvd player on a stool. He was only allowed to watch his FAVORITE buzz lightyear movie on the potty. He would sit for 20 minutes or so at a time then we let him get up for 15 minutes or so. This went on for a few hours and then he did it. He got to call Buzz Lightyear (my brother in law did a great Buzz voice) and he was so excited. The next day it took about half the time. The next day after that he asked US and it was done. I was so excited. But he still talks about getting to call Buzz (which we let him do every time he pooped for a month or so). Good luck to you... and wish me luck, another year and my younger son will be at that same spot too... take care.
