Potty Training Advice From the Experts

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Welcome to my brand new series, Ask the Experts (That’s YOU!). I use the term ‘series’ loosely because I’m not sure how often these posts will appear. It depends entirely on you.

If you have a parenting dilemma you’d like advice on, email it to me (lauren@ohhonestly.net) and I’ll put it before my expert panel of parents. I’ll compile their responses and share them in a blog post.

Want to be on the panel? Subscribe to my email list! I’ll send out the questions when I receive them and if you have any advice to offer about that particular situation, you can let me know what worked for you. I believe anyone who has done any parenting has valuable insight. If you’ve lived through it, you’re an expert, even if you don’t think you are. (And even if you’re not a parent, you can still help! One of today’s helpful answers comes from someone who doesn’t have kids.)

Okay, without further ado, to the questions and answers!

Potty Training Advice From the Experts

Question 1:

My 3 1/2 year old won’t go poop on the potty, STILL. Check that she won’t even go poop at all. She holds it because it hurt once and we are at a stalemate. The miralax makes her tummy hurt and scares her further, I’ve changed her diet, and added a probiotic. ADVICE from your readers?

Answers:

“I am not a parent, but I can help with some advice as I have been in the kid’s shoes. Make sure they are drinking a lot of water which will help keep things moving. Massage the tummy area. Have their knees bent and elevated so the colon isn’t pinched. Don’t try to rush them when it’s potty time. If they eat anything with fiber, peanut butter, or cheese, make sure they drink fluids (preferably water) during it or it will be like a cement block in them. I had gone through that from when I was potty trained up until I was 21 in 2012. I wish you guys good luck!” -Sarah D.

“Both my babies had HORRIBLE gas, I mean it smelled like burnt garbage that had been rained on and left out on an hot humid August day….it was nasty. Our pediatrician recommended children’s Culturelle and it worked wonders. Starting your little one on probiotics was good move!” -Nicole E.

“My son who is now four years old would hold his poop when he was two and three. I got gummy bear fiber vitamins and he likes them because they are non-threatening. If he ever feels like he can’t go he will ask for the fiber vitamins. He says it makes it easier.
Have you gotten the book It Hurts When I Poop? Some kids respond to the story.” -Brandi R.

“My two year old will not poop in the potty or in his underwear.  I have started putting him in diapers when we get home from school, and guess what, he poops!!!  I don’t know what it is about the diapers but it gives him a sense of ‘Pooping Safety Zone’.” -Sherena B.

Question 2:

I have a 14 month old little girl. I’ve got the potty and a toilet ring and my daughter loves them. She can now tell me when she’s pooped and she’s started inconsistently going to the bathroom when she needs to poop and then coming out and telling us she has. My biggest question is… What now? What am I looking for to indicate it’s time? I realize we’re very early on this but I don’t want to miss my chance. I’ve heard so many people say they waited too long and then it was harder. We’re planning to have another baby at some point and I’d really like her potty trained before. Which leads me to my next question. For anybody who had a potty trained 2-3 year old when their second was born or anyone who dealt with potty training regression… Did your child regress? How bad was it? How did you deal with it?

Answers:

“If she’s showing that much interest, I would definitely give it a try. I waited longer with my middle child and I think it ended up working against us because it took forever (although personality came into play too). I read Potty Train in a Weekend before I trained my daughter and it was awesome. I was shocked when it actually worked (you can read my review here). She was 2 1/2 at the time, but the author says she did it with her kids at 18 months. She also talks a little bit about regression in the book. Good luck!” -Lauren C.

“My oldest was the hardest to potty train. He was trained with peeing but still had poopy accidents ’til four. When he was two I had my second. I hadn’t even started my oldest yet at the point. I may have waited too long.
When I found out I was pregnant with my third my second was two. I immediately start potty training. This time I offered m&m’s. Even if it was a drop, he got one. For poop,he got two. We were back and forth all day. He is very reward driven. He was completely potty trained in two months, even at night. Such a huge difference from my first!
With my third (girl this time), I tried the same method as the second which was touch and go. She was more emotional about the whole thing instead of “black and white” serious thinking that the boys had. She was finally completely trained during the day after a year and is 4 1/2 and still has some accidents at night. So after potty training three kids…they are ALL different!! There is no one way to do it. They are all so unique and what works with one doesn’t with the other. LOL!” -Karina S.

“My two are a year and a half apart and trying to have the first potty trained, or at least start having them begin thinking about the potty, is a good idea. Our boy wasn’t close to being potty trained by the time our daughter arrived, but what we started doing was having him “help” change his sister’s diaper. It was funny because he thought it was gross and icky. We would tell him that she was too little to use the potty and Mommy and Daddy would have to clean the icky because she was too small to let us know when she had to go. Our boy would be like, “I’m a big boy, I can tell you.” It was a little bit of reverse psychology,  but it got his little wheels spinning and he started letting us know when he had to go pee pee. The poo poo took a bit longer. He was about three and a half.” -Nicole E.

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