Click here to read about all of our potty training experiences so far! 

Potty training our fourth was very similar to our second. However, #4 was younger, but still over 3 when we started. We noticed that he started to hide when having a BM. We started talking to him about using the big boy potty when we changed his diapers. We usually would ask him if he wanted to use it and he would always shake his head “no.”

One day I was at the store with just him and he got a hold of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt (he doesn’t watch the show, but he found a TMNT stuffed animal at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and has been hooked ever since.) I asked him if he would go potty on the big boy potty and he actually said “yes.” So I decided to go ahead and get him some turtle underwear and that we would try to start. I tried to potty train him by myself, but with having three other children and being very pregnant, it wasn’t successful.

When my husband had a week off, we did the same technique that we did with our second. My husband and son were in the bathroom “hanging out” for two whole days. Both days were horrible. We questioned what we were doing because it didn’t seem to be working at all! He had so many accidents and really didn’t seem to be getting it. He was eating so many pretzels and drinking orange pop like crazy, and then he’d just go to the bathroom in his pants.

The second day, I went to go run errands and came back with some cookies. We told him he could have a cookie when he pottied in the potty. For some reason that worked. The third day he would run to the bathroom all by himself every time he had to go. He still had a few accidents, but almost all of them were right in front of the toilet, he just couldn’t get ready in time.

It’s now been a few weeks, he still struggles with having BMs on the potty. He doesn’t tell us when he has to go, he just runs to the bathroom, even if we’re not at home. It’s still a work in progress.

What was/were your potty training adventures like? Any tips?