The daytime thing is up to you. Be prepared for accidents for awhile though. I had B with no pants on at all for a few weeks while we were at home and in pull ups when we would leave. I put him in a diaper at night. He told me "but I don't wear diapers anymore" and I told him that when he gets a little older and his body wakes him up to tell him he has to go to the bathroom then he wouldn't have to wear them at night anymore (he still wears them at night lol).

Anyway, eventually I did away with the pull ups when we left the house because he would be accident free until we put one of those on.

Good Luck! Do what works for you guys. You'll know soon enough what works for your family and what doesn't.  Keep us posted! =)

Hi Jenny-

WooHoo fun times for you! I agree with Nicole about the diaper at night.  They are working so hard during the day to stay dry, their bodies will know what to do at night when they are ready.

I would save the pull-ups for outings, when you can't or don't want to deal with accidents.  Again-amen to Nicole.

My #1 bit of advice--don't stress over this.  And here's more-Follow your little guy's instincts.  Help him recognize the feeling. Give him lots to drink and stay near a potty. And have fun, you only get to go through this with him once in his life.

OK, and here's some shameless self promotion on my part.  I've had quite a bit of experience with potty training & have had great success. I know you're probably tired of reading about the topic, but if you'd like to visit a really, really wordy blog post on the technique I used, you could go here: http://www.becomingversed.com/2009/09/happy-one-year-plus-master-j.html

Good Luck!

I used Pull-Ups. I don't know if that's the best idea, but it's what I did.

The best advice I can give you is get a video. We had "It's Potty Time." It worked miracles.

Thanks to you all...this really does help me.  I think that I am stressing a lot about it and you all our right to let him get in the groove and we will find out what works.

I will keep you posted!

Jenny, bottom line is this: No matter what you do, if he isn't ready, he won't do it. And the way it often goes is that one day, he won't have any interest in being potty trained and you'll feel like it will never happen and the next day, he'll use the potty and you'll be done.

I am potty training my second right now. Here are my thoughts:

1- I disagree with the "let the child decide when he's ready" idea. You don't let him decide when bedtime is. You don't let him decide when he's ready for vaccines, vegetables, or r-rated movies. You are the parent. If the kid can communicate with you- you're ready.

2- I go cold turkey when we are at home. It takes a few weeks to go without a diaper outside the house- the likelihood of an accident is just too great.

3- Once my oldest got to the point where he only needed protection at night, I just bought whatever the cheapest was (usually generic diapers, not pull-up style) because he would only pee once throughout the night and we didn't need a lot of "leak protection"

4- Don't overwhelm yourself. This process isn't complicated, it's just tedious. It takes time and patience, but there isn't a magical "way" to get it done. Patience, love, patience, time, patience... you get the idea.

My oldest took about 2 months to be potty trained. My second is 4 weeks in and looks to be on schedule for the same.

Oh, and I potty train when they turn 2. And the oldest is Autistic. By knowing how to work with your child you are perfectly prepared to do this and do it right. Don't even sweat it.

"I am potty training my second right now. Here are my thoughts:

I've never had them FLAT OUT REFUSE, I have had them resist, certainly, and I just keep pushing. They get one M&M just for sitting at the beginning. Once we have success, they get two for actually going. Eventually I eliminate the M&Ms for sitting, and they only get one for actually going. After awhile, the rewards disappear altogether.

Kids also resist bedtimes and eating healthy foods and going to the dentist and leaving the playground and putting on sunscreen. But, there are some battles you just must win.

Wow-who knew that a question of pull-up vs. underwear would go so far?

I have to chime in again-and give you my credentials--

Four kids-all trained-all different stubborness levels

Degree in education-past owner/operator of childcare

Many, many classes & hours of extra study in the "child" area.

Potty training a child is a huge step in your future relationship with that person growing up.  If you step back and really see what is going on, you'll learn a lot about yourself and the child.  You can see your style of parenting. You can see if your child's personality. As a parent, you have to decide what works best for your family.  Special needs kids do require different actions.

But we have to remember that little person will be a big person someday and everything we do as parents has consequences.  Believe me, I know. 

For my part, I am firmly entrenched in the "when the child's ready" camp.  I tried out the other camp with very sad results.  And, in all my years, I have very rarely witnessed many children over the age of 3.5yrs being untoilet trained.  It seems to me that a lot of the focrced trainiees' caretakers are the ones trained to watch for the needing-to-potty signs & the clock.

FYI-we used the little candy treat technique & another reward system and our training went very, very fast.

Goodluck to all you moms in the potties--no matter what technique you are using!!!!

"I have very rarely witnessed many children over the age of 3.5yrs being untoilet trained. "

I currently have two friends, each with a child over 3 and half, untrained. One of them isn't even close to trying (no learning/ development issues with either). Another friend just finished training her almost 4 year old. He still wears pull ups, "just in case". Waiting until they are "ready" has become a game/excuse in and of itself.

Maybe the definition of the word "ready" is what has changed. Hmmm. That's is an interesting thought that just occurred to me as I was typing this...