Potty Training Thomas

A few months ago I decided to start the process of potty training Thomas in steps. My friend Jenn at T-Rex Mom & Dad tales wrote a really great post a while back about potty training and it gave me some great ideas especially since her son is right around the same age as mine.

Step one: peeing in the potty first thing after we wake up in the morning.

At first it took him about 10 minutes or so to do anything in the potty. Now he pees every morning in the potty with in a couple minutes. The funny part is he will pee but he doesn’t fully empty his bladder. He is just so excited that he has done it that he jumps up all happy but we don’t have a lot of pee in the potty yet. We cheer and then I sit him back down on his potty and he finishes.

This has become so routine in our mornings now that 5 out of 7 mornings he will wake up with a dry diaper and for a child so young to hold it all night is really impressive. Especially for a child that drinks a lot at night. This has cut my diapers a good amount. Before he would be wet when he wakes, then I change him and we would go through two more diapers before we would leave the house in the morning. That is 3 diapers per day that I am saving just from this one simple step.

Step Two: the rest of the day. We are not doing so well here.

Recently I took all my pre-fold cloth diapers and cut them up and I made these little pockets to go in the front of his underwear.


My sewing isn’t very pretty but it does the trick. I then put Thomas in big boy underwear and we add a little pocket to help absorb any large pee messes that he might make. Now the underwear and his shorts do end up a little wet but nothing like the mess with out the pocket.

I love the little pockets but Thomas doesn’t seem to care that he is wet and he won’t tell me he has peed his big boy pants. I find this interesting considering when he pees in a diaper he brings me a new one and tells me he has peed. KIDS!

One of my biggest challenges has been when we do sit on the potty through out the day. He will sit for a while and play with his little ball toy. I have also tried the seat on the toilet but he just doesn’t seem to like it. I read a lot of kids don’t like it if they can’t have their feet on the ground.

The problem here is he doesn’t want a diaper or underwear put back on him.

Once he starts getting up I try to dress him. He freaks out and yells “POTTY” and runs back to it and sits. I think this is a game for him and it will go on for an hour or more if I let it. He will sit just a short time and then he is up and playing.

The getting up is not good because he will happily pee all over my floor if I don’t keep him on the potty. Believe me this has happened more times than I care to count. (Thank goodness for minimal carpet)

Thomas can throw a big fit to get dressed again if he does not pee in the potty but if he pees he is happy and will comply with getting dressed. This makes it hard because I don’t want to deny the request to go potty but we have made our effort and time is up.

I am not on a mission to make this happen over night. I am taking baby steps and trying to figure out what works. So far the morning has been a success and that thrills me and with time we will figure out the rest.

If any of you have any tips or tricks I would love to hear them. I know every child is different so how we do with one might be totally different with the other. I already know this because of potty training Luke and now trying with Thomas.