Toilet Training
John's Most Recent Articles
Starting Toilet Training Early Pays Off
Posted on 12/27/2022
Q: My grandmother maintains that her children – my mother and her two siblings, all born in the 1950s – were completely toilet trained at 18 months. Her terse explanation: “I just gave...
Read MoreThe Problem With Pull-Ups
Posted on 11/1/2022
I finally tracked down the fellow who invented the so-called “pull-up.” His name is Lucapher (Big Lou) Saytan. Reputedly, Mr. Saytan lives in an underground bunker from which he develops and...
Read MoreOn Chores, Discipline, Potty-Training
Posted on 3/29/2022
Q: When I give my 5-year-old daughter a chore, she does it, but all the while she is muttering under her breath, huffing and puffing, and so on. Do I discipline that behavior or just let her...
Read MoreThe Keys to Relatively Quick, Painless Toilet Training
Posted on 1/12/2022
Q: I recently tried toilet training my 32-month-old, but after a few days of no success, I decided to stop. A friend tells me to hang in there, but my pediatrician says my son isn’t ready. She...
Read MoreWhere We All Went Wrong
Posted on 8/25/2020
My profession, psychology, began demonizing traditional childrearing in the late 1960s. I was in graduate school at the time and on fire for the promise that the proper use of psychological...
Read MoreSome Benchmarks on Toilet Training
Posted on 6/9/2020
“There’s no one-size-fits-all model of childrearing for all the world’s parents,” opines Alma Gottlieb, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the University of Illinois. Gottlieb was quoted in an...
Read MoreToilet Training Is Not Rocket Science
Posted on 9/26/2018
Talking today’s mother through her first experience with toilet training is akin to talking someone off a ledge. Both situations involve massive anxiety, high drama and lots of yelling and...
Read MoreDebunking Hot Potty Training Myths
Posted on 8/14/2018
“Potty training is a nightmare.” So begins advice from Meghan Leahy, advice columnist for The Washington Post. More accurately, potty training has, of late, BECOME a nightmare, thanks to advice of...
Read MoreI Spy Toilet-Training Atrocities
Posted on 7/10/2018
Strolling through my go-to grocery store the other day, I happened down the Baby Products aisle where I spied packages of toilet-training pants featuring pictures of happy children who looked at...
Read MoreNip Toddler Misbehavior in the Bud
Posted on 12/19/2017
Q: My parents recently told me that my husband and I are letting our toddler run our family and that it’s becoming increasingly uncomfortable for them to visit or have us visit with them – they...
Read MoreRecent Questions
Potty Gate question
Posted 2 weeks ago
My daughter is 19 months. On august 1st we started potty training. I can count on one hand the amount of times she has gone on the potty. She is able to understand commands. When we ask her where...
Read MoreNEARLY 3 YO LITTLE GIRL WON'T POOP IN THE POTTY
Posted on 8/9/2024
My 33 month granddaughter pees on the toilet, and has few accidents. Either informs us she has to go or it happens when told every few hours that it’s time. Pooping is another story. She hides...
Read MoreToilet Training Regression, Don't Turn to Pull-Ups
Posted on 7/7/2024
My sweet five year old boy is in the midst of a full potty training regression. He was fully potty trained and then we moved and he is back in pull ups full time while home with me for the summer....
Read MoreRetraining will be challenging, possible and necessary.
Posted on 6/24/2024
Due with baby #3 in 9mon… 4yo and 2.5yo still sleeping with mom and dad, 2.5yo not potty trained. Where do we start in retraining our children so that our bed can be child free, and out of diapers...
Read MorePosted on 5/29/2024
How do we make our 4-year old daughter care about peeing in her pants? She was seemingly potty-trained a couple of months ago, and then accidents started happening frequently the last month or...
Read MoreNighttime Potty Training a 4-Year-Old
Posted on 5/1/2024
My daughter is 4 and I've been putting off nighttime potty training until the school year ends because sleep deprivation turns her into a bear. Once school is over, I plan to start with John's...
Read MoreRoad Trip & Potty Training
Posted on 1/16/2024
My daughter (2.5) is potty trained and we are working on potty training our son (19 months). We have a long road trip coming up in April when we have to travel from South Dakota to...
Read More2.5 y/o refuses to poop
Posted on 12/28/2023
My 2.5 year old is potty trained when it comes to pee but not poop. She is a stool holder, she constipates herself and I have to give her mirlax daily. I believe they are painful because of how...
Read MoreBig move Big changes
Posted on 12/15/2023
Since our move my daughter has started having accidents again. She was day potty trained (only a couple accidents a week so staying dry and clean 98% of the time) but after the move she started...
Read MoreFOUR YEAR OLD PEE ISSUES
Posted on 12/7/2023
Lately our 4 year old seems to have some issues surrounding going to the bathroom. He will say things like “I saw the picture and it made me have to pee.” Or he sees something “girly” and it...
Read MoreVideo
Toilet Training Made Stress Free (Webinar Recording)
Posted on 5/16/2023
In 1955, Harvard University determined that nearly 9 out of 10 children were completely toilet trained to the point of being accident-free by 23 months of age. In the 1960s, pediatricians began...
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