Brazelton
Elimination Communication
The only thing that's better than having your out of diapers in a weekend is having a kid that never used diapers at all. Enter the elimination communication method. This method is achieved by paying special attention to your infant's timing and rhythms. When you suspect your little one may be ready to eliminate, you simply hold the baby over a toilet, sink, or other receptacle you don't mind cleaning up. That's pretty much it: Figure out your baby's cues and timing, and make sure that you are holding your baby over the toilet when it's time. Great for the stay-at-home mom, maybe not so great for a baby in daycare.
Child-Led Potty Learning
Have you ever heard of an adult who doesn't know how to use the toilet because their parents waited too long to potty train them? Me neither. In fact, potty training too early can hinder healthy bladder development, so there is a case to be made for waiting. If you are not at all worried about the timing of your child's graduation to big-kid underwear, you might be interested in just allowing her to potty train herself. Some parents swear that their child just woke up one morning and they were ready to use the toilet like the grown-ups. If you want to try it, make sure that you have a little person potty available in every bathroom, let your little one watch you use the toilet, and then just kick back and wait. It will happen eventually, hopefully just sometime before the first sleepover.
Naked and $75
The "Naked and $75" method may be the easiest to understand, but could also be the messiest. The "$75" inthe name references the fact that you will have to have your carpet cleaned after you complete the method, because your kid is going to be eliminating all over the place. Essentially, you just make sure that you are home with your kid for a couple days straight, let her run around naked, always keep the potty close by, and every so often remind the child to use the potty when she needs to. Your little one will, many times, feel the unpleasant sensation of urine or poop running down her legs, and after a few cleanups and gentle reminders, she will eventually catch on and choose to use the potty instead of soiling herself.
Timer Method
Get out your kitchen timer and running shoes for this method. Get up in the morning and make sure that your little one has had lots of fluids. Take her to the potty right after breakfast, and then put her in big-kid underwear or let her run around with no pants at all. Set the timer for 15 minutes and when the timer goes off, muster all the excitement you can as you usher her to the potty. If she manages to go a little, make a huge deal and give her some sort of reward. Repeat. All day long, give her the opportunity to eliminate in the potty every 15 minutes. If she has an accident, try to catch her in the act and move her to the potty where she can finish her business. On the second day, you can start setting the timer for longer intervals if you're seeing some success with the 15-minute version. You slowly lengthen the time between visits to the potty and, eventually, you won't need the timer at all.
Potty Boot Camp
Potty boot camp is a well-defined itinerary that marches little ones out of diapers and straight into big-kid underwear in just one weekend. You start the child in training pants, and practice sitting on the toilet with them off. As the weekend goes on, you encourage your child to notice what it feels like when she needs to go potty, and be sure to take her to the toilet when she gets up, before and after naps, right after eating and right before bed. Otherwise make sure she is sitting on the potty just in case every two hours. If, by the end of the weekend, your little one is upset at having the rare accident in her training pants, you did your job. She can move along to big kid pants when she is using the potty consistently. So, by the end of this method, you have taken a huge step toward your child being completely potty trained, but there is definitely some more work to be done.
