If you bribed your child with chocolate when potty training ...

[AliasGrape]

How long did you need to do it for and how did you stop?

DD just coming up to 2.5

Potty training for wees was an absolute breeze, but poos were an issue although she refused when I tried to go back to nappies or pull ups thinking she wasn't quite ready. So in a moment of weakness I told her if she did a poo on the potty she'd get a chocolate coin.

Worked instantly and has worked ever since - that was mid December sometime. But I don't really want to be doing it till she's 18, and I'm nearly out of chocolate coins anyway!

Can cope with the inevitable tantrum of saying no more, I think I'm just nervous that it might set her back with pooing again - it was quite upsetting for everyone when she went through a witholding phase and then the inevitable consequences of that which really distressed her.

How long did you offer a 'reward' for and how did you withdraw it - and did that affect their using the potty afterwards?

Didn't work for us. There is an nhs app you can download about doing poops in the toilet which worked really well. I'd be very impressed if you can get a 2.5yr old to consistently poop in the toilet tbh. Mine were much older, despite being dry around that age.

We did exactly that, started in August and she was allowed a chocolate coin, button, smartie or a sweet and it has worked well for us.

We've only ever done it at home, so nursery don't give her treats and we don't if we're out or at someone else's house.

Now she only gets one if she remembers. So if she asks, she can have a chocolate button, but if not, it's just back to playing or whatever she was doing

One of mine wasn't interested in chocolate so I had to use hard currency from day 1. Luckily he also had no concept of money so preferred a big 2p coin to anything smaller but more valuable.

We did this and we never got to the end of the chocolate button packet so it can’t have been that long we did it for. I don’t think there is really any harm in continuing with a reward especially when it’s surely only once a day or so if it’s for a poo? But decreasing it down to a chocolate button or swapping to a sticker would probably be better than a coin.

We did the app too! I kind of did both at once, and now I really wish I'd just used the app to see if that worked first, but was getting a bit fraught at that point.

I really wasn't trying to rush her - she was so adamant she wanted big girl knickers (like her cousins) and basically potty trained herself when it came to wees, so we just went with it. She even started pooing on the potty when it was available, but as soon as we made the switch to knickers all day she started withholding.

I might keep up the coins until next week when childminder open again and in more of a normal routine and then see how we go without them!

Sorry - cross posted with more replies!

Thanks everyone.

@Lkydfju that's a good idea to swap to stickers or something. And you're right, it's only once a day. We'd never really given her much chocolate at all before and so I feel bad that it's suddenly daily, but in the context of her overall diet it's not such a big deal.

@MsSquiz oh she definitely remembers! But like you we don't do it if we're out and about and her childminder doesn't do it (though doesn't happen there either).

We used iced gems for a poo - amused me anyway!
I think you could start saying “a coin (or preferably a sticker) for using the potty well all day” or all week or something. So switch it to a more generalised reward. Then you can switch it over to stickers for something else once the potty is more established. You can say “you’re a big girl with the potty now, well done, let’s see if you can earn a sticker for brushing your teeth well / not screaming with hair washing / whatever”. And talk to the childminder, they’re usually very good at this. That might be a good natural break point.
We had sticker charts for ages, or marble jars. It ended up just being a nice way of reflecting on the day.

We used chocolate buttons to move from potty to toilet as she was very reluctant and we were fed up. It gradually trailed off as she slowly stopped asking. I think it lasted quite a while at the one button every couple of days stage but that didn't seem worth fighting about. I can't remember if we told her it was stopping at the end of a packet or if she stopped asking but it wasn't a big deal either way.

We did an actual coin, a quarter (living in USA) and she knew 12 coins bought a mr man book. So maths and toilet training. She has an impressive library of mr men books!

We had such a similar situation! .2.5, Wee was fine but poo - my word. He got a little animal chocolate biscuit thing. It kind of worked itself out because by the time he was 3/4 of the way down the box he was happy to go for a poo on the toilet. We just didn’t buy another box when we ran out and that was that. Made a bit of a ceremony of the last one ‘ooo you’re such a big boy now! This is the last one! Wow you’re so brilliant now you can poo all by yourself!’ And that was that!

Only bribed for 2-3 days until they were over initial concerns of doing it on the potty, then it was a case of 'oh I don't have any buttons left in the cupboard, we will get some when we go out' (which I did) but it then breaks the association with the reward for going on the potty.

We offered a reward for a while, then instead of me offering it became them asking me if they remembered, and then eventually it just stopped. It happened naturally over a few months I think? Unlikely you'll still be offering chocolate buttons for poos when they're 18 😄

We never used chocolate. However, with my youngest child we were having problems with the poos. She was 2yrs and 3 months. She was pooing in her pants Wld refuse to sit on toilet (potty was ditched very quickly). We told her if she did all her poos in the toilet for a week we wld get her a light up mermaid Barbie for the bath (she really wanted one like her big sister). It worked for us, maybe something similar wld work.