Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Dutch approach from grandma: was very successful but bit expensive in short term

13 replies

dikkertjedap · 21/07/2009 12:46

Apparently my mom sent all of us (and so did many other mums ...) to her to be potty trained in less than a week.

Her approach: prepare a large (!!!)
basket/tub anything and fill it with presents
To keep this manageable, presents can be small (bubbles for blowing bubbles, Mr Men book, chocolate stars, etc.) but have to be all individually wrapped.

Explain a few days before that the idea is to go on the potty each time for wee or poo and then choose a present (basket not in sight yet). Repeat this frequently for two days and agree to start on a certain day (marked on the calendar). That day give something to drink every 10 minutes and have potty standby, ask every 5-10 minutes if she/he wants to use potty and remind that will get a present if uses potty. Keep giving something to drink frequently for the whole morning. Easiest to let walk round in bare bum whilst doing this. Keep doing this for the next 2 days (you can't do anything else, have to keep an eye out all the time and keep reminding). After the first two days (if successful, we all used it with our children so far 100% successful) then you could agree slightly larger present for 3 wees/poos on the potty and slowly scale down (my dd still insisted on presents a month later, that is the expensive bit). As you will see you will need to prepare in advance, according to my grandma you should have approx 100 small presents, nicely wrapped. My daughter loved it (I found it initially very very tiring - continuous reminding, giving drinks etc, but nevertheless wworth it as she was fully potty trained in basically 1 day).

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
wastingmyeducationatHogwarts · 21/07/2009 12:55

What age?

ChopsTheDuck · 21/07/2009 12:59

100 presents

Whatever is wrong with smarties? We did 1 smartie for a wee and 3 for a poo, that was enough bribery for my four.

gingertoo · 21/07/2009 12:59

DS2 was cheap - he'd sit on the potty with only a Smartie for a reward

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Indith · 21/07/2009 13:00

Ds makes do with a high five

Though I admit he will only use the potty when naked, I may have to scale it up for getting him to wear pants.

dikkertjedap · 21/07/2009 14:40

My dd was 2 years and 4 months, my brother started a bit earlier, his son and daughter both got potty trained the week after their second birthday.

OP posts:
ruddynorah · 21/07/2009 14:42

replace basket of toys with bag of haribo. job done.

melmog · 21/07/2009 14:47

We just did a version of this but no where near 100 presents were needed!
On day one she got a tiny present for sitting on the toilet, a small one for a wee and a promise of a big one for a poo (only a wrapped up comic but big to her). We had total success after day two and the presents were only needed for poos until day four.

We only resorted to this after several failed attempts and because she loves unwrapping things.

None of the presents cost more than a couple of pounds either, most were pence.

purpleturtle · 21/07/2009 14:53

When dd was training I bought a box of play-food from ELC, to go with the toy kitchen she had for her 2nd birthday. Every time she used the potty, another item came out of the box and played with.

The real secret of the method you describe is having the energy/time to hover over a child all day waiting for a wee. The wrapped presents are something of a red herring IMO.

GoldenSnitch · 21/07/2009 15:03

We started just after DS's 2nd birthday and gave 1 jellybean for a wee and 2 for a poo - same effect for an incredibly reduced price!

He was a pro within a fortnight

usernametaken · 22/07/2009 14:16

DD trained in 3 days at 24mths with a few bubbles as a reward...one tube of bubbles did the trick.
It probably helped that she woke up one morning and declared 'I'm not wearing that nappy' so we rushed out, bought a potty and ran with it!

phlossie · 22/07/2009 14:22

We allowed ds to stick Thomas the Tank Engine stickers to his potty for each hit and then he got a toy engine for going the whole day without an accident. He was (is) a TtheTE fanatic in case you hadn't guessed...

WriggleJiggle · 22/07/2009 14:37

You can't go wrong with a packet of chocolate buttons!

On a serious note though, dd quickly worked out that she got a button if she did a small wee, then another a minute later, then another a minute later and so on.
Now obviously with using buttons, it isn't so much of a problem as it takes an awful lot of wees to get a decent amount of chocolate.
However, wondered if anyone had suggestions for how to avoid the dribble, dribble, dribble? Or do you just go along with it?

ilovesprouts · 24/07/2009 19:17

get some dribble bibs they are great

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread