I’m looking for some advice on what direction I should take on potty training with my 25-month-old son. We got a potty some time ago and did all the readiness stuff (talking about what it’s for, practicing sitting on it some) and he started showing real interest about 2 weeks ago. Since then, he has been enthusiastic about sitting on the potty every night before bed, and every day before naptime. In the last week he has obviously gotten the hang of controlling it and can urinate right away when he actually tries (sometimes sits and ‘reads’, talks or plays until I tell him he has to get serious). Even one morning when he woke up at 5, he insisted on sitting on the potty, and actually did eventually go (although I think again this was a strategy to keep me from putting him back in bed and going back to bed myself right away).
Unfortunately, he only has interest when sitting on the potty means postponing naptime or bedtime! No interest at all when it will interrupt play time! Also no interest in pooping on the potty. We started off giving a “special” sticker whenever he was successful urinating in the potty, but the last week or so I hit upon an even better incentive, which is that the “kissing monster” will come after he puts pee in the potty. The Kissing Monster is me of course but he gets very excited after he pees, runs in his room and looks around in anticipation for the Kissing Monster to appear (and deliver loud sloppy kisses). So, I feel like I have a good incentive and don’t want to offer some bigger material reward because I don’t think it will work.
I’m not necessarily in a big hurry, and am delighted with the progress in the last few weeks, but have heard that especially with boys there can be a window of interest that then closes and if you don’t go all the way during that period, it is a lot harder later. Should I put him in underwear and just deal with the messes for a while? Get some training underwear? Everyone says that pull-ups are not the way to go for training, but…any advice?