3Yr Old Potty Training

My son's 2 1/2 and I've used the reward system (and day care). They are very consistent at day care, however, he doesn't go poop there. I haven't had luck with that part yet.

I use a sticker for an honest effort and a balloon for an actual accomplishment. Looks like I'm going to have to come up with something good to get him to poop on the potty.

Good luck!

Good luck. Boys and potty training are so hard. I finally got my son potty trained a couple of months ago and he will be 5 in March. He would go pee in the potty but not #2. It was actually suggested to me to give him miralax every night. It is a vegetable laxative so it is safe for children. It makes it not hurt to go. If he really hates going so badly, he might like going in the potty so it does not get on him. I also had to bribe mine along with it. Everybody suggest potty charts or candy after using the potty but that didn't work for me. I took my son to the store and had him pick out a toy that he really wanted. I let him hold it and look at it the whole time we were at the store but when we got home, I put it up where he could see it but couldn't reach it. I would even get it down and let him look at it when he asked. Just as a warning, it didn't work with the first toy that I got but the second he REALLY wanted. He pooped in the potty just so that he could have it. However I had to take it away when he didn't go in the potty the next time. That killed him. Needless to say the next time he needed to go it was in the potty and we've been doing it ever since. Hope this helps. Good luck and don't get down about it. Thay will do it when they are ready.

I have 3 year old twin boys, and what worked for them was you poop in the potty you get a sucker, the big kind with the tootsie roll in the middle. Still works. You can also decorate the potty area of his bathroom with his things, drawings, things he has colored, a favorite toy, in fact try reading a book to while he sits on the potty. Make sure to put him in underwear, that helped us alot too. They are fully trained now, though we are still working on the over night. Good luck, and one thing to remember, stay patient.

I just want to say not to rush things. I'm sorry, but rushing and trying to get potty training done quickly are not the best ways to go about it. It is much better to do things in the child's own time.

If you want consistent, use a timer and just ask once every hour (unless you see that he needs more often). If he says no, that's fine. But "quickly" is not the way to do it, in my opinion.

We had a big challenge with poop. The thing that seemed to work was a combination of her preschool teacher telling her to stay on the potty longer (and she will do ANYTHING for her preschool teacher) and doing a rewards chart.

She got a sticker for pee pee in the potty, two stickers for poo poo, a sticker for being nice to her sister, for not leaving the table until she had been cleaned up, etc..

When she filled up four rewards charts -- we gave her a big reward that she had picked out herself.

Good luck! If you look through the archives, there are a lot of other people who have been through this. See if you can find some other good suggestions.

We used a reward system. Everytime he peed or pooped on the potty we gave him a sticker. The sticker was the main reward (cars stickers or spiderman ones for example). We would have him put the stickers on a homemade chart and everytime he got 10 pee stickers he got a sucker and when he got 10 poop stickers he got a piece of chocolate. The stickers were instant gratification, but the candy kept him motivated when the sticker fun lost its luster.

My 3yo son didn't like to poop on the potty for months after the pee part was finished. (He would ask for a diaper when he had to poop.) He also has pooping issues with not liking to go, even now (he's 6). We use Miralax to help it not hurt when he goes. Anyway, with going on the potty, we used a sticker chart. The first one had like 12 squares, then the next one had 20 or something. He got a big prize (he loved Thomas, so he got one of the trains with a tender or a 2-pack) for the first chart, then a slightly smaller prize for the 2nd one. He asked for a 3rd chart, but I conveniently kept forgetting to make one, and he eventually forgot about it while continuing to go poo in the potty. Hope that helps.

C.,

My son held his poop for 5 days once and since he was going to preschool that week, I didn't know what was going on. We ended up in the ER one afternoon late because he starting throwing up in the morning and continued throughout the day. I thought he had stomach flu. We went to the pediatrician and they sent us for IV fluids. They did a CT scan and found that he was so full of poop that his stomach was backing up. They gave him a mild laxative, but nothing seemed to happen. A wise nurse there told me to try prune juice before giving him anymore meds. I did it that night and later in the night he went. For a few days I gave him a little bit of prune juice, maybe 2oz in a cup each morning. For some reason they're afraid to let go of the poop. Maybe they feel like they're losing something out of their little bodies? Anyway, try the prune juice. You can also tell him if he doesn't go poop, he'll have to go to the doctor and get shots. Apparently this is quite common with 3 year olds.

Good luck!
C.

bribes! Have him pick out a little toy and hang it over the toilet, when he goes he gets it. It is a great positive reinforcer. Have a poop party and dance like crazy when he does do it and hope it continues. For my stubborn 3yo, I did this and it worked. He did immediately stop though and I just took the toy away and he had to earn it back when he pooped on the toilet. It took abou two weeks of crying and almost forcing the issue but now he is poop trained.
good luck