"Need Advice on How to Potty Train/bottle Break 3 Yr. Old"

on the bottle use the out of site out of mind method, one night get rid of all the bottles in the house and when he asks for it give him his new cool sippy cup and tell him no more bottles big boys drink out of this! The first few days will be hard but he will move on! As for potty well I let mine run around naked bottom done and kept a little potty in the living room and said dont pee on the floor you need to pee and poop in the potty! well thank goodness I have hard floors!! also make him sit on it every thirty minutes, and eventually he will get it and start sitting on it himself and then you can put underwear on then move him to the big potty! my son is almost 3 and he his practically potty trained now and i started the week before halloween! good luck!

I would engage your child in the task of throwing out all the bottles. Then when he asks/cries for one offer the sippy and remind him that you threw them away. Or, better yet, take them to Goodwill together and say you're giving them to the babies that need them. My boys weren't potty trained completely until 4 yrs old because the Pediatrician kept advising me not to push them and that they will let me know when they're ready. I say now, with my third one, I'm going to take him to the potty every hour and praise him when he goes.

I have a 3-1/2 year old son so hopefully my experience will help you.
With him the bottle went on his first birthday. I bought straw cups and had him use them a couple of weeks or so before his birthday so he could get comfortable. The morning of his birthday we looked for a bottle and there wasn't any so he had to start becoming a big boy. he only whined a couple of times, but after that he was ok.
As for the potty training that was much more difficult. I tried potty chairs to no avail. No matter what I did I could not get him to go potty in either the big potty or the chair. Finally over Christmas break my father in law had him Christmas Eve day and within 4 hours had him standing and peeing in the potty. It took cold weather(makes you need to pee more often), consistancy, someone with the right plumbing and skittles and he's been going good ever since.
Whatever you do don't take on both of these things at one time. I would say go after the bottle first then go for the potty training. You never know he may be more receptive than you think. I hope this helps. Good luck to you. :-)

I would agree that you should not attempt to make both of these changes at the same time. It's a recipe for disaster. Get rid of the bottle first for sure. It is really not good for his teeth and honestly, he should have been off of it a long time ago. Since he is 3, he can totally understand what you're telling him, so just let him know that he is a big boy now and that big boys drink out of cups. You can take him to the store and let him pick out one for himself so that he will be more eager to drink out of it. Then, get rid of the bottles. Get them out of your house so that he doesn't find them and you aren't tempted to give in and give him one. If he needs to drink, he can have his fun new cup!

As for the potty training, I would wait about a month after he gives up the bottle to make sure he is settled back down and then just start taking him every hour or so. Once he gets the concept of what it feels like to pee pee and poo poo in the potty, then you can see if you want to try to teach hin to stand up and go. You can let your older son or your husband show him how. I have heard that floating a Cheerio in the toilet can help because it gives them something to aim at and makes it fun. In the beginning, you will probably have to give him some books or something fun to do on the potty in order to get him to sit there long enough to go. Maybe get him a small Magnadoodle or something and only let him have it on the potty.

Good luck!

I can't give advice on bottle breaking, as my little one gave up the bottle and insisted on only the breast from 12 months on! However, my advice would also be to NOT try to do both at the same time because that is too much change at once. I also think tackling the bottle first makes sense because it will go quickly whereas potty training will take a little more time.

My daughter just turned two and I am actively potty training her now. She is doing fantastic and has been regularly using the potty since the 2nd day with only very occassional accidents (we are 2 weeks in). I read a great book called "The no-cry potty training solutions" by Elizabeth Pantley which has lots of great ideas.

More specifically, I attribute my daughter's relatively quick success to several things. First, before actively starting, we got several children's books about using the potty. Look for ones that are fun, but that actually describe and show very clearly each step. Or make one yourself using picture you take of you or he playing, stopping play, walking to bathroom, pulling down pants, sitting on potty, wiping, washing hands. Me and my daughter's favorite is "Big girls use the Potty" by DK publishing. I'm sure they probably do one for boys too. Then I talked up going out and picking out a potty for her for a couple of days. We went, made it super fun, let her pick the color, etc. Got it home PUT IT IN THE BATHROOM, let her sit on it, put her dolls on it, get comfortable with it, etc. for a couple weeks and talked about how soon we would start going pee/poo there instead of in the diaper. Then I bought/made 30 little "prizes" and wrapped them up in wrapping paper and bows and all and put them on the mantle- out of reach, but in sight. They were just little things like a sheet of stickers, jar of bubbles, a book, a bouncy ball, a mini-tuperware with some florist marbles in it (one of her favorites-- she's played with those for hours and hours), wooden animal figurine, big girl underwear, etc.

Then I turned up the heat and when we were around home, let her go naked from the waist down for 2 days and told her to tell me if she needed to go pee/poo and we would go to the potty. Told her that when she was ready to start using the potty, she would get a prize each time she did. Kept it all really fun and low pressure. She had a few accidents and almostly immediately became in tune with the feeling of needing to go and started telling me. After that first two day intro was over, we switched to big girl undewear (a strategically timed prize) and pants around the house, but still a diaper on when we went out, for naps, and at night. When the prizes ran out we made a potty success chart together with glitter glue and all that now she puts a sticker on each time she goes that day. She is so into it and so proud each time she goes and washes hands. Just two weeks after starting, we are now leaving the house in big girl underwear and using the big toilets when out and about with total success, but always trying before we go anywhere or get back into the car to return home. Her night and nap diapers may stay a while though, to be sure she is biologically able to hold it that long. It has all been a bit time and labor intensive (it can sometimes be hard to muster lots of excitement for her about that 9th pee and 8 pm...) but considering I'm not spending any time changing diapers or washing them (we used cloth) and soon all this hubbub around going will subside, it is most certainly a good trade off!

Sorry so long, I got carried away. I'm just so thrilled with her quick progress and hope what has worked here might help others out there tackling what seems a rather daunting undertaking. It doesn't have to be! From my recent experience, it seems it can be fun and a great self estem/independence builder for your little one at the same time! Good luck!

As for the bottle...I flew with my 2 1/2 yr old son across country. When we arrived at grandma's house....the bottle was missing! ;) I threw it out at the airport after the flight, and told him that the stores there didn't sell bottles....he was over it in a day! Potty training I can't help you....I'm still working at it! But I did discover the larger Baby Bjorn potty for $24.99 at Babies R us, and it's great. Not messy, doesn't hurt him if he accidentally sits too close to the cup, and it's designed to fit larger kids (which my son is). Good luck!

My son didn't like the "feel" of the poopy diaper and broke himself of that about about a year. He would ask to go to the potty for that. It took a while longer for the wet diapers but by the time he was 3 1/2 (baby sister came along) he was done. He had one wet diaper while I was in hospital with new baby and none after that. So it depends on the child. As for the bottle, it was gone by 15 months. Good luck to you. I know, he is your last baby and you were keeping a baby but it is time for him to grow up and be a big boy now. Time for both of you to move on into a new chapter of life.

Wow, this is a tough call, but honestly, although it is a bit contrary to other advise, I am thinking maybe you could just set yourelf up for a week of getting it done, and then go on with normal life. Does your son like juice boxes or something else that has nothing to do with a cup? Maybe for the first few days the "bottle fairy" could come, leave him a toy and a few different juice boxes, as well as some cool underwear. (Maybe the fairy could take his diapers too???) Anyway, if he likes the juice boxes, encourage him to drink tons...there are these Capri Sun roaring waters that are very low in calories, or even some cool water bottles, and that should help with him having to go potty often. Maybe have a big boy party at the end of the week...he really is old enough to understand and do what you are asking him. Fill the week with all kinds of big boy things, helping to make his food, picking things out at the grocery store, picking out his own clothes, painting, whatever you think will excite him. Maybe talk it up for a good week or so, even show him all of the wonderful things, but tell him you cant until he is ready to be a big boy..make him really want it for a little while, and then it is his decision. Lots of praise and rewards for going potty, this could be a great and difficult week for you, but I am thinking I might just want to get it all over with. but, that is just my 2 cents..good luck with this one, it will be tough but well worth it!! ~A.~

do you mean bottle as in ... BOTTLE bottle? at 3 years old? hmm.... wow... i have never heard of a kiddo being on the bottle at 3 unless they were special needs kids (my girlfriend has a special needs kiddo and that's one of the only ways they can let him be somewhat independent and feed himself because that's one of the only things he can hold onto).. but trying to break both at the same time would, to me, seem like a disaster. I'd do one then the other... the bottle first definitely... I just started with sippy cups (but at 12-14 months) and that was the end of the story... I said the bottles are all gone.

At 3 years old, your kiddo knows what you mean so if you say they're gone... hold to your guns and say they're gone. Here is a sippy cup and when you're thirsty... here ya go.

I think perhaps if your kiddo is still on a bottle now it's just habit so breaking it will be a bit of a pain BUT... you definitely gotta get er dun! :)