Potty Training - Homestead,PA

when my son was having trouble, i got him on a potty watch (sold at one step ahead) that goes off at regular intervals that you set. it plays songs that are long enough and loud enough for both of you to hear and my son thought he was soooo grown-up having a watch and ran to the potty everytime it went off :-) before i got the watch it was a real battle getting him to sit on the potty often enough, he would argue with me that he didn't need to go and it would drive me crazy!!!
Good luck! my daugter is now 2 1/2 and she has no interest in training, but i am going to start with her soon. my thoughts are with you ;-)
C.

this may sound silly but when my son was learning we put a cherrio(cereal) or two in toilet for him to "target" at . it was something simple and it worked. good luck

S.,

All i will say is once you start don't stop, keep encouraging him and take him to the bathroom often(what i mean by often every 30min to an hour often)thats because he won't have the time to go in his pants. Also take him after he drinks and eats anything. he will get don't worry :)Like I said just don't stop once you start or he will get confused. GOOD LUCK!!!

He sounds like my son who showed no interest at all. Two months before he turned 3 I flat out put him in underwear. It took a full week before he decided to started going pee in the potty. (every time he peed I would calmly tell him that pee goes in the potty and show him the potty or if I caught him in the act I would rush him to the potty) He still wouldn't poo in the potty so I let him run around a couple of weeks with a bare bottom. He hated pooping on the floor (did it twice) and decided putting it in the potty was better. It's been 5 months now and I would say he's completely potty trained. For the longest time we had really good days and really bad days but I persisted and am glad I did now. One big thing I found was when I started to get irritated with him and lose my cool, that's when things would get worse. When I acted nonchalant and encouraging things usually got better. Good luck!

I was right where you are 1-2 months ago. First, buy some cotton training underwear. i bought the potty scotty ultradeluxe because they are absorbant enough to keep accidents from going everywhere, but he certainly felt yucky. Next, I told him, we're done with diapers. If you wet your pants its going to feel yuck so you need to get to the potty. Next, he got skittles for sitting on the potty, and a hot wheel for going (I tried the less expensive sticker method 1st, and he did not care). I also minimize all distraction- I know a lot of people keep kids entertained on the potty, but I feel this just kept him from taking care of business. I ONLY used pullups if we went out which was very minimal for 3-5days. Good luck! I feel your pain.

Hi S. - I just came through this battle with my son 3 weeks ago. He turned 4 on Jan 7th.

I started trying with him off and on since he was 2 1/2. We told him that when he was a big boy who didn't wear diapers or pull-ups and used the potty that we would buy him a big boy bike. We read potty books to him, watched all the potty DVD's. I probably tried once every 3 months or so - it never clicked with him. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn that boy is. He would argue, claim that he was never going to grow up, he wanted to be a baby forever.

What finally worked for us was taking away the pull-ups (except at night) - he wore his underpants only during the day. I did that for a week, and he had quite a few accidents. When there was an accident, I told him that he had to 'help' clean it up. He did not like putting the poop from his underpants in the potty and a couple of time it had fallen on the floor and he had to pick it up - he didn't like that either, LOL! I had him put the soiled underpants in the laundry and then made him got upstairs to his dresser to get a new pair. I even made him put on the new underpants himself, which was comical to watch.

I told him that he couldn't go to pre-school until he was potty trained, he loves his pre-school T/Th mornings - he missed one weeks worth of school before I felt confident that he would not have an accident.

After the week, I then went to the dollar store and bought about 15 matchbox cars and put them in a lidded see thru container on the top of my fridge. I told him that if he didn't have any accidents and kept his underpants clean until Daddy got home, he would get to pick one of the cars. This was HUGE for him, he wanted those cars bad. He only had two minor drippy kind of accidents and when he had about a weeks worth of cars left, I told him that when the cars were gone, we would take him to the store to get that Big Boy Bike!

Everyday I would call my Mom and my MIL and gossip to them about how great he was doing, how he got another car last night when Daddy came home, how when all the cars were gone, we would get him a Big Boy Bike... I would put them on the speaker phone and they would tell him how excited they were about him being a big boy etc.

Last Monday he told us he didn't need the pull-ups at night anymore, and he hasn't had any bed accidents - yay!

Last night we went to the store and bought that bike!

For me the key was a combination of no pull-ups, rewards, no pre-school, gossiping, and the big boy bike.

Although, I am not sure if it was all of the above, or if he was just finally ready himself?!?!?

I hope this helps you.

W.

Hi,

We recently came through this issue ourselves and let me tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel (no it's not a train). I tried many suggestions and none worked for my son. Before giving up I tried one last suggestion and it worked. The naked method, have him wear nothing from the waste down. Yes, there will be accidents but he will learn when he is going and you will learn the signs of when he needs to go. Make sure that he has plenty to drink and for the first several days you need to plan to spend every waking moment by his side. Take him every 15 minutes or so to the bathroom to "try to potty" and have something available there that he can only do while on the potty. Give him a small reward for trying ( 2 M&M's or a sticker), even if he does nothing he did try. My son received 5 M&M's for urinating and a prize (match box car or a piece of track for his train) for #2. My son loved my iphone, so while he was "trying", he was allowed to play with the phone. This allowed him to concentrate on the phone and not concentrate on preventing himself from using the potty. It is a distraction. When the accidents happened and there will be plenty of them, I let my son know that I was not pleased with the accident only while outside the bathroom. Once entering the bathroom the mood must return to positive so that the bathroom does not become a negative place. Talk to him about being a "Big Boy" and when daddy/male role model goes potty let your son go with him and observe. It helps them to understand that going potty is a good thing and that he can be a big boy like "daddy". After you make it through a few days of reduced accidents let him know that you are getting rid of the diapers and put him in thick potty training underwear at night (You can put rubber training pants over them to help reduce mess). Reserve pull ups for when you leave the house and call them underwear, don't let him think that pull up is another word for diaper, these are for big boys. It is a tough process and I feel your pain. My son is now potty trained for the most part, we are still working on the "#2" but we are making progress. He wears regular underwear to bed and stays dry , as well as regular underwear when we go out. The key element is to stay positive, if he feels that you are displeased or frustrated the whole process becomes a negative experience for him. It will be a struggle to stay positive but he will get there, don't give up and go back to diapers.

Hi

Potty training was a long process for us but it all works out! We used to keep toy catalogs in the bathroom for my son to look through in the bathroom. He could only see them if he was sitting on the potty. I never used a separate potty-just bought rings and a stool for each bathroom. Next time you are in the store let him pick out some new cool undies and keep them in the bathroom where you are training and explain that these are for when we go in the bathroom all the time. As soon as he finishes a drink take him to the bathroom. I set a timer for every 45 minutes and we would try. Make the timer audible so he knows it is time. The Spring/summer it is easier because you can let him go without a diaper. Stickers did not work for us...but we did have some success with matchbox cars! When he was wearing underwear and had a dry day (not including the night) he received a car from the potty fairy. We used to wrap them and place them at the end of his bed. When he was consistenlty dry the potty fairy wrote him a note saying she had to help the next boy who was jsut starting potty training and she reminded him how proud she was of him. Good luck and be patient.

My grandmother says her trainging method works 100%. Everyone I know that has tried it has had great success. I know that it may not work but it worked on my daugther when she was 2 1/2 and it just worked for my son who is 20 months. Only put a diaper on at night. As soon as he gets up in the morning put underwear on. I used the thick ones (not quite as messy). I use every 10 minutes but it is what ever time you want. We go sit on the potty and count to ten. The first day we never went in the potty just in the pants. Second day much better. By day 4 he was going in the potty all the time. We were even able to go grocery shopping! The trick is to be consistent. I stayed at home for 3 days straight to accomplish this. Just do not go back to a diaper or pull-ups at all during the day. I hope that this works for you. It has not failed for me. Good luck.

S.,

Is he going to pre-school at all. My son went to pre school at our church and while he could go on the potty before 3, he wouldn't do it until he knew he had to at school. It just changed one day because he knew it wasn't acceptable.

S.,
Personally, I would back off for a month or so. He just turned 3. All kids are different. If he's showing no interest, then this is not the time to do it. It will only frustrate both of you.
Get the book/DVD Once Upon A Potty. It helped my son get interested. I would halt the training, but show/read it to him occasionally. He sounds like a smart boy, and when he's ready I'll bet he'll be potty trained in no time at all!

The way I got my daughter interested in potty training is I really talked up big girl panties and showed her mine. I showed her the drawer full of her big girl panties and she said "put them on". I took that as my cue and 2 weeks later she is doing amazing with the potty. Have your husband show your son his "big boy" underwear and let your son watch him when he uses the bathroom. Tell him daddy wears big boy underwear and he doesn't make pee pee or poopy in them. Buy him big boy underwear and put them in their own drawer and show them to him and tell him they are his big boy underwear when he wants to wear them and that he can't poop or pee in them. I have been using M&M's and lollipops as rewards and she gets to choose which one she wants if she goes on the potty. If she poops and pee's she gets both. Also, my daughter gets to choose which panties she want to wear. By giving her a choice of rewards and panties I am giving her some independence in the potty training process and it has been working out great.

Take a breath.....relax...boys take longer to potty train..sometimes....Your doing all you can do by encouraging him. Keep your head high and he will show you the rest.

I just successfully potty trained my daughter using this AMAZING 3 day method. I can email the method to you. Send me an email ____@____.com luck!
~A.

Hi Syephani, I just recently 3 months ago potty trained my 3 year old son. I learned to simply go cold turkey. I did it this way with my older so as well when he was three years old. It was easier when I did it with my 8 year old because like you I was home. This time I had to get the help of the babysitter to make sure we were on the same page because like you I became extremely frustrated with him . I knew he could do it and I knew he wouldn't do it if I continued to put pull ups on him. So one day we went to the store and I showed him the underwear and explained to him they were his new best friend. You must also reduce his liquid consumption. Good luck. Potty training is rarely ever an easy task.