Potty Training.......

B.,

I just trained my son who will be 3 in a few weeks. i tried when he was about 2 1/2 and failed miserably so I do think that it is all about them being ready. I tried the naked method when he was younger and it only worked when he was naked as soon as he put clothes on he would have an accident. This time around the only thing I did was offer him a bribe. I would give him a treat when he went on the toilet and I let him pick out a prize that he would get when he went a whole day without an accident (nothing big only a $10 truck - much less than diapers). It only took him 2 days to go without an accident and he hasn't had one since. I also think that pull ups are just diapers - except after he went in the pull-ups he would tell me he needed to be changed where as it didn't bother him as much in the diapers. I think you just have to put them in the underwear and deal with the accidents for a few days.

Good Luck!!

K. M

Potty training is very hard, but the Dr.'s always say to let them do it when they are ready. My soon to be six year old was potty trained at 3 1/2. So don't worry it will happen sooner than you think.

I am not sure what to say because I know how frustrating potty training is. I potty trained my daughter when she was about 2 1/2 yrs old. I tried the pull ups and she didn't see them to be any different than a diaper. I decided that I would go for the underwear and clean up messes. Believe it or not she didn't have many! We put her in a pull up at night. I also took her to the potty every 30 minutes. I had a sticker book and wrote the days down. She put a sticker in it every time she peed in the potty and got a special treat when she pooped in the potty. Some of my friends gave a couple m&m's every time their kids went potty. I hope you can figure out what works for your little boy. Good Luck!

I'm going through this right now with my two year old. First I read the book, The Everything Potty Training... or something like that. Then I had my husband buy two big tarps, because I didn't want my little one peeing or pooping on the carpet. I set them up in the areas we frequent the most.

Then I set a potty chair that was easy to access. Let him play with it and stuff the first day. We also had potty seats to put on our bathroom toilets. We got him underwear and everything and I made sure I had no plans for the week, so I could just monitor him.

The underwear didn't work. He just peed in them. He doesn't seem to mind being wet or anything. So then I tried what my sister-in-law did. Naked from the waist down. This worked much better. Not at first though. The first day, I kept the juice and flavored drinks flowing, (normally we just drink water, so he was really happy to be drinking a lot). This made him pee a lot, so everytime I'd catch him in the act, I'd swoop him up and sit him on the potty... and tell him to "hurry to the potty... pee in the potty" I even noticed when he was ready to poop. He had that far off look of concentration, so I swooped him up and he went in the potty. He looked rather worried the first time we were congratulating him for pooping on the potty. I guess this was just confusing to him at first.

I'd tell him he had to hurry to the potty, when he had to pee or poop. He did a little better the second day and each day after that. We'd do little practices too. Just letting him sit on the potty and pee. We also used the M&M treat for each time he peed or pooped.

It's been almost a week and I don't even have to watch him anymore. He just runs to the potty on his own, he loves it. Especially taking the pot to the big toilet to empty and flush and then the handwashing routine. It just takes getting used to and knowing what to do. They're so used to diapers. Take them off and it forces them to learn this new skill.

Now, I'm thinking about moving into trying it with loose pants or underwear. I'm still using diapers at naptime and bedtime and he seems to always have a wet diaper when he wakes up. He even pooped in one at one nap on the first day. I think he'd just prefer the diaper, because he's always worn it and he's just going to have to get used to this new thing.

Good luck... I know how hard it is and how frustrated I was at first.

I have 3 boys, so I'm very familiar with this. In all honesty, we just waited until they were ready. In fact, we didn't really do anything to help them along initially. We waited until they gave us the signs, and we went with it. It was slow going, but it must have paid off. We've had no accidents, either during the day or at night. We just waited until they were ready, in their own time.

My 3 year old is finally wearing underwear every day and I know what you're going through. For her it wasn't a matter of her body not being ready or not understanding the process, she just didn't want to stop playing in order to go to the potty... she preferred going in her diaper. There was no difference between diapers and pullups to her... not even the ones where she could feel wet or cold. The only thing that seemed to work was to let her walk around without any pants on... no underwear, no pullup, nothing. She would have accidents if she wore underwear, but she'd always run to the bathroom if she wasn't wearing anything. I don't get it.

Anyway, what worked for her was walking around naked for a while and then a combination of letting her pick the specific underwear to put on so she cared about keeping it dry and fruit candy rewards.

Good luck!!

Dear Bobbie,

Potty training can be very frustrating but one thing I learned is that you can not force them. Potty training happens when the body is physically ready not when the parents want them to be. Not that you should not do anything to help them learn just don't get frustrated because society says that you have to do it within a certain age frame. Trust me I have 3 children my now 14 yr old son was not potty trained until he was almost 4. My 13 yr old daughter was early around the age of 2 but our 5 yr old was not until 3 1/2. Having said all that I understand our 5 yr old was hard to potty train it was like having a puppy in the house she would just go the bathroom (potty) anywhere. I have just a few suggestions for you some you may have already tried. With the whole going outside that is actually a good idea it gives them a chance to see what it is all about. Now not everytime he needs to go but every once in awhile is good. Also when you take him to the bathroom you can turn it into a game (all of my suggestions have to do with #1 not #2 ;-) ) place a stool at the toilet and let him stand on it put a couple of cherrios in the toilet and tell him to try and hit the cherrios. I know that sounds funny but it worked for a girlfriend of mine. Also you can do a "treasure chest" of sorts, if he has some favorite things like matchbox cars purchase a few and tell him that when he goes to the bathroom that he gets a toy from the "treasure chest". For our daughter the first time she went to the bathroom we threw her a party. Nothing big at all my husband went to Walmart and bought some party poppers and ice cream. As she called it "dinosaur ice cream" she loved (and still does) The Land Before Time movies. She was so excited and proud of herself that everytime she was successful she was able to have some "dinosaur ice cream". Also you could have your husband take him to the bathroom and show him how it is done. Try not to put to much pressure on him or yourself he will pick up on that and it can make everything worse. I hope that some of this helps and keep your spirits up before you know it you'll be out of potty training and on to ....well I won't ruin the surprise. :-) Take care and good luck!

I know you probably don't want to hear this...but my son learned by going outside. It was some "Power struggle" thing I think. Once he realized that I wasn't having a fit about it, he would use the toilet inside. My son was almost 4 when he finally got potty trained, becasue he had to be to go to pre-school. That was a big motivator for him.

I haven't trained a boy...yet- will this summer- hehe but I have trained three girls and I plan on doing the same things with my boys as I did with my girls.

We set a tiered goal
potty trained at home betweent breakfast and lunch
potty trained at home the entire day
pott trained to run a quick errend
potty trained to leave in nursery at church
potty trained fully during the day no matter the circumstance
potty trained naps and night time.

This worked soooooo well- we also found that our kids treated anything on thei bottom half as a diaper so we would go naked from the waist down. The potty seat was pulled into a common but linoliumed area- an entry way, the dining room. The potty went to the general areas we were. So that I myself would not forget I used an egg timmer and set it for every 10-15 minutes. when the timmer dinged we would run to the potty and sit for a minute. I did have one child who didn't like to sit on the potty- we solved that problem by making a small book out of white paper- just staple it- and bought a box of a thousands stickers at the dollar tree. When she would sit on the potty then she would get her little paper book and a square of stickers. But she ONLY was allowed to have those on the potty. She would sit there forever getting the stickers off the square and put them on her paper book and usually if she sat there long enough she would potty. eventually she did not need the stickers anymore.
All of our kids within a month were running to the potty to go during our current potty training time frame- we did not move to the next stage until one stage was mastered. we saved sleeping for sfter we hsd dsytimes mastered.
Anyway that is what has worked for us! Good luck!...M.

Hi Bobbie,

I actually just finished potty training my second son (2 1/2) two weeks ago. I did it the same way I trained my first son... I don't know if you are a stay-at-home mom, that makes this method a lot easier! I put my son in underwear and set the kitchen timer for anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on how your son progresses throughout the day/week. Everytime the timer goes off, he sits on the potty for about 5-7 minutes (I train with the little training potty). Sometimes it helps if you sit with him or even sit on the regular toilet and go to the bathroom yourself while he sits, to help encourage him. Everytime he has an accident, I make my son help me clean it up. He'll get the towel for me and sit with me while I clean the mess. Then he goes to get a new pair of underwear (keep the underwear where he can access them himself). After a few successful days, I let him start sleeping in his underwear, but I still keep diapers or pull-ups on hand for the nights that he has had too much to drink too close to bed. My first son trained in 48 hours with this method with NO more accidents! My second son took about 6 days. Good luck! Keep us posted!

Hi B.!

Forget pull-ups--they're just diapers. Take him to the store and let him pick out his own big boy underwear. It might mean a little bit of extra laundry, but he won't like being wet. That's all it took for my little girl and she was completely potty trained at 18mths. Good Luck!

My first two children were potty trained by two years old , my baby however was going on 3 and still not trained. We tried pull ups with her but really it's too much like a diaper. While it's more convenient and we did use them for car trips at first, I found out that using regular underpants worked the best. There's no substitute for the real feeling of wet underpants I believe. It was hard and we did alot of laundry!!! But she seemed to respond better to this. Also I tried the on on the potty seat but ended up taking her to buy her own special potty that sat on the floor which she really enjoyed and she trained on it, then it turned into a step stool for the big potty.

Well, I have two girls 10 & 5 and I hear that they are easier but I have found the pull ups to be useless....too much like pampers no matter how you cut it. I trained my 5 yr old literally in about a day .....it was on a weekend when I had nowhere to be and I used the good old fashion cloth training pants...(they do still make them) I just started out the day with a piar and each time she had an accident I put her on the toilet for a few minutes...cleaned her up and put another pair on her....we went through many sets of clothes but I promise you that the second day the accidents were about half that of the first and by the end of the second day ....she had it! No lie ....I think its important that they get that nasty wet sensation to the full extent ....and we all know that kids (and animals) really learn through that repetition......give it a try! Good luck!

I USED TO BABYSITT A LOT AND POTTY TRAINED A DEW BOY'S AS WELL. I FOUND THAT AN OLD COFFEE CAN (TIN) WORKED REALY GOOD. I HAD THE HELP OF MY FAMILY'S AND THEY SAID ONCE THEY HAD A MALE SHOW THEM THE TINKEL SOUND IT MADE IN THE COFFEE CAN THEY LEARNED REALY WELL TO USE IT AND GRADUATE WITH A STEP STOOL TO USE THE BIG BOY POTTY.

When I was potty training my son, I would let him wear underwear and no pants around the house. That way he could go quick if he had the urge. I also had him sit on his potty every time I went and yes I would give him one M&M every time he sat there even if he didn't go potty. About the underwear, I took him to Wal-mart and let him pick out what kind he wanted. He picked Shrek. When we came home, I told him, YOU CAN'T PEE PEE ON SHREK OKAY. If he started to have an accident, he didn't like the way it felt in real underwear, so he'd stop and RUN to the potty. If he was in his playroom, I would make his potty real accessible. Eventually we upgraded to a big boy stool and the big potty. Knock on wood, my son has never wet the bed and he is so proud of himself, my husband and I would make a HUGE deal about what a good job he did if he went.

pull ups didn't work for me with either kid. Try to grin and bear it and use big boy underpants. Mine trained very quickly after the first few accidents. He also did better just using the big potty. There's no magic solution... good luck!

I heard if you put cheerios in the toilet bowl when he needs to pee and tell him to aim for the cheerios it helps boys learn. As for going #2 I have no idea hun.
-N.

Hi there,
My little girl will be 4 next Sunday and actully the daycare helped me with the potty training. She has been potty trained for 1 year already. Her teacher told me to bring her lots of cloths, within a couple of weeks Sofia was going to the potty. I didn't really use the pull ups, I got her underwears that have Dora, Blue's clue, etc and she loves them. She was consently reminded to go use the potty even though she did not have to. When she has an accident she does not like to feel wet maybe you can by him cool underwears and just consently remind him and see what happens, maybe if he pottys on himslef he won't like the feel of being wet. Sofia doesn't use pull ups at night and she can drink anything before bed and won't go potty until morning. My issue with her is her paci.... Hope this helps..