Potty Training - Stafford, VA

I have a 3 year old boy to but he was potty at 2 1/2 want i did was let him feel the wetness in the underwear and his pant he promblem won't like that. If that doesn't work try putting on the potty every 15 to 20 mintues all day GOOD LUCK

Hi S.!

My name is L. and I am new to the Moms group too...my son is almost 3 1/2 and he has just started really potty training. Before he would go pee-pee on the potty at home, but never poopy (he would tell me after he had already gone). All of a sudden it seems like everything has just "clicked!" He is now telling his teachers at Daycare that he has to go poopy on the potty and is also telling them when he has to go pee-pee. He started doing this around the first of the year (what a newyears present!) I was getting worried just like you and everyone kept telling me that he would do it when he was ready, to just lay off for now. So that is what my husband and I did and now he is coming home from daycare with good reports! (oh, to get him to go poopy on the potty the first time, I told him he could have M&M's if he did and ever since then we just tell him if he goes he gets M&M's...we just put like 5 of them in a sandwich bag and he thinks he is getting a lot) So I guess my advice to you is to just give him some time and I'm sure it will just click, I know that is hard to hear I was just in the same boat only a couple of weeks ago! Hang in there!

L.

My son was about to turn 3 and, like some others said, it just "clicked". If you wait until he is truly ready, you will be able to potty train him in about a week. It can be hard to tell when it is time so try it and if it's not working, try in a month or so. My sons pedi told me to put him in underwear and he will be potty trained in about a week. It can get very messy! I tried that but I think ultimately my son just got it on his own. He wanted to stand up with his hands against the wall behind the little potty like the big boys at school do (eww the germs that must be on that wall lol).

I started w/ my daughter (who will also be 3 in Feb) not long after she turned 1 but didn't really start to push it until close to two. I had to toward the end bring her little potty into the corner of the living room, where we played the most, so when it was time, there was no running and not making it. I would try a chart. ( I had to do that w/ her bad behavior ) Give him a smiley face for every time he uses the potty and if he gets so many a day then take him to the dollar store for a new little toy or do something special. Its just not exciting for him. We got a potty that you can actually "flush" and record your voice saying something good when they go. She loved to hear it.... I hope any of that helps! Good luck!

Contrary to popular belief, there is no "magic" age at which kids are ready for potty training. I know it's very frustrating as parents when our kids don't do what we expect them to do by a certain age. Not all children are ready at the age of three. Please don't push your son! Even though he may be familiar with everything, he may not be ready. Rushing him into it may only delay it even further. Also, please don't punish him for anything having to do with potty training. It will not help, and may even hurt the progress you make. At the DOVE Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (where I work) we have some great info on the subject of potty- training. Please visit this link for a great teaching tool- http://www.chop.edu/consumer/your_child/condition_section.... Good luck!

My girl was closer to four before she finally got used to it. It took a case of the chicken pox. I guess having the diaper and the pox wasn't aggreing with the tushy. Your son will eventually go. Just keep asking if he has to go potty.

you know i am new to this too and i am sorry but i was going to ask the same question my son will be 3 in feb also. but i cant figure out how to post a question so if you get any good advice if you could send it to me please

my son is almost 2 1/2, and was familiar with the potty, but always refused to go. Over Christmas break, I was home with him for a few days, and just kept him in underwear (he picked out the ones he liked...Thomas). Yes, we had accidents, but I just kept changing his underwear. Often he got to the bathroom right as he was going, so things were messy for a few days. I even sent him to daycare on day 4 of his training in underwear, along with about 5 complete changes of clothing. About a week into it, he didnt even want to go in his diaper when I put him in one for a long car trip, and we have been good ever since. I still use a diaper for the nighttime, but not during naps. I didnt really wait till HE told me he was ready, I just waited till I was sure he knew what the potty was about, and if your son tells you right after he goes, then he has some awareness. I would ditch the diapers, they're a crutch. Deal with puddles and lots of laundry for maybe a week or two, and you will probably get a potty trained kid in exchange. And give him options (standing, sitting, toilet, potty, whatever, make it HIS choice, just not diapers).

Good luck!

Hi, my name is K.. I have a 3 yr old son who just recently, I would say in the last month got potty trained. He turned 3 in Dec. Well, now he is going backwards. He stands in front of me and pees. He says he doesnt want to go on the potty anymore. Im shocked ! I dont what to do. Everyone tells me to take my time. But I feel like Im doing something wrong. OMG..it really upsets me. At first around Christmas I told him that santa was watching. It really worked. He went by himself and everything. I made a potty chart with is name on top,( he helped me make it) and everytime he went on the potty, he got to put a sticker on it. He loved it. We hung it in his room. It worked, but now I dont even know. Good luck with your son. Try thr chart it really worked. Thanks for listening !

K.

Someone else here had the same questions you did, so I am copying my response to her.

My oldest son was almost 4 when he finally potty trained. I was very frustrated as well. Try letting him run around naked at home. His only option is going to be to either use the toilet or he will hit the floor. After my son got in trouble 2 times for the floor he never did it again and started using the potty. Sometimes children are also afraid of having a BM also on the potty. Boys are definitely harder to train then boys, although I did have a hard time with my daughter too, but she thought she was supposed to stand up as well like her brothers..haha. I even got into telling my oldest they won't let you go to Kindergarten if you don't use the potty, that worked well because he wanted to go to real school so badly. I also even broke down sometimes to tell him only babies go in their underwear, does that mean your a baby?? I totally did away with pullups or diapers because I didn't want him to think that option was still there for him. I told him underwear was all we had. Believe me they don't like it being messy and against them. But there also will be some accidents after because they will be so busy playing at times and not go, that you just have to accept and let them know the next time they have to use the potty. Also you can buy the Once Upon a Potty book, they also have the book/movie package which i had, all my kids LOVED that book and we read it alot. They look at it now and laugh of course....Good luck

Oh let me add some children prefer the small childrens potties and some prefer the normal toilet, i had 1 son who liked the child one and one that liked regular, you may want to try this. Also my middle child liked the child's potty that played music if you went in it, I forget who makes it..

S.,

Right before/at 3rd bday my son, understood the concept of using the potty, but it was hit or miss, unless he ran around the house bottomless. And of course for nap time he wanted a diaper or pullup on - he was mortified if he had an accident.

I bought a few bedpads that go on top of the sheets, (I got the ones I used at One Step Ahead). And then he was comfortable to try napping without a diaper. Between that, using stickers on a reward chart for each success, and not pushing just letting whatever happened be ok, he suddenly about 1 month after his 3rd birthday just got it. Like someone else said: it just all came together and "clicked". And that was that. No more diapers - ever, not for trips, not overnight. Hang in there...you are almost there...give it at least another 6 months. You and your son are doing great with this!

You know, I have had a really hard time getting my three year old girl to potty train. My doctor assures me that it is normal and that most children do not get fully potty trained until they are four or five. She said that they really do not grasp that their blatters are full until about that age. I was getting really pressured from my mom and other relatives that she is delayed and that I should start to disapline her when she does not go in the potty, but I have never done that. I simply encourage when she goes and when she does not I come at her with nothing but understanding. They do not like to have accidents and it makes matters worse to discourage (as I am sure you already know). My advice would be to just hang in there! I am hanging in there with you! My email is ____@____.com if you would like to email! Hope to hear from you as I am new to this as well and would love to make more friends.

hello S.,
have you tried making it into a game. you can use cheerios , put a hand full in the toilet and tell him that if he sinks them all he will get something special like a stick, or you can just use a sticker chart that sometimes works wiht kids, the cheerios thing helped with my girlfriends kids, my daughter was easy i introduced her to the potty chair the summer after she turned one and that summer she went on the potty, but when winter came she didn't want anything to do with it only because she had to wear more clothes, so i didn't push the issue, then the right before she turned two i introduced her to the toilet, and she just started going, i mean i would have to ask her becasue if i didn't she wouldn't remember her self and that understandable. i hope that something on here helps you out
good luck
S.

Ok, so I initially responded with an "I have no idea" answer, but I just started training Colin - my almost 3 year old on Sunday. I keep a potty chair in the living room near his toys and one in the bathroom upstairs so he doesn't have far to go. He has had 2 accidents with big boy underwear on - I think he feels like that's security, and possibly too hard to pull down. So, I have put him in sweat pants which are easy for him to pull down and have let him go commando. I'm also asking him if he has to go or to try and go every 20 minutes or so. He's been very good so far, but I can't get him to poop in the potty. He waits until nap or bedtime when I do put a diaper on him. I'm going to try next week at naptime to keep the diaper off. We'll see. Finally, REWARDS WORK, We keep a potty chart that he gets to put stickers on every time he goes! He also gets a special snack before bed if he doesn't have any accidents at all!!!Hope it works for you!!!! Good Luck!!