Potty Training - College Station,TX

My boys were both 3. I tried around 2 1/2 and they would get upset and scared of the potty. I immediately stopped and it was much easier a few months later. I put them in underwear with plastic pants over. I ended up putting the potty in front to the TV (with lots of old towels under it and gave my youngest a big drink. I then said you can watch Dora for 30 minutes but sit on the potty while you watch. He ended up going in the potty while he was watching and I made a big deal celebrating it. It "clicked" with him. I did this after a few days of him having an accident right after he sat on the "big" potty. He wanted to be like his big brother but we realized he didn't want to be away from everyone. So, I moved his training potty and that worked for us. Good luck.

We used the "3-Day Potty Training" Method and IT WORKED!! I have a 3 year old little boy who is stubborn as anything and this is the only method I found to work with him. HOWEVER, we are still trying to tackle the "poopie." We found this method online and you buy and download the ebook. It's great! Good luck!

My girls pee unless they are naked. I think its a sensory issue. You train them to pee in a diaper so when they have the sensory input that something is on their bottoms they pee. It's subconscious.

My oldest was 4 when she was potty trained. My second is 4 1/2 and not there yet. They are very late trainers but then I wet my pants pretty regularly (sorry about the TMI) so I think they get it from me. I can't tell that I need to go until it's almost too late. You will need to remind him frequently, and it's ok to have him run around without clothes. LOL

S., still training my 4 1/2 YO, 3 1/2 YO and 1 1/2 YO (She wanted to do it since her older sister are.)

Keep him in underwear. The security of a diaper being there only makes it o.k. to potty in his pants. Try putting plastic covers (like the ones that were used with cloth diapers) over his underwear until he gets the hang of it. It can be frustrating at first, and a little messy, but it worked for my daughter. I did this with her the week after her second birthday. After the first week, she got the hang of it with the occasional accident in front of the potty. I did pull-ups at night. Once we got through the first pack, I realized she was waking up dry every morning. So, we did one pack of pull-ups and that was it! One thing not to do is get angry when he does have an accident. Just use encouraging words, like "you're a big boy - no more diapers." or "uh- oh, let's go sit on the potty next time." Do not be too pushy. If you try the underwear with plastic pants, and don't see improvement in about 1 -2 weeks, maybe he's not ready. Children are quicker and easier to potty train when they are ready and most are there by the age of 3yrs. You still have time. My daughter also enjoyed the video titled "Elmo goes Potty". That may give some encouragement for your son.
Good Luck!

Underwear all the way...pull-ups are just glorified diapers. Also, when he wets on the floor have him help you clean it up. Maybe set a timer and when it goes off have him read a few books on the potty. Also have him sit on the potty after each meal since that's when most children will get the urge to poop. My son was potty trained by his 2nd birthday so don't let people tell you that boys just aren't ready until age 3. Good Luck and be consistant!

I let my son run around naked until he was ready for undies. Undies gave him the same secure feeling that a diaper gave, so they didn't work for us at first. I used training pants (NOT Pull ups, as we are cloth users) that were much easier to pull up and down than undies, and they helped tons. THey were Potty Scotty brand. I used the regular ones with a slight absorbent core. It was enough that he felt wet, but not enough to get all over the carpet!

I just let my DS go naked at home, and still wore a diaper other places until he was ready. He's almost 3.5, and I am just now putting regular undies on him. The training undies made a huge difference in his potty learning!

I wish I had better advice, but you know how they say every child is different? I think this is nowhere more true than with potty training. Not that I have much experience in that department. My daughter practically potty trained herself by 20 months, and it's been a couple of weeks since she wet her panties (not counting the one and only time she wet the bed during a nap about a week ago). I used cloth diapers until I felt she could hold it well enough, and then switched straight to panties (the smallest size I could find, because she's rather petite). She's not even two yet. I would say just keep working with him, and try taking him to the potty as often as you can. See if you can get him to tell you when he needs to go. With my daughter, she started telling me immediately after peeing, then during, then just before, and gradually learned to hold it on the run to the potty. I never expected to potty train this early, so I never pushed her, but she just did it. One thing we did that might help was to wave goodbye as we flushed the toilet, saying "Bye bye pee pee (or poo poo)" as it flushed--and letting her flush. This only lasted a few weeks before she got bored with it (thank goodness!), but I do think it motivated her to get going with the process. You might try it.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

I've been reading this book, 'On Becoming Potty Wise For Toddlers'. It's really insightful & full of good info. (I'm just going to be starting with my 14 1/2 month old boy, so I'm excited to see how it plays out.)
Anyhow, as with any book or advice from others, you need to pick & choose what works for you & your child.
Please let me know how everything works out for you!

I am in the middle of potty-training a 2 1/2 year old boy. Lately we have had more success, by that I mean one to 2 pairs of underwear a day. I take him to the bathroom every 2 hours or when he tells me. He is getting better at telling me. I also have a potty chart where he gets to put a sticker on it when he goes to the bathroom and was dry to start with. When the chart is full, he gets to buy a reward. The first chart took us a couple of months. Each time he got to put a sticker up it was a big deal. After he got the first reward he know sees the point and is trying much harder. And has even taken himself to the bathroom without telling me he needed to go.

Good luck1

When you sit him on the potty, run the faucet - often the sound of water running will encourage a toddler to urinate.
Alternately, you could give him a jug and a bowl of water to pour and play while he is sitting on the potty.
Reward, reward, reward whenever he uses the potty - even if the first few times were lucky "catches". He will immediately think he is amazing and want to use the potty again and again.
I resorted to using smarties as rewards as well.
Anything to get rid of diapers!!

I used training pants (not pull-ups)- they're underwear, but thicker and won't mess up clothes and furniture, etc. But, they allow him to know he's wet. Then take him to finish in the toilet. Also, you need to put him on a schedule of some kind. Go after waking up and after nap time. Take him 15-20 minutes after drinking something (or sooner depending on child). Otherwise, you need to set a timer or something for every hour when at home to go try and go potty. My last one got so used to it, that when the timer would go off, he started to just go on his own. Eventually, they will get better and won't have to be reminded to go so often; only before we get into the car, before we get in the middle of shopping, before we leave, etc. Then, they will get to where they just tell you they need to go. I did use pull-ups when out and about until I was sure he no longer needed them.

Putting something in the toilet for him to aim at worked well for us. Cheerios are cheap (relatively), and little boys can sink them. This would be standing on a stool of course, making him feel like a big boy.

Dear M., I just saw Kathie Lee and Hoods on the Today Talk Show this past week (9/12/08)where they introduced "Baby Gotta Go". This is the doll that is used for potty training, comes with a commode, she peas and pottys in her little commode. I don't know if it will help your child but it's worth a try. Good luck, K. G.

It may be too early to begin potty training. Although he seems to be intellectually mature because he already understands when he's wet and dry, he may not be physically mature enough for potty training yet. I don't know anyone who was able to potty train their boys earlier than the age of 3. It just takes that long for their muscles and nerves to be mature enough that they can actually control when and where they pee. I would wait a few months and try again.

my 1st 2 kiddos (boys) were each very different and now my 3rd (a girl) was even more different - i put her in panties - we talked about throwing her diapers away and within 24 hours after we started "panty checks," she came to me and said she was ready to throw them away (actually we donated them but throwing away seemed more final to her) --

so, these "panty checks" - or underwear checks for your son, start out by checking about every 10 minutes and if he is dry, he gets a little treat (1/4 of a jelly belly, 1/2 a chewy spree -- tiny, tiny treat) - this totally reinforces the dry underwear with frequent chances for success. (rather than promising that if he uses the potty he'll be rewarded - the promise of a treat for something she had never done was just something that didn't work for her). encourage trying to use the potty thru the whole process but if underwear gets wet then "oh well" and keep going with the reinforcement of underwear checks - go from 10 minutes after a few hours to 20-30 minutes for a few hours, etc. this literally worked for my daughter in less than 24 hours and prior to this she hadn't even pee-peed in the potty once!!! my girlfriend also used this method with her son with great success as well.

we did this just a few weeks ago and in addition to daytime success, she sleeps in panties at night and has had only 2 accidents.

the pooping thing has been a little tougher but knowing when she usually goes, i've tried to do "poopy panty checks" and if no poopy, then she gets rewarded.

good luck!!

I found that my son rather stand to pee than to sit on the toliet. I had my son watch his daddy go standing a couple of times. I threw in some cheerios in the toliet and asked him to try to get them. It worked. It made going potty fun and soon later he was a pro. In public restrooms i just make sure to place toliet paper on the rim so that he can still go standing up. I however am still tring to get him to go poop on the toliet. All in time. Good luck

I will tell you about my experience. I have two boys, almost 4 and 6. I started trying to potty train my first boy at 24 months (i was pregnant with the next one and wanted him out of diapers before the new one arrived). It was futile and frustrating and I gave up after 8 or 9 months. About a week after he was 3, he came up to me and told me he wasn't going to wear diapers any more. I bought him some pull-ups, but he only used one of them. He was potty-trained that afternoon. He just did it. All I needed to do was remind him before he went to bed or before we left the house to go potty. I was so amazed and felt so stupid for wasting my time trying to potty train when he wasn't ready. With the second, I just waited and he also potty trained himself around 3yr and 2 months. He did use pull ups for a little while (two weeks or so), but it was almost without effort and definately not stressful for any of us. We did use reward with the second. I got some of those little gifts you put in a pinata and put them in a cardboard prize box. When he didn't have any accidents all day, he got to pick out a prize out of the bos at the end of the day. We didn't include night-time in the contest, but he didn't have many wet-bed incidents anyway. I would caution about the cherrios in the toilet for aiming. I have heard more than one story of the 3 year old fishing them out to eat! I never used anything in the toilet, they just watched how dad does it!

I switched to underwear while my son was awake (he wore diapers at night). I waited until I was ready, too. I took him to the potty every 45 minutes to try. If he had an accident, then we backed it up to every 30 minutes. And yes, there were A LOT of accidents. He wore elastic waist regular pants and washable tennis shoes. We had SEVERAL pair of underwear, pants, and socks, and 2 pair of shoes. I had to train him to get the feeling even when he had his clothes on. He had to have a quite few accidents before he knew that feeling.
Good luck.

M.,
Potty training, especially with boys, is a long, drawn out, individual experience. For some, it happens over-night and for others it can take up to a year to grasp the concept. I believe it is actually more difficult if the child is very bright because they tend to rationalize what's going on and put meaning into the whole process rather than just relaxing and going!
They are too young to really be able to explain to you what's going on in their little heads, but someday he will just "get it"! Just work with him and use logic and he will eventually be peein' like a pro!
Good luck and God bless!
(Hope you all whethered the storm well. I think that nobody has been writing in because nobody can right now. Yours is the only letter up today!)
Deborah

I just happened to be babysitting some older boys when my son was that age. When he saw the "big" boys going in the potty he wanted to also. It really helped. Just be patient with him. God bless!

I taught in a child care center for a og time, and I taught in a 2 year old room for over 2 years. The best advice I can give for potty training is CONSISTENCY. You need to creat a schedule until he creates his own. In my classroom and with my own child we would go potty and wash our hands before and after every activity. It is best to taske them to try atlest once every hour. As far as diapers and pullups go, stay away from both. Pullups are the same as a diaper and don't allow them to feel whaen they are wet. The thing that I feel worked the best for my son was the thick training pants. They are the same as underwear, but are thicker and they definitely know when they are wet or dirty. We also bought tinkle targets which really excited the boys because they loved peeing on a truck, thisalso taught the importance of hitting the water and not everything in the basthroom. Like I said before the best asdvice I can give is BE CONSISTENT!

I trained my sharp little boy at 2 1/2. He was mostly accident-free in about a week and a half. I took the advice of a mother of twin 4 year old boys. She told me to go "cold turkey". That's what we did. I told him diapers were for night time only from now on. He just had accidents and the inconvenience of having to stop playing and clean up and change (especially if we were outside or doing something fun)was a real incentive for him to figure it out.

It wouldn't have worked if we weren't at home together most of the time (like if he was in day care) We did a lot of laundry, and I didn't make a big deal about the accident. I would just say whoops and suggest that he try to make it to the potty next time. Then we started a potty chart and he would get a small sticker for each pee and a large sticker for each poo and I told him that if he filled 3 days in a row w/ no accidents he could have a party. We did. two friends came to celebrate (after 3 days of no pee accidents--poo came along a little later) by bringing underpants and hitting the pinata.

good luck

The accidents he has are very important. He will eventually get it. My son didn't get completely trained until he was 3 years and 3 months. He was also night dry then as well. It will happen soon enough. Be patient. Keep him in underwear, not diapers or pull-ups while you are at home. Set the kitchen timer for every hour or so and tell him "Time to go potty." If he doesn't go, set it again for another 30-40 minutes and try again. It is important to be positive and encouraging. Set aside some time for training and be consistant. When you go out in public, put him in pull-ups. When you are home, keep him in underwear. Good Luck.

Hi M.,
Im in the process of training my 2 1/2 yr old boy also. I wish there was some kind of miracle advise I could give you other than PATIENCE. Lots and lots of it. I just make sure to ask him if he needs to go every 10 to 15 mins. He went poop for the first time yestarday in the potty. YEAH!! He got a new Hot Wheel car as a reward. Of course thats not happening everytime, but he didnt have no poop accidents yestarday. So I think we're getting there.

Good luck with your quest.

J.