Potty Training Help for a 3 Year Old

If you do it when he's ready, it will take only a week, sometimes less. If you do it when you're ready, it will take FOREVER! Let him lead. Kids don't usually go to kindergarten in diapers. Be patient.

Try the Dr. Phil website and type in potty training in the search area. He has some ideas about getting a doll that "pees" and showing him how to do it on the potty with the doll then giving the doll a "potty party" with lots of praise and the works......party hats, blowers, cupcakes, whatever will make it exciting. THEN, your child will probably want his own party and attention. Have you tried putting him in only underwear when you're around the house so he feels the wetness and starts not liking it. It's a lot of work and laundry, but it really has worked for my son. He is only about 70% trained though...still goes in the diaper sometimes when he does wear them. Good luck!

Hello S.,

I have a 4yr old son. I started sitting him on the toilet @ the same age of your son. He seemed to like it @ first but he steered away from it. What I've learned is to just be patient. He will let you know when he wants to start using the potty. I still got my son potty trained @ the age of 3. After 9 months, my son asked if he could go "peep" on the toilet. From then on, he was my lil big boy. If he's not all there yet, have him practice with a pull up instead of using a diaper. My son still uses a pull up @ nite in case of emergency. Hope this helps :)

F. C

I have a son that was pretty resistant to potty training. I read what I thought were the right books and tried what all my friends tried. Nothing worked. I was then told to read Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day: Proven Secrets of the Potty Pro by Teri Crane. It worked. He was using the potty in 1 day just like the book had said. The secret was having your son teach a doll how to go. My son chose Elmo. We did not teach my son at all we taught Elmo. My son was so proud of Elmo half way through the day he wanted to see if he could do it. The book explains in detail how to use the doll. It also talks about a potty party which I kinda did. I know you don't want another book, but this one worked. Good luck.

Hi S.,
My sister let her little boy run around naked (with a shirt) for a week. By the end of the week, he was potty trained. Yes, it may get messy at times, but it worked for her.
Good luck!

You need to find a consequence to motivate him in a negative way. We all can't be won with rewards, so take away something that he likes. By the age of 3 your children need to be watching you for cues to behavior. If you try to make nice about everything then when will they learn that something is unacceptable?

I second what another Mom said. If you wait till he is ready, it is less stressful for both of you and it happens very quickly. He simply may not be ready. I found The No Cry Potty Training Solution by Elizabeth Pantley to be a great read. For starters, you'll find out right off the bat if he is ready according to her readiness signs and if he is, what direction to go.
Best wishes,
M.

you should let him run around naked ..and have a little potty in the living room..if u have carpet that could be a problem maybe you could lay some plastic out? or have an area where he's allowed to play naked that he can't mess up.. i'm a single SAHM..i take my son into bathrooms w/ me and i squat over the toilet and pee and tell him what i'm doing and why..
and i used to take his dirty diaper and have him help me dump the poop in the toilet and have him flush...flushing seems fun to little ones..
you just talk about it w/ them and tell them about it..i never offered rewards..my son just saw me doing it and when he sees his dad he sees him go..
and so that's how he learned he started at like 22 months..
i made the mistake of putting him in pullups when we would go out..so i've knocked that off and i just have him go after awhile..i ask and he always says he doesn't have to go but then he'll go in his pants so now i just take him into the bathroom after about an hour or 2 and i say make a pee pee
but the naked way is the way to start..you'll see your son will just go sit on the toilet..might have a couple of accident but he'll do it..talk to him about it.

I have a couple of ideas for you to try. If you're brave, you might just let him run around without anything on at all. I know that some kids do well with this style of potty training because they know they're not just supposed to pee whenever or wherever they feel like it. This can be a motivator to get to the potty. My friend tried buying some underwear with kids favorite TV character's faces on them, like Spiderman or something like that. You explain to your son that Spiderman doesn't like getting his face peed on. It makes it kind of personal for them. I hope either one of those ideas might work for you. Good luck!

I agree with the other mothers who said he might not be ready and to wait. I have three kids, used this method all three times and have no complaints. When they were ready they just stopped using diapers/pull ups and went to undies, no accidents, no bribes, no taking things away, NOTHING, they just were ready. My daughter was two and both boys were just a few months over three. I used this method with my nephew who was 3.5 and my niece who was 2.5. Maybe he is just not ready, and it seems that it takes longer for both child and parent if you push the potty. And with all those accidents, you sons self esteem will get lower and lower and he might feel like using the potty is something he just can not do. We did watch some videos about using the potty, read some books, and I told them all the time that when they were ready they WOULD (not could, that suggests that they have other choices) use the potty, and they did. Good luck.

If he pees with out the diaper put some regular underwear on if he wets them then make him change them. Tell him he has to sit on the potty. Stand their & every time he gets off put him back on. Tell him if he does not stay on the potty & do something then he is going to loose something such as a tv show or a toy. But if he starts being a big boy & starts potty when he should in the big boy potty they he will get them back. If he poops in a diaper make him wear it & shame him. If he does it in underwear. make him rinse it out in the toliet in the cold water. Shame him when he pees his pants. Make him wear them wet for a bite so he feels how nasty it feels & smells after they dry especially if he would pee them more than once. Kids don't come with instructions & I don't know that the 3-day thing will work either. What works for 1 does not always work for another. Knowledge & experience are most always better than books.

All it took for my son was watching Daddy stand up and pee. I was training him sitting down for over a month and not once did he pee in the toilet but one night my husband took him in the bathroom and like magic he started doing it and didn't have one accident after that! My nephew was potty training at the same time for 2 months and never went in the potty and daddy wasn't comfortable showing him how so on easter when they came over I had him go in the bathroom with my son and ever since then he's gone in the potty "like Junior." If you're afraid of him missing the toilet have him hold on to the back of the toilet and at that angle they don't miss. Just keep lots of Lysol around to spray where he'll be holding. Good Luck!

I worked with my son and we used one of his stuffed animals and taught it how to go potty. You have him sit on the potty and the stuffed animal sit on the big potty. Fill a medicine syringe (without the needle) with water and when your child is not looking, stick it behind the stuffed animal and squirt it into the potty, to simulate the stuffed animal going pee pee. Make a big deal of it, clap for the stuffed animal..."yay, he went to the potty!" Do this a few times a day. You can simulate the stuffed animal going poo poo by putting chocolate pudding into the syringe. I did that a few times for a few days but not everyday. It took awhile of doing that and him watching other kids potty but he was trained at about 3 1/2 years old.

Best wishes,
J.

I know this may sound kind of strange, but it sounds like he is not ready. Unless there is a reason like school to push him, just relax and it will happen. Have the toilet out for him "just in case". My son really was not interested, but I knew it was time when he woke up from sleeping 12 hours at night with a dry diaper. As my Mom always says...they won't go to High School with a diaper.

Good luck

S.,
Sometimes they just aren't ready.... Especially boys at 3. Stop completely and wait a few weeks and then start up again. You will be surprised how a few weeks can make a difference. Good luck and don't worry, eventually they all get it.

Hi S.,

Here's some things we tried with our daughter: give stickers or candy each time he sits on the potty, put a toy where he can see it but not reach it and give it to him after so many time sitting on the potty, don't put diapers or underwear on him and if he pees maybe he won't like his clothes wet, try putting him on the potty every 20-30min, if he sits on the potty have him count to 10 before he can get up (most times they'll pee in that time), read books about going potty, and have him go in the bathroom with other kids his age who are potty-trained. Hope these help.

C.

I got my 3 year old a potty video. She watched it once and startd using the potty. Not all the time, but now she has the concept.
G. D.

I flat out bribed my son. I looked at him and asked "do you want to go to Magic Mountain?" he said "yes" and I said "too bad they don't allow diapers there". Within a week he was out of diapers and never ever had an 'accident'.