Potty Training My Son - Chicago,IL

My husband swears by putting cheerios in the toilet and letting him "aim" for those to teach him in a fun way. That's what his mom did. Cheers!

Sit first and he'll get standing after he's mastered sitting.Congrats on the training at 19 months! My daughter will be 2 on Sat. and has NO interest! Kudos to him!!!

Hello,
I have a 3 1/2 yr old son he's been potty trained sence he was 2 1/2. It was actually pretty easy I always heard boys were harded then girls. I started out with Skyler sitting down this way it made it easier when he started going poop. When he gets control then he can stand. (I hate little pee messes) Ha! Another little trick we started was when he's in the tub have a plastic cup there that he can stand & pee in. I know this sound sorta gross but it works. He couldn't wait to say here mama. I hope this helps.

My son was 3 years old before he was truely successful and that was after we made it very inconvient not to go to the pottie. Every time he had an accident, He had to clean up the mess he made with paper towels etc.; he had to change his clothes and put them in a bucket of soapy water waiting by the washer in the basement. Then he had to take a bath and redress. You know after 3 days he felt it was much easier to go the pottie on the pot because it took less time. He also loved the praise we gave him. Some how little boys are more attached to their poop. My son came and got me to look at his poop one day. He was so proud of himself. I was properly amazed and He said "I worked hard!" So after admiring his "work" alittle longer I told him it was time to say goodbye to it and we flushed the toilet. My daughter never did this and was so much easier to train. So be patient and consistent and love him. As they say He will be trained by kindergarten.

When I started potty training my son we started off sitting. When he started to relize he had to go we let him start standing up. He doesn't make a mess. I make him focus on what he is doing. He suffers from ADHD and teaching him to stand up and focus on what he is doing as soon as I could worked best for me. I always felt if I let him sit down on a chair and not focus on where the pee should go then standing up would never work. But my son was around the age 2 before he felt the urge to go. Sitting on the potty is training your son what the urge feels like. Good Luck!

My son is 22 months and also sits on one of those seats that fits on top of the regular toilet seat. It has a cup guard on it, but it's not very high, so my husband told him to "push it down" and he does - with his hand just flat at the very top, not touching pee. He asks to use the toilet a few times a day and only for pee, so we are just in the early phases of potty training. I would prefer that my son not stand to pee until he's, I don't know...15? :) After seeing my friend's bathroom with 3 boys, I'd rather have a port-a-john in the backyard than let a toddler stand and pee in my bathroom!! Her 2 potty trained boys stood from the start because her husband thought it was appropriate and DEAR GOD, I have no idea how or why she went for that. Now at 4 and 6, I've seen both of them drop their pants on the way to the bathroom and spray half the wall before even getting anywhere near the toilet. I'm not exaggerating. It's really gross. My husband saw her son pee like that at our house when he was 3 (on the wall, floor, etc., before the little dribble that was left even made it in the toilet bowl). He was so horrified by it that he himself will sit to pee now so our son sees him do it and doesn't feel inspired to stand like a man!

When we were training our son we used the potty seat that sat on top of the toilet but my husband played a big part in his training. We felt that he could relate better with him than I could.
My husband and he worked on peeing standing up at about age 3 and he caught on right away but he had to use a stool.

Good Luck...

I first taught my son to sit down. Once he got the #2 thing down along with the pottying, then we moved to standing. It took him quite awhile to poop in the toliet so he sat for longer than I thought he would. I guess I took the #2 success as him being a "big boy" and, thus, being ready to stand (without creating a huge mess each time). He still had to turn around when he needed to poop so that's why I felt it was important to wait until he got the #2 thing down. If he didn't, he really wouldn't have wanted to take the extra time to sit down after peeing.

Teach him sitting first, it's so much easier once he gets the hang of that, then you can explain to him how to do it standing, put a few Cheerio's in the toilet & tell him to aim for those. it's fun for them to "sink the ships"

I am certainly no expert, but I am a M. of a 3 year old boy who is pottytrained. I followed some advice my M. gave me which I found useful: I put my son on the potty facing backwards. This gives the same effect as when they stand (facing backwards) but when they are young they are not tall enough usually to stand and make it "in" the potty.We also used a little potty in the very beginning but he preferred the big potty. Hope this helps!

Hey T., We started our son off sitting until he understood what the potty was for and the feeling associated with the potty. He made the transtion from sitting to standing without difficulties. Just remember boys take longer than girls. Good Luck!

Hi T.,
I taught my boys both ways from the start. It just seemed easier than having them have to do it one way.
Good Luck!
W.

My personal experience with this is that little boys want to be just like the big boys, who usually go standing up. However, when they are very young, the logistics are difficult, even if you have a step-stool. One thing that you can do to improve his aim as he tries to perfect his technique is to put a cheerio in the toilet and have him aim for it. It is unclear if he will understand this concept at his young age, however.

Hi T. I have 2 boys and 2 girls. I taught my boys to sit on the toliet when we started potty training. My problem was my boys were just to short(even with step stool) to reach the toliet standing. As for my sons they started standing up around 2.5 years. I think that what ever way you choose will be the right way, everyone is not the same. I hope that helped alittle. Thanks

My sons learned from me, my ex wasn't to swift. They learned sitting down first and when questions were asked (when they were big boys with gramps) they asked about standing and we talked about it. Ane then I had the messes of the toilet being missed, until they had to help keep the bathroom clean.

We taught our son to sit and pee. He is 4 and still sits. I'm in no rush to get him to stand and pee. It'll happen eventually. He doesn't have the skill to aim and pee right now and I don't want to deal with more mess than there is already. Plus, I've heard that when teaching boys, sitting is good initially so that they don't get confused between peeing and pooping and freaking out if they are sitting to poop and then pee during that time (which will happen).

good luck.
Aarti.

T.

I,too had a severe curve to potty training a boy after 3 daughters.I used to stress how I was gonna teach him to stand to go.Never fear,it's almost born into them. After learning the business and getting comfortable with it all,standing comes natural. It will take a little time but at 2 and potty trained he didn't go to school being the only sitting boy. Good luck and let nature take it's course. J.

Well. Put off teaching him to stand up as long as possible. The mess is a pain and it doesn't matter how old they are. I have one of those potty seats that fits on the regular toilet. It has a cup in front so it does go all over the place. These days though he prefers to sit on the toilet backwards so he can watch himself pee. Boys are soo funny. It works but when we are out....lets just say keep some of that antibacterial wash stuff handy. He likes to touch everything. It's so gross. At least he loves to wash his hands. lol..Good luck...

I really don't think it matters. At first, my son wanted to sit down like me. For reasons I do not understand, this bothered my husband, so he started announcing when he needed to use the bathroom. My little guy started following his daddy into the bathroom and suddenly wanted to stand up like his daddy. To help him aim, I used to put cheerios in the toilet. The downfall to the standing up thing is the poo. Little boys have to remember to sit down to do that, and it took me a while to convince my son that he can sit down to pee too. Looking back, it was actually very funny. Toilet training my daughter has been much easier!! Good luck!!

hi T., i have two boys, they are 4.9 and 2.7,with the first one i started potty training at 20 mths..big misstacke.took two years..very hard to do..and my 2nd boy about 1 mth ago he decided he wanted to wear underwear..i did not push him like the 1st..anyway i taught them to sit on the toliet and push your peepee down..let me know if you need any more advice..also cherrios work good in the toliet for amming problems down the road..take care and god bless...S.....