Potty Training - Mount Hermon,LA

Relax, and know that you are not alone! It is so hard to potty train boys! I am potty ytraining a two and a half year old boy. He pee pees in the potty now, but poops in his pants. He started off doing the same thing. I would put them in underwear while at home. Once they pee pee on the potty, do a song and dance and give them a piece of candy or other treat. Some people use stickers, I give fruit snacks or jelly beans. It may take the two year old a little longer than the threee year old. Good luck, it will happen!

I had the same problem with my three year old. The only thing that worked for me, was to make him go every half hour to an hour. I'd make him "try" even if he said he didn't have too. If he did potty while there, he got a reward. My sitter did the same thing while I was at work, and I rewarded him for days that he had minimal accidents and then we eventually moved on to a treat for days with no accidents. I potty trained around Halloween, and the only way he could have something from his trick or treat bucket was to potty. This also ensured that the I could wean him off of the treats too!

Also, I had him in the Gerber training pants. When we'd to go to Wal-Mart or Target we'd pass by the aisle with "big boy underwear". We'd tell him that he couldn't have a pack of those until he would use the potty. So, he also had that for motivation as well.

Hope this helps!

M.,
Hello. What worked for us was moving to regular underwear and a few other tips I have. I let my daughter pick her underwear out at the store and our motto is to keep them "clean and dry", we say this every time we put our underwear on, I tell her she did a good job keeping them "clean and dry" when we go to use the potty (if they are), and remind her again when we pull them up after she uses the potty. Find about 3 days when you can just stay at home or in your neighborhood. I would take each one to the potty - to just try every hour and then explain that he won't have to go so often if he starts to tell you when he has to go pee or poop. I would still be aware of the time; children do get busy playing and don't want to stop. So, if it's been over 2 hours, I'd just say it's time to try to pee or poop.

Accidents will happen, and I never made a big deal out of it; however, it was my daughter that had to clean it up - meaning, she had to take her own shorts and underwear off, wipe herself clean and if it got on anything else like the floor, I gave her a wet cloth to clean it up (of course sometimes I would still need to go over it more), and then she had to carry her wet clothes to the washing machine, come back wash her hands and get re-dressed. I would ask, "Where do we put our pee and poop?" She would say, "In Potty" and I said "That's right, let's do that next time." I have always been kind and understanding (even when I just asked if she needed to go potty), and just talked her through each step of clean up. It's just natural consequences. After about two days of having to fully clean up after himself, I think each son will start using the potty.

I would move to underwear and have each son clean himself when accidents do occur, but that's just me. We did still use pull-ups for nap and night until those can be mastered too. Sorry this is so long, hope it's helpful. Best of luck to you.
~ J.

Well, looks like a lot of good advice for you so far. However, I would like to add a few other suggestions. I have 2 boys. It was definitely harder to get them to poop than to pee in the toilet, so that took a little longer. I agree with this because of experience and my sister had the same experience, but one of the main reasons that I think it is harder to train them to poop in the toilet is because I think alot of kids(especially boys for some reason) at times can't tell the difference between having to poop or pass gas. Anyway, as far as the peeing goes, I learned alot from my oldest sister who had potty-trained identical twin boys. Exactly as she suggested, I made it alot of fun for them. I would let them pee in cups, bottles, outside on the rocks or in the dirt, etc. They just thought it was the coolest thing that they could just pee anywhere and they knew that I thought it was funny, so that just inspired them that much more to do that. At this same time, they were also always told to let me know when they would have to go, so I did not have any issues of them just going out in public in front of people and peeing. They always came to me to tell me they had to go pee. It is really no different than telling them to tell you when they have to go, and then you take them to the toilet. Instead, when you ask them or if they tell you they have to go, they know it will be fun. That motivates them to tell you they have to go. After that, it doesn't take very long to get them to want to use the toilet and make yellow bubbles(LOL!), or as one person said, try to pee inside the Cheerio. Make it as much fun as possible, and let them know you think it's funny, because kids get a kick out of drawing attention and making people laugh. Hope this helps!
P.S. I have seen alot of people try to potty-train their boys by making them sit to pee like a girl. That is boring and usually makes a mess. I suggest to stay away from that method if you or others have tried that. It doesn't work very well.

The ability to pull their pants up and down and get off and on the toilet without any help is very helpful. I have three boys and none of them were ready before three. That does not mean they never went on the potty before three and didn't show interest before that but to really be trained. I don't know all the details and I don't know your boys but if it is that much of a struggle you need to let it go for a while because I promise you if they are not ready and or even if they are but you are stressing they will know it and it could really become a battle. This is one situation where you need to be encouraging but really watch cues from your boys. I would seriously walk away from it for a little while. I have potty trained my four kids and couple that weren't mine and my advice is that when you are frustrated they are frustrated. Honestly, by waiting awhile the process will be much easier. I also recommend using pull ups as little as possible. At night and when you will not be with them. (I used them when I put them in nursery at church) They just confuse them. Trust me I had three in diapers at once so I was anxious to potty train but if it becomes a battle it could last for years. This is one thing they need to be motivated to do and you need to be a ready and willing cheerleader. Good luck.

What helped out little one was to have her help clean it up. I think once she cleaned up after herself she learned it was "magical" someone actally had to do something to get them clean again.

As far as urinating, when i was potty training my son i went through that too. I also asked for advice and my grandmother told me to put like some generic cheap cheerios in the potty for him to aim for and try to pee-pee into the little hole, he never got it right, but he was very excited everytime he had to go pee-pee he would tell me because he knew that he would have fun trying to make it through the little holes. As far as a bowel movement we had problems for a while and his dad finally got him to do it somehow and i forgot how he got him to do it because tht was like 3 years ago when he did that nd i have been through so much since then that i can't remember what he did to get him to use it in the potty or even the toilet. Good luck, but really try the cheerios for the urinating part and see if that works for them!!!! I hope it works for you too.

When my almost 3 year old was going through potty training we would keep him in regular underwear during the evenings and on weekends. He had many accidents and when he did, he would come up to us and tell us that he needed a "new one"--which meant he had an accident and needed a new pair of underwear. Well Easter Sunday morning he came up to us and told us that he needed a "new one" and he was dry! We took him to the potty and he went--he's had maybe 3 accidents since then! That took about 1 to 2 months. So, my best advice is patience! Good luck!