My son just turned 3 in January and I thought it was about time to potty train him. He has watched videos (Elmo Potty time) and we have discussed with him that he will need to start going potty in the toilet when he turns 3. He doesn't show any signs of wanting to go in either his potty or the toilet, we cant even put underwear on him. He is a smart boy but wants nothing to do with underwear or going potty in the toilet. He watches his daddy go and we tried a game with cheerios in the toilet, he liked it but will not do it himself. Also, what is the best way to train boys, sitting down or standing up? I know all kids are different, I didn't go through this with my daughter. :) Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. Maybe I just need to wait until he is ready, he is already 38 months. Any ideas how to get him interested. Oh and I have tried treats also.
My son is finally potty trained. I was going to try the 3 day method but didn't. I started initially by not talking about going pee pee in the toilet as I could feel his resistence and i didn't want to pressure him, i didn't mention it for about 1 1/2 weeks. Then I told him we are going to go buy him some underwear (again) Diego, and we also got him some buzz lightyear pull ups. I basically told him that he is a big boy now and that he can go pee pee/poo poo in the toilet now. What got him going was I caught him standing up going in the bath tub and praised him and took him to the toilet and said that is exactly how you should do it in the toilet. I stayed home that Friday, when he got up in the morning I said do you want to go pee pee in the toilet and he said YES and he did. We worked on it all day, he did such a good job and was pretty much trained by the end of the day, and poo poo came the next day. He has only had a couple accidents in the beginning, one during the day and the other at night. It has now been about a 1 1/2 months and now he has no accidents and goes through the night dry. The key was, DO NOT pressure them, if they feel pressure they will do just the opposite. Give lots of praise, I actually told my son that I would get him a big surprise if he went pee pee in the toilet. So I didn't follow the 3 day plan as I didnt need it, he was trained on day 1 and I did use pull ups for the first few days and at night and it did not affect his training. Thanks for all the comments and feedback.
The three day method works great! It's at www.3daypottytraining.com. I did this with my son when he was 3. We got a Peter Potty so he could learn to pee standing up. After he was fully trained and over the excitement of the Peter Potty, we hid it. (I did get tired of cleaning it.) Now he still stands up at the commode.
Good luck!
I would wait until he shows interest - you can't force it. My neice was over 3 when she finally was interested. Once she was, she trained fast! Just try to be patient - haven't seen an untrained 5 year old yet!!!
My experience in this area was not to push. This is one thing that kids can control and at this age thats what they want to do-control. Unless he is showing signs of interest I wouldn't push it on him. He will simply take longer to train. My son was easy to pee train but the poop thing took way longer than it should have. He just turned five and in the last 6 months has become reliable to use the toilet every time. Give him some time.
You can't push him to do it, if he's not ready, but positive rewards can make all the difference. At first we just used the potty for fun - pretending the stuffed animals were using it, etc. Then when ready, I used rewards (which were stickers and sometimes m&m's). I put the potty seat in front of Sesame Street and gave a sticker for just sitting on the potty (even for a minute). Gradually I gave a sticker for 5 minutes of sitting and then eventually for actually going. Big boy underwear that he picks out himself are also a great incentive. Make a big deal when he does finally go - Potty Party! Above all else, make it fun.
I taught my son myself, so he pees and poops sitting down. A friend of mine told me the best way to teach a little boy is to teach him to pee down the shower drain. Being a girl, I never tried that :-) but he swore by it. We loved "Elmos potty time". Mine started about 3 years old, but wasn't fully potty trained till 4 1/2 years (to my shame) and then by force. "They" say that they are physically ready when they wake up dry.
Accidentally run out of diapers. Plan it for a weekend (preferably a long weekend) when you know you can just stay around the house, and make a big deal out of it. "Oh, gosh! We ran out of diapers! And I planned a whole fun day, too! Well, maybe you can just use the potty chair instead. I'll put it right here while we play and if you have to go, you can use the potty." Then just keep him in underwear and a shirt all day for fast access. A coworkers did this with her 3-year-old and it worked like a charm. He had one accident when he was running to his potty chair and leaked a little, but other than that, he did great. Sometimes, they understand about using the potty, but why bother if the diapers are right there? Or, he just not be ready. If you try this trick and he still doesn't take to it, just wait a little longer. Like my MIL says, "When he's the President of the United States, what will it matter when he was potty trained?" Good luck...
I don't mean to discourage you, but neither of my boys was ready to potty train before 3.5 years. So your son may just not be quite ready yet. The good news is that once they were ready, they were READY and it was relatively easy. We used a sticker chart to incentivize our older, and that seemed to work well. We trained them both sitting down, mainly to minimize the mess. Good luck!
You have to wait, or else you will prolong the whole thing - seriously. Be patient - it will happen. Eventually it will be okay with him, then check out 3 day potty training - it's great.
Some kids really go the other way when pressured - my son did that.
We attempted a couple of times before our son was finally ready. We did a lot of praising with each successful event. We used m&m's as a reward, 1 for pee and 2 for #2. If he went to the potty but didn't go I would praise him but he didn't get anything. He only got the reward when he actually went. I would put thick towels on the couch and make sure he sits on the towels incase he has an accident. I tought our son to sit down first. I think it made it easier for those times he had to go #2. Probably at about 3 months in doing good at home and daycare, he started standing up to pee. He is 3 yrs 4 mo and has been potty trained for 7 mo now. He wears pullups at night, we call them "night time underwear". Just in the last 2 weeks he has finally had more dry nights than wet nights. I think we're getting closer to wearing regular underwear at night. From everything I've read here and elsewhere says once they go for about 2 weeks of dry nights they are ready. Keeping my fingers crossed. =)
Usually positive reinforcement is key. In this case however, I think your son is probably very aware of the situation and simply doesn't approve of having to toilet himself. I mean, if we were used to being pampered, we wouldn't want to let go of it either! With my son, I found the simplest way is the most effective. Take every diaper out of your home and keep only the pull ups for night time. You're going to endure fits, he's going to cry, he's going to be down right pissed off. The key is consistency. When potty training my son, I simply put a long shirt on him with no underwear or pants and let him roam the house. Almost all children have an aversion to pottying on the floor, they KNOW it's wrong, so they will turn to the most convenient option and go potty in a place that won't earn them a time-out: The Potty. Should he potty in the floor? He knows better, you know it, he knows it, and it's time for a time-out. ALSO, one of the MOST important parts of this technique is praise. Yes, it's negative reinforcement to apply the time-out standard, but children need discipline and letting a child potty all over your home is only going to hurt them when they grow up and face real consequences. When your child goes potty in the toilet -- THROW A PARTY! Dance, yell "GOOD JOB!" wipe him if that's the case and immediately hug and kiss him. Now it's down to a science the child can understand: Pee in the potty and get praise, or pee on the floor and get time-out. Hope this helps!
My son was potty trained just 3 months shy of his 4th birthday. It's okay to wait. I waited until he was more than ready and made it an overnight transition to big boy pants. What he needed was motivation. I let him pick out one toy he must have. In our case, he had been asking for a toy garbage truck for eons. The toy went on display in the bathroom during the first week of potty training and was the reward for keeping the potty routine for a week. All the other little treats (stickers, chart, matchbox cars) helped with every potty attempt. Two days prior, we read the potty books and told him the transition was going to happen in 2 days. On potty training day, I used the peeing doll to demonstrate the transition. If you live through a few accidents, he'll finally learn. If your son shows resistance even to putting on underwear, wait a couple of months then assess again. And I do think it's easier to train boys sitting down if mom is doing the training....
How do you handle it potty training is the pre-school you want your child to go to will not talk them until they are trained??
