Advice on Potty Training - Macomb, MI

hi L.,
i also have a son that will be 3 in sep. i have been working with him but not like i probally should, i have tried those training pull ups, i think they don't work when they are first starting out, but what i have been doing is when he first gets up i put him right on the potty, but i use the big one, and he almost always goes, but i also have special treats for him for only when he goes and he knows if he goes he gets one of those treats, so he tries so hard. but i am in the same boat as you.. i have heard putting cherrios in the tolid and tell them to aim, but my guy is a little bit younger then yours so u might be able to try that, but mine is still sitting. hope at least some of this helps-R.

Hi L.,

I have been going through the same thing with my 3 yr old since we told him he is going to have a baby sister. He completely quit using the toilet for a while. I finally got him a calendar and some special stickers with characters that he loves on them. He gets a big sticker on the calendar if he has no accidents during the day (we do the stickers before bed) and if he had one accident or a dribble he gets a little sticker. He gets nothing for multiple accidents throughout the day. His first reward was a trip to Chuck E Cheese if he got 7 stickers in a row. It took him a couple of weeks but he did it. Now we are in the second month and he is working on filling up the rest of his calendar in order to get a toy that he wants. All kids are different and it might not motivate your son but it's worth a try.

Good luck.

T.

L.,
Don't push it, he will let you know and it will just 'click'. With our son we let him watch us go and flush the potty after we were done. Then when he wanted on the potty we put cheerio's in the water; put him on facing backwards and told him to sink the cereal. We then gave him 1 m&m for peeing in the potty and 2 m&m's for pooping on the potty. He still wears pull ups at night but does not have much trouble during the day.
It takes time and patience. Remember; it's learned and he will know when it's time to learn. Leave it to him and it will happen very fast.
Good luck

Hi L.,
I am in the process of potty training my just 3 year old. I put him in underware and have him sit on the potty every 1 and half to 2 hours. He hasn't had many accidents but he hasn't gone to the bathroom without me either. I'm hoping that the longer we do this he will eventually start using the potty without me. It's only been 2 weeks and already he doesn't like it when I put a nighttime diaper on him. He is wet every morning so I'm not ready to have him go overnight without one yet. He tells me it's for babies. Hang in there.
Chris

Most boys, for some reason, learn to potty train around 3-1/2 years of age. That seems to be their magic age. My son was about 3-1/2 before he finally learned and what really got him trained was that I took him to IKEA and had him pick out his own potty chair. IKEA sells this odd looking potty chair for around $4.00, but he used it more than the potty chair I got him at Target. Also, I had him pick out his own toilet seat with Deigo on it, to put on the big toilet so that he wouldn't get scared and think he was falling in. He got to decorate his IKEA potty chair with stickers that he picked out too, so that made it special for him. My hubby and I praised him every time he used his special potty and within a month he was using the big potty with minimal accidents, only a few splatters here and there! I did though keep him in pull ups while potty training so that he could easily pull them down to use his potty just like underwear.

Hope this helps!

MC