Help with Potty Training 3 Year Old.

my son will be 3 in a few weeks, and he is having a hard time with potty training as well. He KNOWS what to do, has for a long time .. he just doesn't seem to care if he wets or soils himself! aarrg. we have him in undies in the day, and he could care LESS if he wets himself. we remind him to go on the potty all the time, and half the time he says "I don't have to go" and gets mad if I have him sit on the potty to at least try.

I have to admit he does love the excitement of when he DOES go pee and poop in the potty, cause we really play it all up. He has a folder in the bathroom with paper and stickers in it. when he goes pee, he puts a star sticker on his paper in the folder, and when he goes poop, he puts a circle sticker .. then he gets pee and poop candy (colored m&m's for pee, brown for poop LOL) and LOVES his potty candy. but he just doesn't seem interested in stopping whatever he's doing to go. sigh.

so I wish I could help ... but I think I am going to keep reading this thread and see how many ideas I can glean from this. good luck!

J.

I had the hardest time with my son so I will just share what I did! Now with my son we moved alot like 3 times so I do beleive thats what made him so very difficult!

Finally when he was 2 1/2 we moved to the apartment we are currently in after a few moves. IN June he was close to being 3 so I was like I need him trained so he can go to preschool! That was my main concern cause he was ready for preschool just the potty thing holding us back.

My son is very smart. he talks good, understands, knows many things like numbers and colors so really it was him being stubborn holding us back!

I took his pullups away during the day all day till nighttime and he wore them on outings. He hated this at first but he adjusted. Everytime he had an accident I just rushed him to the potty told him this is where we go and made him sit there for as long as he would tolerate. I'd sing, read whatever to keep him there.

I set the timer for every 1 1/2 hours. I'd take him more often if I knew he hadn't went in a while. It was a week of non stop accidents till he was going more regularly now he was far from potty trained but at this point I knew he was getting it so I started a potty chart with stickers. Every time he went he got to pick out a sticker and put it on the chart. When the chart is filled I'd take him to buy a toy. It can be even at the 99 cents store they don't care. This helped drastically and it was fun. After one month of this he had the pee thing down good. #2 was much more difficut and now at almost 3 1/2 he seems to have that but he still has accidents here and there.

So basically thats what we did. My son is almost 3 1/2 now.

Good Luck
A.

Hi H.

My son was 3 1/2 in about Feb/March and still wouldn't pee in the potty and somebody told me put him in regular underwear and just let him wet himself, so that what it took. After about a month, and changing him 10 times a day, (I was washing his underwear and every pair of pants he owned every day). Also make sure he his in pants that a easy for potty training, elastic or sweats is good, overall are not. Anyway take him every hour, let him wet himself when he said he can't, then make him take the wet dirty stuff to the washer,then tell him to go get a clean one out of his room and bring it back. Also with the #2, help him to put it into the toilet and you can rap up the underwear in the pants to take to the washer or wear ever you would put it so it does make a mess. Also have a bribe, M & Ms, gummy bears, (mine alway got 5) on hand for when he does do it. Anyway it did take a month for #1 then took much longer for #2. Everyone told me he'll do it when he his ready, but sometimes they need more incentives, so you might have to figure out what that is. And another thing, mine will only #2 on his Sponge Bob toilet seat with a stool under his feet. Hope this helps.

L. Smith

H.

My son is now 4, but we really struggled with potty training for awhile. I finally just took all diapers, pullups, etc. out of the house and put him in underwear. That way he did not have a choice. I also got a little poster that you could put stickers on- everytime he went to the potty- he got to put a sticker on the poster. I remember just asking him a lot if he had to go and just remembering that accidents happen. Also, when he wets his pants try to have him take them off and redress himself- that way the are more involved in it. After I got rid of the pull-ups and showed my son how cool it was to wear big boy underwear- he was all about it.

Hope that helps.

E.

There is a wonderful DVD that had my 2 y.o. potty trained in a week! It's called "Potty Power" and it has great music, kids using the potty chair, and encourages kids to know the difference between "big kids" and "babies" - showing how big kids can do much more than babies, including using the potty. It was a lifesaver for us! You can get it at: www.amazon.com

Good luck!

Well my son is 3 1\2 and refuses to potty train also! He will sit there and hold it until I put his diaper on. I have potty trained two girls and many daycare kids and he is my stubborn one. So you are not alone and I have tried all of those things and more. I have been told that he will do it when he is ready. NOT very encouraging is it. Good luck! And let me know if you come up with something that works!

I had a friend, who's mom told me a story about him. When he was about your son's age, he didn't want to go on the potty either, HOWEVER...he didn't like a wet diaper either. What they did that worked was leave him in a wet diaper all day, that sucker was clear down to his knees by the end of the day. My friend couldn't STAND it. He went on the potty and they didnt have any more trouble after that. Just a thought...

I also have 4 and my 2 year old is starting to potty train.
my 3 year old was also scared of the toilet, but after letting him flush the toilet SEVERAL times, he realized that nothing bad happened. His first time going poop, we cheered and i told him, " ok, say good by to it (poop) and flush it away!" he was very excited and continued ever since.

They make musical toilets too that you can try.... There is also a book called "The Potty Book for Boys" that you can find at I think Target and there is another one called "Potty Please"

T. k

I had the same problems. One day we were at the mall and my friend said to her son who is 9months younger then mine "lets go to the potty" I said thats it we are just going to do it and not give up and not go back to the pull ups or diapers. If he pees on himself he will only do it a few times. I think they have to a few times just to know I have to be aware of this. I can't wait to the last minute to tell or ask mommy to go to the bathroom with me. I also if I rememeber with my little girl (my first) I would remind her alot "Do you have to go? Do you have to go to the bathroom yet? Every couple of minutes for a few days. Also when he does go make a big BIG deal about it. Become a cheerleader. I even said to my daughter. Look can you believe it he went to the bath room all by hiself he can do it,good job,can you believe it. Yea and I would go on and on about it. It worked! L.

My little guy was totally "ready" at 3 to potty train. COULD go in the potty--even seemed to know when he needed to go, but wouldn't. We just kept waiting. Finally one day when he was 3 1/2 he told us he was ready to wear the big boy underwear we bought him. We had about 3 days of reminding him every hour to go potty. Then a few days of only reminding him every once in a while. After a week--voila! He was potty trained. I think he really enjoyed us letting him tell us when he was ready. He felt so independant to have that freedom that when he was really ready it was super-easy to get him potty trained.