How Long Can Kids "Hold It"

Honestly, if he can't let you know he needs to go, whether verbally or another way, then he's probably not ready to potty train. I'd wait a few more months.

Some signs that he IS ready are:
-telling you he has to go
-asking to have his diaper changed after he goes
-being able to pull his pants up and down
-staying dry for his naps or a few hours at a time

If you start to train before he's really ready, you're going to be frustrated because it's going to take SO much longer than if you wait till he is ready. Typically for boys, anywhere between 3-4 is pretty normal.

Hi E.-

How much is he drinking? When parents asks for my help with potty training, (I'm a parent coach), I recommend they have their child drink a lot during the training process to reinforce going potty and recognizing their potty needs. If your son is holding it for an hour +, give him more to drink.

Good Luck

R. Magby

if you're just starting, you take him to the bathroom every hour, unless he gives you a reason to take him sooner, then take him.

When I trained my daughter (18 months we started, she poop and night trained at 21 months).....I just put her on a schedule:first thing in the morning, after breakfast, before snack, before leaving for the day, etc.

Whatever you do, do not turn back. Make the decision to train him and keep at it. If you turn back, rely on pull-ups, etc. he won't train till he is 4. If you make the decision to get him trained, he will be done much, much sooner, within 6 months. It will take time, though, and do expect accidents as he learns to tell when he needs to go.

depends on his body. when my oldest was that age if he said he needed to pee you had less than 2 minutes to get him to the toilet. needless to say we did alot of alleys. :) always check before driving he always had to go while I was driving. his duration will get longer with age. what is the time gap before he actually goes again? thats how far I would time it.

Some kids for as little as 15-30 minutes, others for a couple of hours. It's trial and error.

Anytime a child is excited, or scared, or nervous, that time gets cut to about 10%. Even for adults, it gets cut down to around 25%. Say you usually pee every 4 hours. If you're nervous/excited/etc it'll be once an hour or more (job interviews crack me up in this regard; pee at home, pee before the interview, pee after the interview). It just has to do with the way our nervous system is wired.

Well, my son was already 3... when "he" was ready for peeing in his potty chair.
Once he indicated he had to PEE.... there was a NANO-second... of time that he could "hold" it, before pee leaked out whether or not he was on the potty.

There is no formula for it.
But you want your child to, developmentally, be 'able' to sense their bodily cues AND then be able to verbalize it... and then, pee.

For me, I didn't take me kids to the potty on a schedule. I simply kept a potty chair nearby wherever they were... and then, they used that. When THEY needed to. But when THEY were 'ready' for potty so-called 'training.'

It is also about the development of their organs/body cues/brain & bladder connections.

Your son is young. Some do it and many don't, at that age.
Boys, often are ready later... or 'get it' later....

A child, especially if young, will not necessarily tell you when they have to pee. OR, they tell you... but by that time, the pee has already come out.
Normal. Its the learning curve and their body and their acquisition of their cues and mastery of it.

When we started potty training we did every 30 minutes.

I wish you all the best.