How to Help My Son Potty Train!!

I must be the odd one out here. DD was trained at about the age of 2, but DS was a little past 4 before he was fully trained. With both of them, I didn't really "train" them, I waited until they were ready, and it just happened, for the most part...just like walking or talking.

~A.~

My son is 2 1/2 and is almost fully potty trained. We used the Feel and Learn Pull ups. This seemed to help him realize when he needed to go. This worked great for peeing. We were still having trouble with bm. We had tried the incentives(m&m's or another snack), but he really did not care about them. The thing that worked the best for that was when we were at home he walked around with no pants on. When he needed to potty, he told me and went to the bathroom. Hope this helps.

I can see why you're ready to get him out of diapers! This is what I'm doing right now with my 22 month old daughter. (I know that sounds early but she is totally ready to potty train. She has been pooping on the potty for a few months now, about 75% of the time.) I just started leaving her diaper off most of the day and putting a little potty chair in a discreet corner of the living room. Actually, about 5 minutes ago, she just sat down and peed in it! I am so proud of her and think this method will work. You could leave diapers off both boys and see what happens. You will have to be prepared for accidents though :). I don't see a problem with rewarding the older one for going in the potty but the younger one might not really understand that system. When my son, now 7, was potty training his babysitter would throw a handful of cheerios into the big potty and he would take target practice when he peed to see if he could sink the cheerios (he had to stand on a step stool). I know it sounds ridiculous and I never did it at home but I think that is one thing that helped. It just made peeing in the potty fun! Good luck and congrats on the new addition. It sounds like you have a wonderful family!

T., potty training is very frustrating! I taught pre-school for 3 years and helped potty train about a dozen kids, but that did not prepare me for training my own! But I will tell you what we did at preschool and what I did with my daughter.
Go cold turkey with diapers--no pull ups, they are just a fancy diaper and are a waste of money! (except for nighttime and naptime) Get the thick training pants (you can also get plastic pants to go over them when you are going out so his pants don't get wet.) I know they are expensive, but they are washable and you can use them with your other kids too! Put him on the potty every 20-30 minutes. Yes, you will feel like you are in the bathroom all day, so getting someone to help you with your 18 mo old would be good. Anyway, let him sit for 5 minutes and get him off. I made my daughter a sticker chart-it was really just a piece of construction paper that said Cassidy's Potty Chart at the top and she stuck the stickers wherever she wanted, that worked ok, but M&M's worked better! Also something we did was write down each time you take him to sit and note if he just sat or if he peed etc...I know this is going to be a trying time for you-but I know you don't want 3 in diapers.
Best wishes for your upcoming arrival-and good luck!

I JUST got my son potty trained in the last 2 months or so. He turned 3 at the end of December. It was rough I won't lie. What ended up working was putting cheerios in the toilet and telling him to pee on them. Also, if you sit him on the big potty straddling the seat and facing the rear of the toilet, it will help him learn aim and help him adjust to the big potty. Good Luck. I was always told that little boys are very hard to potty train, but I had NO IDEA!!!

My son will be 3 in August and he is mostly potty trained but it has been rough. I tried to start him right after he turned 2 but had to keep backing off of it cause he would just get real stubborn and throw fits if I told him it was time to go. So I am not sure I agree with the ones that say don't give up cause if he isn't ready then I don't think there is a lot you can do to make him ready. What you can do is just watch real close for cues from him to indicate he is going or about to go and rush him to the bathroom then really play it up big time if he actually goes in the potty. I tried everything, pull-ups, nothing at all, underwear, and training underwear. The problem I had with all of them is he just didn't care if he was wet no matter what he was wearing. Once he finally got to the point where he was going on the potty I actually had a lot of luck with the pull-ups cause he didn't want the pattern on them to go away. Both Huggies and Pampers have patterns on the front that disappear when they get wet. Oh and if treats work then I say by all means use them. Just be aware that if you use them and he really likes them he will be getting them a lot for a while. My son would go the bathroom every 5 minutes for a while just so he could get a treat. But it did get him to start using the potty so I would not say it was a bad thing. And my last piece of advice is don't try it for a while after you have the new baby. I tried to get started with my son when my daughter was only a few months old and one of the big reasons I had to back off was because I had to keep setting her down in the middle of a feeding to take him to the bathroom or clean up an accident and she would get really upset. Good luck!

Congratulations on the new baby! I would suggest you start potty training your older son now and let the younger one watch. If he asks to go or shows interest let him do the same thing his brother is. He will probably learn faster watching his brother do it. I agree with the candy reward, we did it and it worked great, it's not like you're giving them an entire bag of candy every time they go potty. Have fun being out of diapers is GREAT!!

I started potty training my boys at around age 18 months. They both showed interest in the potty, so I obliged them.

I don't think you should wait go ahead and start now.

Also, their day care starts potty training at age 2. My oldest was completly potty traine by 3 yrs and 2 months. He would have been trained sooner, but he had a major set back do to illness.

My youngest will be three next month and is peepee trained, and we are working on poopoo training.

Oh yeah! If candy or special drinks are a treat - give it as an award for pottying. If he is dry for long periods and shows interest in going--- with no negativity-- start training and don't dare turn back and change your mind. It will just confuse him. Only use a diaper or pull-up at night. The thing is- you have to be sooooo ready to do this too. When I trained my son- I put a cheerio in the toilet when he stood so he could try to aim and hit it! That made him want to go. I also only put him in cloth training panties and then gave him a lot of yummy drinks in cute packaging- the kind that cost more- that I would never usually buy. I had him drink all he wanted while he only wore his underpants while I had his pottychair in the kitchen with me. I did this for like 2-3 days- concentrating on nothing but his pottying and successes. I cheered and made a big deal-even called people to brag that he pottied! I used stickers and a chart- whatever re-enforces it. If he pottied he got a skittle. If he pooed- he got something more special. I also talked with him ahead of time telling him all the big-boy stories and let him pick out new undies before starting all this. During training i asked him to feel if he was wet or dry- a lot. Then asked him if he needed to potty. His training undies should be loose- so he can pull em down quick hisself. Just plan to do nothing but train for the whole day. Hope this helps! J. L.

Have your husband show/teach him. And as my mother-in-law told me, she has never seem a groom go down the aisle in diapers.

I had given up with my son and my father-in-law took him in hand, showed him, and that was that. (Husband was deployed with the Navy!)

my boy was trained by 1 1/2. he hasn't had near as many accidents as many of his peers. he's also never had an accident at school. the earlier the better, because then it becomes a habit so ingrained that they don't even have to think about it. my son is almost 4 and for the last year he hasn't required any help for #1 at all. if he needs to pee he just goes to the bathroom gets out his stool and does it. your 1 1/2 year old certainly has the ability to start training and he will learn by seeing his older brother training successfully.

I don't believe your 1 1/2 year old is too young to start as well as your 2 1/2. He might actually take to it quickly so he can be like "big brother". My son was potty trained at 18-20 months. He would stand on a stool in front of the toilet (he always saw daddy stand so he wanted to do the same) and I would have him aim at the targets "cheerios" in the toilet. He got to the point where he would yell "grab the targets mom" while running to the bathroom. Pottying was a fun game for him! I would give him a sticker or other (non-candy) prize for each target he hit. After every pee we would sit on the toilet for awhile reading and we would wait to see if poop would come. He took to that pretty quick too. When we would be out in public I would stand him up on the toilet seat and let him go. That was fun for him as well.

Hey, T.! Just had to put Caleb in his room for time out for spanking his younger brother! I heard it from the office! OK, potty training boys. My oldest was potty trained at 2. I just took him to the bathroom with me when I went. I go more than the average person, I've heard, and I had no distractions at the time. With my middle son, I expected things to be as easy but they weren't. I got pregnant right after he turned 2. I was determined to have him potty trained by the time Zachary came, but it didn't happen. Caleb was actually 3 when he potty trained. I tried to put him on the potty when I went, but being pregnant the urge to go was so strong I was in a big hurry and when I took Caleb he fought me. Now Zachy has just turned two and I'm not going to push it. I'm going to work on it this summer when he can run around without pants and just not push him. He does take an interest when his brother goes potty and wants to use the big potty, he just doesn't seem to have any bladder control yet. Plus, he doesn't like the training potty because it doesn't have a good cup for his ding ding and he always pees on the floor or on his pants or both. I guess my advice would be when he shows an interest make sure you have a good potty that he likes, just take him whenever you go potty, and don't push him to hard with this. Baby steps, you know?
I noticed that you are having a daughter after two boys! Congrats! Any advice? I would love to have a daughter after these three boys, I just haven't figured that one out yet!

ok this is what i did with my son i didn't like the idea of candy as much as you don't there is sugar in so many things these days already... plus if you start rewarding him for using the toilet will you reward him forever b/c he might think this is how it is to be done... i threw a couple fruit loops in the toilet... give him a step stool and let him aim... i had to send my hubby in there for the aiming part b/c hey lets face it i don't know how to stnd up to pee... it was such a big hit he was potty trained from then on... he enjoyed peeing on the fruit loops b/c when you hit them they move across the toilet since they are floating on top of the water you can also use cheerios

My son turns 3 in a few weeks and I was very worried because he had no interest in potty training. However, one day he just starting going on the potty and he hasn't stopped! At first he would only urinate at home. Then he starting asking when we would go out in public and finally he starting going at Mother's Day Out. Lastly, he starting Pooping in the potty. It was a gradual process but every child is different and when he is ready, he will go.

My son was potty trained before he was 2 years old. he didn't seem to have any interest in going on his own at that time. We did not use a potty, we just bought one of the seats that attach to the regualr toilet and never used pull-ups except for nap and night time. You need to start when you have at least 3 days to spend totally at home for the most part. We used regualar underwear and the first day he went in his underwear about 11 times and YES it was very frustrating, but each day it got less and less. By the 4th day, he was down to about 2-4 accidents a day which was awesome and within 2 weeks, he was potty trained. Of course there is still going to be that occasional accident, but I was amazed at how well he did. But the one thing you can not do, is start and then give up. you have to stick with it or he won't stick with it. Using regualr underwear instead of pullups worked so much better because he didn't like being all wet or having poop stuck to him. Even when we would go places, I wouldn't put a pull up on during the day. I would just buy those plastic underwear covers to put on when we weren't at home.
Now, my son is 3 1/2 and he still has to wear pull-ups at night becuase he still soaks them. he doesn't wake up when he needs to go, although he can make it through a 2 hour nap without pottying on himself.

Good luck, I hope this helps!

B.

Get the book Toilet Training in Less than a Day by Azrin and Foxx, and don't swallow the "wait-til-he's-three" nonsense. I trained my son at age 20 months, and it was super!

Have a friend with a potty trained little boy come over a few times, and let him demonstrate for your son.

Hi! I have 3 boys and a stepson, and I potty trained all of them....it was actually much easier with the younger ones because they wanted to be big boys too. Mine started right when they turned two, and my youngest actually started when he was 15 months old on his own, so don't think your youngest is too young, you never know!

If this is an option for you, I started mine with just p.p.ing outside. If we saw an ant on the ground or something like that, I would tell him to pee on that old ant! They knew that ants will bite and they hurt, so it was fun to pee on them. Of course, that wasn't the only place I let them go, we did a lot inside too, and the lady who posted about the cheerios in the potty made me laugh - that's a really good idea!!!!!

I've rarely heard of any boys not training until they were 3 or 3 1/2. And like others here, please don't use pullups...they are nothing but a more expensive diaper and simply don't work. Get the regular cloth training pants with the thick middle. Yes you will have some nasty clean up duty. But you will save loads of money, and they actually work. We had a training potty that we put in the living room and they could sit on it while watching a favorite program; they actually did pee in it some, but did better on the regular toilet. And, yes, with boys, definitely face them backwards!!!!! Another mom had posted it, about how it helps them understand how to aim, etc....It also saves your legs from getting wet if you stand in front of them to hold them on the seat! I learned the hard way that little boys are really good at aiming between the seat and the bowl!

Let them wear a diaper at night and naptimes at first, but if they don't wet it for a couple of times in a row, a couple of nights in a row, then you know they are ready to wear underwear.

Training for pooping...for me, it seemed the boys were much more aware of it than pee and it didn't take long before they knew when they had to do that. I could catch them before they went because they almost always passed some really smelly gas.

I'm not really a big advocate of giving candy or special drinks myself, simply because it could work in reverse....they will stop using the potty because they won't get any sweets. I always just made much over them using the potty and told them how big they were and gave them a great big hug. We always clapped our hands and cheered.

Hi T.!

My son was 15 months when he was fully potty trained. Sounds early, I know, but there were signs he was ready. If he wet himself just a little he'd take his diaper off. I went from diapers to training underwear, not the diapers they call pull ups. They didn't have those back then. This may sound crazy, but I had him to pee off the back porch. He wouldn't use the toilet, so the back porch was the only thing I could think of. It worked. Something about it was fun to him, like it was a game. That's when I decided to use cheerios. I put a couple in the toilet and had him to try and 'sink' them. Lol! I turned it into a game and he loved it. When it was time for my second son to be potty trained he had help from a willing helper! Hope this helps.

1 1/2 is not to young to start learning. As soon as he can talk & tell you pee pee or potty, he will be ready. My son is 28 months old & has been potty trained since he was 26 months. He started telling us pee pee when he was around 22months. We got him a book to read about going potty. It's the one that has the button that makes the flushing sound. I would go ahead & start working with both of them at the same time, but focus on Jonathan one first. Jayden will learn by watching & listening to him. My son learned when the older boys at daycare were training. He wanted to be like them, so it may make it easier for Jayden. They did candy (mini m&ms) rewards at daycare, but you can also try stickers or tatoos, if you don't want them to have so much candy. Jayden will see what Jonathan does to get a prize & he may want to follow his lead. Don't stop him if he's telling you he wants to go. Don't force it either, just let them play around with it at first and they will let you know when they are ready. You can give them a book to ready while they sit on the potty, which will get them to sit a little longer. The big potty worked better for my son, than the little potty chair. (He never used the little one.) We got him the seat that goes onto of the big potty. We go one with handles so he can hold on & feel more secure (Target). Let them flush the potty too, they will think that's fun. If they can watch dad, they can learn from him & they may want to go standing up instead of sitting down, but let them pick. They may sit for awhile before they stand. Jake likes standing on the step stool, so he's always stood at home (he loves to climb). Still working on the aim, but I think that can take awhile. Get them some fun big boy underwear too & pull ups. Start using the pull ups while you are training, so they get the feel of pulling them up & down, even if you still have to change them. I would change Jake standing up, so it was different than changing his diaper. Keep in mind, even once they are potty trained, they can still have accidents. Jake wears underwear all day & for naps but still wears pull ups at night, just in case, but he usually wakes up dry, unless he doesn't potty before bed or drinks too much water before bed.
Be patient & good luck!