My three and a half year old son has no desire to use the potty except to play around on it, but he won't actually put anything in it. He is perfectly comfortable in diapers and isn't even bothered when they're wet or dirty. I know he understands what it's for and what I, and his daycare teachers, want him to do, he just doesn't want to do it. I'm worried he'll be in diapers when he turns four! Any suggestions?
Well, Big Boy Weekend was a bust.
Despite the Hot Wheels prizes on the walls, the stickers all over the toilet, potty, ring and walls, he still wouldn't put anything in the potty after sitting for awhile. And when I tried to get him to wear his "big boy pants" he refused 6 pairs before I finally asked him what he wanted to wear and he said "my diaper"! Sigh.
My son is 26 months and i finally decided to get it over with. I only put him in underwear. Throw all the pull-up out! Hide a enough for a few nights. Everytime he wakes up, b4 naps n bed and a ton in between take him potty. I make him stand up hes gonna have to any ways. Sadley he does not go #2 yet almost. But that got us halfway there no more pullups!!
Have you heard of decorating a child's room so that they have the desire to sleep in it? Well, I did the same thing with our bathroom for my son. We were moving into a new home and I was decorating the bathroom, when my son decided that the 'barn' bathroom was his and his only. He had showed no interest in using the restroom before this, but once he got his 'own' bathroom he potty trained himself. If you don't have two bathrooms, just use a potty chair and a basket with books in it for his own special place in the bathroom. I'm not sure if this will work for your son, but give it a try. I might also suggest proudly proclaiming to daddy, grandma, grandpa or whomever your son loves and respects that "Bryce (or whatever your son's name is) no longer needs to wear diapers because he is a big boy, so we aren't going to buy anymore!" We also did this with our son, mostly because we were the ones being lazy and not making sure he got to the restroom because he had a diaper on. I think that the diapers just make it harder to potty train because we as parents start to rely on them too much. Buy some cool underwear and lots of them and put them on him every morning. No matter how many times you change them, stick to it. He probably will catch on and be potty trained in no time. Good luck!
If he responds to books- can you read him some books about using the potty.. maybe with a character he likes.. I have found that using books can be a great way to communicate with my daughter when she is resistant to a new idea or task.
there are a couple things that worked for me and my son. he was the same way. i would hang hot wheels up in the bathroom so that every time he went poop in the potty, he got a new car. the other thing i did was buy him "big boy" undies. that way when he goes to the bathroom - he's actually going to feel wet, unlike a diaper. just make sure you don't push him too hard about it, this only seems to make them more reluctant to do it. they've got to do it when they're ready to.
Try the doctor Phill method. Pick a period of three days and start frist thing in the morning. Use the oven timer and set it for fifteen minutes and put him on the potty ever time it goes off. There is going to be a few misses at first. But my grandson made it in the three days this way and so did my youngest daughter.
I think the trick is diligence, diligence, diligence. Put him on the potty every two hours. It might help also if you just start putting him in undies. The diapers these days are so good that when they wet them, it absorbs so well, you can't even tell it's wet. Undies that are wet or dirty are a lot more uncomfortable and he will probably want to start using the potty. Also, when I potty trained my son, we started giving him a gummy bear each time he went in the toilet. One for pee, two for poop. It only took about a month before he just started doing it on his own and forgettng all about the gummy bear.
One thing we (my family) did with my daughter, nieces and nephews was to put them on the potty and sit with them while singing songs and/or reading books that the particular kid liked. We would set "Tickety" for 5 minutes. The kid had to stay on the potty until Tickety rang, but they had company and things to do.
We've used this with 4 kids so far and it's worked pretty well. There were times of resistance - for some reason, going poo on the potty seems to be a bigger issue!
Whatever you decide to do, I wish you luck. Potty training was a pain in the tush (and I'm headed there again!)
I was having the same difficulty with my three year old son last year. I ended up declaring a "Big Boy Day." We made a big deal out of it - counted down the days until it came, I baked a cake for the occasion. I tried to make it as festive and fun as possible. In planning this I also made sure that that day and the week following I would be able to really focus on the potty training. Big Boy day marked the day that we didn't use diapers at all anymore. I did still use Pull Ups at night. I bought some new, inexpensive toys that I wrapped and put in a basket. Anytime that my son was successful on the potty - he would get to open a new toy. (However, there were probably 6-8 toys - so it was limited. Once the toys ran out - he was able to see that there weren't any more.) I also got some pretty cheap toys that I kept in the bathroom. These were only to be played with in the bathroom. It was incentive to get him to sit on the potty and at least try. I went into it with the understanding that there would probably be some messes. But it was actually easier than I had anticipated. Big Boy Day was a huge success with my son. It marked the day that he could no longer rely on diapers. And for me, it was the motivation I needed to potty train my son.
I had the same problem with my son. He was almost 3 and had no desire to use the potty. we went up to my parent's cabin for a week, so I decided to start then. I would suggest locking yourself in your house and not leaving for at least 3 days. no diapers! just put undies on him and clean up his messes. at first, i was putting my son on the potty every 30 minutes and he was getting SO frustrated. So, I backed off and learned that he only had to go about every 3 hours. Anyway, good luck. The best advice I can give is to stay in your house, not go anywhere, and just use undies. Of course, you can use diapers for nap and bed, but undies every other time. Good luck!
I dont have a boy old enough to be potty trained yet but i do remember when my brothers were being potty trained my dad would pu cheerios in the toilet and have the boys stand and "shoot" the cheerios... this worked well for number1 but i dont remember how they got them to number 2 in the toilet but for the longest time after everytime they needed to use the restroom they would always say they needed to shoot : )
