Potty Time

My husband and I are potty training our daughter right now and if you are going to start you need to stay away from diapers/pull ups. We put her in underwear and she is doing really well. When we put her in diapers then went to underwear it was confusing her. The first few days will be tough but stick with it. To get him interested is maybe do a game with his potty chair and him. With my daughter she was interested when I would go potty then she wanted to try. It is a tough process but stick with it. Good Luck!

Bare bottom was the light switch for us. Our son was peeing fine, but getting that kid to poo on the potty was NOT happening. Finally one morning I listened to all those moms I thought were crazy, and he went bare bottom - no diapers, no pants, nothing. I let him wear either a long t-shirt or his robe so he was covered, but nothing on his bottom. Luckily for us, he had NO accidents and was completely potty trained after 2 days. Sounds too good to be true I know, but it is true. I couldn't believe it myself. He never even had an accident at daycare, and he's there 5 days a week. I had thought all those people saying to go bare bottom were crazy, and never thought I'd do it but here we are today with no more diapers!!! We did try big boy underpants for a while, but he'd just poo in those too, so this was our last resort. Good luck to you!

I just purchased a potty chair for my 16 month old, I potty train naked, from the waist down, right know we are just introducing it. If I am going potty he goes in with me and we take off the diaper and he sits on the potty and "goes" quite funny actually cause he gets real intenese like he is going but nothing happens and nothing really will at this point. Just before his 2nd b-day we will strip him down and work on it, the first day or two there are accidents, but leaving them naked allows them to run to were the potty is without the added probleb of getting the panties down, once they have figured out how to get to the potty I introduce the undies, still might be an accident but that is all in the timimg of things, it does work I swear by it and have helped potty train a few w/ this method, whenever I have been out and people see that they are trained by 2 I always get asked how I did it and that is what I tell them. Each child is different and some require something less traditional, give it a try you just might be surprised!

I had the same issue. I just started putting my son in underwear. Yes we had a few messes, but he started realizing the "wet" was coming from him and it was actually cool that he could control it. I must admit, I did use some mild "encouragement"/rewarding to get him to sit on the potty at times. I offered a treat that I know he likes, a sticker, or a new small toy. This only lasted a week, then I phased it out without problems. He really liked the book "It's Potty Time" with a little boy named Micheal.

J.,
Don't worry it will come. Have you tried just putting his potty chair in his toy area? Let him play with it, set stuffed animals on it. Have you tried getting some potty books and videos from the library? Reading about it, and talking about it in a positive manner with your son is key. What about letting him watch your husband go to the bathroom? Children learn so much more by seeing what is going on. This may peak his interest and get the ball rolling.
You can try striping him down and blocking him into a tiled or easy clean area. BUT, I would wait until he shows some interest in potty training before starting this or it will be miserable for the both of you. The key to this is to put their potty in their with them and you have to stay in their with them during this time. You have to be sure that you have the time to sit their with him. Put toys and books that are easy to clean if they should pee on them. When they start to pee you should point it out and try to get them to the potty. You can not get upset, but simply try to help them gain control of their systems. Have them help you clean up the mess and stay positive that the next time he feels like he has to go pee to try and sit on the potty. I usually recommend to my parents that they block out a long weekend to devote to this method. You will spend two whole days doing this. The third day you will hopefully spend the day just running to the potty.
Good Luck.

I feel your frustrations TRUST me! My son was a little over 3 before he was potty trained! He wanted NOTHING to do with the potty UNTIL he was ready. Everyone kept telling me to leave him alone and he will do it when he was ready. That wasn't good enough for me I tried the potty charts, taking him in every hour on the hour, putting him on the pot before baths while bath water was running, buying the big boy pants with the rubber underwear over it to make him feel it more, buying the Pull ups with the little designs.... NOTHING WORKED and then one day, seriously out of the BLUE he went to the potty and did his business. It will come in TIME I know how FRUSTRATING it is and how it puts you through a rollercoaster but seriously if you leave him alone he will do it when he is ready. I would still talk to him when you go and say "mommy's going to the potty" and stuff like that BUT don't force him to go.... Hope this helped GOOD LUCK!!!

First of all, get rid of the diapers for good! Start in the morning with just underwear and put the pants over the underwear. Every hour, have your son try to go. You will have a few messes to clean up, but just gently encourage him and remind him to tell you when he has to go. After a few accidents, he'll start to go in his underwear, but will finish in the potty. At night, put on his underwear, but put on a pull-up OVER the underwear so as not to confuse him. In the morning, go back to just the underwear with pants again. We did this with my son and we were trained in less than 3 days. Poop took a little longer, he kept hiding, but we got that in about a week. I told him that when he did that on the potty, he could pick out a toy at the store, and he finally got it. The key is to NOT go back to the diaper and to put the underwear on under the pull-up. I even did the underwear under the pull-up for our first few excursions just in case... but it didn't confuse him.

J.,
I know when I was potty training my boys, we made a game of it.... we put a few fruit loops in the water of the bowl and let them "aim".... they loved it and it helped stop the messes... my younger son also hated sitting down so going poo was a challenge then someone told me to put food color in the water cuz boys love to watch poo get color..... hey it worked and i also totally agree with once you start its noooo diapers or pull ups.... yep lots of sheets to wash for a few days, but it does get better.
Good Luck
Tam

J., first of all - don't sweat the small stuff. I have 3 grown sons and now a 2 1/2 year old girl. I really can't remember anything about potty training my boys except that one was really easy and the other one was miserable and I swore he would never get trained. As for our little girl (who has a boy cousin that is 3 and still not potty trained - he's not interested) we did something fun for her. You have to be willing to be silly but it worked and my nephew thought it was hilarious but his parents are hesitant. We also started with going to the potty about 10-15 minutes after she woke up but when she went potty we did the "poopy dance". We also had one for going tinkle but for some reason - she really likes doing the poopy dance. Please try to visualize this - Mom dancing like an egyptian and singing "I can do the poopy dance, the poopy dance, the poopy dance. I can do the poopy dance, the poopy dance" Have him do it with you, laugh a lot and then give a big ole high five. Like I said, my daughter loves it and my nephew did too. You just have to be willing to be a little silly and not worry about it. He'll be potty trained by the time he goes to school (this advice from my mother when I worried that my daughter still wasn't potty trained). Good luck and happy dancing!

A.

Oh - as for the every hour thing - tried that too - just gave me more work to do. He will tell you and if he has an accident, just get more underpants out. And don't get me started on pull-ups. I had another Mom laugh and laugh when I told her I was going to buy some. She raised 4 kids and ran a day care in her home until her youngest went to school. She was the one that gave the advice to not worry about it. I didn't and she is potty trained (and visiting every public restroom she can find). Which leads me to another thing - have you seen the fold-up potty seats for on the go? They fold up and can get thrown into the diaper bag - good thing for when he needs to poopy!

Hey J.,

First of all, what works for one, doesn't work for all, so try a few things and find out what's best for your boy. I have a 2 year old and he pretty much potty trained himself. This is what I did. After his bath, I let him run around naked for a little while. He would always pee in front of the TV on the rug. One day I grabbed the drawer out of the potty and just put it in front of him. When he started peeing I "caught" the pee in the drawer. I did that about 3 times and then he started going and getting the drawer himself and peeing in it (not the best aim at first).

He has never been a fan of sitting on the potty, but almost every time he has to pee he goes in the bathroom by himself takes off his diaper and pees in the drawer, then comes and tells me he went.

This week I decided I would try to get him to go #2 on the potty. I waited until after lunch when he usually goes and got him naked. I watched him closely so I wouldn't miss it and when he started to look like he was going to go, I hurried and put him on the pot. He went before he knew what was going on. I gave him praise for about 2 hours and the next day he spent the entire day sitting on the pot trying to go #2 again. He put all of his toys on the potty so they could go too.

Whatever you do, don't stress him out and if he makes any attempt to be interested in the potty give him praise up one side and down the other.

Good Luck!!
M.