Potty Training 101 - Vicksburg, MS

I'm not sure if this will work, but it may be worth a try. I have a very head strong, strong willed little girl that I have to pratically stand on to get her to do anything I ask. With potty training I simply took away her pull ups, and showed her there weren't anymore in the place I usually kept them. she asked for them for a few days, and had a few accidents but soon she went by herself. These days it's trying to get her to eat, or pick up her toys, or get a certain task completed. Someone suggested I use a egg timer. I tried this the other day during a meal and told her she had to eat before the timer went off and I showed she what it would sound like. To my surprise she started eating like she was trying to beat the clock. I now use it for bed time, I set the timer and tell her she has 10 mintues until she has to go to bed, and when it goes off, she's telling me goodnight. It may work for the potty training. Take him to the bathroom turn the timer to 3 or 4 minutes, and he will hear it and maybe he may think it's like a game. My little girl is 3 and I am really amazed at how this egg timer thing is working for me in many areas. she even grabs the timer now and tells me to set the clock for bath time, bed time, eating, and etc.

Only two suggestions from me...my daughter took a while to potty train but she wasn't as stubborn as your son seems to be.

Getting a little portable potty helped a lot. I got one that made sounds and sang songs and actually congratulates you child when they pee (I guess there's a little light sensor in there that picks up whether something is going into the pot or not).Anyway she really liked it, so that helped. AFter a while she just wanted to use the big potty like the grownups, so I got her an Elmo toddler seat and a little stepstool for it.

The other thing - and this was the deciding factor for my little one - *get rid of the pull-ups*! Of course until you've got daytime training down you can use them at night, but don't ever put another one on him during the day. Until I did that and my little girl had a few accidents, nothing else sealed the deal. It's messy, obviously, but worth the trouble for a few days (only took two days with mine...she HATED having an accident on herself). Be sure you ask him every couple of hours if he has to go, or encourage him to at least try (especially first thing in the morning and after meals). Of course I am also lucky in that her daycare endorses this method and has a washer/dryer for cleaning clothes when the little ones have accidents. If your's doesn't, maybe you can do it over some kind of long break or vacation week...

And yeah, I agree that he may not be ready yet - frequently children grow faster than their bladders can keep up with. If he's particularly tall or big that may be an issue. I'd talk to your pediatrician just to be sure there isn't some physiological factor.

Oh, and cheerios/fruit loops in the potty for "practice shooting"...great fun for boys to try and hit the target!

Okay so that was more than a couple suggestions but maybe one of them will help... Good Luck!

Potty training is very touch and go. It took my daughter a few tries to get her to use the potty. I started her out with pull ups and all she did was go in the pull ups. The panties did alot better. She did not like the feel of the wetness. I too was a stay at home mother. Being persistant can help but also can discourage the child. I never gave up. I also never spanked her for wetting because she really was not ready for the transition. Try to have his father take him to potty to show him what he should do. I also would take her and have her sit on the potty even if I thought she did not have to go. Hope this helps. Some suggest a portable potty. Being that he is a boy...he may want to use the potty even if it is not there.

I wonder how it is going now. I think since he notices better when he has just a robe on, let him run around a little like that under close supervision. It's best not to push potty training aggressively. He will get it. You don't want him to feel your unhappy with his progress. Remember that positive reinforcement works better for establishing behavior than negative. So praise him when he does what you want, and ignore and clean up the mistakes without judgement.

Sounds like he is ready and willing to a point, but I would suggest using a portable potty. One that you can have in a room were he plays, etc. so that he isn't having to run to the bathroom until he gets it (make sense).

My twins are 3 1/2 yrs old and didn't really get the potty idea until they turned 3. They use big girl & boy pants all day long and pull-ups during nap & nighttime. If they wake up dry, they get a jelly bean. Also, we use the jelly beans as a reward for going #2 on the potty. Since they both would rather die than go #2 on the potty. She holds it in until she makes herself sick (if I don't keep up with it), and He would rather have me "clean his hiney" because he has went in his pants.

Boys seem to be harder to potty train...at least that is my experience with family, friends, etc. My good friend has twin boys and one is potty training and they other isn't anywhere close and they are the same age as mine. The one that isn't PT did real well in the beginning, but all of a sudden he stopped and refuses to go on the potty...so she is having a hard time getting that done. She is trying to nip it in the butt before she gives birth to her daughter in March.

The main thing is to not rush him. When the light goes off, he will really get it. I tell AJ that only "babies" got poop in their pants and ask if he wants to be a baby...of course the answer is no.

If I can just get them PT thru the night I will be in awe. We have been working on it. They are sound sleepers, so I think that is most the problem...so I'm going to try waking them up before I go to bed and get them to use the potty (I hear that helps). But I'm not going to push them too hard, since hear a lot of children aren't completely PT until they get to 5-6 yrs old.

Hope that helps!

Take care,
God Bless,
J. D

My potty training experience with my daughter sounds very similar to what you are going through with your son. My daughters comprehension has always been above her age level but potty training her was very difficult. I honestly believe that she understood that she should go in the potty but the more of an issue we made of it, the less she would go. It was finally when I relaxed some and tried not to compare potty training to how easy other things were for her to get, that she relaxed and got it. I know it is frustrating but he will go when he is ready and just because he is a fast learner on other things does not mean that everything will be that easy for him. Good luck. I am sure it will happen soon.

By the way you said that if he's wearing underwear or nothing he tries to run to the potty makes me think that he IS getting it and ready. I would try keeping him in underwear and see how that goes. I know it's not always convenient. Pull-ups are easier but I do think they hinder the process. (speaking from experience, mine will be 3 in May and we're going through the same problems) We're having problems with not going #2 but I hear that's normal. I also offer her a reward if she goes to the potty quickly ie..no playing around on the potty. She gets a jelly bean. I'm still offering 2 jellybeans for a #2 but she's not giving in. By your title
"Potty Training 101" I was hoping you were giving tips for the rest of us.lol. It takes time and I have heard that boys usually take longer. Good Luck!!

A few months before my son's 3rd birthday, we started talking about going on the potty. He would pee on the potty if I happened to get him on it at the right time but he would not tell me when he had to go. He would not poop on the potty at all. His pull-ups were always dry in the morning. He kept telling me he woujld do it when he was 3. I didn't push him. Then, a few weeks after his 3rd bday his preschool went on fall break. I told him it was time to use the potty. I threw away the pull-ups completely. I put him in big boy underwear with the vinyl training pats over them (to give my furniture and carpet a little more protection). We did not leave the house for 4 days. When he had an accident, he had to help clean it up. He especially did not like cleaning up the poop but I made him help dump it in the potty anyway. On the 5th day we had a library book that was due and we had to leave the house. I was a nervous wreck but he did not have any accidents. When we got home, he went poop on the potty for the first time. YEAH!!

Once he pooped on the potty, we started a sticker chart. Every time he pooped on the potty he got a sticker on the chart. When the chart was full (10 stickers -- apx. 10 days) he got to pick out a toy at the toy store. He also got a sucker when he pooped on the potty (a special treat we only gave for this).

By the time fall break ended, he was fully potty trained!

The problem with pull-ups ios that they don't feel uncomfortable when they pee because the pull-up pulls the liquid into the diaper.

Hope this helps. Good luck!!