Potty Training Boys?! - Muskegon,MI

I have three kids two who are potty trained and with both I waited till they were about 3-4 months shy of their 3rd birthday and my son I trained in a day using a timer and setting it every 20 mins and making him sit on potty even if he did not want to my daughter was also trained very quickly using same method 20 mins timer rang and sit on Potty for 3 mins

Keep it fun and light. My son had a hard time with his aim! I cut out circles of coffe filters and put them in the middle of the toilet so he had something to aim for. He asked what would happen if he didn't hold it. I laid an old towel around the toilet and told him to try it. It went all over. Sort of like a fire hose. Once the stream is going strong it is easy to direct. He needs to learn to direct the squirts and slow starts! That is why you have to keep it fun.

I just had to write after reading lots of responses that said wait just because he is a boy. Please don't listen to them, all kids are different whether they are boys or girls, and you will know when your little guy is ready. I have two boys and my eldest was trained right around two and my youngest was trained at 21 months. He asked me one day to go on the potty like his big brother and I encouraged him and he was trained in a week.
Someone also said wait until he has had a dry night before starting to potty train, if I had taken that advice my eldest (age 7) would still be in diapers as he needs to be put on the toilet in the night to get through the night dry. Night time dryness comes later, sometimes much much later depending on the child.
I would say the only difference between training boys and girls is the anatomical one and that you may need a potty with a "guard" on the front to stop him peeing over. Start him off sitting down and wait until you feel he is big enough to teach him standing up peeing. Standing up peeing could be many months down the road as it takes quite a bit of skill to aim right.
Don't stress because he's a boy, you've potty trained one child, you can definitley get through this. Just take it one day at a time.
Good luck ;)

START NOW! There is a window of opportunity for ALL kids and it closes around 23mos. My boys were both out of diapers by 15mos (youngest) and 19mos (oldest). We used elimination communication, and it was easy, stress free, and they were well within the window.

Babies are born with the ability to hold their bladder (I'm sure you've been peed on by a newborn boy.... all at once and it doesn't stop!), but over time and sitting in an ultra absorbant diaper for years, they lose that ability and it must be relearned. If you catch your child before that bladder control is lost, you will be way ahead of the game, and doing your child a favor, and yourself, by not waiting until your child is way too old to be in diapers and you are fighting with a strong willed child who can argue. Start now, be positive and upbeat, encouraging, and expect accidents because regardless of whether you train a 20mo old or a 4yr old, you WILL have accidents. He's a copycat and very much wants your approval right now, he doesn't argue much, so start now, make it a fun game, set a timer, take a couple weeks and go for it. You will have him into undies in no time.

And can i just say nothing irritates me more than people who say boys train later, boys are slower, blah blah. Yes, your child WILL train late if you allow it! If you allow your child to sit in diapers until they tell you they have to pee, you WILL have a 4yr old in diapers. I have two boys, and they were so easy to get out of diapers because we didn't allow them to sit in diapers for years believing they were too dumb to train! I think people use that as an excuse to not have to put any work into training their child, that boys train late. Its so irritating when I read it over and over on here because its simply not true.

I have to disagree with some of the other posters. My son potty trained two weeks after he turned two. I think you're wise to start working on it sooner rather than later, because waiting until later means you might run into the resistance of the "terrible two's". To be honest, I think too many people wait TOO long to start with boys because there is this thought that they "always" take longer to train, or train later, and miss an earlier window!
I was worried about training a boy too. I only have a sister, and had no idea how to start. I would suggest teaching him to SIT before he stands up. It's SO much easier! Just remind him to "tuck his pee pee in" between his legs before he goes to avoid missing. My husband has worked on the standing up part with him (and I do it sometimes) but to be honest, he's just too short still to really get it in the big potty yet. I'm just thankful he uses the potty 100%! :)
So, good luck, and congrats on starting early. My son would do anything for a Matchbox car, so that was his reward for peeing and pooping on the potty. For us, it worked like a charm- and fast! I also cloth diapered, which I think helped let him feel when he was wet, and never used Pull-Ups.

T.

I didnt train my son LOL. I left him for two weeks with my mother and my cousin while hubby and i went house hunting and when i came back he was trained.

They told him there were no more pull ups and he was a big boy, bought him the cool underwear and he went.

BUT he was ready, i think he just didnt take mommy and daddy seriously.

He will do it when he is ready, i know that is no help, all you can do is encourage him maybe show him the cool big boy underwear, let him pick it out.

Dont stress, this time will go by so fast that it will be one of those things you look back on and think why was i so worried about that!

I have trained 2 boys. You absolutely need to wait until they are ready. If you start too early you might see some success, but essentially you are training YOU to take them to the potty. If you want them to be fully trained (night and day. No pullups) you have got to GOT TO follow their lead.
Go ahead and read the books with them. Put out the potty. Go shopping with them to find "their" undies. Praise them when they go. I started with my older boy when he was about 2.5. I thought he was ready. After throwing out mass amounts of underpants and feeling like I was struggling, I stopped and waited until his 3rd birthday. We made a potty chart and even sang songs. He had exactly 2 accidents and that was that. He has never wet the bed.
With my younger boy, I didn't even try until he turned 3. By then he had watched his brother go, been jealous of his underwear and been trying on his own. We did the same thing and had a chart. We never even finished it because he would go by himself and not tell me. He hasn't had ANY accidents.
Keep in mind that I didn't do the "every two hours put them on the potty" or the "sit them on the potty for 20 minutes" or the "turn the water on". I waited until THEY were ready and their little bodies were ready. I am convinced that by letting them make this (guided) decision we have been successful.

Sorry I don't have any specific boy potty training advise. Just wanted to give you some encouragement to commit to going forward. Many mom's will advise you to let them do things at their own pace and follow their cues - which isn't bad advise necessarily - but often leads to kids in pull ups for YEARS! Yes be sensitive to his cues, but he needs your guidance to do this, not his own, its very rare for a kid to train themselves.

You are picking a good age to do this, and my advise is to find a method that is intensive and encouraging (and throw away ALL DIAPERS so you aren't tempted to quit ;)). Best wishes! You can do this!!!!

Biggest piece of advice is relax... :-) Boys tend not to train until closer to 3... If its not going easily, back off and let him lead you.
(From a mom of 1 girl, 2 boys, and due in 14 days w 2nd girl)

I agree.....start now! My son was much easier to train than my daughter. He got it in about 3 days, with one "accident".

Becky W. really does have the best advice about potty training. You can train early, hundreds of people do it. My daughter was ready at 16 months but then she was diagnosed with a major illness and we had to stop. I can't help but think if I had learned about early potty training and elimination communication before my son would have potty trained before age 3.

Go for it!

I have no real advice for training boys, just training in general. First, in "my day" waiting until the trainee was dry a night was essential. I hear now, for whatever reason the rules have changed and moms are now doing it the other way around. Waiting until the trainee was dry at night made the process much faster and easier. THEN, you, the trainer know the trainee could hold it for a long period of time and empty a very full-feeling bladder in the morning. Worked great for 3 kids at my house. Since your son is going to be 2 in a couple of months...don't get over excited. From what I understand, boys train later than girls and 2 is WAY too early, sometimes it is 3+ before some boys ge it. That's OK! You will be setting yourselves up for a very long training time, a defeated 2 year old or it could be who is training who. I would wait a bit, read some books AND get DAD involved. Good Luck!

Hi, I agree with Michelle H, all kids are different and will take to it in different ways. I have two boys and a daughter. My first son wasn't much interested, my second son took right to it. Last of all was my daughter and she wasn't much interested either. Just try not to stress out about it, your son will pick up on that. Good luck.

I have potty trained 3 boys and 1 girl. My sons all trained easier than my daughter. One of my boys was 100% trained at 2 years 4 months, but another wasn't trained until 4 years and the other two kids fell in the middle. Each child is different so just go with your gut and the important thing to remember is that you can't force them to train until THEY are ready. Make is a fun "big boy" achievement by giving lots of praise and remember to go with whatever seems best for your son.

One tip I would give when training a boy is don't make him stand up to go until they are taller and have better aim - you could try getting a step to put in front of the toilet, but it's just easier to keep him sitting while he's learning. Also, if your husband is comfortable with it let your son watch him go a couple times so he understands what to do.

Good luck!

The first difference that I can tell you... don't think that you can start in a couple months!! Boys start much later, and you will just end up frustrated if you begin now. He is not even two yet, and my son was almost 4 when we finished. Take your time, and take cues from him. He will let you know when he is ready. Otherwise, you will just end up frustrated if you use the same timeline as your daughter. Good luck, and be patient!

If your little man is showing interest, get him started. My guy sat on the potty aiming himself (the guard was not terribly helpful as he couldn't get his hand in to aim). We started around age 2......he was pretty good while he was awake, but at nap or night-time, he slept too deeply to control it - so much so that he didn't fully night-train until 5 and one month (after he started Kindergarten). In other words, he developed in his own time, not by force. Relax and it'll come in its own time.

H.,
In my experience my boys were easier than my daughter :) I have two boys and a girl. The first thing I did was have them all come to the bathroom with me prior to doing the raw potty training. If I went to the bathroom, the went with me, I would talk to them a lot so they would know what I was doing; like "mom has to wee wee so I'm sitting in the potty 'cause I'm a big girl", they new what an underwear was, and the purpose of it. So when I started to train my oldest boy, I knew he knew the concept of the potty. I took one weekend and had him half naked. Yes he did have accidents and I had to clean the house and wipe the pee one too many times, but at the end of that weekend, he knew what he was doing. He was 2 yrs old at the time. I would always keep an eye on them, limit their liquid intake and ask them every half an hour or so to go sit on the potty and see if anything would come out. Later on when I was training them to get rid of the night diaper, I would take them to the bathroom before bed time and have them sit on the toilet even when they said they didn't have to go, then open the faucet and let some water run.. :) they sure had to go after that :)
I gave them awards, made a big deal out of it, gave them stickers etc.
Just let him know who proud you are of him.
I hope this helps.

I have trained one boy and am in the midst of training my second. They were completely different in timing and process, but I would guess the one thing different from a girl is they can't run around in sundresses with no diaper or underpants on to train - LOL!
I think motivation and proper cues are key for any child, male or female. My second one didn't show interest until 8 months later than my first. My first was motivated by "snack" rewards, my second is motivated by praise. . . so different. I think you probably have a good handle on your kiddo's personality and know what would motivate him to succeed.
However, if you are looking for a novel product to use with your son, they have a Peter Potty that is a child's training urinal - really!
You can do it!!

Wait a year to even begin this process!

Boys don't have the ability (on average) to recognize a full bladder as early as girls do.

We had this conversation with our pediatrician when our son was three and again a few weeks ago when our daughter turned 2.

His advice (boy or girl) is to wait until the child is giving signs of readiness. It took until after our son's 3rd birthday for those signs to be apparent - extended periods of time without wetting his diaper, waking-up dry in the mornings, etc. We had to push him a little at that time, but it had to be on the terms when he understood what needing to go to the bathroom was.

Consequently, he's had only a few accidents and no regression (even overnight).

Our daughter, having just turned 2, is also showing NO signs of readiness. So, we're taking our pediatrician's advice and waiting for now - encouraging her if she wants to try and giving her the option. But, for now, she's not ready, and we're going to pull back a little.

Good luck.

Here's what the American Academy of Pediatrics says in their parenting website:
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddle...

you need to wait until he's showing signs of readiness. as a previous poster listed the clues. go by those. If you start too early it will only make the process longer and turn it into a power struggle. He has to want to do it. no amount of pushing and prodding and coaxing is going to get him to potty train any earlier than when he's ready to do it.

Elimination communication "training" is not training your child to use the toilet, it is training your self to take your child to the toilet.