Potty Training My Soon to Be 3 Year Old Son, Can Anyone Help?????

The only thing i can say is just stop worrying and quite pushing so hard and he will do it himself. My little boy absolutely refused to use the potty at three and a half i was convinced he would be wearing pull ups in high school but everyone kept telling me to just leave him alone and he would do it when he was ready so one day i just stopped pushing. I didn't try to make him use the potty at all and then out of nowhere about two or three weeks later he just started going on his own and he had one accident about two weeks after that and hasn't had another since (he is four and a half now) other than that all i can say is good luck...

Hi M., we tried everything with my 2 year old now 3 to potty train. The best thing is patience. He will get there in his own time. We tried the piggy bank thing where he got a quarter for going and hsi piggy bank played music so he liked putting money in it. That worked very well. My mom would even offer a quarter over the phone when she would call. The next thing that just kind of cam up is Elmo. He loves Elmo. So I went online to Sesame Street.com and there is a games section and one is Elmo going Potty. They get to push a key on the keyboard to make Elmo go Potty. It was great fun and educational too. It is ok to have accidents but try the Elmo game and have patience with your little one. Here is the link:
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/games/pottytim...
Make a really big deal when he does go in the potty.

K.

I know what you are going through. My son is now 3 and he was potty trained at 2 1/2 years old. He had many accidents, but with patience he mastered it. My son loved the potty training books that has a button that makes the toilet flush. He also loved to flush the real potty, so I told him that he had to potty in order to flush. I also got the potty elmo and everytime he had to potty we would make elmo potty too. He loved to see elmo potty and he liked to flush elmo's pee pee down the potty too. We were very lucky to only have two months of accidents, both pee and poop. We would also make him change himself if he did have an accident. That worked very well because it was not an easy job to do. My son is completely potty trained now. He even wears underwear to bed and stays dry. I never had a problem with night time wetting. Hope some of this works for you. Oh and by the way, my son always wanted to be a "big" boy so I would also refer to the potty is something that "big" boys do. It worked for me!

I can't say much but I can definitely sympathize. My daughter is just about to turn 3 and she's still having problems. It's like every other week she want to train, the off weeks she wants pullups. I have started something at home that helps a little bit. I went to Walmart and got a chart with stickers. Whenever she gets on the potty she gets one, whether she pees or not. Once she has peed in the potty, I praise her like crazy and give her two stickers, a big hug, let her flush the potty (which is a treat I guess for her), and she washes her hands. I give her a high 5 and then she just goes off on her merry little way to play. It works! Now she lets me know when she has to go potty. Sometimes it's a little late, but for the most part at least she's trying and the times she goes are getting more and more frequent. With boys (I have 8 brothers) my dad always use to put cheerios or fruit loops in the potty and make my brothers shoot them with pee. I don't know how it works, but guys like that kind of thing. LOL. Enjoy!

~R.~

~R.~

I hesitate to even give any potty training advice! It can be such a frustrating process for both moms AND kids. My daughter didn't want to have anything to do with the potty until 29 months old, and then she just went on her own! Pooping, though, took another year for her to master. She would hold it until we put a pull-up on her for naps or bedtime and she'd just go then. She was scared to go in the potty. We tried lots of different techniques to help her get over her fear. Then she wasn't staying dry through the night until closer to 4 years old.

Its a long process with some steps forward and some steps back. I'd follow his cues and let him go at his own pace. Daycares and preschools are used to accidents :)

Hey,
It sounds to me that he is doing good for the most part. My 3 y.o. can go all day long until it comes bedtime. Just stay postitive for him. I saw on Oprah one time, that they said put his best friend (toy) on the potty and clap for the big achievement just as u would ur child. We used Ernie from Seasame Street. I know my 3 y.o. doesnt like wetting himself, i have to wake him up to go and sometimes i dont make it in time. He ends up crying, but I tell him i love him and he is still a BIG boy. I wish you luck.

Boys do take longer. He will potty train when he wants to be trained. My youngest knew that to move up to the big boy room at daycare when he was 3 he had to be out of pullups. In less than a 2 week period he trained himself so he could move up to the big boy room at daycare.

We bought a "elmo" seat insert for him and a step up stool so he could get up to the potty on his own (he didn't want anything to do with a training potty and is small in stature causing him to fear he would fall into the toilet). There is now a new wood toilet seat from 'One Step Ahead' that has the kiddie seat embedded in the top toilet seat cover for the kids to pull down on top of the adult seat. It's pricier than "elmo" ($30 vs $12) but if I was at your stage with a smaller child I would buy it in a heart beat. I wouldn't have "elmo" hanging around when guests come over to the house.

On the other end of the spectrum is my 6 year old boy. He potty trained earlier but still wears pull-ups at night and is just now showing signs of a bladder that lasts through the night.

Good luck and remember I don't know of anyone who isn't potty trained when they go to college. I know of plenty who aren't potty trained when they go to pre-k and others who are still training at night time in early elementary school.

The best advice I can give is to not rush it and just keep trying to introduce it as much as possible throughout the day. I found it much harder when my son was 3 and I was struggling to get him to go on his own or atleast tell me and once I finally stopped pushing him and bought him a step stool and a seat that goes over ours he just decided to start going...now he's 4 and is already able to put on his clothes from the waist down...seemed just like yesterday that he wouldnt go at all. Im hoping that he will help make it easier on my baby who is 1 come time to potty train.What ended up getting him to go for good was I put him in real kids underware...no diaper and let him pee on himself 1 time and I still remember the day he come up the hallway legs spread open and walking like a penguin whining b/c he didnt like the feeling....I guess it was then he decided that this was not the way to go :)