My son will be 3 in April, we also have a 14 month old daughter so we are buying diapers for 2. My son has pooped on the potty several times bc he was having constapation problems for a couple of months and putting him on the potty seemed to help his body start pushing. He has never been a fan of the potty and when we would have to put him on there he would get really upset and cry the whole time until his body started pushing. Once he would finish on the potty he would be happy and excited about seeing what he had "made" and getting his reward. He always wants to see us potty so we let him and he's always interested asking tons of questions while we are pottying. I talk to him about using the potty all the time, especially when we change his diaper. He seems to be wetting thru his diapers often now. At night time we have switched to over night diapers bc I got tired of changing his sheets every morning. Im not sure why he is peeing more, he isn't drinking more then usual. Sometimes he will tell me that he needs to pee or poo but refuses to even walk in the bathroom so Im trying not to force it bc I've heard this will set him back some. Some have said let them run around naked but he refuses to even go with out a shirt so I dont think that will work for him. Will he ever be ready and willing to be potty trained? I thought he was about ready since he would tell me when he needs to go or he will hide when he needs to poo and he doesn't like being in a wet diaper so sometimes he tells us he wants a new diaper on. He never liked the toddler potty so we use the seat of it on the big potty and use the rest as a step stool to get up there but if I try to let him stand up there he cries and holds his legs up and refuses to stand. I can't wait for him to be potty trained but feel unmotivated to go thru the training with him. Seems like it will be a huge struggle! So how do you potty train a stubborn, strong willed little boy? How long should I wait and what are the signs that he is ready?
Thanks for the advice everyone! I know one momma was kind of kidding but it may not be a bad idea to wait a bit and then potty train both my kids at the same time! Well at least start with him and let her follow! I like the timer idea and getting excited every 30 mins when its time! I just hope he doesn't struggle to much about having to sit on the potty, that's normally our big issue with him. I guess when he stops throwing fits about the potty then he's ready?? We have got him some cool "Cars" underwear that we talk about with him. I think we will wait a little bit but keep the excitement up about pottying and then try agian after he is 3! Thanks momma's!
You wait for him to be ready. Boys do not get sphinter control until they are about 3 plus years of age.
Get ready to wait as girls actually train up around two years of age.
Please do go get a couple of child development books so you aren't stressing over this and a host of other issues that come up over the years between babyhood and six.
You will be so surprised when it happens, but it will. I have 2 boys. Our first was potty trained at 3 years 4 months. Our second was 3 years and 2 months. We didn't stress about it and waited until they seemed to be totally on board. When they were ready, it took one weeked to potty train each of them, daytime AND nightime trained. They had hardly any accidents after that. It was a breeze. I really believe that if you are willing to wait until your child is ready, it will be painless for both of you. Hang in there!
I thought my son would be 25 yrs old and still coming to me..."change me". AHHHH! Then he turned three, and I read a book. This book talked about what not to, what to do. I only took one piece of advice.
Buy a timer, start at 30 minutes. When the timer goes off everyone and I mean everyone says "time to go pee " or "time to go poop" or whatever words you use...(book said to use both not "potty"). Even if my son just sat on the toilet he gave him high fives. Gradually we decreased the time for the next week. At the end of the week he no longer needed the timer and he is fully trained...even nighttime.
My daughter took forever to be ready to use the potty. At 3 years old it seemed in the morning she was good at reading her body's signs that she had to go but after lunch she just could not figure out her sings. Partly she still took a nap in the afternoon and was tired so that was on her mind instead of using the potty. We did try for a month of the no pull-ups but that only ended badly for us, daughter super constipated, doc visit, and in the end set her back using the potty regular back by a few month.
At age 3 daughter wore underware in the morning, pull-up in afternoon for nap, underware after she wakes up from nap and then pull-up for bedtime. My daughter would naturally do this little holding it in jig, or says she has to go. She was usually dry for 2 plus hours before I even started the potty training process, and it was slow going at first because she still was unable to read the signs that her body were giving her that it was time to hold it and go potty.
At age 4 daughter wears underware almost all the time. Except she still wears a pull-up at night time, she is just not ready for underware at night, and I will not push it. We talk about and if she is up for trying underware at night we do so BUT only if she is wants to. She is one of those kids that wants to do everything perfect and wetting the bed when I force her to wear underware at night only sets the whole potty thing back a few months. She will be 5 in August.
Every child is going to be different. If something is not working or it seems to be cancelling out the progress already made then take a break or ease up a bit. Some kids you can just say do it and are potty trained with in a week (to me having the parent put them on the potty every 30mins-an hour is NOT potty trained, just part of the process, potty trained is when they can read their own body signs and use the potty with out a set schedule.)... other kids it takes time. If he is dry for long lengths then his body is learning to hold it, maybe talk to him about having a little potty dance if it feels like he has to go. I got a few fun potty books, kept casually talking about it and finally my strong willed girl just did it. Had a few accidents but that is part of the process.
To me it sounds like your son is ready. The only thing that worked with my daughter was taking away the diapers except at night and having her sit on the toilet every hour/hour and a half (my daughter's doctor said 3 year old children generally pee every 2 hours or so) for 3 minutes (it is recommended that boys first learn to pee sitting and then after they master that they move on to standing to pee). We made a deal with her that she would get a reward for every 7 days she went without having an accident (we still had her in a nighttime diaper while she was training). She had a few accidents but it only took a few weeks of this before she just started going on her own. She is now 3.5 and uses the toilet both day and night (yay! It seemed like it took her forever to become fully trained). Good luck.
When people suggest you let him go naked, they don't mean from head to toe. What they are suggesting is sort of a radical (but effective) approach to potty-training and that is throwing out all of your diapers and refusing to buy any more. That's it. Cold turkey. Let him know that he's a big boy now and doesn't need diapers. Get him some extremely cool big boy underwear and have him call the grandparents to brag about it.
There will be accidents. Many of them...which is why he'll probably end up not wearing anything from his belly-button down while you're at home because there's only so much laundry that you can accumulate. But after several days to a week of this, you should see some big improvements. Ideally, he'll be fully trained.
He's obviously ready, there's no doubt about it. But I think we're so scared nowadays becuase all of the "experts" say you'll set your child back if you push that, well, we don't even lightly shove. Not even when it's really needed. Don't go crazy and start disciplining him for every accident. But there is NOTHING wrong with being firm and no-nonsense about the whole thing and expecting him to make the effort.
Whatever you do, do NOT start buying pull-ups. To make this work, this change (from diapers to underwear) has to be significant. Pull-ups are too much like diapers and too much like underwear, which only ends up confusing kids. Nearly every parent I know that's had potty-training issues have been able to track them back to the pull-ups.
For extra tips, I highly suggest you use this site's search feature to look up "potty training" advice from MANY mothers past. :-)
Hang in there! They will do it when they are ready. The lightbulb needs to go on in their minds first. My son turned three and a month later he got so excited to wear big boy pants and that's all it took...Let them make the connection on their own and it will be so much easier...I know changing diapers and wiping poopy bottoms is a pain but I think cleaning up accidents are far worse. Good luck.
hmmm. maybe wait 6 or 8 months and do them at the same time?? :) i kid. kinda. lol. the norm for boys is 3 for potty training, even 3 1/2. i understand your frustrations but it was mom and dad's decision to make him a big brother at such a young age, not his. you can't force potty training just to make things easier on you. as you have found the more you push the more he will resist (and rightly so imo!). it's really not fair to pressure a child, and start a bunch of conflict and fights, just because you are ready for him to potty train. wait till HE is.
He sounds ready, leave him in underwear during the day and have him sit on the potty every half hour. If in a week he doesnt catch on, he's not ready and you can try again in a few weeks.
