youPotty Training an Almost 4 Year Old

Any chance you could hold off until Thanksgiving week (only two weeks away)? I think you'll have better success if you wait until he has a couple of days off school. Then you can just not plan on leaving the house for a few days.

I think you are very wise to say no more pullups, except at bed time. Using them for preschool really would send the wrong message.

I potty trained my then almost 4 year old when he had two weeks off of school. It really only took 3 days. I thought I was going to go crazy the first day, but it really did get better.

Good luck!

I'd talk to the teacher about what you're attempting and ask for her input. She may be as okay putting him in dry clothes and bagging up the wet ones as she is changing his diaper a few times.

But do check out the information on these two websites: one gives many training tips and background information, the other is targeted specifically to children who are resistant to training:

General information: http://www.parentingscience.com/potty-training-tips.html

Delays and problems: http://www.rogerknapp.com/medical/pottytrainingrefusals.htm

The first day my boys were in undies we had a ton of accidence, but day 2 it was down to 2 or 3. But honestly, I would plan to keep him out of school for at least the first part of the week. Putting him in pull ups for school could slow down his progress, and it is not fair to the teachers to have to deal with multiple changes when they have several other kids to deal with as well.

I would call the school today and tell them what you are doing and see what will fit their day best. I think they will be more than willing to help you with your method.

I thought the same thing when my son was potty training. I never thought that the school would never change him 10 times a day. So we tried at home and I put him in a diaper for school. Then I mentioned it at school one day and they said absolutely, bring in a bag of clothes and we will change him. The first day I was terrified and he only ended up having 2 accidents. I think the thing that really helped is that they set up a timer and would bring him to the bathroom every half hour so he could sit and see if he had to go.

I did the "cold-turkey" method with my daughter at 3 years 7 months and she did great. She was in preschool also and even though they had to be potty trained, the teacher let it slide because she would have rather have had the kids in there wearing a pull-up then having to miss out because they were not trained. Classes were Tues and Thurs so we picked a Fri (giving us a good 4 days) to start potty training. By the second day DD was trying not to wet her pants and was letting us know she had to go so we could get her to sit on the potty. We did put a pull-up on her for bedtime because we couldn't be sure how she would do and we did send her to school in a pull-up just in case, but she did fine. Within a couple of weeks DD was asking to go to school without the pull-up!

You can start with sending him in the pull-up this week, but if you find that he keeps wetting in them, start sending him in the underpants and provide a change of clothes. Have him go potty at home right before you leave and don't let him load up on liquids in the morning. Hopefully when he is at school if he has to pee he'll remember to go to the potty, or he just won't have to go as much until he gets home. Ideally you could work more on potty training when he has more days off from school.

The teachers really don't have time to change him. Usually they require they be potty trained before they can start school. I am glad you found one that will allow him to attend. I say put him in a pull up, I would not want my child sitting on a floor that had just had pee on it. It happens and the janitor isn't always available. So I'd be annoyed if your child was wetting and didn't have a pull up on.