Potty Training - please help

[sadlady12]

One thing that worked for me in potty training my boys was letting them pee outside. Now we lived out in the country, so it was a feasible thing to do. I would have dh take them out and they would see how far they could pee, lol. It made it a game for them and they loved it! There were many times they would be sitting watching tv and jump and run outside so they could pee off the porch. I worried that they wouldn't be "potty-trained" but "outside trained" instead, lol but there was nothing really to worry about with them. It was much better than them peeing all over my floor and furniture. At night and in the winter, we did the cheerios in the potty and they practiced "sinking" the cheerios.

Good Luck to you! Don't worry, it'll be over before you know it and you'll be looking back and thinking.... where did the time go?

[momzoo7]

Okay, so ds, age 2.5, is ready to potty train. I have a dd who is 4.5 and have made it through with her. But ds is really throwing me for a loop. He shows all the readiness signs, goes when you put him on, stays dry for long periods, etc. He refuses to go on the potty during the day - its always a fight and everyone says to drop the potty training thing and wait a while. But, here is the issue, he always asks before bed and last night he woke me up at 3AM to go potty and he went and his diaper was barely wet. Every book out there says to start with the daytime training first, so what in the world am I supposed to?? I would love any advice from experienced potty training moms!!

have daddy take him in with him once he see's daddy do it he'll want to. we also use gummy worms as a reward, don't push and make a big deal when he does it.

[CW&M Mom]

He doesn't sound emotionally ready to me yet. The average age for a boy is 3 1/2.

[Saving_spree]

I think you should go the direction you have been pointed at.

If night is what he is responding at so be it. Then the day training can follow it.

[taylordvd]

Thanks for all your responses. He is still wearing diapers, but we are asking him if he has to go several times a day. Sometimes he goes, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he initiates, others times he throws a fit. He is still going before bed time and nap time. So, we're taking a laid back approach. It would be really nice to not have to buy diapers anymore, though.

[anaj06]

We started potty training Monday, so we are 5 days in with our 32 month old boy. We changed daycares and this daycare requires every child in the 30-36 month class to be more than 1/2 way potty trained so they were talking about moving him back to the 24-30 month class if we can't get him fairly potty trained in 2 weeks.

Here is what they told us to do and it is working for our child. Every 20-30 minutes tell your child its time to go potty and go make him pull down his pants and sit on the potty for at least 2-3 minutes. Have some sort of reward if he does it (we are using MnMs) and do not scold for accidents. No Pullups except at night, so he is in underwear all day at home and at daycare.

On Monday (1st day with no Pull-up)- he peed in the potty once and had 7 accidents. On Wednesday, he had 2 accidents and even did a bowel movement in the potty, Thursday (yesterday) he had only 2 accidents all day. We'll see how today goes...as of dropoff this morning, no accidents.

He does better at daycare than he does at home and I think that is because of peer pressure...all the other kids in his class are 80%+ potty trained. He is even wanting to stand up to pee (which we haven't tried yet) because the other boys are doing it:)

[clarkestep]

I taught my 2 boys the same way as sadlady12. They peed off the back deck and loved it.

As for using the actual potty. Try putting him on it facing backwards. This does 2 things. The toilet is narrower at the front so they don't feel like they are going to fall in. They can also hold on to the toilet lid if they feel like they need the stability when they push to poo-poo.

The other thing it does is that it teaches them 'aim'. Show him how to point his penis down and not to be afraid to touch it when necessary. If they don't point their penis down when they pee, the pressure causes it to point straight and they'll pee all over the toilet. Also, if he poo-poos first it may cause him to get an erection (which is normal due to how little they are). It is especially hard to pee in the toilet when this happens if they aren't taught to point it down. LOL Talk to him and remind him to keep pointing it until he is done. When my sons were little, I made it a priority to instill in them a sense of good aim from the beginning. To this day, my bathroom still doesn't smell like some of my friends' as my boys have always had good aim.

As for pushing your son into potty training, I wouldn't make a big deal about it like others have said. You can lovingly let him know that he can wear a diaper until he turns 3. But at age 3, he has to wear big boy underwear because they don't make diapers for 3 year olds (I'd actually keep him in a diaper until then and not even buy pull-ups). When you go to the grocery store point out to him other kids who look like they are 3 and show him that THEY aren't wearing diapers anymore. Do this over the next several months to prepare him that at age 3 he will change to big boy underwear. Then make a big deal about going out and buying some a few days before his birthday. Let him pick some out. On his birthday, just put him in them. If he has an accident, no biggie. No scolding, just an "ut ohhhh, let's go change your britches"... and make him do most of the work changing them. Show him where to put the wet ones (maybe in a closed pail of borax water). Then maybe reward him for when he does use the potty. For me, when my boys made a mess or had an accident, I thought it was very important not to scold them, but at the same time, make them take personal responsibility for cleaning up after themselves. Maybe this is why my bathroom has never had that 'men's room smell' to it. lol

Anyway, I hope some of my ideas help.