Potty Training - please help

[taylordvd]

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!!

[loveebella]

I have absolutely no idea on how to help but my son did the exact same thing. My oldest is 4 and my youngest is 2. My oldest caught on really quick and my youngest OMGOSH that kid knows how to drive a person crazy. He would go potty and only have like 2-3 mistakes and then he would boycott and pee all over the house all day long. I would keep trying and then finally I'd tell Hubs that's it I am finished maybe he ain't ready yet. Next day DS2 would come and tell me he had to use the potty and he would do good for like a week and then back to square 1 again. It was super hard to train him..
But on a positive not (LOL now that i have scared you with potty training horror stories) if he is telling you he has to go then take him. Work with what he is giving you, if he wants to go at night, okay lets go potty. In the day you can work on it too.
Be grateful...you may be going backwards withs day/night potty training but at least in 6 months you won't be posting a How do I get my Ds to use the potty at night

[ericad2906]

I'll tell you what worked with My DS he was 2 months from turning 3 - He hated to wear underwear so What I did is Every time he would bring me a pullup or ask to wear a pullup I told him mommy couldn't put them on because he was a big boy & that if he wanted to wear them he had to put them on himself...after a few times of using the bathroom on himself *(This requires staying at home for at least 2 days*) he was 100% potty trained...and never has wore a pullup or diaper since... Some may say that is harsh but hey it worked for me...

[jenrose]

DS1 was potty trained at night long before he was potty trained during the day. It's not a bad thing since it means they do have the 'feeling' of when they need to go. Now you just have to get him to have the desire to stay dry when he has all those distractions of play, toys, friends etc.

DS2 is now potty training and he will stay dry with no troubles when we are around lots of people and doing lots of things, but when we are home he has no desire. Now this one is throwing me for a loop.

[TonyBreandthe4]

I feel very strongly that all you will do if trying to push a boy to potty train before he is ready will just end you up with extra laundry and carpet cleaning bills. With my two oldest sons.. they were both trained right around 3. One a week after he turned three and one two weeks before.

I gave them a reward shirt to wear and every time they peed/pooped in the potty I drew a new star on it. On the front I drew 'Potty Star! and a picture of a potty. It really got them excited that mommy was drawing on a shirt! They looked forward to going to the potty to get that star.

My dear friend is trying to push her 2.5 yr old son and its just frustrating her to no end.

In your case.. what you are doing sounds just right. The fact that he got up to pee in the night is super!! Remember, books are books but you are mommy :) Your intution will rarely ever be wrong :)

[motherofmolly]

once your dd or ds is showing the signs that they are ready (sounds like he is ready if he is going potty)....potty train....i did the 3 day cold turkey with my dd...required me to stay home for 3 days and be with her every second but it worked by the end of the first day...had a few problems at night but within 3 weeks the once in a while mistakes were gone

i picked a friday and started telling dd the week before what was going to happen. picked out some really fun undies and the morning we got up and off came the diapers and one went panties...every half hour i was asking if she had to potty and every hour we were on the potty....figured it out that within an hour of her drinking, she had to pee....all day we did this, and by the night she was on it herself....her treat for the potty was 2 m&m's

took two days to poop, but she did it finally

we had a couple accidents that first day, but i was ready to clean it up and she went straight to the potty when she peed..she got the potty stickers and we sang a potty song (made it up)...

we made the huge deal when she peed by herself. every body told her she was a big girl.

for the night issues, we stopped any drinks 1.5 hours before bed. she had to go potty before we went to bed no matter what. she would wake herself up if she peed and then go to the bathroom. but she started to wake herself up and going by herself. be prepared with a night light.

good luck. i do agree with someone else, if your child is not showing signs,then they are not ready...dh tried to push dd too soon and it failed miserably...

[taylordvd]

Thanks everyone. I think I am just going to take full advantage of the times he wants to go and make the rest of it no big deal. I really like potty star shirt idea. Everytime I try putting underwear on him, he just pees all over himself and really doesn't seem to care - just keeps on playing. That's what confuses me even more that he would care at night and not during the day. I also probably back down easier with this child b/c we have big temper tantrum issues and I don't want the potty issues to ad to all the screaming. If anyone else has any great ideas, I would love to hear them.

[momto8kiddos]

What worked well for our sons was to not put ANY pants on them while they were potty training. We just did it cold turkey when we felt they were ready. Told them they were too big for diapers now. Somehow they knew that they should not pee if they had nothing on. They just wore extra long t-shirts to at least be covered up. And, of course, we didn't go anywhere either.

Another thing we did was make a chart. Every time they used the potty they got a star and an M&M or raisin. And when they got to the end of the row they got a special treat.

Combination of both worked really well.

[434Teresa]

I have two teen sons they were borke by the time they were 2..I now have twins that just turned 3..they will pee in the potty all day long with no problems at all but at night alex needs a pull to go do number 2 he will not do it in the potty at all. For months now I would not put the pull up on him so he would go get it and put in on himself just so he did not have to pooh inthe potty..we went for their 3 year old check up and i told the doctor about this and he got on to me and told me to give the kid a pull up at nap time so he is not holding his pooh all day long becasue he bet that is what he is doing,said that it was going to mess his tummy up.. he told me that when he was ready to pooh in the potty he would do it that I cant force him to. he knows that he should go to the potty because he gives me a smile that says please change be before anyone knows what I did..but he is jsut not ready to got in the potty yet I guess......

As for the pee thing he is busy durning the day playing and dont want to take time out to go potty at night he is laying in bed doing nothing so its a reason to get up..he knows when he needs to go now its a matter of getting him to go. Make it fun like I did put a cheerio in the potty and make a game out of it, I would laugh and try to get him to pee on the cheerio, so he saw it as a game to go pee, instead of a have to thing....I also would give him a pice of hard candy the only time he was allowed to have hard candy...julia his sister is another story.............

[taylordvd]

So, should I just go ahead and really give it a good try for a couple of days and see what happens? Every time I try he pees himself right after I put him on the potty and this goes on for a couple of hours and then I get sick of the laundry that has piled up. Ds is the kind of kid that does things on his own time. I also feel as though he has the control, the ability to know when he is going, etc.