Advice on Potty Training - Phoenix, AZ

Well learning to not go potty when sleeping is a learned responce. My five year old has not had one accident for over six months, on the other hand my three year old is just now wearing big kid underwear and she still needs to wear diapers to sleep in. Me myself wore diapers to sleep until I was five and then wet the bed until I was nine. So don't rush him, wearing diapers in no big deal. I know they my cost, but At least he won't be scared about bed wetting later. It just takes time.

Much of what I have read indicates many, many kids are just not able to wake themselves up at night to pee. Their bodies can't read the signals yet and that's OK. This is true until they are around five. Not all kids, obviously, but many. My daughters were both day trained at 27 months. My younger one also was dry at night then. My oldest still needed help at night until she was well into her fourth year. It is completely normal.

Other folks suggest getting your child up before you go to bed and bringing them to the potty. I never did this. I was never interested in interrupting their sleep. And some research suggested that this only taught them to continue to go in their sleep since many kids don't actually wake up fully when this is done. Over time, my daughter would feel the wetness and wake up at night. But for awhile, she was so sound asleep she didn't wake up til morning. I had her in a cloth overnight trainer so she could feel wet without messing the bed. Make sure he can feel wet. Otherwise there's less incentive!

As for pooping, give him lots of prunes and make sure he's not feeling pain. It's a vicious cycle. They have a hard movement and then refuse to go. Making future movements painful...Will he go in a diaper in privacy? Maybe he prefers squatting? Tell him he can do that on the potty. Not sure what else to suggest, but this is not uncommon. I've heard both boys and girls do this! Good luck!

That poop is a challenge and sorry to say it takes time. My son is barely done and he is 3 1/2 and he was extradinarily dificult! From all my friends it seems if they have a comfort level about poop like refuse to go on the potty it takes a bit longer. My son was constipated so that was actually our problem.

As far as naps I make my son pee before them and 90% of the time he as no accidents but nighttme is more of a callenge. I am actaully getting ready to take the pullups away for both my kids. My daughter is 2 and is potty traind so I figure I will do them bot at once. Some kids use them as a secuity so have you tried putting him to bed withou them? A few of my friends said their kids really didn't have any accidents when they took it away. Well good luck

I just had to make a comment about how tall your son is!! I have never seen a child who is not even 3 yet be that tall. My oldest is almost eight and she just hit 49 inches (4ft 1in)and she is average (at 50% for her height). That is just amazing. You should get him into basketball!!

my son is 1 day younger than yours and we are going thru the same thing. The issue with # 2 i am no longer pushing. I know he can do it in the big potty. he has done it once before but now i think its a power struggle and it upsets both he and I too much . I have had other mothers just tell me its harder with boys.

As for the sleeping thru nap time and bed time without wetting the bed what we do is limit his drinks an hour before and make him go to the potty before lying down. I also wake up in the morning at 6am and before I get ready for work I wake him up just enough to try to go to potty. 95% of the time he goes potty and then right back to sleep. He wakes up with dry big boy underware and I go to work happy.

the whole potty training thing is a challenge but I am sure you are doing a great job . Just hang in there.

For going poop on the potty what I did was take a few books in the bathroom with my daughter. Then we would set "Tickety" (the timer) for 5 minutes. She had to stay on the potty until Tickety rang. I stayed in there with her to start and then we would read and/or sing songs. After her comfort level with that was better, then I would ask her if she wanted me to stay with her.

As for the pull-ups and sleep times - I found a mattress cover (I think I got it at K-Mart) that went over the entire mattress and zipped at the bottom. It was vinyl so if she went, the mattress was safe! Then, get him to try to go potty before bed times. There may still be accidents, but the kinks will get worked out!

Hi, T. ~

I'm working on potty training my younger son, who is exactly your son's age, to the day. (And my daughter is a month older than your younger son, how about that?!?!) We have a tough time with #2 as well, because he gets constipated and even when he isn't he's afraid it will hurt. I give him plenty of prune juice and put flax oil in softer foods and liquids, and then when it's time I try to distract him with a book or toy and a cool "swimming fish" lamp I've put in the bathroom. It helps comfort him and he's really proud of himself when it's all over. (We do the sticker chart thing.)

I usually leave him in a pull-up during naps and at night, and he usually wakes up wet in the morning, but is dry after the nap. So I think I'll just start putting him in underwear at naptime. He already has a vinyl cover on his mattress, so having to change the sheets won't be too bad. It's just basically trial and error. It's taken us about a month already to get as far as we have, and we're pretty pleased, actually. Our older son wasn't potty trained until he was almost four. I've learned to be more patient and laid-back about the whole thing since then as well.

By the way, where is your family located? We're in El Mirage. It might be fun to get our little ones together if we're in the same general vicinity, since they're so close in age. :) If you're interested, feel free to email me: ____@____.com.

~ R.

My son who is now almost 9 was not potty trained completely during the day until he was nearly 4 and at night until he was 6.

We made a potty board together and it helped leaps and bounds with him. We went to the store and let him pick out a big piece of colored poster board and we let him pick out stickers. Every time he went poop in the potty he got to put a sticker on the board. Once he had 5 stickers he would get a treat of some kind. Something small that cost a dollar or less like a bouncy ball or a lollipop. With in a month of making the potty board he was using the toilet all the time.

The night time wetting the bed took alot of work on both parts. We learned that we should not let him have anything to drink with in an hour of bed time. We would also have him go to the potty right before bed and then just before we went to bed. We found a vinyl cover for his mattress that fit over the whole thing and zipped up at somewhere like walmart. This saved his mattress and made it easier to clean up after.

We found that letting him wear regular underwear to bed instead of diapers made him more aware of what was going on. He did not like to be wet and would be more likely to get up to go rather than end up wetting himself. Good Luck hope maybe some of this helps.