Help with Potty Training! - Raleigh,NC

He's not ready quite yet.
My son trained at 3 1/2 and I let daycare take the lead on it.
Since they took the whole class at the same time every hour (and they had these tiny little child sized toilets), it was just something everyone did and eventually he came home and wanted to show what he learned and TA DA!
All we had to do was follow up on the weekends what they were doing all week at daycare.
He had very few accidents.
He could not stay dry through the night till he was 7 1/2 so we kept him in pullups at night until he woke up dry 2 weeks in a row.

I think the "naked way" and going straight to underwear do not work. First your child needs to be ok with sitting on the potty. You can't change the rules all of a sudden and expect your kid to "get it". Give him small rewards for just sitting on the potty. When he does go, give him a bigger reward (like a gummy, an m and m, whatever is a treat is your house). At this point you should be putting him on the potty every 15 minutes. Do this for a couple days and then when he starts asking, switch him to pullups. Give him a bigger reward for making pee or poop when he tells you he has to go. At this point, you can switch to underwear when he has 1 or 2 accidents a day. All this should have taken less than a week. It may take a few weeks to be completely accident free though but you can give him a bigger reward like a special toy if he goes a whole week with no accident. Potty training was incredibly easy for us but my son was almost 3 and when I decided to "train him" it was for very consistant.

There are many replies on here to potty training and you might like to check some out from the past. I think it depends on the child totally, not the age. If he is still an immature little boy he may not be ready or his body may not be ready. I started my first child at this age and he was not ready at all. He was about 2 months later and did fine then. If you do it now I would not do the naked thing and I would not do pull ups which are a crutch to the child. Put on underwear, set a timer for 15 min or so, when it goes off take the child to the potty and have them sit there a short time. If they go praise them and reward them with a sticker, or small treat such a mini marshmallow, or something very small. If they have an accident calmly clean it up saying, 'next time you'll do better' and keep at it and don't stop. He just may not be ready yet. Most of my kids were 2 years and 8 months and so was my grandson I babysat. Some of the other grandkids were closer to 3 years. It just depends on the child.

He's at that stage where rewards will make a huge difference. He will go and try just to get a couple of M&M's or a few Skittles, Jelly Beans, a Hershey Kiss, etc...a small reward for even trying will kick him into the next stage.

If you are not interested in doing rewards that are instantaneous then I suggest you wait until he is more mature and is ready to train.

He may not stay dry until he is much older at night. That's something they have no control over. Once their brain produces the correct chemicals his kidneys will stop producing urine when he is asleep. You cannot do anything to make him stop wetting in his sleep until his brain produces this chemical. He will start staying dry all night. Kids do not need to wake up to go pee during the night, that does nothing but make everyone sleepy and cranky the next day.

Of course he is ready. If he is going immediately after being on the potty, this is a good sign. He understands, and now he just needs the time and practice to get how the muscles work. Just keep at, stay positive, and give him the chance.

2.5 year olds are hard. My son was totally trained at 21 months (including night)...In the last few months (29-31 months), he has started having accidents all the time --his accidents consist of a tablespoon or less of pee in his pants. He is "too busy." I've got him back on track after a rough few months, but the key is to let them do it without nagging too much. Give him the chance to teach himself. So let him wet his pants, gently say "opps, sorry buddy, your pants are wet. Can you take them off and get some new ones?" And just hang in there. He is ashamed. He knows what he is suppose to do but he still needs some time to figure it all out. But I can tell you this, if he is going right after sitting on the potty, he is more than ready, and just needs a little more time. This is a normal stage in potty learning.

Get the book "potty animals" from the library. it's great.

Stay positive, stay calm, and just relax. The more relaxed you can be about it, the easier it will be for him.