How Do I Get My Three Year Old to Urinate in a Cup?

great responses so far. One suggestion said to make it a game and see if he can 'aim' and pee in it. On that idea, two other thoughts:
1. Create a big "bullseye" out of construction paper. Put the cup in the middle and tell him he needs to try to get his pee in the bullseye.
2. Is the cup clear? If so, on the outside BOTTOM of the cup tape a boat or something to it so that he can see the boat from where he's standing (make sense?) Tell him to 'sink the boat' or something like that.

What about saying "When Superman goes to the doctor, he has to pee in a cup too?" (or use whatever character he loves - Spongebob, Super Why, etc).

Can you just try to catch some pee as he is going on the toilet like he normally would? Or do they have some kind of sterile container that can be placed in the potty to catch it as he goes?

Can you have him pee in the potty training toilet if you still have one and then pour out the sample in a cup for the doctor.

There is a "hat" i think it's called-that is placed in the toilet-under the seat-maybe he would go in there? It is used by surgical patients when everything has to be measured.

If you don't have the training toilet or a hat, you can improvise with saran wrap...just make it dip down in the middle a bit, and make sure you don't have a seam at the lowest point. Bonus is that it won't be very obvious to the little guy. Be careful transferring to the cup though...

Maybe make a game.... put it on the ground outside and see if he can hit it.

What if daddy does it? or you do it? (use a plastic cup and give him one just like yours and then simply "transfer it"). If he sees a grown up do it first, maybe he'll be more inclined to do it. Just tell him that the doctor can find out lots of cool stuff about him with his pee...

That is what I would do...

Good Luck!
-M.

Hospitals have this hat thing that goes just under the toilet seat to collect urine. Ask if you can have one of those devices. It will make a world of a difference.

Disinfect the potty and have him pee in there, then you pour the "pee" into the cup. I usually did this over the toilet to avoid messing. This method worked for both my son and my daughter. Btw - if u don't make a "big deal" about him making a "pee" he'll do it! Good luck!!

Ask your doctor for a "hat." If the ped doesn't have one, see if you can get one from a urologist. They give them to those of us with kidney stones. We use it to collect the pee to see if we have passed any stones. Sometimes they want to analyze the stone. Anyway, the doctor should be able to get one for you. You set it inside the toilet and empty it into the cup.

can you just get him to go in a potty chair then empty the chair into the cup? Otherwise, sit him far back on the seat, put his foot or hand in warm water and hold the cup up to him. The potty chair may not be sterile (do the best you can) but it will tell them if there is infection or not.

Good luck with that! I couldn't get my 7 year old to pee in a cup!!!! LOL

Do you still have a small kiddo training potty? My one (Bumbo) you can actually remove the dish and put it on the big potty and make them pee in that and pour it into the cup....I have never had to resort to that (my daughter peed in the cup at the pediatrician at 3 yrs old) but if it was my darling little man (who is 2.5) I would probably have to resort to it. Good luck!

put a bowl in the toilet and let him pee in there then just transfer it to a cup and take it to doctors.
Good luck! :0)

buy a clean little bucket and ask him if he wants to pee pee outside? Or ask him where he would like to go for fun..just his once. I don't know why but my kids all loved hanging out in the backyard and if they could get away with it, they would pee pee outside and just laugh and think it was awesome..

good luck, just a thought (and I'm kind of embarassed to have shared :)

I had to do this with my 3 year old son as well. I bribed him a little, he loves turtles and books so I told him that if he pee'd in the cup I would buy him one of the two. Well, that didn't work. I explained to him over and over that it wasn't going to hurt and that the sooner he did it the faster we didn't have to deal with it anymore. Nothing. I too left the doctors office with a cup and a note to drop off the pee at a lab. That day I was driving taking care of things I gave him snacks and water and before I knew it he needed to use the restroom. Since we were not home we went to the nearest store( I had the cup in my purse) I sat him on the toilet and put the cup under so that the pee would fall in there. Thats it! after that we went to the nearest lab and dropped it off. The best way is to not give it too much importance and when you see that he needs to pee, get the cup and go to the bathroom with him, then after make sure to congratulate him on what a good job he did! good luck to you!!

Couldn't he go in a plastic potty and then you pour the sample into the little cup?

My 3 year old just had a urine test today. They had an insert they placed in the toilet bowl to catch the urine. He went as normal and the insert caught it all. Perhaps a local lab has something similar.

I can't even pee in a cup very well so I'm not surprised he's having trouble. Do you still have his potty? Sterilize his potty, have him pee in there, then pour it into the cup. That's what I had to do for my daughter's stool sample.