Potty 2 Toodlers! HELP!

When my son was potty training, we got to a point where it was obvious he -could- be potty trained (he knew he had to go, and would go in his diaper) but his desire was lacking. He didn't want to stop playing to go to the potty I guess. At the time I was a sahm too. The only thing I could think of was to take away the diaper but I didn't want him to think he could go in his clothes. So we spent one day at home alone with him dressed only in his shirt. I explained he'd have to use the potty like other big boys did. When he had to go, he had to use the potty. Maybe that seems extreme but just one day did the trick. Potty training after that was a snap. BTW, he's 18 now and no trauma from that one day. :->

Your story is sooo similar to mine! My husband and I went through 2 years of fertility and had Cole....now 3 1/2. When he was 13 months we found out we were preg. with our second son Samuel now 21 months. Cole did the exact same thing when it came to potty training. I think it was a control issue. When he turned 3 I stopped putting diapers on him if we were at home... only "Big Boy underwear"! He had about 5 accidents before he trained. I also used M&Ms as a reward for everytime he went on the potty. I think diapers delay training because they can go without having to stop playing. He has been trained ever since.

M., my youngest too showed little interest in potty training, but knew when he needed changing. We hade a time issue because we were changing him from a commercial daycare to a Christian School based daycare that only accepted potty trained children. We had less than a month to get him ready. Whew! What I did was when we were at home, I treated him just like a puppy. He wore only underwear at home. Everytime he ate, drank or got up from sleeping he went to the potty. I would take him about every hour or so just to make sure. The new diapers and pullups are so wonderful, kids can't really feel when they are wet and so are not uncomfortable. I let him wear pull ups at night. It also may help, if you can get your husband to cooperate, to take him with him when he goes to urinate. My husband reluctanly agreed, but my son finally realized that he could stand up like his daddy. He thought it was cool. Another "tool" we used..and not that I completey condone it..but under the time restraint I was desperate. Was to allow him to tee-tee outside. You know guys. He thought that was cool too and it was summer too. Once he started realizing he could do that, it made it easier for him to do it in the toilet. My oldest was fairly easy, he wanted to be a "big boy" like hi daddy, and I just kept telling him he couldn't be like his daddy until he didn't wear pull ups or diapers anymore. I also bought him spiderman, batman, and power ranger underwear that he wnet crazy for, but told him that he couldn't wear them until he started using the potty. Those same tactics were used on the little one, but his favorite was Scooby doo. I hope any or all the suggestions I have given you help. Please let me know if they do...

i am a mother of two and when my oldest was 2 i would let him run around naked, or i would but underwear on him. if he went potty in them i would let him stay them for a few minutes. then if he went potty on the toliet i would give him a sticker and put a sticker on the calander for everytime he went potty on toilet. it worked. he really enjoyed seeing those stickers up there. it made him feel proud of himself. we also let him pick out one of those toliet seats that fit into the big toliet seats. so he felt like it was something special. it worked. try the stickers or another type of treat that works for your son. give it time, and try to make the expirence fun not frustrating, which it can be. hope this helps.

Check out www.pottytrainingsolutions.com they have a product called PODs that worked wonderful on children who are ready, but haven't been able to quite make the committment to actually doing it. We used them and within 2-3 weeks our daughter was accident free and using the potty all the time including at night.
As to the oldest bringing you a diaper to put on him, but not wanting to go to the potty, boys are sometimes harder to train than girls, they develop slower and may take longer to mature and be ready. However if you think that he is just not going because he doesn't want to or he is in some way being stubborn about it, you could make him change his own diaper when he goes. And help with clean up after a poopy diaper. If he has to experience doing that himself he may decide it is better to just go to the potty. I wish you the best it must be hard having two so close together, but this is a great opportunity to get them both out of diapers at the same time. Good luck.

Everyone was always telling me that my 3yr old son needed to be potty trained but he would just cry if I put him on the potty.Then he turned 31/2 and all of the sudden HE had the desire to go on the potty.Two months later and he wears his Power Ranger undies proud and we havent had one acident day or night.I think the child has to be ready and your son is doing the same things my son would do,but he wasnt ready at that time. Give a couple of my months then try again.His 21/2 old brother loves to sit on the potty also and will go from time to time, but really dosent have the knowledge to go on his own yet.It will happen !!!!

Having potty trained two of my own and numerous others at a day care i worked at and as a nanny. I will tell you the best way that I found. Just bite the bullet and put them in big boy pants. Yes they will have accidents. Just buy some Urine Gone and use it. It will be frustrating at first and seem like they will never get it and you will want to pull your hair out from all the clean up. But from experience I can tell you most children are trianed within the week. I still did pull-ups for bedtime until they got the daytime down and for my youngest the pooping took a little longer, but I just cleaned it up and put undies back on. Once we changed to big girls pants I no longer made pull-ups an option. I watched many parents at the day care go back and forth with the pull-ups while I told them just to bite the bullet and their kids just didn't get it, but once they did put big kid undies on it really wasn't long before they were trained. I even saw a few do it over the weekend. Also with my youngest I put a potty in whatever room she was playing in so she didn't have to run to the bathroom, especially since she isn't tall enough to get on the big potty without a step stool. Hope that helps.

they will go when the get ready.. I am now potty trianing my almost 3 yrs old and he is doing good put them on some "big boy" pants so they can feel when they are wet and watch there intake of fluids.. the biggest advice be positive it will happen

Hi M.,

I had the same idea. My boys are 18 months apart and I thought that it would be easier to train 2 at once. That is not what they had in mind!! My older son is very bright and told me, "I know how to do it, but I don't want to." And he meant it. When he was ready, he told me I could throw the diapers away because he was done, and he meant that, too. (It might have had something to do with me telling him that he wasn't having his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese in a pull-up, but I'm not sure.)

My younger son would stay dry in a pull up for days (9 months after my older son trained), but if I put big boys pants on him, he would wet them within an hour -- every time! It wasn't until her got a really bad heat rash while we were on vacation (and even though I knew it wouldn't solve the problem, I told him he would have to change back to diapers) that he finished training.

My older son finished training the week before his 4th birthday. My younger son trained just before he turned 3 1/2.

Be patient and they'll do it when they are ready or before they start Kindergarten, which ever comes first.!P Good luck!!

if you figure anything out, let me know. I have a 3 and a 2 year old as well (girls)
the oldest went for TWO days peeing on the potty and now she says its too hard or she will try later. It just stopped completely. Im so frustrated

I don't have a lot of advice as I am not there yet, but I definitely would not worry about the younger one. Once your older son starts pt, the younger one will most likely learn by example and want to be like his big brother. I have heard this from a number of parents including my own (my sister is 14 mths older than me - she pt just before she turned 3 and as a result I was pt before the age of 2 w/o my parents doing a thing)

I am also a single mom. So I understand the frustration of trying to potty train a boy. I used to methods that kinda made it into a game for my son. I would put froot loops, just a few, in the toilet and he would aim at them to make them move around when he peed. That helps with not only getting him to WANT to go potty but also with the aiming portion which gets pretty messy for boys. Also, because we lived in the country and didnt have many neighbors, he had a thing for peeing on the car tire. He saw a dog do it and he wanted to do it. So whenever he was playing outside and had to go, he went on my tire. It was funny at the time and didn't last very long, so I saw no harm in it. The cereal thing was the biggest help. Hope it works for you.

Hey everybody! I just joined mamasource.

Potty training was actually pretty fun in our house. We started letting our little boy sit on the potty whenever he wanted to starting about 18 months old. We didn't push. It was just sort of a "fun thing" we did. Then as he got older and I thought he was ready I took him to the store and let him pick out 4 sheets of little stickers and one sheet of great big ones.

Then I got a bright poster board and hung it right outside the bathroom door. The little stickers hung right next to it. It was his Potty Poster. Every time he peed in the potty he got to put one sticker on the poster. The big stickers were doo doo stickers. When he did that he got to put one of those on the wall in his playroom. He really loved it and it became something for the whole family. Everyone bragged about his poster filling up and they would peek in his playroom to see how many big stickers were on the wall. That poster kept going waaayyyyy after he was potty trained really well. There's not a bare spot on it.

a little about me:

My name is T.. I just turned 35. I have a little boy, 31/2, and I've been married to a dreamboat for 12 years. My degree is in child development, but I haven't taught in many years. I am a national trainer for Passion Parties. I have done that for 10 years. :-)