Potty Training - Edinburgh,IN

Hello J.,

I don't know if this will help any but I too kept trying to potty train my son (who will be 3 next week) at 2 1/2 years but to no avail. I learned from other parents that with boys especially you can't start training them till they are ready. My son started a few weeks ago wanting to go in the potty all by himself and one "trick" that works for him is that every time he goes potty I let him put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet. I bought a pack of 4 cheap food colorings so he even gets to pick the color. This has worked great for him.

Best of luck!
K.

1 mom found this helpful

J.,
Congratulations on your new baby! I don't think right now is the time to introduce the potty because your older son is still getting used to sharing mommy and daddy with the new brother! The best way to introduce the potty though is to begin talking to him about being a big boy and what big brothers are supposed to do, etc. Don't forget to get some books about potty training because that will help a ton as well. Once you have talked about the potty for a few weeks or maybe a month, start asking him to sit on the potty before his bath and before bed. He might not do anything, but he might, especially with the bathwater running. Anyway, once he does it, make a really big deal out of it! High fives, anything to reward him for his behavior. After he starts going a few times, then introduce some sort of rewards system. I used stickers and explained every time he goes, he gets a new sticker. Once the sticker page is full, you get to go to Toys R Us or somewhere to pick out something special. My sister didn't have any success with stickers, but went to the dollar store and picked up about $30 in toys so every time he would go, she would pull out another toy. She said that her son didn't understand the stickers becoming toys, but it worked for me. My sister-in-law did little sugar free candy when her son would go on the potty. When you begin the rewards program, is when you need to introduce the pull ups to him and explain that he is getting bigger and why he needs to wear them. Now, my son didn't like pull ups at all, so I immediately went to underwear and he had the potty thing down in no time. It all depends on how many times you put him on the potty, etc. My son would drink something, and I just knew in 10 minutes, it was potty time.
Hope this helps and good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

Hi J. =)

I have 4 boys ~ potty trained 3 of them (including twins), and my last one isn't quite 2 yet, so we have some time to wait for him. It sounds like you've had some good adivce so far. It's true, with boys, you really have to wait until they're ready. I started my oldest a month or so before his 3rd birthday. Trust me, I know it's tempting to try when they're younger when you have more than one in diapers... I had 3 in diapers for a full year! My twins I waited until they were just a little past 3.

One "trick" that worked great for me, is when we were just hanging around the house, I would leave my boys in just a shirt and socks... no pants, underwear, or pullups. For some reason, when they don't have bottoms on, they are more aware of their senses. With pullups, or even underwear, in the beginning they tend to forget they aren't wearing a diaper and will go in their pants. And of course you have to take them to the potty every 20 to 30 minutes to try. I borrowed several potty books from the library for us to read while they were sitting on the potty. We would also sing songs when the boys would start to get bored.

I rewarded two mini M&M's for going potty, and when they would go poop (which came much later) I would reward with a bite sized snickers. My boys never responded well to sticker charts for anything... except to peel off the stickers and put them all over the house lol.

Another fun thing to do is when they are old enough to stand up while going potty in the big toilet, I would put a cheerio or two in the water, and they would try to "sink the cheerio." The boys thought that was just great! LOL!

Good luck to you!

S.

We're not there yet, but I did just see this on cincymoms:
You can get a free potty training kit at www.letstalkpottytraining.com Hope that helps!

I agree - with boys you really have to wait until they are ready. My son wasn't trained until after he was 3, and that was only the p-p part. The poo part came later. My best friend's little boy is just now potty trained after a year of "training" on and off, and he'll be 4 in December. The most important thing, I feel, is not pushing the issue. When he's ready the training will go easily.

Hello J.. In all honesty, my now 5 yo was past three when she finally got it. What worked best for me was NOT To mention using the Toilet at all. Then one day she ran around naked and used the toilet. With my younger brother, we used Cheerios. We put a few cheerios in the toilet and he stood to pee and he was a firefighter and he used his 'hose' to put out the fire which was the Cheerios. Now, he was REALLY into firefighters at the time so it worked great. You might be able to alter the firefighter part for your little man and use the same concept. I would like to add that forcing him to sit on the toilet for 30 min probably won't aid you in your quest to eliminate diapers. I would do my best to make it fun (eventhough I completly understand the frustration). If he isn't able to see his dad use the toilet, maybe some friends who use the toilet could come over and you could add the 'peer pressure' or 'peer joy' to the other tactics you are using. For our son, Hot Wheels did the trick, if he used the toilet he got to pick out a Hot Wheel. Congrats on a new Baby and Thank you to you and your family for your sacrifices for my freedom!

Hi, it can be interesting to train a boy when daddy is gone a lot. But it can be done! First, my son thought the potty chair was a toy (thanks Grandma). He was afraid of the big potty, afraid he would fall in. So I showed him how to climb on facing the tank, that way he felt he had more control and
since he was leaning forward and holding on to the seat...
his "aim" was down. Daddy wasn't so happy when he came in from the field.... but he got over it!! My son quickly got the hang "things", (the big boy undies with his favorite character on them helped!) and moved up to the big boy way of doing things (even if it was with a stool to make him tall
enough). He was nearly 3.

I would suggest the following, and believe it me it will be a lot of work for you and consistancy on your part and that of your spouse!
Half an hour is way to long to leave a child on the potty seat in my opinion. Both of my children were potty trained by 15 months, totally. This is what I did:
I would put them on the potty for about 3 to 5 minutes every 45 minutes to an hour the whole time they were up starting with when they woke up in the morning. If they used the potty seat there was applause, hugs, kisses, lots of praise and a treat. If not nothing was said about it and they were diapered. If they went in the diaper they were changed asap and some disappointment was verbalized about it.
Potty time was also a short story, pattycake, whatever and the water running on low.
He is old enough to have to clean up the mess if he uses the dog cage or the floor and should be scolded for doing so. Naturally you will have to supervise and complete the clean up but he needs to be responsible for it.
Good luck.

Hey J.... I had my son potty trained @ 2 1/2. I would sit him on the potty.. but u have to remember that sitting there is when they actually get 'relaxed' so every 20 minutes I would put my son on the potty.. I guess it's more of a question of when ur ready to be crazy bout it. I started him after my daughter was born & she was bout 3 months. He was going to be 3 in October.. So the summer months definetly helped b/c we could go out in just underpants and a t-shirt. It a matter of setting a timer and being there little brain. It's hard not going to lie, but I think if your persistant enough it'll be okay and crazy, but okay..lol! If you really want to get out of diapers I would start now. Give him a special 'potty' book only for potty to read and perhaps sit with him and read that's what I did. I also would reward with a little dum dum sucker, if he pooped. I guess it does to an extent rely on the child, if they're ready.. but 1st and foremost I would say it really relies on the mother and father and if they are ready to deal and clean up messes. Good Luck!

Every child shows interest at a different age. If some of his little friends are potty trained or being potty trained that might encourage him to try. It may just take time although I can understand your wanting him out of diapers. Try reading books to him about going to the potty and maybe talk about big boy pants...

Hi there J....I too had a hard time getting my son to use the potty...I started trying to train him when he turned 2 but the was a waste of time and energy...everyone I spoke with said he will when he is ready...so I took their advice and I gradually put him on the potty...like in the morning when he woke up, before and after nap time, and also before bath time and bed time. He got the peeing part down and I was able to put underware on him but the pooping part was the hard part! He pooped in his underwear 2 times and after the second time I told him that from now on I was going to throw his BIG BOY pants in the trash if he pooped in them and eventually he would have no more and that he would be the only one to go to school wearing diapers! Something must have clicked! Also my son is really into sports and he loves bubble gum so I found a baseball bubble gum machine and everytime he poops he gets a piece of gum. He was potty trained one month before he turned 3 and has not had a accident yet!!! Good Luck!!

Hi J.,
I was watching the "Today Show" one morning and happened to see a lady on there talking about potty training in just 4 hours. So of course my eyes were glued to the TV. It was called "Botty Camp" (you can look it up online.) Anyway, what she does is have this camp at her house and the parents bring their child and the potty chair. She has the child wear underwear, no pull-ups. She feeds them junk food, which will make them drink more and hopefully have to use the potty more often. If the child had an accident she would make the child clean it up. It was teaching them that they were responsible for their own body. She would not ask the child if they had to go potty, she wanted the child to make that decision. It's about making the child be in control of their own body. So most parents reported that after attending this camp, their child was potty trained by the end of the day or the very next day. I was amazed! I decided to try it, but only at my own home. My son was two months shy of his 3rd birthday. I let him run around naked at first and whenever he had an accident he had to clean it up (with my help of course.) By the end of the first day, he was going in the potty. I started to put underwear on him the next day and he had some accidents and again he cleaned it up. I never asked him to go potty, he was the one in control. Within 4 days he was completely potty trained (pee and poo.) I was absolutley amazed at how well this method worked for my son!! I would highly recommed trying it. Oh, my son did not eat much junk food either. He just caught on quickly. I hope this was helpful and good luck!!

My son didn't start showing a serious interest until he was 3 1/2 - we always kept the potty out and ready for him to use but never made a big deal out of it - they will tell you when they are ready, but if you force it, it will be harder on both of you.

Hi J.,
First off I want to let you know I am the mother of 5 children 2 boys and 3 girls and have also potty trained 2 grandchildren
Boys will train when they are ready. I know diapers cost a lot and it would be nice to not have to pay for them, but pushing him is not training him it's training you. My sons were around 3 when they really wanted to use the potty and it took 3 or 4 days and no accidents during the day night time took longer but not too long. It was the same for my grandson.
Just relax and it will take it's course
Good Luck
M.

Hello J.!

It has been awhile since I potty trained but I do remember thinking it would be sooooooo hard. I waited until he was 3 -- took him to the library and got "Winston's Potty Chair" -- the movie, and he watched the movie and got it within the first 2-3 days. I remember we took a trip to Cincinnati and he refused to go all day because the potties were too big in the bathrooms, but he didn't want to go in his "big boy Thomas the Train pants" either. I felt bad because he held it all day -- but went as soon as he went home and so it was really very easy because we waited until 3 when he could understand some things...and the movie helped A LOT! - A.

J.,
When we started training, we bought big girl undies, a kitchen timer and some M&M's or stickers. We'd put undies on the girls and start the clock and called it the potty clock. Every 1/2 hour the clock would ring and the girls would say "potty time" with such excitement. Then, if they went, we'd give them an M&M or a sticker. Although they aren't potty trained completely yet, we've now gone since Sunday without pull-ups (except when sleeping), and this method was a good start. Good luck.

We also bought the fun hand soap that has a hippo head as the pump (johnson's or kandoo?) and it lights/blinks until they should stop washing - my girls loved that if they went pee they got to use that soap. Also, we bought poopy wipes (kandoo flushable wipes) that we only use when they poop on the potty. Both things made them excited about what they were doing.

I know you've gotten lots of advice, but I've trained two kids the same way at about 2 1/2 years old, and the boy was easier than the girl. :)

I got the book, "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" (Amazon has it or you can borrow it from the library) because it was recommended to my by a friend who was using that method with their second child because it had worked so well for their first. I read through it, and so did my husband. My husband followed the instructions with our son, who was older because I was nursing and couldn't dedicate hours to training him. I trained our daughter.

We didn't train in a day, but we used the method for about 4 hours with each one. We were confident they understood the concept, but weren't ready to do it. We shelved potty training for a while (a month or two) and stuck with diapers, but would occasionally ask if they wanted to wear big boy/girl underwear. Then, once they said yes, we went back at the training. Both were trained the first morning of the second round. We didn't start the method described in the book over, we skiped to doing dry-pants checks with treats. I'll admit we'd also ask if they needed to go potty, which is technically the step before that. But anyway, they both had a few (maybe 4 or 5) accidents the first couple days, but that was it for potty. We struggled a little with pooping, but they both had that within a month (it was more of not wanting to stop and go than anything). Our daughter stayed dry at night from day one, but our son took a few months before he was consistently dry at night (he'd be dry for 2 weeks, then wet his diaper, then dry 2 weeks, wet his diaper....)

There really was very little stress using this method (and we altered it a little to take into account each child and updating it 30 years - for example our son hated "practice" but our daughter loved it so she did more than he did). And the best part was that our kids told us when they needed to go. We never had to ask if they needed to go to make sure they didn't have accidents. We took them on 6 hour car rides shortly after training, and they did fine.

Each kid was a little different, though. Don't expect any method you choose to work exactly as described, and try not to stess, because your son will pick up on that and stress, too. I hope you find an easy method that works great for you!

There are many different things to try. Go to your library (cheaper than buying) and get the books and videos on potty training. For some kids these work great.
They will make you laugh, and you will think they are the stupidest thing around, but for some they work.
The one book I can think of talks about what belongs in the toilet and what doesn't, and then where you should put your poop and pee and where not to.

Just because something works for one, doesn't mean it will work for all. Your two children will probably be very different on that.

I would:

Wait until at least November when he will be three.

Have your husband do it as there is no way you can devote all your attention to your potty training son with a newborn around. Potty training day will be a full day of learning the potty. If you can't get your husband, someone else that is very important to your son that could devote the day. Grandpa, Uncle.....

Leave the house for that day.

Get a book on potty training in a day. I used the original 1960's one, but there are many to choose from. I think they all have you doing the same thing.

My daughter is almost 3 and had no interest in the potty at all! We bought the Elmo's Potty Time dvd (its $9 at walmart) and gave her a potty when she watched the dvd and she is using potty words, and loves her potty. We are getting cloth training pants soon! Good luck-but dont force him, just encourage it!

you have recieved a lot of great advice.... one question... does Dad pee on front of him? Because if Dad says come onbig man lets pee together.... and they do or at least try STANDING UP ... he may respond better and when dad has to go number 2 bring him with him to talk about how that is done.... my hubby did that with my son and he potty trained in about a day to be a big man like his dad... he never sat to pee except when having a bowle movement and they GUYS had soem bonding time.