Potty Training Problem

Hahahaha! I just had to tell you how hard you made me laugh. "Droppin deuces!" Priceless. If I'd been drinking milk it would have squirted out my nose.

The book toilet training in less than a day worked for our 27 month old son, whose been diaper free for 8 months now.

A.,

Things that worked for getting my son potty trained at 4 1/2:

1) He makes the mess, he cleans it up. For my son, cleaning his peed in or pooped in clothes in the bathtub with the coldest water possible out of the tap worked for him.

2) Nothing to drink 2 hours before bed time.
3) Go potty last thing before bed, first thing when getting up in the morning.
4) We made a calendar and posted it. Then we found stickers. For every day he went accident free he got to put up a sticker. When he went 10 days consecutive in a row with no accidents we took him on a ferry boat ride to get ice cream. This is something that is still a special treat for him.
5) When he had an accident we got real sad about the accident, usually because he was on day 7 or so of his 10-day count. We'd say: "Oh no, Joe (changed name here) had an accident, and he was soooo close to making it." We'd do a pouty face and "Joe" would comfort us until we stopped pouting and we'd then say: "But he'll make it next time, I *Know* he can." and we'd let it go at that.

In about 6 weeks of doing this and a few other things, he was fully potty trained; day and night.

If you would like the link to the responses that I got from my post back in February let me know and I'll share those. Advice from this site is what helped us get him trained.

Hope this helps,
Melissa

I've just successfully potty trained my second who is almost three (Oct). Both my kids were very, "in my own time Mom and not a second sooner". It didn't matter how much I wanted to be done with diapers, until they were ready? Wasn't worth the struggle. Both my kids, once they decided they were ready, were a breeze to train. My daughter, was trained in 2 weeks (but girls can be different). So my advice? Pull back, and wait for him to to decide that he is ready. Best of luck!

I know stubborn...it is not fun! You just have to maybe set a timer...or maybe you have figured out a pattern to his potty times, but you need to regularly take him to the toilet yourself, and put him on there....then it will eventually start a habit...it just takes some consistency and persistence, but it worked for us!

A. - Put him back in diapers, he is obvoiusly not ready to be potty trained. Tell him that if he can not go to the potty in the toilet, then you will have to put him back in diapers, and then let him make the choice. It may be a pain in the butt to change diapers, but it's a lot faster than cleaning the floor, toilet, bathtub. You didn't say how old he was, but it may just be to early. This will be a battle of wills, and you will not win.
Good luck, wait until he comes to you and says he wants to use the toilet.
L.

My son decided he didn't want to poop in the potty (but was obviously aware of when he needed to go because he would hide in a corner to go, and get "that look" on his face). So we compromised -- the potty would come to him. I let him hide in whatever corner he wanted to, but he HAD to sit on the potty to go. That worked, after a while we moved the potty back to the bathroom and CHEERED for him really loudly when he went in it, and he's been going in it ever since. We have a little potty that was easy to move all over the house. I think it is by baby bjorn.

Try the book Everyone Poops. It's a great book and helped our 2nd daughter figure it out. Also, we discovered that for a piece of chocolate she was happy to do her business in the appropriate place! For our first, a marshmallow was the successful reward! The trick was finding a treat that they didn't usually get - something extra special to make the effort worth it.

A.,
I would have to agree with all the poster below said, but I would suggest if you aren't doing it to sit the little guy on the toilet backwards (so that he can see what is going on, and his aim will be better). There are a couple of things you can do but I think the best would be to get a stick-on of some sort (like a fly) put it in the toilet and tell him to shoot at it.( I wouldn't use cheerios or toilet paper because it might become quite the game and then you will be in trouble.
My daughter in law used a reward for our granddaughter which was a jelly bean for 1 and 2 jellies for two. She was potted trained in less then a week. I know there are books out there that have different ideas but I would say the suggestions that the young lady below gave you are a great one.
When potty training a rule of thumb is this, every time they drink (and if you want to try not letting them walk around with a sippy that might be a great idea to start with) anyway, wait 20 minutes and then take him to the potty. Sit him backwards and see what he does. Same with meals, how often does he go a day? Once, twice, three times? Take note of when he is having an accident and then make sure the next day you are there. Make it fun, set a timer and act silly when it goes off, get up kind of giggle run over pick him up and zoom him to the toilet. Chances are it will be in no time that he is potty trained, and it will be special time you and he have spent. Praise him a lot too.
I see you say he is stubborn? Maybe this is a form of attention from you that he is getting? Is it possible?
Trust me though I had three sons and potty trained about 9 more little boys and all of them worked well backwards, faster then if they were leaning forward and trying to hold Mr. happy down at the same time, it is really too much for them.
Not to mention those little boy stoppers on those seats can hurt if Mr. happy gets caught in them.
Good Luck kiddo!

it sounds like a power struggle to me. I would lay off the potty training for a while and see if he comes around. He may feel that you are putting too much pressure on him and he is just trying to keep the control. I would start not making a big deal out of it and see if he stops trying to get the bad attention. Hang in there. It will all work out. Just try to stay calm and not make a big deal when he makes a mess. you can vent later. good luck!

Step back a minute and look at how funny the situation is! I found my son doing the same thing, everyday he would go anywhere but the potty. I made a "poop chart" I started out with just 7 spaces for a sticker but after the first time, when daddy got home my son was so proud that he got a sticker for his chart. The best part was Chucky E Cheese when the chart was full. A couple times doing this he was hooked on going poop in the potty. Hang in there, this is the last step to potty independence!

Well, I'd say he is doing a power play or he's not ready for toilet training.

Power play--3 things you can't make a child do--eat, sleep, or poop! If it is a power play put him back in diapers and see if he pulls a power play on anything else.

If he isn't ready for toilet training (and remember each child is different) putting him back in diapers will make him and everybody happy. My son wasn't toilet trained until the four year-old teacher told him she wouldn't take him in class if he was wearing diapers. Took him one day to be changed.