3 Year Old POTTY TRAINING Help!!

I would definately say not to go back to diapers. He will get there! I started out with naptime for sleep training. We recently moved onto nighttime. I was using pull ups for nights only and my daughter got to the point where she was waiting for the pull up to go so I took them away. So far so good, I knew she could do it! Good luck!

M.,

The final link that got my son out of diapers and gave him confidence when he potty trained at that same age was when I got him a waterproof bed pad. We explained to him that it was OK if he had an accident because the pad was on the bed, so he gave up the pull ups for naps, and within a week he was completely done with diapers/pull ups, even at night and only had about 5 accidents over the course of the next 6 months when he was either overtired or sick.
The other thing that really reinforced good potty habits was a sticker reward chart. He got a sticker whenever he used the potty. After 5 stickers he got a 'prize' (reading a story, dollar store trinket, putting on a favorite song and having silly dance time together, whatever. Then we slowly moved it up to 7, 10, 15 stickers, after explaining to him how it worked of course. After a few weeks of success, we made a chart with space for 7 stickers-1 for each day he always made it to the potty successfully. This was the final big deal potty chart. When he made it through that chart we went for lunch out and bought a cool item of his choice for his room (under $20) as a big "I'M A BIG BOY AND POTTY TRAINED,NOW!" celebration.
Hang in there....you are doing a wonderful job from what you've described.

Hope that helps.
L.

Lots of accidents is completely appropriate. It sounds like you and your son are well on your way. Just hang in there!

There's a wonderful website called diaperfreebaby.com.
I highly recommend you check it out- BUT read all the way through before you turn away- some things may put you off but there are absolute gems of information offered- just have to keep reading.
Also, I have had great success potty training three boys all by age 2- I used the "clothes free as much as possible" approach. I rolled up the rugs and let my boys hang out at home in the buff. There were lots of accidents at first but the clean ups were easy. Night times we used a diaper until I noticed them waking up dry. Then for about two weeks they slept without diapers but I'd RUSH them to the toilet the moment they woke up. Then we were all done (phew!) I don't like potty training either but this approach worked well for our family. Best of luck,
C.

Good morning!

Accidents are normal. and I wouldn't recommend going backwards in the process. What I do with my kids when they are at this stage is to TAKE them to the bathroom every ____ minutes. Asking them if they have to go really won't work if they can't fully recognize the sensation. Not to mention that if they are in the middle of something they are enjoying, they won't voluntarily leave the activity! So for a few days try setting a timer for every twenty minutes, every thirty minutes and take him in. Let him get used to that routine and the sensation of urinating and what it feels like just before he goes.

Keep up the good work. Potty training is evil!

M.,
First, continue w/ the underwear (not Pullups) - switching back to diapers will only confuse him.

Next, take notice of what's going on when he has accidents (or refuses to go). Is he playing? watching tv? preoccupied in some other way? Boys seem to forget to use the potty when they're too busy playing! If he remembers at other times, you could try letting him run around the house w/o pants on. This helped both my boys finalize their PT'ing. (Expect a couple messes - don't make a big deal of it, just remind him what he's supposed to do.)

FWIW, I take a relaxed (ok, lazy) approach to PT'ing. I figure when they're ready, they're ready. There's only so much I can do. If I made too big a deal about it, they'd regress. So I didn't use rewards, timers, reminders, or anything like that. It ended up being low-stress for all of us.

We went through exactly the same thing with our 3-year-old daughter, and it drove me crazy. I finally found a solution that worked like magic - it took all the pressure off, made things less emotional, and was lots of fun: go to www.pottytrainingsolutions.com. They have a gender-appropriate reward 'box' with a sticker system and safe (non-food, age-appropriate) gifts on the inside of the box once the child fills up a row of 7 (re-usable) stickers. It was USD20 sooo well spent. I'm convinced it came down to a simple combo of the reward/sticker fun and helping our daughter feel empowered.
For night-time, they also have these things called "pods", which are like womens' sanitary pads, only they are supposed to help bridge the gap between night-time diapers and no night-time diapers... Haven't tried those yet (on our second daughter), but the box worked a charm on both daughters....

It's worth noting, too, that I was able to use the same reward box for both our girls, as once the older one got the hang of it, she was quite happy to 'help' the younger one learn the fun of the reward box!

Hi

First, it sounds like your son is doing awesome since you have only be potty training since December! Congrats!

All the above accidents are totally normal, well at least all the mothers of 3 yr old boys I know....

DO NOT GO BACK TO DIAPERS! Keep pressing forward!

P.S. My son has been trained since 3 yrs 2 months and he still can't get through the night without a wet pull up...unfortunately we lost naps at 3 yrs old. Also, he still waits for the last second to get into the bathroom, no matter how many times I remind him....

M.,
I am also a SAHM and ours kids are about the same age difference. I have a 4 1/2yr old daughter and a 2 1/2yr old son. My daughter, Emma, was pretty easy and my son, Brandon, has just started in the last couple days peeing on the potty. Its only been a couple times, but its a start. First of all whatever you do, Do NOT go back to diapers, that will only start the process over again! Anyway, my daughter had a accidents like that right before she became full time trained (day/night). If it makes you feel any better Emma would be playing in her room (this was about 3 yrs old) and just pee on the floor for no reason. She knew she needed to go and was just too lazy to do it or she was testing us. When it finally got to the point where I felt she was doing it intentionally then she would be punished for it, something would be taken away for the day! At 3 yrs they are old enough to know what they are doing especially when they are already potty trained. I did find that it is more of a control issue on the part of the child more than you realize! I stopped myself from asking her if she needed to go potty and instead said "It's time to go potty!" And if she refused to want to go, I would say "oh you'd better go cause I can see it in your belly and you don't want to have an accident!" For some crazy reason that worked for her, she didn't realize that what I was saying was impossible. She just didn't want to stop whatever she was doing to go potty! And the night time training wasn't as hard as I thought it would be either. I had been putting her in pull ups or diapers at night thinking that when she was consistently waking up dry then she was ready to go without. However, most of the time she was dry or barely wet, it never completely stopped. Until I decided to just go for it and she never had an accident without, it was just instinctual to not go. I just made sure that she didn't have anything to drink about 30-40 minutes before bed and that she peed right before going to bed. Also, if you don't have one already get a waterproof mattress pad, it's real thin and you don't even need to tie it to the mattress at your son's age, but its there and it soaks up a lot just in case of an accident and very easily washable. Another thought, I do think some of the potty training issues, came from having a younger sibling that could still wear diapers and didn't get in trouble. Emma had mentioned that a couple time, "well Brandon doesn't have to go pee on the potty!" she would say. I told her that he was too little and that she was a big girl and reminded her of the big girl things that she could do that her brother could not. She seemed to accept that. Worst case scenario go back to rewarding him for every time he goes to the potty on his own or when he goes when you ask him without a fight. Even if its a small treat, its just enough reinforcement to keep them interested! Hope that helps, Good Luck
Jennifer

Accidents are completely normal. Especially for very active boys. Also, I noticed with my two boys, that if they had an accident in the morning....then it would be an accident-filled day. Definitely keep on with the underwear. You want to move forward, not backward. You are doing the right thing. Just make sure you keep extra clothes in your diaper bag and more extras in your car. Best of luck to you. (I hate potty-training, too. My daughter is 27 months.)
-L.

Yes this is very normal, my daughter has been out of diapers for a year and a half (she potty trained very early) and if she gets sick, or is very absorbed in her playing she still has accidents. When she first started wearing underwear she had about one accident per day on average. But wearing underwear really helped her get the connection about peeing and very quickly started getting to the potty in time.

Accidents are completely normal. Some kids potty train easily, others "almost" get it but not quite. All three of my children were very different in their potty training. My oldest still wore a pull-up at naptime and bedtime when he started preschool right after his 3rd birthday. He quickly realized he was the only child who was still wearing a pull-up at naptime...within a week...no pull-up! He started "thinking about" training at about 18 months but was nearly 3 before we were down to just naps and bedtime in pull-ups! He did exactly what your son is doing - usually getting it right, but sometimes not.

My daughter potty trained pretty easily although she was 3 also (I know people who had kids trained before their 2nd b-day). She would get busy and "forget" then have an accident (this is usually when they have accidents).

My youngest son is developmentally delayed - we weren't sure what was going to happen with him. He is sensory deficient and we didn't know if he would even feel the need to go. He will be 5 in February and FINALLY started going #2 on the potty a few months ago - it was feast or famine...he wouldn't go AT ALL now he never misses - same with wetting his pants - once he committed to the potty, no accidents.

I truly believe your son will work this out. For me, asking them every so often didn't work, but actually taking them to the potty and making them "just try" worked really well. Eventually I stretched out the length of time between trips and before I knew it, they beat me to it. I'm currently potty training a puppy and we are having to handle this the same way - I set a time and take him out even if he shouldn't "have" to go.

Good luck! As my husband continued to reassure me about our youngest - they won't go to the prom in diapers! :)

M., I don't have any experience with boy potty training,yet but my 3.5 yo daughter has in the past 6 months been potty trained except for nighttime, she still wears a pull up at night.
I tried a timer but all that became was another toy. So I just remind her about every 1.5 hours. Every once in a while she still has an accident but that's ok. It's not as if your son will go to college having accidents as least I hope not,LOL Best of Luck!
K.

Okay, I know from experience how frustrating potty training a 3 year old little boy can be. Our doctor told us at his 3 year check up that if he wasn't potty trained yet, we could assume that he was resistant to the idea. I just wanted to laugh at the doctor. I really didn't need him to tell me that.

Honestly, it sounds like he is not quite ready (emotionally) to do it on his own all the time. He will get there. I, also, have to say that at this phase in potty training, for us at least, pull-ups were a godsend. He could pull them up and down but I didn't have to clean up the puddles all over the house or wash extra loads of laundry because of all the accidents. Others may tell you that it will prolong process or set him back because he will use it like a diaper.

Here is my advice. For your peace of mind (especially with a 1 year old), put him in the pull-ups and continue to remind him. Also, come up with a reward system. Hershey's kisses worked wonders for us. For each successful attempt on the potty that resulted in pee he received 1 kiss, for poo he received 3 kisses. It was the only time he was able to have the kisses.

But here is the kicker. Nothing we did seemed to help. Our guy still seemed to refuse to actually go on the potty. He would sit there for long periods of time and try but not actually go. All of a sudden, one evening he came running into the kitchen (in November) and told me that he had to pee. I told him to hurry up and get to his potty. He did. Since then he rarely has an accident. When he does, it seems to coincide with when he is not feeling well. It took another week and a half before he started pooping on the potty. Again, it was like someone had turned a switch on in his brain and he finally got it. Since then he has had one accident with poop. That again was when he was sick.

So hang in there. It probably won't be easy but it will come. A friend of mine has 3 kids. Two out of 3 were potty trained by about 18 months of age. The other one resisted. Her technique for them was to start at about 1 year old and start putting them on the potty for a couple of minutes at each diaper change. They started associating what they did in their diaper with the potty and started going on their own to the potty early. Just something to think about with your 1 year old.

Good luck. Feel free to email me if you need to work out frustration over the potty training, etc.

stick with the undies. it took us the better part of 6 months to train our son, and accidents were a big part of the reason why. instead of asking him every 30 or so minutes, why not try taking him into the bathroom and encouraging him to try to go? if 30 is too frequent, up it to 45 minutes, then increase the time every week or so, depending on how he's doing. this is how they worked with my son and the other boys at our daycare...it took some work, but eventually it sunk in for all of them!

my son was 4 in september, and we still have nighttime accidents. he actually had his first daytime accident in months last week, he was so busy playing he didn't want to stop! remember that the accidents are part of the learning, and good luck!

Keep doing what you are doing... he'll get it eventually. I had a hard time with my son too, he was 3 years 2 months when he completely potty trained. I wouldn't go back to diapers... but I would have him try on the potty before he goes on to his next activity... from t.v. to toys etc.