Advice Is Highly Needed. . . Please HELP!

HI M.! The wonderful world of potty training... I know how you feel! I can give you ideas but remember that you'll get a lot of them 'cause we moms love to give advice :) Now, I have girls so I'm not in exactly the same boat as you are but it's the same idea...

My oldest... I bribed. Yes, the all-time no no in parenting. But, it worked. Now, she didn't like her diaper so she would take it off at nap time and go on the floor. I used this to my advantage and waited one day about a week into the steam cleaner rental and when I heard that diaper come off... well, let's just say I moved. I sat her on the potty and I took two lollipops out of my pocket. I sat at the threshold of the bathroom with mine and when she went she got hers. It worked like a CHARM!

My second... Well, my dad trained her and she's not the only one I know of where someone besides "the mom" got a better response. So if you know someone patient that he looks up to it might work.

My mom swears that training a boy to "pee" in the potty is most easily accomplished by putting a few cheerios in there and having him aim at them... but I don't have the personal experience with this.

I haven't started my youngest so that's all I got right now.

Good luck! and remember that he WILL get there.. don't stress it's not the end of the world if he doesn't get it. My dad trained my five yr. old after over a month of me trying, and it was done in a DAY!

Best to you!
A.

I also have only one child, 2 1/2 year old girl. We've had a potty seat in her bedroom to play on/with for the last several months. We also bought her a potty seat that fits on the toilet and that is the only one she has wanted to use. She's been showing interest for quite a while now, but we have never pushed the issue. Just asking once in a while if she wants to practice using panties or wear a pull-up. It helps give the choice for when they are ready, not us. Just the last two days she has finally wanted to wear her panties and is doing great. We make a big deal with lots of hugs and kisses that she went in the big toilet. We shout hoorays and do a happy dance. No treats like candy or marshmallows, like some others have done. I think the key is to leave it up to them when they are ready. And boys do train normally later than girls, more closely to the 3 year mark. Good luck.

Hi M.-
My son just turned 3 in the middle of February and he was completely potty trained about 6 weeks before his birthday. I followed Super Nanny's advice of only using real underwear during the day and Pull-Ups for nap and bedtime. I have a little book called "It's Potty Time" that has a little chart in the back. I used that with car sitckers and jelly beans for rewards. We also have another book called "My Big Boy Potty" that is well liked for potty time.

In the beginning it is up to you to remember to take you son to the potty every 30 mins and ask him to try. Give lots of praise even if nothing happens. Then, one day it will just click and before you know it he is telling you when he needs to go. We have had very few accidents and my little guy has stayed dry through the night too. We did use a Pull-Up at night until we ran out of them!

My best advice is to set aside a week where you can be at home. Just have your son wear a shirt and undies and be consistant. If he pees or poops his pants let him know that accidents happen, but you can't change him for a few minutes because you are busy that way he feels that it is not a good feeling. This really worked for me.

I wish you the best of luck and don't worry, it isn't the big deal that people make it out to be. Remember CONSISTANCY!

Dear M.,
Hi, I hope this helps. My husband after we had been married for a year I went into the bathroom which of course on occasion I did but I realized I never ever saw him standing up going #1. He told me his mom just taught him to sit on the potty and go #1.
Perhaps what would help is for you do sit on the toilet and have him sit on his. If and when he goes and I would suggest doing this quite freguently and when he does go praise him, hug him, clap and show great praise. One thing down the road is when he finially is going and as he gets older it won't be all over the toilt walls and floor. I wished I had taught my boys that way it would have saved alot of unessesary cleaning, and that's never fun and it smells. Let me know how it goes. Feel free to email me and let me know how it goes. ____@____.com Mamasource in subject line as your first email will go into my junk mail because of its exclusive setting. God Bless

I followed the instructions in the book "Potty Train Your Child In Just One Day" and It was a miricle. I used this book by the book and It worked, It was amazing, my son had just barely turned 2 and was showing signs of being ready, I didnt think it would work because I had not even attempted potty training him yet, and one day my son was in diapers and the next day he was in underwear and NEVER wet or pooped his pants or even the bed, It goes over kids of all ages with wetting problems and just basic potty training. I loved it and recommend it to everybody whether his or her child is easy to train or not. I hear Dr. Phil has a Good one on potty training in one day too, maybe it?s the same concept. Good Luck.

The Dr. Phil "Potty Train your child in a day" method worked for us (although it really took a few days and a little longer for pooping in the potty). Just make sure he's really ready otherwise whatever you do won't work. You can check 'signs of readiness' at diaper websites or I like babycenter.com.

Here's a link for the Dr Phil method: http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/264

Several moms recommended this method to me because it worked for them, too.

Good luck!

My best advise is not to expect to happen over night or very fast. Most people will tell you boys are harder than girls to begin with. That way if it does happen more quickly then everyone will be happier. Think of it this way, if your boss said told you had to be in a meeting for 3hrs and it only lasted 2 you would be more happy than if you were told it will take 2hrs and it end up being 3. The reason I say this is because it took my son till 31/2 to be #1 trained and another 6 monthe (4yrs 3months old) to do #2 in the potty. Anyway, get him a potty and sit him on it when you think he is ready to go (soon after eating and drinking, and getting up from naps). You can try the sticker/reward chart. There are many thing to do sometimes they work sometimes they don't.

I just ran across this website: http://www.pottiestickers.com/
Might be helpful!
C.

I tried a book called "Toilet Your Child in A Day" or something like that because it came highly recommended. I loved it and I plan on doing it with our baby, but it did not completely work with our first son. What I did gain from it that helped was making him clean up the mess. Of course, I had to finish, but it helped because he did not like the mess or the job. Also, when he decided not to poop in the toilet after a few weeks of having been potty trained, I just removed the majority of the mess and he did not get clean underwear, so in essence he was wearing "Skid marks". He is a clean child, so he preferred to use the toilet than have marked underwear. Anyway, I think because we started with the book, it only took us 3 days and he was fine. The other thing that worked well for him is he was not allowed on any furniture or carpet unless he was sitting on a waterproof pad. He Hated! the restriction. He was 27 months and has been perfect ever since with only one accident that really wasn't his fault. Good luck! We all understand your pain. You'll make it just fine whatever you do!

I found that using cheerios as a game in the potty helps. Also, they have lots of potty training books that feature favorite children's cartoon characters. I also used the Bear in the Big Blue House potty video for my son who is now 8. I hope this helps!!

Dear M.,

I have twin boys that are going to be turning 4 this july and I remeber when we started to potty train it was difficult. What i did is I let them choose their own potty so that way they felt like they were making the decision and I wasn't. I also got them pull ups and underwear, which we dubbed big boy underwear. We would put them in the underwear and any time they had an accident we would put them back in the pull up, but we would also ask every half hour to and hour if they had to go potty.It worked very well for me and now the only time we were pullups is to bed and soon that will be gone by the end of summer hope this helps you out.

Well I have 2 girls, but potty trained a little boy while babysitting him for a year, I just took him to the bathroom every 45 in to an hour, during the day from the time he got to my house at 7 till about 6pm, alway right before lunch and right after, before nap, after nap, he seemed to catch on before long I was able to ask him if he needed to go, and he would tell me, though his mom said it took him a little longer to catch on at home, he was a fast learner. Which was a great help in making my daughter interested in the potty. My sister eventually just let her little boy run around naked at home, that helped him, he had too much comfort in his pullups or even just undies so he would potty in them, after a couple weeks of a mess here or there, he decided he didn't like being on the floor so he started to go to the potty where the stool was, and after that caught on pretty quick as well. Good luck.

My step-son was 3 when he decided to potty train himself. I tried before that & he was not interested, so I backed off & let it run its course & he was potty trained (except for at night) in about 3 days with no accidents.

I don't know if my way was the "best" way but it wasn't too painless for us. I wouldn't call it "enjoyable" but it wasn't a nightmare.

We just switched from diapers to underwear cold turkey. At night we used training pants, but during the day it was underwear or nothing at all. There were accidents, to be sure, but it was just a couple of months until he was using the toilet all the time. Also, I had a jar of "potty treats" because it took my son some time before he would consistently poop in the toilet. I don't really know if they helped, but I don't think they hurt. Good luck to you!

That is about when I started my son and it took awhile but he had fun of course I had Grandma and great granni helping one let him run around naked and use her porch as a place to go and the other a real stickler but my suggestion is use fruit loops or cheerios in the toilet and make it a game and see how many he can hit and have his dad (if available ) show him how and if not if his grandpa or uncle can help just a couple of times to let him see how to do it.Play it up as his him being a big boy and the game it helped with mine ...not that the training trying to get it into the toilet has helped in recent years his aim has gotten worse He is almost ten .lol and the toilet seat reamins up ITS A BOY THING>LOL hope this helps
D.

Hi there! MY son is now 3 and a half. He was potty trained at 18 months, but we moved and he regressed so we kind of had to start all over. Having his little potty around when he was that small sparked his interest but when we was 2 and a half we had to employ a different tactic. I started with just putting him in underwear but after 3 days of cleaning clothes 4-5 times a day, I tried something different. I basically took all his clothes off and let him run around naked most of the day. I would ask him every half hour if he had to go. Most of the time he would go himself. He was able to pay attention more so he almost always peed on the potty. It was rare for him not to. We did this for about 3 days, then I added JUST underwear and made it fun underwear for him, so we bought Cars, Buzzlightyear, etc. Once we started with clothes, we just had to keep asking him if he had to go. Started with every 30 min and tapered off until he was telling us. The first week with clothes he had 2 accidents, 2nd week 1 accident and then none. ALWAYS keep a change or 2 of clothes with you and put a towel in the car seat.

Pooping on the potty was a different story. We had pee down for almost a year and still no poop on the potty. Bribery didn't work and I wasn't sure what to do. He knew he had to go because he would run to his room, grab a diaper, put it on, and go in it. If I took the diapers away, he would just poop in his underwear and I wasn't about to keep cleaning up that mess so I just told him go get a diaper until we could figure it out. What eventually worked is that we were out and about and didn't have any diapers. So, he ultimately had to go so he did while my hubby held him on the toilet. We had tried that in the past, but he decided to hold it so I am not sure why this time worked. Maybe it's because we were so close to the candy store. :)

Hope that helps a bit!