Need Help with Potty Training...

For some reason, so many people think 2 1/2 is the golden age for potty training & you're gonna hear this a lot, but 2 1/2 yrs old still pretty young say it's time to potty train. As another mom said, you potty train him when he's ready not when you're ready. If you start too young & before they're developmentally ready, then you're in for a long battle. Keep the potty around & keep encouraging him. Praise him if he asks to go & if he does go but leave it at that. Wait til he's closer to 3 yrs to get more serious & maybe even then he won't be ready. This is pretty typical for a boy. I have 2 boys myself...oldest is now 7 1/2 who was potty trained shortly after he turned 3 but our younger son, 3 in June, is not nearly as ready as his big brother was at the same age. He tells us when he needs clean diapers occassionally & will sit on the potty but not much actual peeing going on. I'm gonna try to train him this summer but am going at w/the thought that it may not work. One of hte few things kids have control over is peeing, pooping & eating. If you try to take complete control of that from him, it could also cause some emotional issues around holding in pee & poop to the point of being in pain & many other potential emotional problems. Just wait at least another 6 months. Hope this helps & good luck.

We potty also potty trained our child at 2 1/2. We started out by setting aside a weekend on the calendar and told our daughter that we were going to have a potty party.The night before the potty party we decorated the family room with balloons, rolled up the carpet so that accidents would be easier to clean and set her little potty out. On the day of the potty party we took off her diaper and put her in underpants. We then had her sit her baby on the potty so that she could show her baby hoe to go potty. After her baby went peepee we all celebrated. We then told our daughter that she wouldn't wear diapers anymore and that everytime she went in the potty we would celebrate. We gave her apple juice (a treat) all day long so that she had to go a lot and every half hour or so had her sit on the potty and try to go. The first day we had a lot of accidents (10). The second day we were down to 3 accidents, and the third day we had 1. After that we were accident free. When she was hesitant to go on the potty that 1st day we would put the potty in front of the tv and play a movie to entice her to sit down (also a treat. We still put pull-up on at night and nap time for a couple months, but it was important that we neverwnt back to the diaper during the day so that she know we meant business. We reminded her to go in the begining, but after a couple days stopped because she would balk when we brought it up and rather than make it a fight to make her go to the bathroom we left it in her hands. She definately stepped up to the new responsibility. Also, for a couple weeks kids will sometimes go just a drop or two in their underware while they are learning their body's signals. It won't last long and is just part of the learning process. Good Luck.

Hello M.. I just wanted to share some info with you that helped me when I was potty training my children. No matter how hard i tried or how many surprises I offered, I never got my babies to sit on the portable potty chairs, but almost instantly after i sat them on the "big" people toilet, they wee potty trained. For some reason they didn't think the potty chair was real. I used a kitchen timer when I first started. I set it every 45mins. When they heard the timer go off, they would hurry to the big toilet. Slowly I increased the time to an hour, then 1 1/2 hr and so on. Eventually they didn't need it anymore. i never had a problem with overnight wetting and i never went to pull-ups overnight either. In my opinion, that confuses them and it worked for me. Good luck. Oh by the way, watch the habits, like how soon the go poop after they eat so you can catch it before it's too late. :)

Potty training cannot happen until a child is really ready and interested in it. The moms who say "it took me months to train him" started when THEY were ready, not when their kid was ready! Lots of 3 year olds are still just beginning to be interested, especially boys. You can keep having him watch you and your husband, and talk to him about it ("This is how you go pee when you're a big boy") but don't badger or force him to grow up in that way before he is ready--the neurology of bladder control just doesn't work that way, and all you will do is spend a frustrating few months full of accidents and tears, and feeling like you are failing at a job that really only your son can do! Rewards are great--I used to give a star on the calendar for each dry day, and every 10 stars meant a trip to the ice cream store--but they won't work until he is engaged in the process. It is sort of like teeth falling out when they are ready to, versus being pulled out--you can get the result you desire, but it is not nearly as natural or painless as waiting until the body and brain are both ready. (By the way, same is true with reading--when the brain is ready, it will happen if you provide the example of pleasurable reading; but it is impossible to rush it before the brain is ready!) Good luck--the common knowledge is that he won't go to kindergarten wearing diapers, and from a mom whose son was 3-1/2 before fully training (and even then not for another year at night!), I know that to be true.

I have three kids, and have learned that boys seem to need more time. If he's not showing signs that he is ready, then I wouldn't push it - that could hinder any progress. My boy didn't potty train until 3 and it definitely took longer than my daughter (my other boy is still too young). I used gummy bears for a reward (as this is what he really liked), but found nothing worked until he was really ready. I would suggest getting books and reading and talking about it frequently until he's ready.

M.,

My son was just potty trained about 6 weeks ago and it's worked very well; he's pratically dry at night now! so he's really taken it to heart. However, he was nearing 3 and a half when we began. I sure know about the standing there watching helplessly while you watch your kid go in his Pampers, but the good news is that the way he rejects your proposition is in a knowing way. He knows now that he's doing it in his Pampers when he could be doing it elsewhere.

What we did was this: as we both work full-time with boy in day care, we first waited until we had a 10-day vacation period with him. (That will be different for you as a stay home Mom.) Then, we prepared him for it 5-7 days before the vacation. "When you're on vacation you're going to start doing peepee/caca in the potty." To motivate him, we put up a printout of a large calendar that highlighted those vacation days, and entitled it "Cameron's Points." Each time he did a pee pee it was worth 1 point, a caca 2 points, peepee/caca 3 points. We printed things he liked on a sticky label paper (picture of Neemo, Dora, Boots, Dora & Boots, a lion, a dolphin, etc.) We rewarded him with the stickers placing them on the calendar day when he did good (he got to stick it on himself!) And we could track his progress like this, too. For example, 21st March he got 4 stickers, and by the end of the 10 day period he had as many as 11-13 stickers a day!

During the training we lived normally, and of course, he made mistakes (esp. caca = poo poo) for about the first 5 days. When he did poop in his pants at home he was responsible for walking himself up to the bathtub and taking down his pants (with a little help, of course). The idea is to make him "suffer" the uncomfortableness of "going" in his underware, and make him responsible for "helping" with the cleanup. He once did a caca while playing at IKEA, and marched with legs apart to the bathroom looking rather sheepish. Of course, I helped change him, and NEVER scolded for his errors. On the other hand, he got his points and lots of praise for using the potty correctly.

Naturally, it helps to ask from time to time if he needs to go, as initially they do need reminding. Also, let him sit on the potty with a book or in front of a favorite t.v. show. Plus, it's obvious you need to keep a change of clothing (include shoes and socks) in a backpack, and/or also in the car. And, expect he won't be perfect at first, so bring all your changing stuff (baby wipes, towels, plastic bags for dirty clothes, etc.)

At his age it will come pretty fast, but still, be patient with him. Once it "clicks" in his head, he'll soon be an old pro. Good luck!

Hi M.,

I speak from experience when I say that it just might not be time yet. He might not be ready (2 1/2 is early for boys), and pushing it may make it harder on everyone. I was told this by many other experienced moms, and I didn't listen...I should have! He'll let you know when he is ready. (It's hard to imagine, but he really will.) In the meantime, there is a great potty book that you can start reading him every day called Once Upon A Potty (for boys!), and it'll get him used to the idea of going somewhere other than his diaper. My son still wasn't potty trained at 3 and so I stepped it up with incentives (M&M rewards worked for us!) and now, at 3 1/2 he's all but sleep-time trained. I feel very successful, and plan to be much more relaxed about the whole thing when it's time for my second son (now 1 1/2) to start the transition. My advice is to just relax...it'll happen, trust me!