Potty Train Advice or Tips Please!

If he's been seen by a doctor with no problems found, then at 4.5, he knows what he is doing. I would not be cleaning up his messes for him. I would make him change his clothes, rinse out his wet undies and pants, and make him wipe himself up and get new clothes. I would make him wash/wipe up the mess on the floor, and then make him wash his hands. A few times of taking all that time out of play (and make a big deal out of what he's missing by having to clean up his mess) and he will be taking himself in no time.

Be consistent, at 4.5 he should be bathroom independent. make him deal with the messes and you will see a change pretty quickly.

I am in the process of training my 26-month-old grand-daughter and what we have found that really works is using a little bride. Her favorite candies have been Necco's, which I loved as a kid and she is always saying, "Necco". We have called her the Necco Kid, so when I started training I told her that everytime she went on the potty and not in her pants, she would get a Necco. It is really starting to work. Her mother gives her one for tinkling and two for poopy, but, of course, grandmas can't be that cheap, so here she gets two everytime. She will tell us when she has to go (even grandpa) and then reminds of the Necco's. I don't totally believe in bribery, but it sometimes works best. Good luck, A..

Perhaps he's not feeling the urge very well... Take him to the chiropractor for an adjustment. Make sure to tell them what is going on with him.

That helped my friends' son! Every month or two, she would have him adjusted. She would know when it was time because he would have an accident..... Being out of alignment just caused him to not feel the urge well.....

If he will go when you tell him, just remember to tell him. Set a timer for every 2 hours or so - that should be often enough at this age. If you want him to be more independant about it, get hima watch with alarms or a timer on it, and put it on him and explain that every time the timer goes off, he is to go try to go potty whether he thinks he needs to or not.

I think Onestepahead.com has a potty watch like this.
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

http://www.pottytimeinc.com/

http://pottytrainingsolutions.com/product_info.php?produc...

Will he really go in his pants at pre-school? Even if he knows he isn't supposed to? I ask because I used to do daycare, and I had a little boy who was 4 1/2 when he started. His mom said that he simply wasn't fully potty trained. I said "fine" I'll take care of that :) On his first day, I explained to him that he was a big boy and big boys use the potty at my house. I set a timer for every two hours the first week to have him go - each time letting him know that when he could tell me on his own, we could get rid of the timer. The next week, he told me on his own. He went, we called mom at work (I had already gotten permission to do this) to surprise her, and he never had another accident at home or at my house. I know you were thinking preschool, but maybe you could find a "pre-school like home daycare" to give him a chance to get the social and learning aspect but still have some chances to work through the potty training issues.

Good luck :)

My attitude toward potty training is not very popular, but here it is. I didn't care if my boys were not potty trained until they were 18. At 18, legally my job is done. If they can find a girlfriend, she can help them. In the meantime, they can carry around a jaunty little diaper bag.

Both of my sons were late to potty train. They were both pooped trained about 9 months before they were pee trained. One day both of my boys just decided they wanted to wear big boy undies and use the potty. There was no magic wand or toy.

Bottom line, you can't control what goes in them or what comes out of them!

Schools cannot legally bar him from attending b/c he's not potty trained. The law (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act) states the school must make "reasonable accomodations." In other words, if the child soaks himself and/or poops, someone (a person you designate: yourself, husband, grandparent) must be available to come to school and change him.

My son was kind of that way... if he was wearing anything (pull up, underwear, etc..) he would go in them. Luckily I stayed at home then and we lived in Georgia (alot warmer than Ohio) and I basically kept him naked from the waist down.
He was old enough to know he would be introuble if he pottied on the floor or furniture... so to him it was ok to go in his pants because it wasn't on the floor... but when he was naked he had to tell me he had to go or go on his own. It didn't take too long before he was always going to the potty on time. Then I slowly put his clothes back on telling him that even if he went in his underwear he was still going to get the floor or furniture wet so it was the same thing. He caught on quickly.
I don't know if you have time for this kind of thing but it worked well for me. Hope this helps:)

My son is also that age. he will be 5 in April 2010. For the life of me I couldn't get him to potty train. He didn't care about it. Then this September he started a kindergarten readiness at local E.C.F.E. and he was the oldest kid in the class. But all the other kids that were younger then him were wearing underwear and he was wearing a pull up. I was showing him that all the kids that were smaller then him weren't wearing pullups they were all in underwear. I think it took him a couple weeks to realize that he's too big for pullups and that he can do go to the potty when he has to go to bathroom. Then a couple weeks after that he potty trained himself at night. Wore underwear to bed and woke up dry. I say get him around other kids his age and younger that are already wearing underwear...It really helped my son. I'm soo happy cuz I didn't think he'd be ready for kindergarten

I agree with Becky W. and Miranda. Normally I wouldn't condone having a child clean up his own mess but your son is definitely old enough to know what's going on. Don't shame him, of course, just calmly give him the materials to clean up the mess and supervise him doing so.
You did the right thing by ruling out a medical issue first. I agree with the chiropractic suggestion 100%! It's definitely worth a try!

Also, having him go regularly will help him realize his signals. Don't give up mama! You are doing a great job!