Potty Training - Ardmore,OK

My results were great with the book "Pottytraining in less than a day." Granted, it took about 2.5 days, but it still worked better than anything else. I have pottytrained my two children, my stepson, and 3 children I nannied fulltime through this method.

L., none of my kids ever used those little potty chairs. They all started to go when they could use the "big boy/ big girl potty". Physically, he is ready. But it sounds like he is not ready psychologically. Have you read the potty book to him? Does he express any concerns? Does he see his BMs going down the toilet when you change him so he is over that part?
Listen to his concerns, buy the big boy underwear (favorite character) and follow his lead. M&Ms work great. I would guess he will be there shortly.....especially if he is in daycare or preschool.
K.

Hi! My son will be 4 next week and just potty trained himself over the past two weeks. We already had a potty chair, so we read the books and showed him what to do starting when he was 3, but he really had no interest and when we would try to push him it was horrible...yelling, crying, hitting. He wouldn't even go to the potty for candy or TV! Positive reinforcers did not work until he was ready to train. So we backed off. A few months ago he and my husband were looking at potty chairs and he picked out his own and he would go potty with daddy every morning when he woke up. Then a few weeks ago he started using his potty on his own and then 2 weeks ago I just put him in underwear and now he is pretty much potty trained. We have an accident here and there, but he did it! He does still wear a pull up for naps and bedtime, but is dry during the day. Everyone said he would just get it one day and they were right. He is so proud of himself! Best of luck to you.

The easiest least traumatizing way to potty train, is to wait till your son is ready and initiates it himself..

Do not compare your child to other children, everybody is different. Do keep his potty handy and available.. Maybe leave a potty book on it too. Do consider getting an adapter seat for your regular potty so that your son can see that it is there. Do have your husband potty both standing and sitting in front of your son so your son can see how that all works. It also helps if he could see other kids potty. Mothers day out and daycare are great for this.

Boys usually take longer to be ready to potty. He still has plenty of time.

Obviously, you need to find new friends! JK Seriously- present the potty, "oooh, look how cool- big boy potty" and leave it at that for a bit. When he does his dance, ask him if he wants to use the potty. This is going to be his decision whether you like it or not- read the other five billion posts on this web site - you can't make them go on the potty if they don't want to. I have three- all slow/late potty trainers (3 1/2 to almost 4 yrs by the time they got the daytime stuff down pat) and surprisingly not one of them went to kindergarten in diapers and none of them wet themselves day or night now.... I promise it is easier to wait until he is physically and mentally ready for this than to push him and "make" him do it on your schedule (or your friends'schedule).
Good luck!!

All children potty train in their own time!

Some as young as 18 months (especially if they have older siblings to model after) and some as old as 4, 5 or 6 by the time they finish with nighttime training...

My oldest was trained by three and a half and my twins are nearly 4 and a half and still use pull upf for bed time...

keep the potty seat you bought him in the bathroom and allow him to come to the bathroom with your hubby and you...you may find soon enough that while you are in there he will want to sit on it for a bit but may not go...eventually he will use it...

Also keep in mind most children will easily urinate in the toilet but take a bit longer to allow themselves to have a bm in one (i say most because all three of my chidren were backwards...they would have bms in the toilet but would not urinate until much later)...

Good luck... ;-)

A friend of mine was asking the same question the other day about her 4yo bro-in-law... My son trained himself at 2yo, but my bros weren't trained until they were about 4.5 with lots of fussing & fighting along the way. It just depends on the child, and boys tend to train later than girls.

I am very much the type of mom to follow my kiddo's lead and pick my battles. I would wait until he starts showing interest in the potty. Unless whoever is taking care of him during the day is pushing the issues (some day cares require they be trained by 3yo), then I wouldn't worry about it. When he's ready, it will be a piece of cake!

All you can do is offer. If he wants to do it, he will. Some people advocate rewards and such. I didn't do that. I waited until my DS was ready, and then it happened, and it happened quickly. He was 3 at the time.

Your son just might read before your friends' kids, but you wouldn't advixe them to push their children, right? It's a developmental thing and you aren't doing anything wrong. By not pushing him, I'd say you're doing things right! It WILL happen!

Hey L.,

I agree with the other moms, don't push, however you can encourage.
I don't know if your son likes Elmo but there is a DVD called Elmo's Potty Time. It talks all about going to the potty and I think it is done in a fun way. Now my kids didn't start going to the potty overnight but it did encourage them to use. I also suggest if you have friends with boys the same age as your son and are potty training let your son watch them urinate. (if the parents are okay with it) Perhaps seeing other children his age using the potty will help. We bought a chair for my son but since Daddy urinates standing up he wanted to do it that way too.

It will all work out in the end. (haha)

H.

I would try using big boy underware only during the day and a pull-up at nap and bedtime. This is what I did for my son and it worked. The idea is that he will get tired of being wet/dirty and want to go to the potty when he needs to. This method causes more laundry for you but in the long run it works.

Good Luck!

Hi L.,

My daughter is two and I had her potty trained in one week. I did it the day she turned two. It is not too early. My daughter refused to go and always told me no. So I decided to force her. I bought the potty seat that you can just put on top of your toilet seat. That way she can't jump and run away. I had a schedule for her. Every hour I put her on there whether she wanted to go or not. I let her sit there for 5 minutes. At the beginning it was hard for her, she would scream and cry, but towards day three she used it fast so she can go back to play. After one week she never had an accident and she asked to go. Of course because she was so young we a code word for number 1 and number 2. Good luck!

number one-- your letting your child run you already!! he's ready to potty train, boys are lazy and it will take at least 6 months and many battles and a lot of patience to potty train.

The reward system works great!!! You get a jar of his favorite things and he gets 1 thing when he goes potty. I have also done the floating cheerios. You let the cheerios float and turn it into a game to see if he can make it sink. My son thought that was cool. TOO Funny watching them tinkle on it till it sinks. But I recommend not pushing. Just some suggestions. I know the potty party has worked at the school he attends.

S.

Mine was doing good with pee in the potty than just lost interest. It started to be a little argument between us so I just stopped talking about it for a couple weeks. I saw a couple books at the library. the potty book of r boys and once upon a potty. he loved to read them with me over and over. like 5-10x a day. than over about 3 weeks he started randomly going to the potty and finally told we he had to poop in the potty. if i brought it up with out the books he seemed to shut down again so i just kept reading. Good luck I read somewhere that this was a time that parents and the child learn to work together. I don't know about that but we sure were excited when it worked.

I had to laugh because I am going through the same thing with my 3 1/2 year old son. Let me first say you are not doing anything wrong. Every child is different and you have to figure out what works for your child. I would recommend encouraging him to try, but bottom line if he doesn't want to, he won't. After many months of asking, encouraging, bribing (which none of these things worked because he just didn't want to do it), I did the 'go naked' thing. You set out a couple of days (I would recommend no less than 4 days) and let him go naked. The absence of a diaper, pullup, or underwear makes them realize that something is not the same. I did this with both of my boys and its what worked for both of them. My first son told me,"Put my pullup on, I need to go potty!" I said 'no way' and took him to the potty. My 2nd son just told me when he had to go and we ran to the potty. I did this 2 days ago with son #2. Yesterday he wanted underwear and told me all day when he needed to go (except when he needed to go poop, we had a near accident). Today, we even ventured out with no accidents. Of course I still ask him if he needs to go, but he pretty much knows when he needs to go and when he doesn't. But, if they are not ready to be trained this won't work. I tried it too early with both of my sons and they just went pee wherever they were standing. But you have to be ready also. It takes a lot of patience. I spent 30 minutes in the bathroom the other day waiting for my son to have a BM. I kept him home from school today just to re-inforce the training before he goes back to preschool. Try to pick a time when you can be home with him for about 4 days or so. And good luck!

Good Luck! I am in the same boat!

First of all, you aren't doing anything wrong. My daughter will be 3 in 7 weeks and we have just finished the potty training adventure. I would start by sitting on the potty before bathtime every night just so he gets used to the idea of it. Start letting him go to the bathroom with you to see what happens and over time he'll be more interested. If you have a strong willed child, I will warn you that this can become a control thing for them so beware. My daughter showed signs of readiness months ago but refused to do it. I had to let it go for a week, not even mention the words, and the next week she was in panties at school. the saying it true, when they are ready, they will wake up one day and do it. I wouldn't push him at this age, he still is well within the normal range of not being potty trained.

Just put him on the pot. I would give him a book to read. If he's already showing signs and just being obstinate you are not going to traumatize him by expecting that he uses the toilet. I would take the weekend and train him. That when he starts doing the pee pee dance it's time to go. Some children simply don't like the potty chair and would rather have a seat on the big potty. Good luck.

Isn't potty training fun?? As you know from all the postings try to make your little guy go potty is a battle that isn't worth fighting. What worked for my three boys is letting them tag along whenever possible with the adult family members, or with other children their age (with parents permission) to "build interest" in the transition to being a BIG BOY!! We also did the potty song/dance. Everything was a bit of a theatrical production, but it helped to make the idea of going to the potty fun. Successful visits to the potty got the "Yeah, he tinkled or pooped in the potty!" song and dance.

Here are the basic things I did:

Encourage him to sit on the potty as soon as he gets up from sleeping, and roughly every 20 minutes throughout the day. Sing the going to the potty song!

Every time he sits on the potty give a reward especially for successful visits. I always gave my boys stickers. They loved the stickers, and would stick them on their clothes, arms, hands, and sometimes foreheads. :) I disagree with using food (cheerios for target practice, or M&Ms, etc to eat as a reward). Sing the "Yeah!! He used the potty song".

Take him to the store so he can pick out BIG BOY UNDERWEAR. Make a big deal about it. Do the "we are going to wear big boy underwear" song and dance. The idea is to make him want to not wear diapers anymore.

My youngest was the hardest to potty train. After much frustration and accidents I explained to him that if he wanted to be a baby and wear diapers instead of going to the potty like a big boy that was ok. My hubby and I made sure not to be negative about it, and everytime he went in his diaper we would say something in a positive manner about how going to the potty would be so much better than having to have a wet uncomfortable diaper. After a couple of weeks of this he finally decided that he was ready to be a BIG BOY and go to the potty. The rest is history.

By the way I did find some vinyl training pants at Target. They were very uncomfortable when he wet them. And I still had to pull out the mop, but they really seemed to help.

Good luck!!