Potty Training - Jacksonville, FL

Hi C.,
Boys don't usually train until they are 3, so don't panic. He will train himself. If he has a man to watch then he will copy.
Good luck.
D.
PS: I had 2 boys and they both taught themselves by watching their Dad. I had no problem with either of them, it just took them a little longer to train as I understand girls usually train around 2 years old.

Each child is different and my son was 4 before he got the concept of going #2 he would get into plaing and go in his pants and not say a word! He would rather play then go in the potty! But he finally got the hint and is now using the potty on a regular basis and come to find out he was affraid of the potty! He wasnt interested in going at all! It takes time just be patient and he will come around and boys are harder to get to use the potty!

Good morning... Well all I can say is hang in there. Everyone will have their opinion, but don't listen to them. My son is almost FOUR and is still having a tough time. He's my only one. I have to say that once I stop pressuring him, he started to come around. Stickers worked well for him. A lot of those games that people recommended didn't. Like cheerios, soap. etc... the potty videos got him excited, the stickers made him feel special, he likes to read while sitting there. So i give him his "alone" time and viola poo poo in the potty!! Good luck, don't stress yourself.. Boys are a special breed in their own!

Hi C.

This brings back memories! My son was almost 4 before he would stop peeing and pooing in his underpants. I had tried to inspire him to want to train at almost 3, thinking surely he would want to. I showed movies, read books had a doll. He didn't care. I waited until he was 3 and then produced redular underwear. I was very excited and went through this special about how he was a big boy now and all of that. He did the exact same thing. What finally worked, was when he made his mess, he had to clean out his underwear and pants, shorts in the toliet. I obviously helped him, but I made no big deal over it and he had to do all the messy work.

He decided to go to the bathroom, since what he was doing was delaying because he didn't want to waste his time. But now that he was spending so much time cleaning up he told me it was faster to go to the toliet!

How I laughed! So good luck to you. This is what worked for us and hope your moment passes more quickly than mine. God bless!
D.

Hello,

I am a mother of 3.
What i did was i would set a timer to go off at about every 20 minutes and then i would say "It is time to go potty".
Take him to the potty and sit him down and say it is time to go potty. Leave the bathroom and stand outside of the bathroom door and say "Mommy is for you, and i know that you can do it". say "Go pee pee".

You need to be frim but very loving.
Be kind to him if he makes mistakes.

If you are Harsh with him that will only hurt the stituation.

Do not worry about him and his age, ALL children are different. The whole world wants to say that all children need to walk at a certain age and talk at a certain age and learn to potty train at a certain age and so on.

This is not true, EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT.

I wish you all the best.

God Bless.

From one mother to another.

Hi C.,
I completely empathize with you. I'm a mom of 2 boys who are now 10 & 14. When my oldest was young, I swore that he was going to be in diapers at age 35. He had no interest in potty training and didn't care how dirty he was, it just didn't bother him. I tried every little thing I read about or was told, and finally at one of his pediatrician appointments I told the doctor I was at wits end. He promised the advice he gave me would work, and he was right...it was about 1-1/2 weeks after that, and we were well on the road to potty training. He explained that some boys are just not interested, and you have to make it more interesting for them. Here's what we did....
He told me to get an envelope and put a small 'surprise' inside the envelope such as a little car, small toy, money etc, seal the envelope and tape it to the wall above the toilet making sure it was high enough that my son couldn't possibly reach it. He advised me to use the same bathroom all the time, take my son to the bathroom and explain what we do in the toilet. (he actually did ok with urinating, the problem for him were bowel movements) Then explain to him that when he does his business correctly in the toilet, he will be able to have the envelope when he's finished and see what surprise is inside. (The doc told me that curiosity will win out, maybe not the first couple of times, but that he wouldn't be able to stand not knowing what was in the envelope at some point. ) For most of the first day, he would say he had to go, go to the toilet but wouldn't do his business, got up and wanted the envelope. As soon as he realized he had a job to do in order to see that surprise, he finally went in the toilet for the first time the next day. NOW one important part is that as soon as they earn that envelope, you must immediately put up another envelope with another surprise in it. After a couple of days, my son realized what he had to do to get that envelope, and then it got to the point when he was going well, that I had to limit the envelope to once a day because he was trying so hard to get those envelopes!! It was really cute, but most importantly, it saved my sanity!
Please give it a try, and I promise you will see some results if you keep at it. Please don't hesitate to drop me a note if you have any questions or problems. I'll certainly try to help. Hope you find this helpful, and GOOD LUCK!
P. D.

Hello C.,

I had the same problem when my oldest daughter was that age, I remember getting very discouraged because no matter what I did or tried it always back fired. Until I found something that interested her! Since she always stayed home with me and really wanted other children to play with, my husband and I made a deal to have a preschool teacher tell her that she could come to school only after she only pottied in a potty. Amazingly it worked! We started visiting all the preschools in the area, until we found one that we really liked and she enjoy. About one week later, she was completely trained!

My sister-in-law found a wonderful way to help my nephew to use the big potty, by turning him so that he faced backwards on the potty. Odd I know, but it worked so well for her that I started using the same position for the little boy that I watch. Hope this helps.

Good Luck,

J. W

I've worked in child care since 1990. I have potty trained LOTS of children. There was one boy who just refused to potty train. He just was not interested. His Mom didn't push him. She just gave him space. Then one Friday when Mom was off from work he said "I want to go potty!". He was about 3 1/2. Mom put him in underwear that day and he potty trained that weekend! He left daycare Thursday in diapers and came back Monday in underwear and had only 1 accident at the center. Don't fret! As Dr. Brazelton says he won't go to college in diapers. Give him time and space, but suggest it every so often. When he shows even the slightest interest that's when you start! Good luck.

Try throwing some cheerios or something in his potty and telling him to "aim" and "fire". Make it a game for him. This might get him interested in going. Good luck!

i would try again another thing is reward him with stickers if he goes make going a game. i have all girls and none of them were alike potty training my 1st was a breaze potty trained at 18 months old, the middle child is autistic and has issues she will go pee in the potty but for some reason she only goes poop 1 time every week or 2 no matter what the dr's prescribe and the 3 yr old is now pooping on the potty but no pee yet, let him work at his own pace.

Hi C.,

He probably isn't ready just yet. It takes both "mental" maturity and physical maturity for a child to be ready for the potty. Wait a couple of months and see if he's ready then. All kids have different rates of development.

Potty training is just that you are TRAINING them to use the potty instead of going in the pants like they have always done.
It takes more time with some than others.
Both of my sons (19 yrs. and 4 1/2 yrs.) were more time consuming than my daughter (12 1/2 yrs.). She would go when I would go and that was easy.
My mother in law pretty much broke my oldest from the diaper in 2 days, but when he'd have to poop he'd pee in the toilet and then run and hide and poop somewhere in the house.
My youngest would hide in his closet when he'd have to poop. And he'd get distracted playing or whatever and forget about the feeling of having to go pee and would go in his pants.
It's a hard habit to break. I mean think about it he's been going in his pants basically for 3 years now. Most adults would have a hard time breaking that long of a habit.
Just be patient with him, I know it's difficult when you have to wash underwear everyday. But you can do and so will he.
Just keep asking him every 10 minutes and take him shortly after eating or drinking. He'll get the hang of it.
Good luck.

I just took my boy to his 3 yr check-up this week. He'll be 3 in a couple weeks. He will go when we take him in and sit him on the potty, but he doesn't care at all. He doesn't have the ability yet to tell you when it's about to come. Boys are generally slower at this than girls. My doctor told us that it's not rare to see 4 and 5 year old boys still wearing diapers or pull-ups on occassion. Even if you claim the child is potty-trained, there will still be accidents until around age 6. Each child is different. If it doesn't seem to be working, don't push it. You can try different things to make it fun. I recommend the reward system. Some reward with candy, which is ok sometimes, but that can also lead to some warped food issues later on. What we did was made up a little board to hang on the wall. Put his name on it and wrote "It's Potty Time!" Then drew a potty outline. Everytime he goes, he gets a sticker of his choice to put on his board. And it helps when he can see your excitement. Clap and cheer and all that jazz. We do high five after he's done. And he likes to tear off his own paper. Then after he gets down, he wants to put the lid down and flush by himself.
The thing is... if you sit him on the potty and he doesn't want to go, it stops being about going potty to him and starts being about the battle of the wills. And honey, little boys have strong wills. There are three things you cannot "make" your child do. Eat, sleep and potty. Your job is the set the stage for those events to happen and lead him into it. But it's his job to do it or not.
Be patient! He won't go into college wearing diapers ;o)

Well my son will be 3 in Dec. & we started about a month ago, even though he had no interest prior. And I had tried sporadically to have sit on the potty at different times w/nothing! Plus he never bothered being wet and could have cared less. Well I'm due w/another baby in Jan. so I was determined to try for that reason. We went no underwear for about 3 days and he got a small treat (mini m & m's work good) everytime he tried! I had to do this to get him to even try. I also put our potty in the living room when we were out there and in his bedroom for naps. It took about 1 1/2 days of solid trying for him to even pee in it, but once he did he got a lot better. Lots of accidents but I didn't give up! At first he seemed only to be able to go if he was naked and would always pee in underwear but after about a week, he started getting better. We stopped the treats after about a week of him going fairly consistently. Of course pooping is a whole other thing! He still has accidents if I don't remind him, but considering I thought he wasn't ready at all he's done really good!! You may try taking 2 or 3 days of really working on it on your part and if you don't see progress stop for a bit. It always helps to set a timer to take him every 30 minutes when you start, or if you take him in 30 and he doesn't go, take him 5 or 10 min after that. Good LUCK!!!!

I'm going through the same thing. I have two boys. My oldest will be 3 in January also, and he's considering the idea of potty training. One day he's really interested, and he wants to wear his "big boy undies". The next day he refuses. Overall, you (and I) should just let things happen when he's ready. Here are a few things we've tried to get him interested. They seem to be working (sometimes). 1) Take him to the store, and let him pick out some undies for himself. 2) Get a bunch of stickers, and cut them out. Then put them in a little bowl so he can pick one out every time he uses the potty. If my son goes poo, we give him a sticker and a "special treat" (usually a tootsie roll or a few M&M minis). 3) Brag and praise him (excessively) every time he does it right. But just say "you can try again next time" if he doesn't.

Good morning!

Please don't be discourged. It does take little boys longer to get into the swing of things. My son wasn't completely potty trained until he was 3...and that was like a couple of months before he turned 4. I was concerned too. But after talking to other friends who had sons it seems to be pretty common for them to take longer to be completely potty trained.

Good luck

R.

Hi, I have 3 year old triplets..2 are girls..they have been 90% potty trained for over a year...My son never wanted to... He started about 2 months ago...I have him sit facing the wall straddled...my husband hates it but it works....I tried everything,dvds, books, cherrios in toliet..this is all that worked for me...good luck

I want to share about my son, from what I did.. I put him so earlier on potty training when he was 1 year old, (now, He's 7) I know it's so younger or anything but I knew in my heart that boys are so late to learning do everything.. From what I does, is take a time to teaching him potty training and show him what mommy does sit in big potty training/ daddy's job to do the guy thing... so that way to explain that need to pee or poop. at 2 years old, I put him underwear for the day.. at nights, change to pull up.. no diapers... because I stopped using dispers at almost 2 years old.. then changed to pull up for at least a year. Of course, my son had so many accidents but he learned and adjustment the potty training.. He's so excited to getting new underwears with any favorites cartoons. It's worked! Try give him new underwears he choice whatever cartoons he loves, used it during the day... yes, during a nap time.. and at nights, change pull up. then next morning, my son was looking forward to put his underwear! sometimes he took it off and being nude for a while.. If go out, Please bring extra clothes and underwears! don't put pull up during the day, He will confuse which to use it.. So keep that way until break the habit! By time my son broke the habit almost 3 years old, about 2 months before turned 3... P.S. I does same thing for my daughter! It's worked a miracle!! my daughter learned fast, She broke the habit at 2 half years old.. Hope it helps you with that ideas.. Good Luck! :-)

In Dec. last year my son was 3 1/2 . I was fed up with him not using the potty! I got advice on here, That advice was to try sitting him on the BIG potty backward, that way when he goes it doesnt make a mess! It goes into the potty......My son thought it was FUN! HE trained in two weeks, with few accidents! Nighttime trained was two weeks too, Although it did take him a week not to be scared to poop on the potty!

HTH, C.

Hi C.,
Like you my oldest is a girl and she was potty trained right after she was 2, and I had the same expectations with my son. We started when he was 2, he had no interest at all. I was so persistant with him and he was not. So I stopped trying. He knew what he had to do, just didn't want too. One week exactly before his 3rd birhtday he woke up, took his diaper off and said "I go pee pee now Mommy!" and that was the end of diapers. My thought is let him decide when he is ready, and just keep giving him the option to go like a big boy! Best of luck, when he is ready, he'll do it! M.

Hi,
I don't really have any real advice for you as I am in the same shoes. My boy is turning 3 in Dec and it would be nice to have this over, since a couple of things are avail. only to potty trained 3 y olds... Someone just told me to try him to pee into a jar, which should be more like a game rather than a chore. There are also big potty inserts and one of them by Baby Bjorn (all white) is getting a lot of positive feedback from my mom's club. It's supp. to be softer and sturdier. (Costs $29.99 at Babies R us). Big potty may be more along the lines with the rest of the family, not to mention easier cleanup.

I had my son at a daycare for 10 days in the summer where the t.a. was big on potty training by having them go every 2 hrs, ready or not. I think, in our case it did more damage than good:) Since then, he's been not interested in the potty. The only glimpse of interest in the potty was shown last week when he was at a childare for 2 hrs and there were older boys who were asking to be taken potty. He actually asked the caregiver to go potty too! Nothing happened then, and afterwards... I hear from other mothers of boys that there is no point in rushing or pushing. When they are ready they are ready. One mom that I know was still potty training at 3.5, which I am afraid we'd be too.