Potty Training Advice - Foley, MN

My son was the same way! Unfortunately I went back and forth and he didn't get trained until he was three and a half. What worked for me was making him change his own clothes when he had an accident. He hated the fact that I didn't help him. (He hates to be dirty) I started this on a Wednesday and he was potty trained by Friday and he has only had TWO accidents in the past year! Good Luck to you!

My son did the same thing. When he would wet his pants, I made him take them off and rinse them out in the sink. He did not like being wet or peeling the wet clothes off his body. He changed his ways and started using the toilet again within a couple of days.

Good Luck!
-L.

One thing I read was that you can try letting your child go naked. It worked wonderfully for us. I was so afraid that she'd ruin the carpets! She only had a small dribble of pee once and then after never again. Don't know why it worked, but maybe its because there is nothing there to "catch" the pee? She only needed to go naked for about 2 days (of course, not during sleep time, and only in our house) before we switched to big girl panties.

I think that it would be okay to take a break and do diapers for awhile. Stressing you out and your son really has no benefit to anyone. From what I've read, some kids go through those kinds of spurts. My younger son did. We did underwear for awhile, then diapers, then back to underwear. At first I tried to be the tough Mommy and say "no diapers," but it stressed me out to be washing ten pairs of underwear a day, and it stressed him out because I was getting upset over him peeing in his pants. Going back to diapers for awhile was the best decision that my husband and I could have made. Everyone was happier and it wasn't long before he was ready for underwear again.

I'm going through a similar situation with my 3 yr old daughter. I've been using training underwear for about 2 months now. At first it was gross washing out the poop, but now I am so used to it and I keep some detergent for rinsing in the bathroom. My daughter right now is refusing to poop on the toilet saying she doesn't have to go when I know she does. When she has an accident, I have her take them off now and clean them. She hates dumping the poop in the toilet and rinsing them. But switching back to pull ups would confuse her. Just keep trying! Take your son to the bathroom often. Don't rely on him telling you he has to go. Don't let yourself get stressed out about it or blow up when he has an accident. He'll get over it.

Hi S.-

Here is what I did for my son and it worked out really well:

1. I went to the library and picked out as many books and videos about using the toilet as I could find. For about 2 weeks we read these books and watched the videos and talked a lot about using the toilet. I kept him in diapers during this time, but when he went poop I would change his diaper as usual and then bring the dirty diaper over to the toilet and dump in the poop. My son enjoyed flushing it down the toilet and would ask all sorts of questions about where the poop would go. We would be silly and say, "Do you think your poop is finding grandpa's poop?" I know, sounds gross, huh? But my son got a kick out of it because he thinks his grandpa is SO neat! And I found that talking about his poop made him actually think about when he needed to go to the bathroom. So we'd also talk about how after he eats food it goes down into his belly and then become poop and goes out his butt. Sorry if that unappealing to talk about, but my son became really interested in why and what was happening when he went to the bathroom. Being sort-of up front about it (in a sometimes really silly way - "eww, what did you eat! what sticky poo-poos!") made him respond quite well to the whole toilet training process.

2. We went to the store to pick out his very own, new toilet seat/chair! I made this a REALLY big deal and told him he could pick out whichever seat/chair that he wanted. He ended up picking out 2 toilets (1 that was an actual chair for the floor and 1 that was put on our bathroom toilet). 2 seats worked out really well because he felt more comfortable on the small one that sat on the floor and then he worked his way up to the seat that was placed on the actual toilet seat in our bathroom. During our visit to the store I also let my son pick out 2 packs of his VERY OWN big boy underwear. I told he was so LUCKY because they don't make Thomas the Train underwear in mommy sizes but I sure wished that they did.

3. He used the toilet immediately upon returning home from the store and I made such a big deal out of it. I had been reading in different magazines/books not to do this (the over-excitedness) because they would always except it then, but I found that this just wasn't the case. So for the 1st week of toilet training I put him in underwear when we were at home. The first day he wore the underwear, he went pee right in them. So we took off the underwear and I said, "ewww, stinky! you're supposed to go in the toilet!" He agreed that it was indeed sticky and I had him sit on the toilet for a few minutes. He went pee and I made another HUGE deal out of it - dancing, clapping, saying "Hooray, Hooray! I'm so proud of you! You're such a big boy!", hugging him, and calling grandma and grandpa so he could tell them what he did. He had one more accident that day, but after that he wore underwear exclusively during the day at home (he was in daycare, so for about a week he wore a diaper during the day there then I sent him in underwear the following week and he did great there too).

4. I should also say that I stocked up on PEZ and peppermint patties and after EVERY successful bathroom break, I let him pick out one candy. Once again, I read in magazines/books to definitely not do this because then he would except candy everytime, but once again, this was certainly not the case. After 1 week of this routine, I let him pick out candy only after he went poop in the toilet. I would just say, "you had too much candy, when you go poop in the toilet then you can pick out another one." He seemed just fine with this because I was still giving him gobs of praise and asking him if he was proud of himself (which, he very much was). Within a month from the start of his toilet training he was out of diapers completely and not asking for candy anymore.

It seemed the key components of his potty training were: preparing him with books and movies, letting him pick out his VERY OWN toilet seat/chair, letting him pick out his very own underwear (I read once that a parent had said, "eww do you think spongebob likes getting peed all over" when there child went to the bathroom in their underwear - this approach worked for them so perhaps, you could try it as well??), major praise and saying things like, "boy I bet you're proud of yourself," and finally a bit of bribery (=candy. I hated to do it, but it was well worth it!).

It could just be that my son was ready to use the toilet, but perhaps some of this might work for you as well.

I wish you the best of luck and many diaper-free days to come!

Take care,
-R.

do not go back to diapers!! That will just confuse things for your son. My daughter was/is the same way...so when she ran out of pull ups to use i told her i wasn't buying anymore so she had no choice but to wear underwear (or nothing, but she's always chosen the underwear over nothing :) ) and if she gets them dirty, she has to clean them out. She has started using the potty more again. We dont have it down 100% ALL the time but she's on that toliet a good 98%. It takes time and encouragement dont back pedal with him! Good Luck, I know how it is!!