Potty Training Little Boys

Expecting him to potty train this young probably isnt realistic, but what you can do is have him go to the bathroom with you, since he will probably already follow you there and say, what is mommy doing? She's a big girl and uses the big girl potty. And then you take his diaper off and sit him on his own potty or on the big potty just for the experience. And give him praise for trying. This way when it comes time to do the real thing, he wont be so terrified of it. This is what I have done and it seems to be working.

He is not too young to potty train. That is ridiculous about his baller not being developed! Before we had disposable diapers babies potty trained at 18 months! Disposables have made potty training later b/c they are so absorbent that babies don't feel that they are wet and want to be changed. Boys can take longer than girls though. Try switching to cloth diapers if you are not using already and try to read his signs that he needs to go. There are probably some books on it or go to www.kellymom.com and search for potty training. Good Luck!

My advice would be to wait until he starts to exhibit some signs of interest in the toilet. 19 months is really young to start potty training in general, but especially for boys, who get there later than girls generally.

J.,
it is never too early in my opinion. The important thing is to not make it a power struggle. Have him sit on it with clothes on first, just to have some fun. Try seeing then if he wants to sit with no pants on and try to pee. If he is not interested, then don't push it. We got one for our son around two years old, but it ended up collecting dust for a while, because he was not interested in it for a long, long time! Finally, closer to 3, I had to start encouraging him, because he was never interested! I let him run around the house without any clothes on from the waist down. He could tell much easier that way if he needed to go and he would use the potty! That was how I started the potty training thing. I also gave him stickers. An incentive would be good and you can try to have him be without diapers to see if he can recognize his body's signals.
Regarding the bladder not being fully developed, I have read otherwise. Check out this site:
http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/
I started potty training my second boy at 3 months!!! yes!
He can totally use the potty. He is still in diapers, but I take him to the potty every hour and he usually pees or poops. He definitely knows how to control his bladder, because he will pee right away if he needs to. I hear that babies that are trained this early can be out of diapers as early as 1 or 2 years of age. He still wets his diapers, but that is probably because I can't take him as often as he needs to go right now. However, I have cut down on washing poopy diapers by about 80 percent, because most of it he does in the toilet! It is amazing and wonderful. So, I don't think 19 months is too early. The key thing is not to make it a power struggle, because the kids will win every time. Just make it fun, give incentives, have him either half naked or in underwear and see what happens. Yes, you may have several accidents to clean up after (goodness knows, we did!) but it will happen that he will succeed eventually!
Good luck!
A.

I took plan on potty training my son at 18 months. He's now 17 months and is talking about "pee pee" and "potty". I'm reading a book called "Diaper Free - The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene". The author's son stopped wearing diapers at 4 months old and then the next baby hardly wore diapers at all. There are other cultures that don't use diapers at all, so it can be done. Good luck and good for you for being an aware and loving mom! D.

Nonsense! I started "training" my son when he was about 19 months old. I put that in quotation marks because I didn't start hard-core training until just after he turned 2, but I did buy him a potty and let him sit on it (clothed or not, according to his desire) and try using it whenever he showed interest, which -- in our case -- was frequent. Right after his 2nd birthday I actually started spending time diligently training him. I'd time the potty visits and ask him to at least try to go in regular time intervals. He did really well for a while. Once he started to regress, I used a "Potty Watch" my sister loaned me, and it worked wonders! It has a timer you can set for 30, 60, or 90 minutes, and when the music goes off your child knows it's time to try and use the potty.

In short, my son was fully trained -- FULLY! (well, except at night) -- by 27 months of age. He will be 3 in Dec. and already even wants to wipe himself, empties his own little potty into the toilet, flushes, and washes his hands with soap completely on his own. (I still help because I know it's not always done perfectly, but the point is that he's independent.) The only part we still have to tackle is staying dry at night, but that's minor. We use pull-ups, which are dry about 1/2 the time in the morning.

Good luck! It's definitely not too early. :-)

Hi! I don't think your son is too young to start potty training. My son is now almost 8 and was fully potty trained day and night by 20 months. When you first introduce the potty don't make a big deal out of it. Put it in his room or with his toys. Let him play with it.. Let him take it apart and put it back together. Let him take it around the house and play and sit on it with cloths on when ever he likes. My son was allowed a little TV a day and liked to sit on his potty while watching TV. After he is not afaid of the potty you can move it into the bathroom and tell him that that is where it stays now. Tell him that if he would like to sit on it he can in the bathroom. Encorage him to sit on the potty when you use the potty. Have books in the bathroom for him to look at while on the potty. Because my son was so young he did not understand holding it down when on the big potty so what I did was turn him around on the big potty. He seemed to like sitting backwards on the potty. And he didn't have to hold it down it just happen to go down. The down fall was at 4 I had to try to get him to sit forward of the potty. It was funny and cute, but we always had to take off one shoe and one pant leg so he could sit backward. I hope some of this helps with your son. Enjoy it's a fun time with lots of laughs.

J.,

The question is: has he expressed interest? It is NOT too soon to introduce the potty. My oldest son was completely potty trained when he was 18 months old. This was because he wanted to be a big boy and wear big boy underwear, not because I pushed him. My youngest wasn't trained until after he was three. As the mother of four boys I can tell you that each child is so different.

It won't hurt anything to get a potty and let him get used to seeing it. I had better luck with the potty seat you put on the tiolet (for poo)and a step stool to stand on to pee. You might start by standing him up there to pee before his bath.

Encourage him but don't push. He may or may not be physically ready. The biggest thing is he has to be interested and able or it will become one huge battle and take much longer. My grandson didn't want anything to do with it until I put cheerios in the toilet for him to try to sink.

Good luck!
L.

I would definitely wait, I've heard if you start too young then when you go back to diapers (assuming he's not ready), it sets them back. It's always a mom's instinct, you know his maturity level, he is awfully young and being a boy. Good luck....

First, he has to know what "pee & poop" is. We keep diapers on them 24/7 for 2 years and more, and one day expect them to sit there and put "it" in the potty. Take off the diaper, let him run around naked and when we does go, show and tell him what it is (pee, poop). Then tell him that, that needs to go in the potty. I did this with my nephews and once they realized WHAT they were doing it was easy to get them to go into the bathroom. I also bought a stool for them to step up on to go into the toilet like big boys. They both were trained by 2. Have daddy show him how to go potty too.

Just go to Target or Wal-Mart and get the thick cloth training pants and the plastic covers, use those and NO Pull-ups (just another form of a diaper). You will have to do more laundry, but look on the bright side when this is all done you can think of all the diaper money you'll be saving.

Just relax, have fun with it (some days it won't be), but hey this is what parenting is all about. I'll be going through this again soon as my little guy just turned one.

Nineteen months might be a bit young to start potty training. You might get a potty to have in the bathroom & if he wants to use it, let him. But I suggest waiting til at least 22 months or so. All kids are different in potty training regardless of being a boy or a girl. I started potty training our oldest at about 2 3/4 yrs. & he was trained in a few weeks but w/our youngest son, I knew he'd need a bit more time so I started on his 3rd b-day & it took him much longer as he is just a busier boy & bit less mature than his brother at that age. Good luck!

When my boys seemed ready, they started "practicing" urinating outside. It made it fun and interesting for them in the backyard. Let them run around naked and see what happens. Eventually you can direct that into the bathroom. For us the bathroom seemed like too much pressure for them. I can understand not every parent will love this approach, but it worked effectively for both of my boys, who also gave up on overnight pullups right away with little accidents. Consistency is the key, when they are ready, ask, ask, ask, all the time, every 1/2 hour, if they have to go.
If there is resistance to going in the potty and you are SURE they are ready (my kids would go outside to pee), we attached a small shelf above the toilet with a clear plastic container that had stickers and small toys in it. Everytime they went, they got to pick out of the jar. I prefer this approach to the candy approach used by other parents.
And don't let people tell you boys are harder to potty train. I have no experience with this at all! Each child is different. Both of my boys were potty trained at about 2 years old.

J.-
Not too soon at all!! My son was totally trained before he was 2 because his little sister was born at 23 months. I knew I didn't want to fight that battle with a newborn around, so we took care of it before she came. He slept with pull ups for about 6 weeks, but we did away with those too. I say the sooner, the better! Good luck!

i think whenever child starts walking is when most daycares expect u to work with ur child on potty training and 19 months ain't bad at all, it helps train him more into something that can be easy or difficult down the rd. For instance i was doing my son around that age and on n off we'd try it and after he got a lil older, he got grumpy n doesn't want to anymore, so we have to fight lol

Different with each child...whenever he has developed the muscles to "hold it."

He is not too young to potty train. If you ask any of our parents we were most likly potty trained no later than 2 years old (boys do take longer though). The introduction of disposable diapers has pushed the potty training age way back, but children are definately ready to start potty training by 18- 19 months. I am personally going to introduce the potty to my son when he turns one. It might take me a year to train him, but at least in that time he is getting used to the potty.

i didnt read to far down on the responces, so someone may have already said this... instead of a little potty have you thought about a special little toilet seat that fits on the regular toilet? i hated my sons little potty because it was no fun to clean, and being a very busy boy he fell over on it a few times and that was quite the mess. so i got him a little toilet seat with elmo and co. on it and he loved it. it came with a little guard that attached to the front so he wouldnt pee everywhere. and he got to use the big potty just like the rest of the family. i think i got the seat at kmart. hope this helps and good luck!

I started training my daughter at 22 months and I feel it was a great time to start.

You can introduce it as soon as you want, but he is too young to think about it seriously. You may end up causing him and yourself a lot of anxiety. He will probably be closer to three when he is actually potty trained. Some boys are even later. They just don't seem to mind being "dirty." My son has expressed interest since an early age, but he is not ready (even if I am ready to be done with diapers). He'll be three in December.

It maybe too early however if you introduce it and he is interested than give it a go. If he shows no interest I would back off and wait.

There is a great book I read by the Academy of Pediatrics called Potty Training. You may find it useful as well. Right after my son's 3rd birthday we started. I think the benefit to waiting was that he got it in an amazingly short amount of time.

Having a potty in the bathroom for him is a great idea but I would be careful to push the training too hard this early. He may or may not be ready. Let him show you when he is ready. If he has access to a potty he might begin to show interest.

I bought a potty for my daughter and at first it just stood there. I would mention it to her kind of casually. All of a sudden she decided it was time to start trying. Now she sits on the potty several times a day and it is her idea.

From what I read (got the book 'The No-Cry Potty Solution'), it's never too early to start, it just may be too early for him to achieve potty independence. You can always encourage him to use it but, from what I read, until they can read their body signals and dress/undress themselves, it'll be up to you to help him, take him to the potty, undress him, ect. There's a great test in that book that helps you to decide if he is ready or not. My son is almost 3 and I got our potty at about the same age your son is now. He's just now starting to be interested in it (inconsistently) but only for going pee. I'm hoping he'll be more interested once he's 3 and most of his friends are potty trained (sometimes peer pressure is good). It can be a long road, and we're still trucking down it... good luck!

I did this with my 2yrs old... at about 18months he was showing interest... I got a potty and he would often sit on it while I used the big toliet....he was really into it for a while.. even went pee several times and poop. However, since he has turned 2yrs old.. everything I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty he says no... so I am following his lead... I have told him he will get 1 m&m after going on the potty and he is just not into it.....but I don't know what I am going to do... he is 2yrs old and looks like he is 4 and weighs 40lbs.. size 7diapers and I have to get him trained before he outgrows those,... LOL

My 13 month old has been pooping in the potty almost every time for over a month, and I'm thinking of starting to work on getting him peeing in the potty. We just watched and when he started to go we sat him on the potty and he got it pretty quickly. We pay attention to the times of day when he poops, and keep offering him the potty at those times, and if it's not regular then just try it every few hours. I guess with peeing it would have to be more often, as someone said here. Letting the kids go w/o pants or diapers helps them get it, but you have to be willing to clean up a bit for a while. Give it a try--it can't hurt, as long as you're just encouraging and praising his efforts and try not to get too negative if it doesn't work every time. I think it helps to have a potty he feels comfortable on--some are designed for bigger kids. Also, your childcare person or people probably need to get with the program too (my kid's babysitter actually encouraged me to try it at one year). Kids are smart, they want to please you, and probably don't like having poop & pee in their pants! Good luck!

To start off, I know that all children are different. Case in point, my youngest is 4 years old, turned in June, and is now potty trained during the day. I'm going to be trying the nighttime potty training in a month. He just started pre-school and that helped a lot too.

I have a friend who's sun will be 3 at the end of this month. He now goes during the day with almost no accidents. It took almost a month of them trying with him, sitting him on the potty chair in the living room, constantly asking him if he's gotta go, to get him to this point. I babysit often and he is doing really well at my house too. He now knows when he needs to go to the bathroom.

Like I said though, all kid's are different. My youngest used to sit on the potty when he was 2 and then all of a sudden he didn't want to anymore. There is always that chance too. Just thought I would let you know about my experiences.

Get a potty and whenever you go you can put him on his... he might just surprise you and go! In my experience no baby is too young to pee in a potty and often the sound of you peeing will initiate his peeing even if he's busy reading a board book. Keep in mind that it's potty LEARNING, not potty TRAINING. Our goal wasn't to have No wet diapers, just to give DS2 the pottytunity to have Fewer wet diapers. There will be a period of intrigue where every member of the family will have to have Potty Parties so your son will understand that Yes... Everyone Pees In the Bathroom... enjoy!

If your son is showing an interest, why not? Our son starting using the toilet at 18 months. He started verbalizing that he was going to have a bowel movement (not in those exact words :)-) so we put him on the toilet. He was a little nervous at first, but we made a BIG deal about it and starting offering "pee pee" treats (M&M's) when he used the toilet. Now at 2 1/2 he is completely potty trained (and no longer requires M&M's). Granted the process took awhile, but it was partially my fault. I was pregnant at the time and physically had a hard time taking him into EVERY public bathroom! Just don't force him and don't get too frustrated if looses interest. Good Luck!

Unless your son is taking the lead and telling you when he wets his diaper he is not yet ready. However, you can get him ready sooner by talking to him about the potty and reading him books. I personally like and had great success with my boys with the book "Once Upon a Potty" by Alona Frankel (make sure to get the boys version). Also, start having your hubby take your son into the bathroom to watch how the pee pee goes into the potty. When he goes poo poo in his diaper, take him in the bathroom, dump it in the toilet and allow him to flush to get used to the noise.

Don't push him if he is not interested or it may take much longer to train him. Toddlers love testing their autonomy and want to do things on their terms. Good luck with it!