Potty Training

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I know there have been other posts on potty training, but I'm new to the group. My son turned 3 in the beginning of March. He has no interest in using the potty at all. He definately knows when he has to go because he's gone on it before, but he won't tell me when he has to go. There's usually a fight to get him into the bathroom to even try and do it. Normally if he's naked from the waist down he'll tell me he has to go and then we'll run to the potty and he'll do his business, but as soon as i put those pull ups back on him, he goes in them. He could be naked for 2 days and as soon as that pull up hits his butt, he goes. I've also tried just to let him run around in his big boy underwear, but he goes in those also. He doesn't even tell me when he has to go when he's wearing underwear. He just pee's.

I just purchased a movie called Potty Power for him and some training underwear. They haven't come in yet, but I'm going to give it a try. Any advice on this or what i should do. We're also going on vacation next week. Should i really be strict when we come back, or should i start now??

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When my son was 3 we started to focus on the potty training. I was completely at a loss and then low and behold, my mom came to visit and had in done in a weekend! Here is what we did. It takes a commitment of a whole weekend so be prepared. She had a little stop watch that beeped. She set it for a every 10 minutes or so to start. Everytime it beeped (beep beep beep beep), we put him on the potty. This lasted for awhile until he finally peed in the potty. We made a big deal about, jumped up and down, whoohood. We had a chart on the frigde and put a sticker on it. Then right back to the timer. If you set the time increments short enough, he should not have any accidents. it became a big game. Everytime we heard the beep beep beep we would all get excited and yell pee pee in the potty time. He started to get really excited too. Each time he went in the potty, we made a big deal about it and put stickers on the chart. By Monday, he was potty trained. We went right to underpants. He had a few accidents the first few weeks but the school also supported the cold turkey and took them to the bathroom often. He wore pull ups only at night for awhile but never had an accident in bed. I always make sure he goes immediately before bedtime. If my mom would have told me to do this before I saw it with my own eyes, I would have laughed at her. Anyway, it worked for us. Good luck to you. AND THANKS MOM!

Most boys start to show some SERIOUS interest in potty training around age 3, so your son is not behind. We started to potty train our son about 1.5 months before turning 3. The doc said we should start when he was showing the right amt of interest or was ready but honestly I couldn't really judge whether my son was there. We were also getting some mild to moderate pressure from his school. We did the cold turkey method (diapers bye bye and no pull-ups or anything, except at night for the first 6 weeks). I kept a journal of how many accidents and how many potty deposits we had one each day and it took a good 3 weeks before the latter outnumbered the former. The school was pretty supportive and changed and cleaned him for all those weeks. We used rewards in form of small gifts early on. The bottom line as everybody has said> 1) try to be patient and don't force him to use the potty 2) know that there will be frustration ahead 3) don't give up and assess the progress or lack thereof to see if you need to try something different; 4) Trust your instincts - you know your son better than anyone.

I don't know how you feel about taking the pull ups away altogether (I have a friend who thinks that's cruel and will traumatize children) but if your son can tell when he's about to go, you could do the cold turkey method. Another advice I have read (but didn't really use) is to ask the child to do his business, in diaper or whatever, in the bathroom, preferrably while sitting down. After he's good with this step, ask him to just sit on the potty, again with diaper on if he wants. After he's ok with this, move to the next step of asking to take off the diaper and do it in the potty. Apparently, children will not put up a big fight with the first couple of steps and they can ease their way in.

Good luck.

this may sound harsh, when my son was 21/2 we told him when his pull ups were gone that he would get any more, it is time to use the big potty and everytime he used the potty he got a sticker. We began with sitting him on the big potty just before bath time as the tub filled and some times we had to refill the tub because he would pee in it instead. and we told him that he would get a big sticker and a treat for poop in the potty.
for 2 weeks we went potty before we went anywhere and when we arrived anywhere we went potty (it was exausting)don't get me wrong we had a lot of laundry and a lot of accidents but he learned very quickly to run for the bathroom and if he wet his pants in the bathroom it was ok because he tried to get to the potty and he got a very small sticker for trying. That is when my husband taught him to stand to pee only we stressed no poop while standing.
now we are working on the wiping of the butt by him self so he won't need help in preschool.
I hope this helps.
if you have any more questions just let me know.

I have a 2 year old little boy that I am trying to train now. I can relate to the frustration. His daycare teacher is trying to help and I think eventually he will get it but when. I work full time and my husband works away from home and it's frustrating at the end of a long day to try and have the patience with him. Not only do I have trouble getting him to go but he wants to sit down and use toilet paper when he is finished. His teacher at school noticed that too. They use a stamp as a reward when he goes. I figure if I can just get him to go, the sitting and standing thing can be conquered later.

My son is just turning 4 this month and is starting pre-school next Sept. We were a little worried that he wouldnt be potty trained in time because he didnt seam to want to take the time. He would ask for the potty sometimes but then others would not bother. Then one of the kids that is only in his daycare durring the summer (he lived in another stae durring the winter and then they visit family here for the summer) came back this year and was potty trained, and he is a year younger. That night my son came home and said that he wanted to use "big boy" underwear. He has been out of pull ups for a couple of weeks and has been doing great. He has had a 2 or 3 weeks accidents but mostly because he couldnt get to a bathroom. I dont know if this helps, but good luck.

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