My son, who is 3 is just starting potty training. We have decided to go to underwear, cold turkey. Our issue is that he let's us know when he is peeing, but never gives us enough time to get him to the potty. How do we teach him to hold it?
We know, he knows he has to pee, because when he has to go, he goes outside and pees on our outdoor deck. We've tried putting the portable potty out there too, but he has no interest in sitting on the potty. How do we get him interested in sitting on the potty and not peeing in his pants?
Any tips that you've used in your first weeks of potty training would be helpful.
I'm having trouble with my 3 year old too..
I found a great site with ideas.
Check out a copy of the book, "The Potty Train" at www.toysofdiscovery.com
It's a light-hearted look at what's entailed from a child's perspective.
My son is 3 too. I am having a much harder time potty training him than my daughter, now 6. She trained pretty much on her own, starting arouns 18 mos, sitting on a little potty, around the house wore underpants, but on trips we put her training pants to going anywhere that requires a long car ride.
My son didn't want anything to do with the potty until just before he turned 3. Then he was good for about 2-4 weeks. No accidents, nothing!
Now we are doing a downward slope. Never gives himself enough time, and is always going in his pants, pee and even poop. Wearing training pants has become more of an all day-everyday, since I am getting tired of all the laundry.
I have 3 children, and a husband who works in construcion, so we have more than enough laundry to start with.
My youngest is 18 mos, she is already beginning to sit on the potty chair. Once in a while she will pee, but I think its all in fun for now.
I honestly think boys are harder. I have tried rewards, like stickers, a small "candy" like a fruit snack (not the whole bag just one).
I told him if he did good all day he could get a larger prize. Then for a whole week a train piece to go with his train set. But the time concept didn't quite work out, he didn't understand how long a week or all day actually was. I need some new advice too.
My daughter was so easy that now I haven't got a clue. Best of luck.
It is a big time commitment but take him to the potty every 1-2 hours for him to get use to going or rather for him to stop what he is doing and get use to going to the potty. Praising him when he goes and reminding him to think about what his body is telling/feeling like when he has to go. They get tired fo you taking them but then they get use to going. I also kept the portable potty near at all times ...this way you didn't have to go into the house or that far as they were learing.
Give him a reward....my daughter will be three in two weeks - I went cold turkey because I already had her trained at night. She sometimes pees her pants but it's more because I am not home and my husband is here or I am not paying enough attention to her and then she gets my attention. She wouldn't poop on the potty - so I told her that if she does a pooper then I would give her a chocolate bar (just a small piece of a hershey's) and Woo Hoo it worked. Pee Pee is a little different - I would get a paper chart or something and give him a star for every pee pee and when he reaches 5 or 10 give him a reward. When he pee pees in his pants remind him that he doesn't get a star and if he wants that special something he has to go on the potty......no wet pants! Good Luck to you.....I hope it's an easy ride.......:0)
Hi E., I had a little of your potty train experience in the past.I have two boys age 6 & 2.
I am currently starting to train my 2 years old now.
This is what works for my first and I am going to try this for my 2 years old.
Put potty where ever works for you, preferably in bathroom.
Start when he wakes up in the morning.A little after every meal and very important before bed time also my husdand would wake up midnight and lift him up to the potty.
I also read and sing to him.I sometimes spend 10,15 or 20 minuets. It is patience and time consuming.You mention about your 1 year old, so this will be tough if its you alone potty train and care for the little one.
My 2 years old does not sit on the potty, I believed because he sees his brother sitting on toilet.
I bought the kids toilet seat cover and he sits on it.
He did it a few times but now he starts to run away.
I am still putting him so lets see what works.
Good luck,
V..
I also trained my 3 1/2 years old son in a day using Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, by Nathan Azrin. He had no interest in potty training whatsoever. After the first day he was about 80% trained and after two more weeks, fully trained. I did it on a Saturday on a three day weekend (I work full time). It was an exhausting day for me, fun for him at the beginning, at the end of the training he was getting tired and frustrated/bored. On the second day we had some setbacks, I was disappointed but I kept at it Sunday and Monday and like I said two weeks later he was trained. I still put pull ups on at night, most of the time he is totally dry in the morning, once in a while he'll get up in the middle of the night telling me he has to go.
Good luck
I agree with Mindy--if you're waiting for him to tell you, you might want to change approaches for a few days. I always spend my first day filling them up with liquids, and taking them to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so. I set a timer so I don't forget, and I always have some sort of reward--sticker or M&M--for just going in there and trying. By the second day, I start asking them if they have to go, and usually they can tell me yes or no at that point because they got so much practice the day before. I still take them every half hour or so. But by the third day, I feel pretty confident that they can tell me when they need to go. Good luck! I'm actually in the middle of this right now too. :)
I would give him an incentive for just sitting on the potty and then something bigger if he actually pees on the potty. Like a sticker chart so everytime he sits on the potty he gets a sticker and if he goes pee on the potty maybe he could get 1 m&m. This plus lots of praise, good jobs and high fives. This worked great for us. It took my son a while to go poop on the potty and one day my husband jokingly said "if you go poop on the potty I will bake you a cake" later that day my son finally pooped on the potty and i had to call my husband at work to tell him he had it bake a cake. It was great. He stopped at the store and got a small premade cake which we cut into tiny pieces and rationed out over the next week when ever he poop. Hope this helps. Good Luck
I have let my boys go naked bottom and so when they need to go, they'll go and not worry about it. If you can and would, make the potty chair available, close by wherever they play most of the time. They learn to hold as the time goes by. Perhaps your son doesn't like sitting down to pee, so teach himn to stand up and pee in the big toilet. Have him see Daddy do it if his father is okay with that and have your husband help out by teaching his son to pee in the toilet and if to do # 2, teach him that too. It helps if the father teaches something he has that is the same as the son and show him how to do it. It may be that he does not like sitting down just to urinate. I don't know if that is the case. It did help when my husband got involved to help them go potty seeing Daddy do it. Let us know how it turned out.
HI E.,
We did the exact same thing, even peeing on the back deck!!!lol, back and forth with pull ups, etc, then one day dad was home from work and took him to the big toilet(my son is very tall for 3 and can reach) he peed and that was that. The potty is in the back storage closet and he goes on the toilet! Although he still wont poop. He tells us when to put on a pull up and we do. He will get there very soon so I don't force it. So just keep encouaging him and have dad show him what to do. We as moms are not equipped. lol. good luck and let us know what happens. D.
I trained my son in a day using Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, by Nathan Azrin.
The book dates back to the 70's, and is written in English English, which makes for some weird/interesting bouts of reading, but the method is extremely effective.
Other friends of mine have used it too and had the very same results. Don't understand why it's not in all pediatricians offices, it would save so much angst to so many parents.
Have fun with it!
Hi E., we had similar issues with my son who will be three in a couple of weeks. We are now on our second month of training and it's going great! I just had enough of diapers and just decided to let him run around with no pants or diapers on. I brought the potty to where ever we would be around the house and when he would make a face or grab at himself I'd rush him to the potty or bring the potty to him. He did have a few accidents on the floor but after the second day he started to get it. I'd give him an m&m every time and this did encourage him and I was able to stop that by the 4th week. By the third week I put underwear on him while at home and would just keep asking him or make him use the potty. Now at week 7 he is in underwear all day and runs to the bathroom himself. I still put a diaper on at night as he does not stay dry yet but during the day he is completely trained! It did take a few weeks for him to learn how to "hold' his pee but I think he's finally getting it. Can't tell you how many times we started and stopped because I got too stressed. Just don't back down or take no for an answer. I still have to be stern and make him use the toilet before we are going out even if he says he doesn't have to, he usually does go. Remember not all kids train the same way so you may need to try a few different approaches. Good luck and stick with it.
Hi E.,
If you're waiting for him to tell you he has to go, or to take himself to the toilet, I thnk you're taking the wrong approach. This is often the LAST step in training, not an early step. With my son, I used the multi layer cloth training pants with the waterproof outer layer, and took him to the toilet about every hour and a half through the day, using diapers for naps and bedtime. I think he had no clue beforehand, but the cloth let him realize what happens when you pee - you get very wet - and then to realize what it feels like just before this happens, so after 2-3 weeks, he'd wait to go til I took him. It was still another 4-6 weeks after that before he'd say that he had to go. Just take him, don't ask if he has to or wants to. Unlike others, I never gave bribes or rewards, I treated using the toilet as an expected behavior, not something they had an option about or were doing to please me.
Good luck!
