How do I get my son to keep using the potty?

Tammy - posted on 04/28/2011 ( 1 mom has responded )

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My little guy is almost 3 and is not potty trained yet. We've been working on it, and he'll do good for awhile and go potty when he needs to, or is asked to if it's been awhile. But then when I think he's got a good handle on it, he goes right back to going potty in his underpants. We started at 2 years old with my daughter and it didn't take her very long. She wore pullups during sleep times, but during the day she was good, and we had her completely out of pullups before she was 3. I know boys are supposed to take longer to train, but I'm just wondering if 3 is getting to be a little on the really late side. We work on it for awhile, then we take a break, and so on, but he just doesn't seem to catch on what he needs to do. When he does go, he's so excited and proud of himself and I've made it a point to show him how happy I am that he's doing it, but then he regresses back to needing pullups. He knows what he needs to do, he just doesn't want to stick with it.
Thanks for any advice!

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1 Comment

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Chatty - posted on 04/28/2011

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In my opinion, and after JUST having FINALLY got my 2 1/2 year old daughter trained during the day, don't stress about it. It will happen when he's ready. I know it sucks to hear that but besides encouraging him and giving him the necessary tools (which it sounds like you already have) you can't really do much.

My daughter used the toilet for the first time at 18 months and like you mentioned, she would go back and forth with good days or weeks and then back to bad, not using the toilet, having accidents all over the place and INSISTING on using a diaper. I finally through up my arms in frustration about 2 months ago, and just left well enough alone. Not even 2 weeks later SHE approached me on morning and said, "I need to go pee on the potty, mommy....come please?!" and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

Good luck!