Need more Ideas on Potty Training a 3 year old

Angel - posted on 08/11/2010

first thing get the training underwear they are thicker so when she goes it wont go all over the place second maybe shes not ready my son does the same thing i keep trying and one day he decided that he wanted to go potty and hes doing ok i just cant get him to go poop in the pooty

Gina - posted on 08/11/2010

My son is almost 3 1/2 and we recently went through pretty much the same thing. He was doing ok in pul ups and then he got sick, after that he just kept going in his pull up again and seemed afraid of the potty for at least a week.
We tried giving him a hotwheel (which were already his, but he was naughty and had them taken away, so he was earning them back) which only worked for so long then he got picky and only wanted new cars...
small candies worked, like giving him 1 M&M or 1 smarties (not the whole pack) those helped alot!!
about 2 weeks ago i put him in underwear and every 15 mins (I set the timer on the microwave) we went potty. I explained to him we were going to do this all day! After about 2 hrs we went to 20 mins till he went to bed. It was a long and exhausting day, but the next day he was dry all day!
Since then he's only had a couple of accidents, and he's even dry through the night! which we did cut down on liquids before bed too!

Natasha - posted on 08/11/2010

my son is 2 and a half and he wouldn't go to the potty for me at all. Once he started at his new daycare where he was youngest, the older children brought him to the bathroom and he only wear "underwear". We bring him to the bathroom every half of an hour and at daycare he doesn't have accidents and uses the potty!!! So if you know other children who are older who can encourage your daughter... it would Great because they want to do what their peers do :) Good luck!!

Nikky - posted on 08/11/2010

My daughter is turning 3 in November and started off realy well but then decided not to go potty so i went i got her stickers but she wouldnt go to the toilet so i could give her a sticker. So every time i ask her if she needs to go and she says no(as always) i check her pants and if there dry she gets a sticker and a big cheer. Now if i ask her she still says no but runs to the toilet ishe needs to go and every one makes a huge fuss including her wee sister(22mnts).



I wouldnt worry if they take a bit longer, children who take longer to do things are thinking about the right way to do it and are said to be smarter. My oldest daughter didnt walk till she was about 15mnths but didnt wobble and fall down when she did, she was completely stable from the first step.

Whitney - posted on 08/11/2010

My daughter is almost 3 and I am in the exact same situation. Before I had her I always said I wouldn't really potty train them, just wait until they were interested and took the initiative. But then I have her and she gets to be 2 years old and I invariably feel the need to potty train, because "other kids are already potty trained at her age." Who cares though?! It's not a competition and has NOTHING to do with intelligence. Personally I think it's another gross motor skill that develops at a child's own pace. For example, my daughter walked a bit late (like 15 months is when she really took off). I think she is also not going to potty train super early (which is how it is now!). So, I've given up potty training for now. She still only wears Pull-Ups and will go potty sometimes (especially #2 which is fabulous), and I do ask her but she always says no. But I've stopped pushing the issue and we'll see what happens!

Giselle - posted on 08/10/2010

My daughter is 4 and we are dealing with the EXACT same thing! She starts Pre-K in a month and I am at my wit's end!

Felicia - posted on 08/08/2010

i need help to train my 3 yr old son to go potty ive tried almost everything please help i want to get him into school but im completely frustrated with trying to get him to use the potty

Suz - posted on 08/08/2010

just before my son turned 3 i started potty training him, no nappy during the day unless we had to go in the car, we thought very hard on how to reward him as lollies was out of the question and sticker charts was just not his thing he did not understand it. being that we are not made of money a new toy everytime could have been expensive so i got a bag of balloons and that worked really well within 2 weeks we were done and after a week of being dry at night we were in knickers at bed time....as for my 2yr old he just went all by himself after watching his brother....they will do it when they are ready no point in forcing it :) good luck

Maryia - posted on 08/06/2010

The timer method worked for both my 3yr old and my 2yr old. It's the best thing I found for potty training. We took it everywhere from the store to grandma's house. The kids would get so excited when the timer went off they would start hollering "Potty Time, Potty Time" and run to the bathroom.

Megan N. - posted on 08/06/2010

After months of trying to potty train my son ... this is the advice I got from a mom who was successful in potty training her kids by age 3. Stop putting diapers on them. I think it confuses them if they go from diaper to underwear to diaper again. They are going to have accidents, but you must be consistant with the underwear. Let her pick out some underwear and put them on her right after shes goes potty first thing in the morning. Rewards are very encouraging, give her what she wants after she goes potty. My son likes Kinder surprise.
Good luck!

Tiffany - posted on 08/06/2010

My Daughter is my mini me she wants to do everything I do. So I started a reward chart for her and I with pretty stickers and at the end of the week we did something fun. I announced when I had to potty and even stickered the chart. We looked at the treats places online like the aquarium to peek motivation and when we would pass the park or chuck E Cheese I would say things like your doing so well potty training I can't go to blank on Saturday. Good luck!

Tori - posted on 08/05/2010

Your daughter sounds exactly like mine. Just after turning 3 I decided I was done. I picked a weekend where we did nothing but Potty Train. I made a huge deal about having a potty party and that is what we did. We started out using a timer and she would go sometimes, but not always. The second day in she would randomly just go and say she didn't think she could use the potty because the timer didn't go off. I ditched the timer and just starting asking her a lot if she had to go. When we were outside I just had her in a dress and that was it. She had one accident outside with no undies on and it clicked. Suddenly I think she understood what it felt like to have to go. I would still ask often, but she would tell me when she had to go. We are now just over a month into being trained and are going to be ditching diapers/pull ups at night in the next week. She has been dry after nap and in the morning so no need to have that back up anymore.

I also only put her in dresses the first couple of weeks so it was easier to get on the potty quick. We are finally getting into wearing real clothes again.

Everyone kept telling me that it would just click and she would suddenly get it. Well that really is what happened. I hope you have had some recent success! If not just keep trying. She will get it and won't be in diapers forever.

Like another poster said I did use Gerber training pants over undies for the first week so that if she did have an accident it was less messy. Once I got her out of diapers during the day I did not look back. No pull ups except for nap and she even understands that she should not go in those. She will call me and ask to use the potty if she is in bed.

Good luck!

Melissa - posted on 08/04/2010

With my son who will be 3 in Sept. I started with letting him run around in only a tshirt because he wouldn't go potty without anything on so he had to use the bathroom! then when he was doing good with that I bought the gerber training pants which are thicker underwear and if he had an accident it would hold better but he could feel the wetness unlike diapers/pullups. I would say ewww if he had an accident and he would copy. We also bought underwear he liked and he said they cried if he went in them (spongebob, cars..etc) I would tell him how proud of him I was and that he was mommy's big boy and I would make a big deal out of everytime he went to the bathroom! He loved that! Then over night after months of potty training he just got it! Good Luck

Jessica - posted on 08/01/2010

Hi Jenni. I'm actually having a similar problem. My son is 2 1/2 and does the same thing. One day we can be in his big boy underwear and everytime I say its time to go on the big potty he goes no problem. Today I couldn't even get him to wear his big boy underwear. He said no mommy I want to wear baby diapers! Please help me! Now if I put him in his big boy underwear he will go if I put him on but he never tells me when he has to go. He'd pee and then say....Uh oh! Its very challenging and frustrating especially since somedays he still wants to be a baby! I think maybe I'll try letting him set the timer and see how that goes b/c he really could care less about a reward.

Sara - posted on 07/31/2010

What I had to do with my daughter at first was make it a game with a timer I would set it for 30minutes and let her turn it on and off as time passes and she wasn't pottying as quickly I changed time to 45minutes then 60minutes then 90 min and lastly 120 minutes and she finally got the hang of it and would tell me when she has to potty. I've heard of parents letting their child pick out underwear to wear and tell them that their panties don't like to be pottied in. Maybe you can try something like this
good luck