Need potty training help!

Lacey - posted on 06/27/2011

my first son just turned 3 in may and he's almost completely trained (wears a pull up when he's sleeping and wakes up and uses the potty in the night sometimes)...but he's a little more cognitively advanced but when we started-ok i say started but really i mean we introduced the potty at like 16 months, we had one and let him take it apart and get to know it really well for a few months. then about 19 months we tried potty boot camp. that's where you get every rag in the house ready to clean up pee stains for a week, use your washer and dryer constantly to clean up and have to take the whole week off to work at home with a oversoaked toddler on a timer. the idea is that you let him drink all day long-tons of water or juice or whatever to get his little kidneys to do their job and make him pee, then you set your timer every 20-30 minutes and have him sit for a couple of minutes on the potty each time it goes off. i did this for 3 days and said-i'm done being mommy pissy pants...back to diapers for a while. we tried the cheerios and we tried dish detergent as well-which he actually loved making bubbles :) but to be honest the thing that worked best for him was a basic, and i mean very basic explanation of what his body does...i have heard that boys have a hard time letting go of poop, as in they think it's part of them and are scared to see it go. i literally told my son---
we eat food to help our bodies grow and be big and strong. there are good things in the food that help us grow and other things that our bodies don't need. so you put the food or drink in your mouth, chew chew chew and then swallow it (i made a lot of boy-friendly sound effects throughout the whole conversation) GULP! and then it goes down into your stomach where it goes blablalalbalalba (this is that weird tongue thing that you can do without doing a raspberry) and then it goes down a little further as your body takes what it needs from your food and goes blablalalbalalba some more and then your body needs to get rid of what's left-the stuff you don't need and it comes out as poop (say poop too because it's just a fun word to say for such a disgusting smelling/looking mess and boys like funny words)
we had this conversation several times and he's been pooping in the potty for over a year, peeing all the time has been fairly recent because he's been to lazy to stop playing and go to the potty.
the one that's turning 2 in august i think is going to be a little harder and we're starting to work on it in the same slow process. it takes a lot of time and effort. my son has peed in the closet, the heating vents, in his bed, next to the potty and god only knows where else but now that he is doing so well i guess it's just par for the course.
make sure you read lots of potty books and maybe take him to buy some underpants-make it fun and don't punish for accidents, this makes it a traumatic experience, but the mantra is pee/tinkle/peepee/weewee goes in the potty-not on the (insert random inappropriate area here-like dog bowl) pray for patience and good luck

Faye - posted on 06/24/2011

I think at his age it is fine to make him sit. I know a lot of parents who make their kids list every half hour to 45 minutes on the pottly, like clock work. The do it just while training to avoid accidents and to get the child really use to going in there and not his pull up. I don't think there is a problem with it, unless of course the child is flipping out when you put him on there, that may traumatize him. I had that problem with my son. He screams his head off, like someone is hurting him and all I would say it " do you want to try the potty" . It is crazy how scared he is of potties and toilets and stuff. I don't know why or what to do about it. Any advice...lol Good luck with your little one!!!!

Chanda - posted on 06/23/2011

When my son was training, we lived in a somewhat rural area and I just had him walk around in a long shirt (no diaper or underwear). Between that and watching daddy use the potty, he began to connect the "tingle" with what was happening and what he needed to do to be a big boy. If you have a back yard with a decent fence, maybe have him play outside a bit with just a shirt (long enough to cover things if you get my drift) and see if he makes the connection that way. For my son, it was a whole different thing to "see the stream" rather than just feel a wet spot on his underwear. Good luck. God bless!

Bonnie - posted on 06/23/2011

Since he is a boy you can try this trick to make going potty fun. Put cheerios or another round item in the toliet and tell him to shoot at it. Sometimes going potty is a scary thing maybe this will help.