Help potty training a three year old boy

Michele - posted on 09/07/2011

Hi. My daughter was three and a half years old before she was ready. I'd tried letting her run around in warm weather with no nappy on but she'd get so distressed when she did wee down her legs it was horrendous. She'd also end up holding it all day and would only go once I'd put her nappy back on. In the end she started nursery at three and I thought she'd see other children using the toilets that it would encourage her to go. One evening I was putting her pull-up on and she said to me "mummy, I don't want to wear a nappy any more". I told her we'd start from tomorrow and she was happy with that. After that evening she never wore a nappy again and was dry day and night! We had a couple of accidents where she'd get involved in what she was doing and forget to go but that's it. My friends who potty trained their children early still have 7 year olds in nappies of a night! I'd say leave him and he'll do it in his own time. You all end up getting stressed and that doesn't help the situation. Oh and she never went on the potty, she started to go straight on the toilet. She loathed her potty! Good luck xx

Becki - posted on 09/06/2011

My son was over 3 before he was potty trained. We started peeing in our back yard. When he would pee in the potty, I would give him 2 M&M's when he pooped he got a small sucker. We went though more M&M's then suckers in the beginning. My advice is don't force him. So he is playing with 2 year olds for a bit. Enjoy this season of life - it goes too quickly!

Kristy - posted on 09/06/2011

You need to find something that interest him, my son had no interest on peeing in the toilet, forget cherrios, he wanted to eat them instead of peeing on them, so one day I said he could pee on a tree in our yard, figuring that potty training is having a child learn to feel its body signs, and once they have that down peeing anywhere is a cinch. So we started with peeing on bushes to off the front porch( we live in a secluded area) to in the toilet, and he did great
and because it was something he wanted to do ( or in his mind control) he never had any accidents and it was great for everyone...So you need to find something that he likes or is something new to do ( my brother taught his son to pee on his tire,another farm kid raised) so m&ms,or play tattoos, you need to find the key that works... Good luck and don't worry as my mom would say, they are all potty trained when they start college..lol

Natasha - posted on 09/06/2011

I potty trained my step son on my own. He would still wear pullups occasionally like if we were going out or traveling in the car. He would not tell us he had to go and just pee in his pullup. When he was at home we let him just wear his pants and if he peed in them he felt uncomfortable being wet. He had a few mistakes, but I just said " Oh well sometimes these things happen." Then I would tell him "next time you feel like you have to pee tell me and ill take you to the bathroom". Make sure when he does use the toilet praise him, and tell him it was a good job. You can also try positive reinforcement, by telling him if he used the potty/ toilet then you can do something fun he likes (reading a story, playing hide and seek).

Kimberly - posted on 09/05/2011

My daughter is almost 3.5 and up until a month or two ago she was also refusing to use the toilet. Unless you want to deal with the kicking and screaming and constant accidents I would just wait until he tells you he wants to use the toilet. My daughter is now using the toilet for pee but is still too scared to go poop in the toilet so I'm not forcing the issue. I just keep her in pull-ups and make her go in the bathroom when she has to poop even if she poops in her pull-ups, I am trying to get her used to going poop in the bathroom. Eventually I hope she will decide she just wants to do it in the toilet. I tried potty training a couple times before I decided to just wait and let her tell me when she wanted to use the toilet. I was cleaning up a lot of pee and poop because she just wasn't physically ready. Good luck!

Katherine - posted on 09/05/2011

Make it fun. Put cheerios in the toilet and have him aim for them. Does he poop in the bathroom yet? My nephew was the same way. One day he was just done with diapers. I think the more you try the more resistance you'll get, just my opinion. But try the cheerio thing.