Potty Training a 2 1/2 year old boy

Jessica - posted on 03/01/2009

The thing that worked with my son was reward tickets.  I got a roll of tickets at the dollar tree.  Every time that he peed on the potty I gave him 1 ticket, every time he pooped I gave him 2 tickets, when he had accidents I took the same number away.  When I got up to so many tickets (I did 5) he would get a small prize, for mine smarties worked.  He would turn the tickets in for his prize.  At the end of the week if he had a good number of tickets, to be determined by how much your kid goes to the bathroom he would get to go to the dollar tree and pick out a toy.

Lindsay - posted on 03/01/2009

My suggestion is to pick a weekend or few days to stay at the house and let him have some "accidents". Yes, there will be a mess for you to clean up but if he always has a pullup on, he will continue to use it. After a few times if going in his undies, he may start to go to the potty. Also, the Elmo Potty Time DVD is great.

Amber - posted on 02/27/2009

Will get a pail today too! Thanks ladies!

We are going underwear-free today- one accident so far, but I could see this being effective. He is hating the pee on himself. I need a tool belt or something for the plastic bags, cloths, wipes, and lysol wipes ;)

Kelly - posted on 02/27/2009

i've been having the same problems!!
one day we have nothing but success..the next disaster!!
2 days ago, i started a 'prizes in the potty pail' reward system. my son has type 1 diabetes, so we can't use candy. and stickers-well, he just likes to eat them :)
so i found a cheap sand pail and shovel, filled it with $$ tree toys and (junk) and now every time we potty, he gets to pick a prize. it's worked so far...fingers crossed!!

Amber - posted on 02/27/2009

Thanks Jeannine!
My problem is that we tried the candy, it worked for awhile and then he stopped caring. Tried the sticker chart with the car reward- worked for peeing, but he just doesnt care in regards to pooping.
I will go and get some big boy underwear today... isnt this messy? is there a way to contain the mess without it resorting to diapers?

Jeannine - posted on 02/26/2009

Every kid is different on what works.  My oldest son loved candy so potty training was a piece of cake with him.  My younger son (who is also 2 1/2) doesn't really like candy that much so I discovered that he loved stickers one day so I made up these little potty sheets and every time he went potty we put a sticker on the paper...and when we filled up all of the boxes on the sheet--he got to turn it in and we would go to the store and pick out a new toy (the dollar aisle).  If he loves playing with cars...maybe you promise him the next time he goes poop on the potty you will get him a new car or something?  The other thing I did with both of my boys is not putting underwear or pullups on them...yes, when potty training they both wore pants with no undies...that really works too.  The pullups and underwear just made them feel like a diaper and they would forget and have an accident but once I cut out the undies...worked like a charm.