anyone have any tips for potty training i have done everything and my son is going to be 4 in a few months

Louise - posted on 02/12/2009

Hi I am having the same problem with my son he is nearly 3 half and he is not interested what so ever in wearing pants, I have tried so many different things stickers, sweets, toys but he just doesn't seem to have any idea what he is doing. My two girls were clean day and night at 2, but everyone keeps telling me boys are later at getting clean. Now I have a baby my son wants to stay in his nappies even more now because he says he wants to be like the baby.

Bianca - posted on 02/12/2009

 I think it takes boys more time to potty train than girls. Don't panic. I have 2 boys and with each one it was different. For my oldest I used to put cheerios in the bowl and tell him to drown them as best as he could and it made it fun for him. I would leave a small bowl with the cheerios in the bathroom so he can do it himself at times and he started eventually to do it on his own. My youngest just liked the bathroom so he would sit on the toilet for hours even when he didn't have to go.Just be patient.

Rachel - posted on 02/12/2009

Maybe you should try letting him run with nothing on at home for a few days and c if that helps. It helped with a friend of mine's son as she would sit and wait untill he started to pee and then rush him to the toilet telling him to hold on and singing pee pee in the poty(we got that song from look who's talking) and it actually worked. He's now 6 and still sings on his way to the loo

Terrie - posted on 02/12/2009

Here is the link - check if out: http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/A-P...

Terrie - posted on 02/12/2009

Get the book (even a used version) of "potty training in less than a day". I know it sounds like a hoax but all three of my kids were potty trained in less than one day using this technique with only ONE accident afterwards. This book was not only tested on regular children but children with disabilities like downs and autistic kids too, I have given copies to dozens of other girlfriends who had the same result. If you follow it exactly you cant fail and it only takes one day of your time. No money, no gimmics, you may even be able to find it for free on the web. Most importantly, it is designed for those kids who are difficult to train so please let me know how it did for you.

Heidi - posted on 02/12/2009

Leave him in regular underware ( When your at home ), he will only pee in them so much .....after all the feeling of having wet pants is very uncomfortable, and he won't like it and maybe the toilet won't seem like such a bad place to pee instead of his pants.  Don't worry, everything will work out!!  Good luck

Tina - posted on 02/12/2009

Be consistant. Constantly ask him if he needs to use the toilet, do not use any diapers or pull ups, big boy underwear only. Put cheerios in the toilet and tell him to aim for the hole, use a seat on top of the toilet instead of a potty. Refuse to put diapers or pull ups on him. Do not even buy them anymore. Tell him he will not be able to go to school with all of the other big boys and girls if he does not use the toilet!

Crystal - posted on 02/12/2009

Im going through the same thing with my 3 yr old boy... cant keep up with his laundry, and he was peeing the bed as well. So ive just been really trying to cut down on the drinks, only with meals, and if hes thirsty inbetween i give him a little water. (I think juice makes them have to pee more) and I ask him every couple of hours if he has to pee, and he usually says no, but i take him and make him try, and 90% of the time he does have to pee.. and this has really helped me, he only has an accident maybe once or twice a week now, and thats usually my fault cause I get busy and forget to take him. Anyways hope this helps, good luck!

Bridgette - posted on 02/12/2009

My son is 2 1/2. We have been trying to potty train for almost 6 months. (He showed interest) He did very well for a while and then he just stopped. He would never poop in the potty but he did good peeing. I was pregnant and decided that I would wait until the baby gets here to try again. Didnt want to push him. About 3 weeks after his little sister came, he started to show interest again and telling me he had to go. After a week of this, the "Diaper fairy" came and took all of his diapers and left him underwear! This worked great! He is now potty trained (has a few accidents now and then). He even poops on the potty now! Once he went #2 on the potty, he loved it! Has not had a poop accident yet! We are now going on 1 month of big boy underwear. I tried all the rewards. my son could care less for stickers, but he does like M&M's. We did those for a while then they lost interest, so we moved to sugarless gum. He loved getting into daddys gum so this worked. He now gets nothing..unless he asks for it, which is about once or twice a day. We also taught him to stand and he loves that too. he does sit sometimes as well. We also bought him "daddy underwear" boxer briefs and white tshirts like daddy wears so now hes a big boy! LOL. Not sure if this will help, my duaghter was 3 1/2 before she was potty trained (she was my hard one LOL)



Good Luck!!

Bernice - posted on 02/12/2009

My children are much older than potty training age but, to help releave your fears my oldest is in college and he is potty trained LOL

humor aside.....
my oldest son was potty trained by 12 mths except he didn't walk till 15mths old on his own LOL I know was really weird.....since he was so little I taught him to sit backwards on the big potty since the area at the back of the seat is usually smaller and easier for little guys to feel more stable and not likely to fall in. This also allowed him to play with cars or little army men on the tank part of the toilet. The only drawback is that he will have to completely remove one leg out of both underware & pants which my son learned to do on his own.

Hope this helps

Debra - posted on 02/12/2009

I got my son to stand up by putting cherrios in the toilet and letting him aim like a game. Sink the Cheerios......

Julie - posted on 02/12/2009

Thank You all for the tips you all gave some great advice and I hope to find one that works.  Today we woke up and went potty and he has gone every hour on the hour and he is still dry even through nap time.  So I think we have had one successful day.  I hope the night is the same.

Sarah - posted on 02/11/2009

My sister has been a nanny for several families and helped potty train the kids. She even had twin boys. The thing that has worked with 100% success so far, is actually not putting any diapers, underwear, or pull ups on them at all. They have all tried this when it's warm weather out and most of the time just let them play outside. It takes a week or less and they've all been potty trained at the end. Good luck! My son is only 9 months old, so it will be interesting to see how he does in the future. :-)

Lara - posted on 02/11/2009

My daughter was the same way.  She is going to be 5 next week and wasn't potty trained until this past October.  It was awful.  We did the treat thing, the sticker thing, the toy thing, the negative consequence thing, the ignore it thing - EVERYTHING!  It was awful!  What we finally figured out was that we were putting too much pressure on her.  We had to let her know that this was her choice and we weren't going to bother her about it anymore.  We had tried that 6 months earlier and it didn't make a difference.  But it seemed as though she was really anxious about HAVING to get to the potty.  When we told her she didn't have to anymore, the anxiousness dissapated and she did it on her own.  I'm not sure if that will work for you or not.  Each kid is different and they do things on their own time.  I know how frustrating it is, though.  Good luck! 

Lisa - posted on 02/11/2009

don't fret. My son has just turned 4 and decided that he will use the toilet. Jefferson has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and I thought he would never get out of nappies but he is dry nearly every day now. He still wears a nappy at night but doing well through the day. We could not use bribary because he didn't understand it we just had to wait for his time. Your son will be fine and boys take a lot longer than girls as the trend seems to show. Good luck

Brooke - posted on 02/11/2009

Have you tried cherio's in the toilet. Fun to aim so to speak. When my boys were smaller a pocket full of cherio's and some praise were all that was needed. They toss a couple in and try to drownd them

Lillian - posted on 02/11/2009

Quoting Julie:

anyone have any tips for potty training i have done everything and my son is going to be 4 in a few months

my =son is going to be four in May and he has been potty trained as far as pooping for two years but he still pees in his pants all the time every day. He is in big boy pants and i am doing laundry all the time I am at a loss i need help.

Julie, you can start by allowing your son to go to the restroom with your husband  or his father.  As a rule the father can train the boys by allowing them see how they use the restroom.  Girls are pretty much the same.  Always say to them let's  use the bathroom bigboy style or biggirl.  Take the child every hour on the hour,

Sarah - posted on 02/11/2009

My son is 2 1/2 and I just got him potty trained. I had him sit on the toilet first thing in the morning, before nap, when he'd get up from nap and then before he went to bed and if he went he got to pick a prize (cheap little gifts). After a while he would just tell me when he had to go. Give him tons of praise and he will get the hang of it.
Good luck! Hope this helped a little!

Karen - posted on 02/11/2009

I totally agree. Both my children were trained when they were two. It should not take more than few days.  I truly believe that the parents need to be ready since the children are almost always ready.  It's not the most fun thing (dealing with accidents, I mean) but with the right attitude and enough patience, it's amazing how quickly they learn. Good luck.

Renee - posted on 02/11/2009

I kept my boy naked when we were at home while we were potty training and so when he started to go I would run him to the toilet. It worked for us.

Karrie - posted on 02/11/2009

I trained my 18 month old in a weekend. He was able to talk to me and tell me what he wanted and didn't want so he was ready to be able to tell me he had to go to the bathroom. I put him in big boy underwear and took him the bathroom every chance I got. I think I got lucky cause we didn't have any real problems. Now my mother and grandmother swore by letting them sit in it for cause they are not gonna like that feeling. You may have to stay home a couple of days to do it. I also have a friend that makes her daughter change her own self when she has an accident in her pants. Four is a little to old to still be wearing diapers. That has got to be a strain on you. Remember you are the Mom and he is the child.

Debbie - posted on 02/11/2009

With boys it usually takes longer to train them. I work in child care and we start them with sitting down and tell them to point their penis in the potty. We do this in the beginning so as not to confuse them as to when to sit to poop or stand to pee. Usually once they are trained then most boys will stand to pee. Good luck.

Kirsten - posted on 02/11/2009

I have no real advice for you as I've only toilet trained a girl but am about to toilet train my boy so goodluck to me.  lol.  I know with my daughter I tried everything for a year and a half and it wasn't until she decided she was ready to do it that it worked for me.. soooooo frustrating.   She is incredibly shy and doesn't like a great deal of attention so that was a bit hard when I pretended not to care if she went or not thats when she decided to do it on her own because she wanted to show me she could do it and I made a fuss and all was good.   I didn't use a potty I just used the toilet figured it was easier to do that from the start.  They're all so different huh. maybe its just he's too busy to stop and go.....   good luck with it all.

Destiny - posted on 02/11/2009

i made a john deere poster on a grid chart (that's what my 3 year old is in to) and everytime he went pee, he got to put one sticker on the chart and 2 for poop. when he filled up sections of the chart (such as the door or window) he earned a prize. when the chart was all full, he got a special day out.

Leslie - posted on 02/11/2009

I had the same problem with my daughter. I went to the dollar store, got a whole bunch of goodies and filled a "goodie bag." If she went on the potty, she got to reach in the bag and pull out a toy. Worked like a charm. She loved getting her little presents!

Priscilla - posted on 02/11/2009

First off, pull-ups suck! they are pointless as they think it's a diaper and will get lazy and poop or pee. My son is 3 1/2 and I seriously thought he would get to 5 yrs. old and still in a diaper. Since it's raining over here where I live and we are indoors all day, I decided to put on some underwear i had bought him a couple weeks earlier. I got him his fav. Buzz Lightyear and Cars characters. One random morning I told him we ran outta diapers and he needed to start wearing these clean undies. I said he couldn't poo poo on Buzz or Lightning McQueen or pee pee on them. I walked him over to the toilet and said to pee pee in the toilet and to sit on the edge of the toilet with the toilet seat up to poo poo...and I would give him 2 M&M'S. We had 3 sccidents, he pee's on the floor 3 times. The first 2 times I didn't get mad and I said it's okay. and told him what to do. Every 15 minutes I would remind him what he needed to do. The 3rd time he pee'd on the floor I got mad and took away his fav. toys and basically grounded him. I told him i was doing this because he wasn't listening to me and he needs to help me by pee pee and poo poo in the toilet! Anyhoo, after me repeating every 15 minutes, he started going. I gave him his m&m's and he was potty trained in 2 days! I was in shock! the last sippy cup of juice or milk i give him is about an hour or two before his bedtime, make him pee before he goes to bed and it's now been a little over 2 weeks and he's never had an accident at night or during the day. He love to use the toilet now. Another this is he hated those attachable toilet seats because they swivel alot and he got scared. it's better if they just poo with the toilet seat up at the egde...he likes it that way and it saves time from adding the attachable seat. Hope this helps = )

Margo - posted on 02/11/2009

potty train boys sitting down. They figure out how to stand all by themselves

Jenn - posted on 02/11/2009

Just like anything, each child will hit their milestones at different times in thier lives...the more you push, the harder they will push back. I would ease off and just offer the potty whenever you feel it is appropriate. With us, we had a little potty in the room we were in, I would ask my dd several times within the hour if she needed or wanted to sit, if she did I would praise her wether there was pee/poo or not. It got her used to the idea of going on the potty. Good luck mama!

Marissa - posted on 02/11/2009

Most importantly is get rid of all diapers and pull ups..his mind needs to be trained that it cannot pee whenever, if he is in diapers or pullups at any time during the day or night his little body will not adjust....Take one day, where you dont have to go too many places to go....Put him in underwear, give him lots of juice and water all day long...Key words are too ask him if he is DRY, all day..are you dry?...you want to associate the underwear as dry and its wet, potty, pee whatever in the toilet, but never say...oh no your "wet", just continually praise the dryness..Keep asking him if he has to go potty (which he will because you are giving him lots of liquids)..Prais the wetness in the toilet however you want....I hope this makes sense, my son (1of three) was trained in one day (Day and night) Good luck!

Jeni - posted on 02/11/2009

I tried alot of things too. The thing that worked for me, was no underwear. For the first week, he was pantsless. shirt and socks only... this helped with the not having to deal with pulling his pants down. WHen he did good with that for 1 week, I moved onto boys boxers- hard to find, but I bought mine at walmart. For 2 weeks, he only wore boxers, tshirt, and socks. After that, we moved onto boxer-briefs... for 1 week. same deal, with the clothes...

Now, after doing this for 1 month, I didnt leave the house often at all. when we did, I did put a pull up on him, and made sure to go into the bathroom everytime we saw one or every hour.

Now, 2 months later he can wear any of the 3 styles of  underpants and of course jeans on over...

Poop can still be an issue, maybe once a week/everyother week he will poop his pants. And I have a seriouse talk with him and he hates it... but everytime he poops in the potty, he gets a cookie.

Also, with the 1st month I did stickers... but he's 2 1/2 so stickers are really cool to him. Your son being 4- you might have to do a better reward.

Good luck!

Jenny - posted on 02/11/2009

dont feel bad, my youngest just turned 5 and we're still fighting the potty training thing :(

we've tried everything and nothings worked. he's supposed to start school this year too!! i could use some help as well haha!! our oldest son went through the same thing. i have quite a few friends who have gone through the same thing.....must be a boy thing!! haah please if you find a way let me know :)

Teresa - posted on 02/11/2009

The easiest way I found is to put him on the toilet, sitting, backwards.

Michaela - posted on 02/11/2009

I bought my son a toliet seat with his favorite characters and a book he liked at the time & sat with him for about 10 minutes every 2 hrs or so. Also, ask him if he has to pee about every hr after he has a big drink. My now 4yr old was great in going by the time he turned 2. He even shocked me when he got up in the middle of the night at 2.5 yrs old. Another tip is to stay consistant and be firm because they will cry, run, and whatever they can do to get up.



Good Luck!!!

Robin - posted on 02/11/2009

my childern were both potty trained by 2. but all childern are different no 2 are the same some take longer then others but 4 is a bit too old. you have to shut yourself in for at least 3 days, throw out all dippers and get ready for loads of cleaning and screaming. you have to not back down and he will be trained by the time you get through the first 3 days. remember no diapers at all... if they are in the house you will be tempted to use then when the going gets tough. stick in there

Pamela - posted on 02/11/2009

I have both a boy 4 and a girl 3 and my boy was no problem but my girl was. I drew (or printed off... whatever is easiest for you) a picture of the things they like best (A dinosaur and Dora) and divided the pictures into squares and put them on the bathroom wall right next to the toilet. I kept a sticker book that they chose in the cabinet right above the toilet and whenever they went, 1 or 2, they got to get the book themselves and pick a sticker for their picture. When they filled out a full line I took them to the Dollar Store for a reward. It worked so beautifully that I had to cut it back to poo only cause they were going to have me broke. It can be frustrating, but have patience and you'll find what works for you.

Carissa - posted on 02/11/2009

I had issues with getting my son to do any type of potty training and I finally convinced him by using a chart.  I told him that if he could get a sticker everytime he went potty like a big boy and when he earned enough he could pick out a new toy.  It worked really well and I think I set it up to earn a total of four toys and by the time we filled the chart it was never an issue again.  Hope this helps as I know how frustrating that can be.  Good Luck!

Brenda - posted on 02/11/2009

I used those little dum dum suckers for my son, the stickers and the chart didn't work with him at all....  but he doesn't really get candy that often so it wasn't too big of a deal for us to let him have them for peeing.  Have you tried buying one of those urinal looking potties for him?  I know some boys have a hard time with the regular ones, but walmart.com sells them, they look just like a mini urinal and can help them with aim and might be some incentive to try it. 

Meg - posted on 02/11/2009

maybe by now you've gotten enough advice, but thought i'd add my thoughts too. i have a 5 year old son who at times, still has accidents, mainly because he gets too busy playing & forgets to go. he wasnt going to the potty consistently til he was around 4. we did several things, including the cheerio method. this did help by the way. i found that if i made a point of asking him every 1 1/2-2 hrs to go the potty, this helped reduce accidents. then started rewarding him for going on the potty by having a chart, prizes at the end of say 6 times of going. more than anything, he seems to do best if there's a reward system in place, if i remain calm, and i help remind him to go..it did reduce the laundry, got him used to going to the potty & everyone was happier & dryer

Hayley - posted on 02/11/2009

hi does your son like cars because when my son was young he hated the potty until i brought him one that looked like a car he loved it and it potty train him as well im sure you can pick them up anywhere now days .

Cynthia - posted on 02/11/2009

I have heard of people putting cheerios in the toilet and making it a game of whether of not the boy could hit and sink the cheerios.  I used sticker rewards, and game time.  My son was the other way around, he was peeing on the potty years before he would poop on the potty.  I would then give him a sticker, and he would put it into a sticker album that was just for potty training rewards.  Then I would also give him 10 minutes on a Nintendo DS that I had.  Good Luck to you, the youngest age for my boys was 3.5 years, the other two were over 4 years of age, before they were trained.  I kept getting told that when they were ready they would be trained.  I had my boys checked out medically because there are a number of reasons that they have "accidents", maybe you should take him for a check-up and bring this up to your doc...just in case, it doesn't hurt to be safe..Take Care

Amanda - posted on 02/11/2009

I hate to say it, but you might just need to wait a little while.  My daughter was fully trained by 2.5 years, but my son could've cared less until he was just over 4 years old.  I know it's WAY frustrating, but sometimes they just aren't ready.  Their bodies develop those muscles slower than girls do.  I ended up taking Labor Day weekend off and literally spending the whole day with a timer going off every 5 or 10 mins to take him into the bathroom to just try to go.  The first day we had like 5 accidents, second day only 2 or 3, by the 3rd day we were doin pretty good.  Hope this helps! 

- Amanda

Cynthia - posted on 02/11/2009

I have heard of people putting cheerios in the toilet and making it a game of whether of not the boy could hit and sink the cheerios.  I used sticker rewards, and game time.  My son was the other way around, he was peeing on the potty years before he would poop on the potty.  I would then give him a sticker, and he would put it into a sticker album that was just for potty training rewards.  Then I would also give him 10 minutes on a Nintendo DS that I had.  Good Luck to you, the youngest age for my boys was 3.5 years, the other two were over 4 years of age, before they were trained.  I kept getting told that when they were ready they would be trained.  I had my boys checked out medically because there are a number of reasons that they have "accidents", maybe you should take him for a check-up and bring this up to your doc...just in case, it doesn't hurt to be safe..Take Care

Janet - posted on 02/11/2009

I am the mother of 4 sons. 2 of the four were nearly 4 years old when they were potty trained. My first advice is don't panic. The pediatrician of my oldest told me not to worry that he wouldn't go to school in diapers. This advise helped me to relax through all of the potty training no matter how long it took. One thing that I did after I had made the switch to underwear was to put a pull up on over the underwear so my furniture and house wasn't drenched in urine. Try anything  and everything because the same things didn't work for my boys. One loved Hot Wheels  and M&M's so he got the candy when he went potty and hot wheels when he went poo-poo. One loved stickers so we used those as a reward. One just decided one day that he was ready to wear big boy underwear...that only happened once (of course). It is totally a battle of control. It is frustrating but know that it won't  last forever. Good luck.

Lori - posted on 02/11/2009

throw some cheerios into the toilet and make him try to "drown" the cheerios. my friend told me to try it and it worked. then give him a reward (a sticker or something small) every time he goes in the potty instead of his pants.

Sam - posted on 02/11/2009

The thing with K was he loved to pee off the porch and on the grass, I know it sounds so nasty and exposed but I let in at home. I put him in regular underwear and he loved it. Just remember he's gonna do it when he gets ready and be patient. One of my friends called peeing going hammering and the little one liked that idea and he took up with it. I just got lucky. I'm praying for you!

Brittany - posted on 02/11/2009

I tried a lot of things with my son. I ordered expensive guaranteed-to-work products online. I bought pull-ups with characters on them. Finally one day I decided that I would put him in underwear (plain, cotton) and see what happened. Long story short, he's been potty-trained ever since. He goes without a problem and I never had to put diapers/training pants on him at night either. He had a one accident, decided he didn't like it and never had any problems after that. I was skeptical to try this method but it worked very well for my two-year old.

Good Luck!

Brittany Muir

Del Rio, TX

Deborah - posted on 02/11/2009

I'm having a boy, and I am nervous about the potty training issue. It was super easy with my daughter. She was potty trained at 1 and a half. But I don't even know if a boy is suppose to aim or sit.

Angel - posted on 02/11/2009

I know that this might sound wired but my son Did great when I gave him a Candy Corn after every time

Even when he just went and Sat on the potty LOL

He loved it and learned to go

you could also use stickers if you dont like the candy idea

Angel,

honolulu, HI