Hi!
So my little boy turned 3 recently and he has been potty trained for about 4 months now. He is very good about go #2 in the potty - never any accidents. He goes pee pee in his pants just a little - enough where we have to change his clothes but he finishes in the potty. So his problem is waiting too long to tell me he needs to go to the bathroom or waiting too long to just go by himself (which he does often). I ask him often and a lot of the time he says he doesn't have to go. I can tell he just doesn't want to - he has more fun things to do!
He is starting preschool in a few weeks where he has to be potty trained. I am a SAHM and he's not really around strangers to get familiar with asking other people to take him to the bathroom. We go to the kids club at the gym and he never tells them he has to go to the bathroom. Every time I drop him off I go through my speech...if you need water or a snack or to go to the bathroom ask an adult.
So a 2 part question.
1. What can I do to encourage him to go to the bathroom before it's too late? I started off with M&M's as a reward when he was first learning but once he stopped asking I didn't offer.
2. How strict are preschools with the potty training? He's going 2x a week for 3 hours. I would assume all the other kids are newly potty trained and having accidents here and there and will be in a new environment with new people and no mommy there to take them to the bathroom.
Thanks!!!
Eh, I put pull ups on my newly potty trained boys for first week of preschool which required potty trained kids. They came home dry.
What he's like at home might be different than what he's like at school.
They went to the bathroom (whether they 'had to go' or not) twice in the 3 hour day.
You can express your concerns with the admin, but you're right, he won't be the ONLY freshly trained kid, and accidents WILL happen!
:)
hi Mindy, yo need to train him to go on his own, mine were going on their own at 2. I just trained them that way. Don't ask him if he has to go if you kn ow he needs to just put him on the potty. Kids don't wabt to stop playing to go potty, but if it happens often there needs to be consequences. Accidents will happen, but a accident is when they make every effort but don't make it, thats an accident, but peeing/pooping with out effort to get to the bathroom is not an accident. J.
I took DS to the bathroom at that age - rather than asking him, I told him it was time to go. His preschool did the same thing - took all the kids at certain times and after every meal and snack. Also of course if they told a teacher they needed to go. We have never done rewards with him for anything so we did not for potty training either. I would talk to the preschool teacher, I suspect your son will be right in the middle of the pack.
I would always insist that my son use the potty before we left in the morning. Then when we got there remind him that he needed to use it while he was there. I think it depends on the preschool on how strict they are. There were several that had accidents on a regular basis and the teacher just changed them. I told the teacher in the beginning that he was newly potty trained (that was really a stretch I must say, but thankfully he didn't have any accidents) and asked her to insist he go to the potty while there. Send several changes of clothes with him and don't stress.
All preschool children have accidents. They don't want to be cleaning pooh instead of teaching so they can't take kids in diapers...you know what I mean. They expect accidents and if it happens everyday they'll just meet with you to see what they can do to help. Even in kindergarten they keep extra clothes in their cubbies.
I was a preschool teacher and part of our procedure was to send all the children to the bathroom at regularly scheduled times of the day (right before AM snack, right before nap, after nap, and before the PM snack.
I would suggest having him go to the bathroom every 1.5 hours at the beginning and eventually work him to his preschool's schedule. The key here is tell him..not ask him. Explain to him before you start this routine that you are getting him ready to go to preschool and that you will start making him go to the bathroom several times a day. Tell him he will be have to stop whatever he is doing when you tell him to go and that he does not have a choice (be sure to go with him EVERY time to be sure he follows through). Have him sit on the toilet a minimum of two minutes and then be sure to have him wash his hands afterwards to get him into a routine. Eventually his bladder will adjust to the routine and he will start going on his own, but keep going with him for at least a month. Finally, be sure to continue to offer rewards every time he goes. This will help to make it more motivating for him to stop his play to go to the bathroom.
