Help!! My 31/2 Year Old Boy Want Potty Train!!

Best thing you can do is relax and back off for a while. Stressing yourself and him over potty training is only going to drag things out. My oldest son wasn't completely trained til he was 4 and half and my second son trained at 4. But I think some of that was because he wanted to be like his big brother.

give up.. he is not ready.

wait a while.. a good long while.. try again.. new panties. new rewards...

This is a frustrating issue for a lot of parents but remember to be calm and patient with him. The more frustrated I became with my child, the more she regressed after being trained.

We started using a reward system and it worked like magic. Because your son is in preschool - I dont know how well this would go over - but it is worth a shot! Every time my daugther went on the toilet she would get a "treat" - animal crackers, or fruit bars are great "sweets" for them and healthy for us parents.

Since your son is in preschool, maybe try out the reward system at home and then tell your son that if he keeps it up at school, each day after school he will get a reward. You can have the teacher keep track and let you know how he is doing.

Best of luck!

Make sure you take him to a Dr and take care of constipation issues. this can cause many health problems and is of immediate concern. My son had encopresis. That is more imp than potty training. As for peeeing on the toilet, dont ask him just make him go on a regular basis.

That is not true that boys train best between 3 1/2 and 4. All children will train when they are ready and for most, it is between 2 and 3 1/2. You need to start giving him probiotics and prunes because if he is holding it in and ignoring the urge, that will result in constipation. Potty training should be short and sweet. It should take only a couple days. If the kid doesn't get it then you have to stop and not push. Get him out of pullups and back into diapers if you are not doing potty training for real. By that I mean taking the kid to the toilet every 30 minutes initially and give a reward each time. Accidents may happen occasionally after they "get" it but not every day. You may want to offer a bigger reward for telling you he has to pee like a toy or a sticker chart to get a very special toy. BTW, it actually is normal to not be potty trained till 5 although it is not common.

When they are training they will usually NOT tell you they need to go you just take them.
For my son we started be just going every 30 minutes or so. I did not ask him if he wanted to go, or needed to go, I just said it's time to go potty! Obviously he didn't go every time but that was ok. After a few days we went once an hour and then just kept stretching it out. It took a few weeks but he got the hang of it, and he was just shy of two.
They call it "training" for a reason. When it comes to toileting, kids are like puppies, you don't tell them what to do, you don't ask them what to do, you SHOW them, over and over, until it becomes a habit :)

This all sounds like normal training. We had to set a timer for 'play pitstops'. (It helps that my boy was car crazy). Once we had a pitstop we could go back to doing whatever we were doing.

The poop issue is common too. For that we used a two things.
1. a toilet seat with a small opening.
2. Miralax. We talk to the pediatrician about the constipation. They told us how much to give per day. We would mix it up in some chocolate or strawberry milk. We call it the 'go' juice. It makes things soft so that it doesn't hurt as much.

As for when boys train. I have known a few that were trained at 15m. I know a few that didn't train until 4 1/2, days from going in to Kindergarten.

We put my son in training pants shortly after his 2nd b-day because that's what we thought we were "supposed" to do because so many people said kids are supposed to be trained by 2. Well after wasting money and effort for over a year with training pants, one day he literally woke up, took off the training pants himself, and hasn't been in them since, fully potty trained! I know you are very frustrated, but I promise it will happen, there's some sort of internal switch and it will flip. We did like BB said and made him a poster that he could put stickers on and after "x" amount of stickers he got a small surprise. We only had to reward him twice before he realized it was what he was supposed to do anyway.
Good luck mama!

Boys train later than girls (usually).
He can read your tension.
I would not try anything at home for at least a month.
I have worked with kids/families from all walks of life--and they all train.
Boys usually train bet. 3 1/2 - 4 yrs.
You have time.
In the meantime, see if you can get him to eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits to help w/ the constipation. Offer water in place of juice, etc...
He will not go to Kindergarten w/ this issue. Once he is 4, he will be old enough to better understand that the other kids use the bathroom regularly.

I feel your pain. My oldest refused to go #2 in the toilet until he was 4. You are lucky to have found a preschool that would take him before being potty trained. Relax and remember that preschool is not mandatory and kindergarten is still a little way off. If the preschool teacher says he can't attend anymore until he is potty trained, well he won't be the first child not attending preschool for that reason. In our situation, I was recovering from surgery and struggling with the bending and squatting involved with cleaning up the potty messes of a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old all day. One day I just broke down crying in the bathroom with my oldest. He asked why I was crying and I told him how hard it was for me to clean him up and how it upset me because I knew that he was able to do it himself. The next day, he went to the toilet on his own for #2 and told me afterward. He did it on his own from then on. I have felt guilty in the past over how all that worked out, but now I am at peace with it. I do not suggest any kind of emotional manipulating to get your son to potty train. My point is that this happened as a result of me just being who I am-- a crier :) -- and my son just being the compassionate and independent person that he is. He did it on his own and for his own reasons.