Need Help in Trying to Get My Oldest Out of Pull Ups and Diapers

Another idea is put the big boy underwear on him underneath the pull ups then if he has an accident, he still has to be uncomfortable for a while but you don't have the mess to clean up. Hang in there, boys don't usually potty train til 3 or 3 1/2. He'll get it. :)

K.

I have a 3 1/4 yr old. I also had a heck of a time getting him to "poo" in the potty, but he just came around to doing it consistently in the last month. I'm not sure what really made it click for him, but it probably helped that we had leisurly breakfasts and usually wouldn't leave the house before 10:00 am. Getting him to learn to wipe or ask for assistance needs improvement. He mostly uses a small trainer potty and I would often ask him if he needs to go, especially when we are out and about. I have no idea how to get him out of diapers any time soon during night time sleep. I hear the pressure of being in a day care scenario where kids are segregated into potty trained and not groups. Good luck, and have faith it will eventually happen. M.

He is still pretty young, maybe he just isn't ready yet. Boys can take longer to feel the urge to go pee because their anatomy is different (aside from the obvious). Try backing off for a few weeks, then get the pull ups that let them feel when they are wet. Also, put him in regular unerwear and go outside to play, when he goes you can help him identify that what he felt was the need to go potty. He will learn soon enough, remember, you don't see adults still wearing pull-ups/diapers.

I am still in the process of potty training my daughter and the only thing that helps (besides bribery of course) is that I have a special dance when she does it. I get all goofy and jump back and forth and swing my arms and yell "Yeah yeah yeah Naia!" Over and over again. It makes her laugh and feel special because it is a dance especially for her because she did a good job at something. It is so silly and I am sure if other people saw me they would think I was a nut, but hey, whatever works!
I also tell her that I am SO excited when she goes on the potty. She will ask me after she goes potty, "are you so excited mommmy that I went on the potty?" I greatly exxagerate my voice and say "I am SOOOOOO excited you went on the potty!!" She loves it when I do that.

We went through the same thing with our 3-yr-old around his 3rd b-day. We tried everything we could think of (other than punishments, which I don't think are appropriate), but nothing seemed to work - even offers of chocolate if he went on the potty (I'm not entirely proud of that one!). Our son had been peeing on the potty for a while, but totally refused to poop unless we put a pull-up on him.

My husband was more frustrated with it than I was, and he ended up telling our son that once the current package of pull-ups was gone, that was it - we weren't going to buy any more. In the days before that deadline was coming, I decided to put his potty on a towel in the living room while he was watching his favorite tv show. I managed to convince him to sit there (I could tell that he had been holding it in for most of the morning). The distraction of the tv seemed to help, and he relaxed enough to let it out. Then of course I made a big fanfare about how wonderful it was, and we had a little parade to the bathroom to flush it. I did tell him that the livingroom wasn't really the most appropriate place for this activity, but luckily that never became an issue. Once he had gone once or twice, we didn't have any more battles over it. We didn't even use up those last few pull-ups!

It's so hard to overcome this kind of resistance - especially if you are trying hard not to make it into a big negative deal. I empathize! Our son has yet to make the step to pooping on the big toilet - he insists on the potty. It's not that big a deal, except that he'll hold it at pre-school. I'd be really interested to hear if anyone else has experienced this and what they did.

-S.

I have 3 kids now 13, 10, and 5. I was always told not to make an issue out of it. I know it is gross but try to forget about it and let it be his idea. He could be trying to find something to control, usually eating or pooping the elderly do it to. I think he will realize before too long it doesn't feel or smell good to go in his pull ups, and when he does you will be there to support his big idea. Until then do "big boy things" one on one to reinforce the idea that he is getting bigger.

One thing that helped my son is getting him a special book to read while he tries to go poopie. (Daddy reads on the toilet so he wanted to be a big boy like Daddy :-D). I put him on for 10-15 minutes every day after lunch and dinner with the special book that he only gets to read while he is trying to go poopie. The combination of having something to distract him and doing it at the same time everyday helped to get him to go regularly. I also let him choose his own "big boy" underwear. He wears it all day except for bedtime. He is really proud of it. I tell him that if he doesn't try to go potty and instead goes poopie in his "undeewear" (as he calls it) or overnight diaper he won't be able to wear his special underwear. That helps too. Hope some of this helps you!

Hi D.
We purchased a DVD I think it was called got to go potty. It has a bunch of little kids singing about going potty. My daughter loved to sing the songs, and after that she just sung her self to the potty. Good luck, J.

I found my kids to be a little scared of doing #2 when we were potty training. I would just try to catch them when they would start to go and then get them quick to the toilet. Sometimes I'd even sit them down on the toilet w/ a book so that they would relax. Also, I never had a whole lot of luck with pull-ups, to my kids there was no difference between them and diapers. We usually went shopping for "big kid underwear" and then they wore it....they didn't like the feeling of having an accident in their new underwear and made more of an effort to go to the toilet.