Potty Training - Baltimore, MD

Hi S.,

There is a web site on potty training.

http://www.parentingtoddlers.com/pottytraining.html

Hope this helps.

D.

honestly, my son wasnt trained until he was 40 months old. we even started putting his potty in the living room and made him sit there for 10 minutes at a time to no success. i finally had to put him in real underwear because I ran out of Pull-Ups and of course he had his bowel movement in them. i took him into the bathroom to clean him off and as i was putting his poop in the real toilet it made that "splash" sound. my son got curious and looked in the toilet. i dont know if him seeing where it goes made something click in his brain but after that he only used the toilet. and of course i cheered like a maniac everytime afterward for about 2 months. to this day i can NEVER flush the toilet for him.

my oldest son...this is going to sound so bad...we gave him his leapster while we put him on the toilet and he was so concentrating on the game that he would go with no problem. after a while, he got the idea.

i hope you find what works for you!!

I have three children of my own the youngest being my son. None of my children were trained before three years old. On their third birthday I simply said no more diapers and they all had no problems. At that age, they seem to grasp the concept. Pull ups are also a def. waste of money. It's just like a diaper to them and doesn't help with training at all. Even the thick training pants are a waste. Be patient. When he's ready you will know. Don't push him or he'll feel like he's disappointing you and that's no good either.

We are in the midst of our first official "potty training" week right now. My son turned 3 about two weeks ago and we decided to make this past weekend "potty party kickoff weekend". In otherwords, we (yep, got my husband on board too, since i would be certifiable by now if I didn't have another adult involved!) stayed home and tried following a method that friends suggested (I think Dr. Phil recommends it too and there a few books out there) where you have a doll and you and your child teach the doll to go potty, etc. In the afternoon, your child gets to wear big kid underwear and try and get treats and finally a "party". My son liked it and we stayed home on Sunday and kept at the reward system. By Monday the party was over:)! Got a lot of "No, don't want to go to the potty" "Go away, Mommy!" So I backed off, but kept him in his big boy underwear and he's now trying on his own terms now...umm, its pretty darn messy. I'm seeing a glimmer of hope (some cooperativeness and he doesn't like to have wet/soiled pants and seems proud to make it to the potty). I broke out a star sticker chart (keeping it very basic since his attention span for long explanations from me lasts about 2 seconds) and that's working for him too. But I'm in the "trenches" right now so who knows what the rest of the week will be like. Trying to keep my sense of humor though and I'm making a point of having my husband watch him when he gets home and I go out somewhere (anywhere!) to get a break from it. I checked these out from the libary and they have been a good references for me - "Potty Train Your Child Just One Day" by Terri Crane. And, "Potty Training for Dummies" by Stafford and Shoquist. However, my son is not a textbook potty train in a day child..i'm thinking its going to take awhile but I think (I hope) the party made an impact on him that he's a big boy now and he doesn't want to go back to diapers or pull ups so that's a plus. We'll see:)

HI S.

I went through the same thing with my oldest who at that time was about the same age and he wouldn't go potty. I had to train him because I was pregnant and didn't want two in diapers. Well what worked for my son was the potty videos. I don't know the name of it because it was 11 years ago. They have the elmo potty video and plush toy which is working for my 2 year old daughter. Well I hope it goes well. Take care J..

My daughter was 3 before she went potty. She would cry and have a fit. I dont know if she was scared of change or what. I bought her a potty seat to fit over the big seat so she wouldnt slip through the hole!!! And I began giving her big girl things to do... like dusting, and making coffee, and stuff like that... telling her all the time "you're such a big girl". Then every time I had to go potty I'd say "i have to go to the big girl potty" and i'd act really excited to hear the water make sounds and make it flush and "watch the yucky stuff go down the drain", then say "wow, it feels so good to be clean and dry!" Then I'd drop it and do it all over again next time! I did it for like a month... and I thought I'd never catch on... but when it did, she had the same enthusiasm as I had pretended to have!!! The best part is that she never had a mistake, day or night, after that!!! I hope this helps!!!

I will tell you, most boys do not train until around 36 months, this is normal. If you try to force the idea with him, you may deal with years of constipation as a result. My advice is hold off for a week or two, then reintroduce the idea. Also, if he likes Elmo, there is a great potty book with sounds and a Elmo Potty time DVD.

HI S..
First thing to remember is that boys gets potty trained later, it has to do with the brains development.
Second, have you tried to have the potty in the room where he spends most of his time?
Let him get to know his potty, play with it, explore it, let him carry it around. As long as you keep it really clean it will make it just easier for him to go on it.
I got these really wonderful training pants from Target. They are made out of cotton - NO plastic, and they have a extra padding right between their legs. By using them, your son will feel straight away when he needs to go, AND it will feel uncomfortable for him to walk around in them. Yes, I know it might be a hassle to clean them, but the payoff is GREAT.
I had them for my daughter when I started her at the age of 2 year and 2 months, and they worked out perfectly. Since we moved did she regress and when back to diapers, just for about 6 weeks, and then when she had adjusted to her new environment did she go back to her training pants again.
Good Luck,
L.

Hi S.
We had the same trouble he didn't really want to. No matter what and for the BM he would hide where no one could see him and say leave me alone please. What I did was asked him if he wanted to stand up and try like DADDY does - he was excited to do it like daddy and for every time he did we would put a sticker on the calendar. Then daddy promised him that if he went potty all week he would get to go to Toys r US and get to pick out a toy (with in reason) It worked great! And then if he did the BM he would get two stickers at the end of the day. we used pulls up for that week and after that he went to big boy underwear and has had a few accidents because he was busy outside playing and thought that if he went in he would get to go back out- so we make it routine that before we get involved in playing or getting in the car we go potty. Hope this helps Brandon just turned 3 on April 8th and has been potty trained for 2 months. Hope this helps take care A.

S.,
It sounds your son is not ready yet. I would hold off for now. Put the potty away for a couple of months and then try again. If you force him when he is not ready, it can make the training harder.

My son who will be 3 this Fri did the same thing 4 mon ago. When we asked if he had to use the potty, he would run away and cry. He had gotten to a point where he would not tell us anymore that he had pooped. We would chase him around the coffee table just to change his diaper. We needed him to get over his fears and hold off on potty training.

In the meantime we just talked about we could or could not do if we were potty trained. Not in a harsh way but as a fun goal-- "Do you want to ride on a train? People who are potty trained sit on a train. When you have big boy underwear we can go ride on a train." We also had bought his favorite character underwear and talked about he gets to wear Diego underwear in place of diapers. (I would agree to not use pull ups at all. They just can't tell if they are cold and wet with a pull up)

We tried again with my son just one month ago (~34mon). I only started earlier than planned because I believed he was ready. I was fully prepared to pack up the potty and try again in a few months if he fussed again. He was excited about the Diego underwear (We used pull ups at night). I used a potty chart and told him that if he collected enough stickers (Sat thru Fri) that he could go with mommy to sit on a train. He later decided that he wanted to buy a toy train instead. His daycare provider, who had already been encouraging use of the potty, was pm board with the plan. My son has kept dry with minimal accidents (so far).

Use the plan that works for you. Good Luck!