Potty Training - Aurora,IL

Have you tried the video or book called Once Upon a Potty! It really worked for my daughter and she still sings the song and has been trained for a year now. Good Luck!

My son was doing just about the same thing except he would take his shorts off and poop on the floor. The way we got him to go in the potty was to get him a little stool and he stands just like his daddy. He would also go int hte bathroom whit his dad when he went. I don't know if that is what did it but he never really took to sitting down and going pee.

I had this same problem with my youngest actually! What finally fixed the problem was a combination of things. I did a potty chart with stickers in combo with Gerber 100 percent cotton underware. I stopped him with diapers in the day cold turkey. We had accidents but nothing too catastrophic. Within 2 weeks he was fully potty trained doing number 1 and number 2. I praised him and even made a big deal out of him being a big boy! He goes all by himself now.

S.,
I am the Mother of a 24, 22 and 20 year old
I ran a Home Daycare in my home from the time my second child (boy) was 6 months old until my youngest (girl) was 18 years old.
I potty trained many children for the working parents who never had the time or patience it takes to potty train
It was always easier for them to stick on a diaper since they had a limited amount of time in the evening to spend with their child

The most important thing I can tell you is consistantcy, consistancy, consistancy!
get rid of the diapers and pull ups and let your child pick his own special underware of his choice and buy plenty!
It helps tremendously if Dad or a male figure can get involved
(monkey see...monkey do!)
NEVER NEVER punish or make him feel bad for the mistakes and PRAISE!,PRAISE!.PRAISE!for every attempt even if nothing happens
You WILL see rsults and your child will be trained by the end of a 2 week period
V. O

I am in the same boat. My son will be 3 next month and we have been working on potty for almost a year. He started going the week of his second birthday. I have not been very aggressive until recently. He will pee from time to time especially if he sees us going or if he sees a different toilet....lol. He has not pooped once on the toilet. He knows when he has to go cause he goes in another room and tells me to go away and not to see his poop....LOL. If I try and keep his diaper off him he will cry and carry on till I put one on him...I am going to try some of these ideas.

What has worked for me for pee is making him a sticker board. We went to the store and he picked out some stickers and we bought a poster board...he picked out the color. Every time he sat on the potty he got to pick out one sticker and put in on the board. With every pee he got 2 and for every poop (which we never had) he got 2. And we also make a huge deal when he pees. If people could see us they would think we were crazy....LOL

Good Luck

Hello S. B,

One very good resource I can suggest in a book called Toddlerwise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. They have several suggestions as to how to potty train your child. I have a two year old and I have started one of the methods in the book and our daughter now poops in the potty. Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

S. C.

I just finished training my 3 1/2 year old. He has been trained to go pee for a while (I took away the diapers and went with the underwear). However he refused to poop on the potty. (He waited until nap or bed and pooped in his pullup.) I did a potty chart that had a picture of a toy he wanted. I told him if he had 5 poops we would go buy the toy. On the day he got his 5th poop we bought the toy and he played all day. I told him the toy goes in time out if he poops in his pants until he poops in the potty again. The toy went in time out once for 2 days and never again. My girlfriend did the same for poo and pee (10 stickers one had to be poop).

Good luck.

D.

You might not want to hear this one-- but it worked for my cousin's girls and for my son. Let him run around naked (at least from the waist down) for a few days. Be prepared with a stack of rags and to clean pee accidents all over the place--but only for 2 days or so. I tried going to underpants and let him pick them out, but we had accidents all the time. He always told me AFTER he went. I think when they're naked, especially for boys, they can SEE what's going on, not just feel it. It's a bit more of an immediate cause and effect. We tried the underwear thing for several days on two separate occassions. He was showing all the signs of readiness that the books speak of. But once we did the naked thing...we were partially trained in 2 days, fully trained in 3. I like one Mama's advice though, too, that I really want to reiterate. RELAX. When he's ready, he'll do it. And by then you won't need to over-exaggerate your praise and happy happy joy joy dance. It'll be completely natural! ;-) Good luck!!! Let us all know how it works out!!!

I would agree with Tricia's advice...no pull-ups and crazy happy dance. My eldest is 13, so it's been awhile (my youngest boy is 2 and a half, so we're not there yet) but what actually worked the best, besides the cheerios, was food color. If he went in the toilet (either potty or stinky) he got to select a color of food coloring and put a drop in the toilet (with help of course!). He LOVED it and it motivated him more than anything. It worked so well, the day care center started keeping food color in their restrooms! Food and stickers or toys were not motivators for him. My daughter, well, jelly beans (candy in general) was a great motivator. It still is...threaten her with no dessert and she'll polish off her supper in nothing flat. My 2 and a half year old...food is NOT a motivator at all. Threaten him with no dessert and he'd rather miss out than eat something he doesn't like. So really what I am trying to say (in the long version) is you need to study your child and find out what his motivator is. Each child is different. But I would definately ditch the pull-ups. He needs to feel uncomfortable. Hope this helps.

my son turned 3 in may and we are now going on no more accidents. i tried going with him but it never worked. reading you "help me" was almost deja vu. one night my dad had him and my dad was always NO DIAPERS. my dad went to the potty and my son asked him what he was doig and my dad said "making bubbles" that was all it took. have him stand up and make bubbles in the toilet. the whole sitting thing just isn't natural for boys i guess. if he can't reach standing then put him on his potty chair as a stool. even try throwing cereal in too. all these extras made it fun and we are doing well now. good luck, and remember boys are slower when it comes to the potty. it will come when he is ready. also i heard that boys sometimes get scared and won't poop because it has hurt, try mineral oil one tsp. a day ruffly at the same time , that will lube the pipes and he will not have a chance not to go. just watch the clock to see when the oil makes a move, he will get more regular and will also get the "feeling" of poop.

Hi S.! You never said if you son was still wearing diapers or pull-ups. If you want to make some progress do not put him in diapers or pull-ups. Put him into big boy underwear right away (have him pick them out at the store), but you can't go back during the day or he'll get confused. I used the plastic diaper covers to minimize the mess. He will get the idea very quickly. You will also need to bring him to the potty every 1-1/2 to two hours, whatever he cycle is, and have him sit for at least five minutes. Set a timer if you have to. If you see him beginning to make poo-poo get him on the potty right away - carry him to it. Let him know the potty is where you make pee-pee and poo-poo, not in you pants. Don't every yell, critize him or make him feel bad about not making it to the potty. Just tell him accidents happen and have him help clean up the mess. He is old enough to understand what he needs to do and when to do it. Some of my friends read books to their kids while on the potty, that never worked for me, she just thought it was story time. I would sing made up potty songs and do little cheers for her, which she still does at three. And when he does make some pee-pee or poo-poo go crazy with praise. You can not over do it! I would give my daughter a big marshmellow for every poo-poo and a sticker for every successfull pee-pee. My daughter was trained at two years, but it took her about a week to let herself pee into the toilet. She was making poo-poos everyday, but would never pee. She actually stayed dry at nap times and through the night before I had her trained during the day! It will take a lot of patience, but you will get there. I have never seen a healthy adult in diapers yet!

S.,
You don't need help--your child is doing great! Most boys aren't fully trained until age 4. As far as the tooting goes, that is how he learns. First the toot...then the poop.
If you relax, he will too.
Amy

Hi,

Ia m Adriana from A. S..
I am not sure if you heard about me but I potty train and would love to help you.

If interested please let me know at ____@____.com

Thanks and good luck!

Adriana Vermillion
###-###-####
###-###-####

Hi S.!
I think that if your little one was to go to the bathroom with his dad it would make a bigger difference than when he goes with you (boys like to be like their dad, you know stand up). You can get him a stool to stand on to make it more exciting when his dad is not around. Also he is at the age whereas he knows how, where and when to go but he may be acting a bit stubborn because at this age they want to do more things for themself. In that case praise and rewards can play a big part in his success.

P.S. Big ups to you being a Doula, you all are wonderful people helping moms and families throughout the birth process.

Sincerely,
Sandra mom of 6 beautiful people

Hi S.,

I trained my son about 3 mo before his 3rd birthday. I knew he was ready because he would jump out of the tub and say he had to pee. You really have to pick a week where you will not go anywhere. I put mine in underwear and never put on another diaper with the exception of a pullup at night (or if he naps too). I explained these are "big boy underpants" and you cannot pee or poop in them and that he needs to go in the potty. I also told him everytime he goes pee or poop in the potty he will get a special treat --which worked wonders! I used hershey kisses (1) or a couple of M&M's - don't use anything too big since you will be giving it to him every time. I also put him on the potty about 30 minutes after he drank or ate -- some moms do it every hour, but he only gets the treat if he goes.

When he did go we did a celebration potty dance in addition to his special treat. The biggest thing is not to go back to diapers, he needs to know that this is the only option. I trained mine in the fall because sweatpants are wonderfully absorbant so accidents didn't always reach the floor. He was trained in about 4 days, obviously accidents happen but for the most part.

I hope this helps you! Please let me know how it works out.

L.

Hi S.,

My daughter took a bit to get the hang of the potty. She was actaullly a few months shy of being 4 before I could put my feet up and say she was trained fully. Every child takes their own time getting this down. The boy across the street from me was a few weeks shy of starting Kindergarten before he got it down. I never hope that a parent has trouble with this until 5. You can do the sticker rewards. Really my daughter thought it was bogus. My daughter worked hard for rewards such as (ick) McDonald's, going to the movies, toys and other fun stuff. This was if she had more than a few days dry and the time just built up from there. I took her out of pull ups it really helped her to feel wet and etc. Plus getting her playing with other childern that were potty trained helped. Every time she had an accident she had to stop playing with her friends and get changed it was a real bummer for her. My daughters friends also made comments to her that she was not a big as they were. Not being a big girl hurt her feelings but it was the truth she needed to hear. It may have been rough but things really turned around after that. Praise tons of it helped her too. I think learning how to use the potty was harder for my daughter than learning to read at 3. Hang in there it is not easy!!

Just wait until he is ready...it will go much better. You could use a motivator...something he really likes. Sticker charts, put cherrios in the toilet and let him pee on them. My son (3) wanted gum like his sister so I told him no gum until he was a big boy when he pottied in the big boy potty.
C. (I'm a nurse practitioner & mom of 3)

With the help of my neighbor we finally got my 3 1/2 yr old son potty trained- he knew what it was, knew when he peed or pood in his diaper and he even went to the bathroom with my husband and older son but just did not want to do it.
So we put on underwear-do not have him wear diapers or pull ups-- and put him on the toilet until he peed or pood (yes there was one point it was 45 minutes- but we looked at pictures and made the time go by) and when he was done, we did the "Potty Party Dance". We would all sing, (your son's name) went to the potty, we are going to have a party and just make a big splash of it. He loved it!
It took one solid week of putting him on the toilet every 20 minutes and then reminding him and it is good to go!!!

Hi S.~
My son also just turned 3 in April. He has finally been accident free for a little over a week now. What I did can be taken as good, or as bad....I did a slight form of bribery. I made a "potty chart" out of bright colored poster board, and bought a book of small stickers. Every time he tried, I drew a star on the square of the chart. Every time he actually went, I put a sticker on the chart. Every sticker he earned, he was able to pick a prize out of our prize bag-which contained candy, stickers, temporary tattoos, etc. For every 10 stickers he got, he was able to go to either McDonalds or Chuck E Cheese for dinner. But, for every accident he had, he got the star or sticker crossed off. Eventually he realized that he was able to get "cool" things for acting like a big boy. Like I said, it really worked for us, but I did have some people who thought my form of bribery was a really bad idea. But, you have to go with what works best for your individual child, and this worked for mine. Now he doesn't even care about the prize bag, he just gets excited because my husband and I make a VERY big deal out of him going on the big boy potty.
I hope this is of some help for you!!
J.

Hi S.,

I have girls, but I have a nanny friend who swears by this. She says to put a ping pong ball or cheerios in the toilet so your son has something to "aim" for. She nannied about 20 boys, and this was the only thign that every worked for her. Good luck :-)

Hi S.,

My son is 17, so it's been awhile. I used something called tinkle targets, (although you can use cheerios). Like yours, my sone was 3 and still not interested in going "potty". The idea with the targets or the cheerios, is that you drop them in the toilet bowl and they float on the top of the water and your son can aim and hit the targets as he urinates. This totally worked for my son, after I showed it to him once, he would tell me when he had to go potty. He would yell, "Mom, I need a target." Number 2 took a little longer, but not too much longer.

Hope this helps,

J. Penfield
www.juliepenfield.com