Potty Training a Boy - Standing up or Sitting Down?

Standing up and yes, teach him how to hold it and aim and the kind that fits over the big toilet and a step stool.

I am a Mom/Auntie to 6 boys!

I let my son learn how to pee standing up from the beginning and I believe it made getting him to sit and poop much harder. We struggled to get him to poop in the potty for many, many months after he was consistantly peeing in the potty. In my opinion, it will be much easier to retrain him to pee standing up and will make the poop training much easier if he starts out peeing sitting down.

you will want him to sit down at home otherwise you will be wiping pee up all day and your bathroom will smell

stand up in public places

if you teach him to stand up put cheerios in the toilet for him to *aim* at

We trained both our boys sitting down, and when they got the hang of that, then they stood up. And YES YES YES you will have to tell him to push it down unless you want pee all over your walls and bathroom daily. And we never bought one of those things that fit over the toilet seat. I always hated when i went to peoples houses and they had one, it was always laying somewhere in the bathroom and I just thought it was gross so I never wanted one for my kids. You might also start some sort of reward program or sticker chart for him, so he will be excited to do this. Good luck!!

We went with standing up before we had really thought it through, but it has worked out fine. Really my son makes more of a mess sitting down because if they forget to "tuck" it down, the pee goes everywhere!
I prefer the potty seat to the training potty. I just did not want to deal with having to empty and clean the little potty - grosses me out! We keep ours under the sink and my son will open the cabinet and get it out and put it on the potty himself (although putting it away is another matter :0)) In the bathroom closest to the kids room we actually bought a toilet seat that has a kids seat built right in. I love that thing! Here is a link to a similar one on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00596IFBG/?tag=hyprod-20&hv...

Trust me, M.. I work at the preschool part time where my son goes. Yep, low-Mom on the totem pole--I get to help in the bathroom. Those little boys can't aim well and get so distracted. They may start out peeing in the water, but they hear a noise and turn to see what it is and there is pee everywhere. Even some of the 5 year olds still have bad aim. Plus, sometimes they're standing to pee and all of the sudden feel the urge to poo. Panic for them...
With my son the exception is a public toilet. If it looks dirty, I have him stand and he's fine. But that also means there is no step stool in public so you will have to lift him up while he concentrates on aim until he's taller. My son had no trouble learning to do both and still switches easily.

As for those little seats that sit on the floor, do you really want to empty all that pee and poo into the big toilet and scrub it out? There was no way I was ever going to entertain that idea! We use the ring that fits over the regular toilet. Skip that whole nasty step and buy the ring. I let my son pick it out and it helped to get him to be willing to go sit on the toilet.

Good luck! Be patient and do not make it a power struggle. They have control over so little in life and eliminating is one of there big power points. As much as possible act like you don't care, but this is simply what we do (i.e. we always try right before we eat, before we go out to play, before we turn on a tv show, etc.)

Final tip--my son had lots of pee accidents until he went camando under his pants/shorts. He was treating underwear a bit like a diaper out of convince and felt it more when he was camando. That's what got us over that hump and finally diaper free. We eventually used bribes way at the end, too. "If you keep your undies dry and clean all day you can pick one of these Hot Wheels".(new in package up on shelf to tempt him).

Sitting down... unless you want to be cleaning your bathroom and toilet 24/7.

No, you won't have to retrain him. The whole potty training thing is more about recognizing his body's signals and making it to the bathroom "on time" than how he potties.

We bought one of the potties that sat on the floor and just left it out for a few months before we actually potty trained him (using the 3 day method). That way he could try it out if he wanted to, but there was no pressure. When it was time to actually "work on it", we bought a comfy seat that fit over the toilet seat and a sturdy stool so he could climb on and have a place for his feet.

Oh- make sure to have him hold it down while sitting... the urine will invariably squirt between the lid and the bowl if he doesn't!

Things that worked for us:
- Potty schedule... he had to sit and "try" every hour whether he went or not. This way he could recognize the difference in feeling like he "had to go" and "didn't have to go".
- Jar of M&M's that were ONLY a potty reward. If he wanted an M&M, he had to sit on the potty and "try"
- Don't leave your house for 3 days and let him run around bottomless. I'm very serious when I say that this is not the time to have him out running errands. The difference between "success" and an "accident" is literally seconds.
- Be consistent. Once he's in undies, that's it (except for night time). No more diapers
- Be very aware of his readiness. He's really young to be potty-trained, especially for a boy. Most boys are closer to 3. If you try to early and he's not ready (you'll know) then let it go for a while. Wait 2 or 3 months and try again.

He won't go to Kindergarten in a diaper, so no rush! When he's ready, it will only take a couple of days. If it takes longer, either you are not being consistent or he's not ready.

I trained my then 26 month old to pee sitting down on the potty. The advice the experts give said he would learn to do it standing up when he saw others doing it. This was a little over a year ago and he learned ; ) He potty trained on a potty sitting on the floor, and has also learned to use the toilet. My DIL trained my grandson on a potty seat on the toilet because as she said, she didn't want to train him two times...but I really had no problem. When he was ready to try the toilet he used the potty seat a few times then went to the straight seat, which he prefers.

Also, as a side note, my Dad who passed away in February at the age of 86.5 told us he preferred to pee sitting down his entire life, and there really isn't anything wrong with that, it was just his preference when he had the option.

I think it will just be whatever your son feels most comfortable doing. My son chose the standing method, yes its messy, but there are grown men who cant make it in the toilet. lol We started with the sitting method, but he wanted to be like dad. He is 4 now and still wants to be like dad. :) It did take a long time for him to be completely potty trained. good luck and remember sometimes it takes a lot longer than we had hoped.

Both! We started with an Elmo seat on our potty @ 25 months when he started to express interest but didn't have big expectations ( we just gave him a baby sister). His Dad goes outside and they go out together so my son feels comfortable doing both. Really being patient is key as is the tons of praise the littles need. Now we are in pull ups and training pants/ g diapers and going potty in the real world. Good luck!

i will be in a total minority here, but after surviving 5 brothers and 2 sons, i think i've got a valid viewpoint. teaching boys to pee sitting down does no one any favors. as you've pointed out, he'll have to aim it awkwardly to avoid peeing straight up, and at some point he'll have to learn to pee standing anyway. all little boys make a mess when they first potty train, you don't avoid it by teaching them to sit. cheerios are a great training tool.
most of the boys i've known who have been taught to sit live in primarily female households where it's presumed it will be 'easier' if he pees like all the women around him. but it doesn't end up being any easier or cleaner.
and face it, look at all the threads we've had about the ickiness of sitting in public restrooms. peeing standing up just makes more sense. rather than teach little boys to sit, we should teach little girls how to do it standing!
khairete
S.

My son is still in the process and we taught him sitting down. If/when the pee starts to shoot straight out, we told him to push it down so now he just does it naturally. he's tried to pee standing up but doesn't have great aim right now and I think he gets a little pee shy becuase he can't 'go' but then he sits down and he's fine.

I taught both of my boys to go sitting down first. To be honest, it was just less messy that way. They went sitting until they decided they wanted to stand. At that point, yes, they had to be taught how to aim.

I think which type of potty you choose depends on what your child is most comfortable using. Each of my kids had a different preference.

Good luck!!

Cheerios is a great training method if you opt for standing. Throw a few into the toilet bowl and tell him to try to sink them.

This is such a hard question, and you will likely get 101 different answers. You may even feel more confused or overwhelmed after you read the responses than before you posted the question. But the great thing is there is no one right answer, in other words you can't really screw it up. It is good to find out about the various strategies, but ultimately you just need to pick a method you feel will work for you. And you can always change strategies if things are not working out well for you and your son.
I have potty trained 2 boys (my 3rd is celebrating his 2nd birthday today!). I used a potty chair with both, so they learned sitting down. They probably sat for the first year or so (it is actually hard for me to remember some of those details), we never pushed the standing part, it was only when they developed an interest in standing that we moved on to that. They usually decide they want to stand at some point to be like daddy. And all you will need to do is teach them how to aim, very quick and simple. Some people will bemoan the fact that if you use a potty chair then you have to "reteach" to sit on the big potty and "reteach" to stand, etc. But those transitions were so easy after the real potty training was done because it was done at the request of the child, when they want to sit on the big potty you just need to get a step stool for them and show them how to hold themselves up, it took all of 5 minutes.
The reason I chose the potty chair route was it was easier for them to relax when their feet were on the floor. He could sit comfortably for 5-10 minutes as we waited for the action to start, that would be hard to do if you or he was holding himself over the big potty. And I read having their feet on the floor was most helpful during BMs. I also felt like taking the potty seat insert in and out for me and the older children was a bit annoying. If you choose the potty chair I would recommend skipping all the bells and whistles, just get a basic potty, the fewer cracks and creases, hinges and parts the better. A potty molded from one piece of plastic like the bijorn is good. I used the cute but practical froggy potty from walmart, it was about $10 I think and worked great for us. A high splash guard in the front for the boys and easy to clean.
As a SAHM I always preferred the naked potty training so I had a better chance of catching the act as it started rather than always finding out after the fact. It can certainly be a big commitment for you to follow him around all the time and there will be messes to clean up. But I felt it worked well for us. I would say it took about 2 weeks for us to be pretty consistent about getting to the potty in time while naked, another week or two of frequent (but always decreasing) accidents in underwear, then we were pretty much done. We only used pullups when we were going to be out of the house for awhile in the early days of being potty trained, and also at night for my bedwetters.
I wish you the best of luck, it is quite a process but feels great for everyone when it is done.

We started sitting on the potty chair. (it was easier to teach pooping later) He caught on fast. Then he learned to stand all on his own. Its a choice thing. Dont push to hard or they give up

Best way to do teach a boy is to have them sit on the toilet facing backwards. It teaches them in someway that he will eventually pee to stand up and he would also not have to learn how to aim right away since his legs are spread apart.
I worked in a daycare with 2 year olds and this was the best, and least likely way that your yourself would not get peed on or have to clean it up everytime he goes to the bathroom. We never used a training seat just faced them backwards. Once he is tall enough to pee standing up get cheerios and I think babies r us even carries little targets for them to aim at.
Good luck