Potty Training Help - Fort Worth,TX

My DS has been potty trained for about a year. He is 3.25 yrs old. Even now, he will be doing the pee pee dance in front of me and I'll ask if he has to go and he'll say "no"! Now, I just take him without asking if he's doing the pee dance. It's usually because he's too busy talking to me that he says he doesn't need to pee.

Both my kids I used the 3 day potty training method I am sorry to hear it didn't work. My daughter was a little harder because she was 28 months old when I did it so she was head strong by the point. My son was 24 months when I used it and he was way easy. I think your son it just head strong. You might try having him go to the store picking out his favorite underwear and explain that "Diego" does not like it when you pee or poop on him. I did that with my dd and it worked like a charm! Also I used the sticker chart (big hit) and rewards. Once they got so many stickers they could pick from the goodie basket. They both loved this as well. I know it is hard, but hang in there he will get it. He seems to already know the feeling of when he needs to go since he got out of the pool all summer to use the potty.

This is what we did with my 2-year old, maybe it will work for you:

1) Use underwear exclusively except for nap and night. Even if you leave the house. It will force you to take them more often and they get used the idea. They have plastic underwear/training underwear to minimize the mess. Expect accidents and don't get frustrated. I would expect a certain amount of accidents a day and if it didn't happen then it exceeded your expectations!

2) Use some sort of reward system. We used a sticker chart and my daughter loved it!

3) Anytime she wanted to do something, I told her that she had to go potty first. If she wanted to sit on the couch, she had to go potty first. Watch a show, she had to go potty first, etc.

4) If she refused to go potty, I gave her a choice. She could either go in the big potty or little potty and that was the choice. That was a hard balance. If she really didn't have to go, then I just would take her again in maybe 20 minutes or so.

5) Read potty books, watched potty videos... just talked potty language all the time. I got so sick of talking about it; however, it just made it more normal for her.

Good luck!

Possibly someone already said this, but possibly your son is wanting your attention more now that his little sister has been born. He knows he gets attention if he doesn't go potty (whether it be neg or not).
My daughter finally pottied on her own after 2 tries bcse I guess it was only then that she was ready ready. You might try easing up for a month and then work to encourage again. It may feel defeating yet during the time maybe the potty will become a more comfortable place and he can be reminded how he's a big boy and how just his little sister needs to be in diapers.

My 3 1/2 year old daughter knew when she needed to go but she refused and after trying on the potty, she would just wet her pullup, go get a clean one, put it on, and put the wet one in the diaper pail. Her twin had been potty trained for about 6 months. I never punished my DD for wetting her pull up. I worked with her a lot but figured she do it on her own eventually. Well this past summer, we were planning a trip and I was so frustrated that I took some advice from someone else. I told my DD that we were no longer going to have pull ups. Then I put some really thick training panties on her and told her that if she wet them she would have to sit in front of the washer and dryer until they were clean and dry. I made sure that I took her regularly to the bathroom, like always. Well that afternoon, she wet herself. I changed her and then I put a chair in front of the washer and dryer and she had to wait there until her clothes were clean and dry. NO toys or books. It needed to be a miserably boring experience or it wouldn't work. She cried and I felt awful BUT it only happened one other time and she was potty trained. (I have to admit that I rinsed our her clothes and chose the shortest wash cycle.) The second time, she didn't cry because she knew I wasn't going to give in. After that, I reminded her often and said "Now what's going to happen if you wet your panties?" and she would tell me. I didn't think this would work but it did and she was so proud when she finally got to wear princess panties like her sister. We called the grandparents and made a huge deal of it.

remove his diaper and do not put pullups or regular underwear on him. if you go out in public that is another question. but if you are in the house, make him run around without a diaper or anything to "absorb" his bodily fluids. i had a friend who's son was being stubborn about potty training... she ended up doing this trick and it worked... the child would run to the potty every time he felt the "urge". good luck.

You and your son are in a power struggle and he is going to win. It is his body and you cannot force him to go on command, nor can you explain what it feels like to have to go. Just put him in undies and ask him to sit on the potty for a minute or less every hour. Don't force. Give a reward if he cooperates whether he goes or not. Use M&M's or jellybeans or something he likes and praise for trying. If he has an accident, don't show anger or irritation, just have him help you clean up and put new undies on. Sweatpants absorb a lot of liquid and training pants are great, if you can find them. At night and when you go out for more than an hour or so put him in a diaper or pullup. Good luck!

apparently we have a power struggle going on!!! And your son is winning! And,I have read and heard you can not MAKE a child go potty! He will go when he is ready and not before. You need to stop using negative re-enforcement(time-outs,taking toys etc.) and try being positive even when you are frustrated. Praise him even if he just go and sits on the potty. My son would say,"Mommy are you proud of me?" They want that praise. Take him every 30 minutes even if he doesn't go. And if he doesn't go say"Thats okay,maybe next time!" Good Luck!!!!!

I just went through the same issue and the best advice, although very cliche, is he'll do it in his own time, try and be calm (if not for him, for yourself - show your disappointment, but leave it at that). I was also told to keep him in underware so that the accidents were VERY noticible. More clean up for me, but if he wore a pull-up the impact was less. Once he started pre-school and saw that all his friends were using the potty.. he joined right in. We've only about two accidents since 9/8/2009. YEAH!!!

I will admit that I kept my cool most of the time... yes.. I said most, but there were days. I know that isn't much help - I just wanted to let you know that you're not alone!

*Edit.. I actually posted a help request on 8/24 and while a long read, you'll get the picture as to where I was.

I had one who whould refuse to go on the potty till I bought him his very own "potty well" (a cheap kitchen timer will work) and we set the bell and every time it went off he went... and he loved having some control over it, how many minutes, where we sat the bell, etc. it worked like a charm, he was trained in two days. my second... well that was a whole different story/topic and my third the bell worked for him also, but with him i just used the alarm setting on my phone, so it could easily go with us where ever we went, and it it went off at the grocery store we went to the potty at the grocery store, he hated using public bathrooms to go, but this solved that problem too because he used them so much that he became familiar with the bathrooms at all our regular places... It also took the negative off Mommy, Mommy was no longer telling him he had to go, the bell was telling him he needed to go, so that helped a lot even a three year old knows you can't argue with a bell. When the bell would go off I would make it a fun thing, like "what's that? it's the bell, i'll race you to the potty, or just cheer as if you are excited for the chance to go to the potty.

Good luck

I agree that this is a power struggle that you can not win. There are several things that you can not force a child to do - potty, eat, sleep. You can put them to bed and make them stay there, you can make them sit at the table or on the potty, but you can not make them do it. Kids sense this and want to take control whenever they can. My older son was/is very strong willed and he would NOT be potty trained. I tried all of the methods starting at about 2 1/2. I was given the advice to just leave him alone and sure enough, one day when he was about 3 1/2 he came home from church and announced, "I am not wearing diapers anymore." And that was it - no hassles, no accidents, no battles. I assume that he realized in the church nursery that he was the only one still wearing diapers. He also had demonstrated that he knew when he needed to go for well over a year.

Just forget the whole thing. Put a diaper on him and don't even mention it again. I guarantee you that he WILL potty train. There are no school age children still wearing diapers, so you know that this is a skill he will obtain. Especially if you bring children into your home that are his age and are already potty trained, he will do it on his own. Good luck and just relax.