I know I see a lot on potty training but I was just wondering what the typical age for boys to be potty trained is? My son will be 3 in January and shows no interest in it. He will go potty on the potty chair if I force him. It is never something he wants to do. It's a fight b/c he feels like he can't play, color, etc. if I make him go potty. We have had several conversations about it and I also bought books for him to read and an Elmo potty movie for him to watch. Still no real interest. I didn't think it would be this hard - Any advice?
My son has been potty trained since about 26 months! He still needs reminded every once in a while when he is really engrossed and playing. I was late training him though I had hoped he would be out of diapers before his second birthday!
I know! LOL boys are fun arent they! we did all the potty books, chairs, etc when my son was 2 and I potty trained ME for a year! He could of cared less......finally I just stopped and realized he would when HE was ready,,,,,and he did! I had his sister and she was 2-3 weeks old.....( he was 3.5)he went in and went on his own and from then on he did. he had to make up his mind himself. I also had taken him on a tour of the preschool he would be going to once he was potty trained. He could not attend until he was ......their policy not mine.....
Now I have a 3 year old girl who is doing the same thing,,,, so I guess she will when she is ready too, they are all diffrent.....good luck!
No interest, no worries. WAIT. Back WAY off and try agin in a few weeks or months. He'll get it eventually - forcing him will prolong the process and create unneeded stress for both of you. While some boys are trained before their third birthday, I think it is totally typical for boys to learn between their third and fourth birthdays. I just finished training my fourth child. He is 3 1/2, and since we waited until he was ready, willing, and able, the whole process took about 2 days. I didn't wait long enough with my other kids and we had months of stress, wet pants, wet beds, and more. WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!
There is no magical age that a kid needs to be potty trained by or a magical start date. My ped gave me the best advice ever. He told me that the majority of kids do not even have the "sensation" that they need to go until after the age of 2. I asked because my ex-MIL insisted that we start trying to potty train my son before he turned 2. She was sure his aunt was potty trained at 9mo. I hear these stories all of the time, and as I get older I have to wonder if it is a lapse in memory of the actual age some of these kids were potty trained. What my ped said to do was to let them do it on their own time. He emphasized DO NOT PUSH IT. I did this with all 3 of mine (12,7,5.) It worked exactly as he said. My oldest was just over 2. We came home from work one day, and he said "momma, I have to go." He never had an accident after that! I did the same with the other 2. My daughter was around 3 before she was ready, and the same with my youngest son. We have 15 kids between me and my sisters, and most of all of them were around 3 or a tad older. My personal opinion is that when they get a little closer to 3, they get tired of the goo in their pants and want to be a "big kid" like the others. Try ignoring the subject for a while and see if it makes a difference.
My ped. said some boys potty train later. When we went for his 3 year old check up she said not to worry until he was older than 3 and half, then if he still showed no interest we would discuss the possiblity of other problems. She said even then if he was showing any interest at all she would take it to still be normal progression. Hang in there, Don't make it a power struggle, TRY to make it fun and a game and he'll want to do it!
Hi Kristol,
I understand you wanting to get your son out of diapers... especially since you have 2 in diapers now. I had 3 in diapers for a full year and manoman was it expensive!!! None of my boys were ready to potty train until after they were 3. And my twins took forever before they were poop-trained. UGH! I have to agree with the other Mommas and say that if you wait until he is totally ready, it will go so much smoother for all of you! Keep reading the potty books every now and then. Keep him exposed to Dad going in the toilet. But don't push him... let him decide when he's ready. =)
Best of luck,
Suzi ~ Momma of 4 boys
p.s. One "trick" that helped my boys along was throwing a cheerio in the toilet and letting them try to sink it! It was just one of the games we played to make it fun.
Once my son after his 3rd birthday just one day out of the blue asked to go potty it took 3 days. Took a little longer for BM's but not to long and it was a lot less stress then my sister-in-law had with her son
Good Luck
My son is almost 3, will be in Feb. and we just started. He has shown interest before but never to the point that I felt I should force. Problem I have is that he is in daycare during the day and they are pushing for him to be potty trained by time he turns 3 so he can move to the preschool room. Puts way more pressure on me which in turns puts pressure on him. I am taking it one day at a time. He goes about 2-3 times a day but some days I have force him to sit on the potty. I have ended up putting the potty in front of the tv and letting him watch Diego. It seems to work. I think he didn't like sitting in the bathroom cuz he is bored. Just go w/the flow and it will come.
Hi Kristol,
I have two boys and my oldest was completely trained by 3 years old, trained night and day....Now my youngest boy was potty trained during the day at age 3 1/2 and trained at night at 4 1/2. My theory is....potty training is hard enough, wait until it is his idea....boys work better that way normally; besides....if you wait until it gets warmer, it is a little easier. I just wouldn't push it. You will just get frustrated and so will he. Keep things enjoyable....They grow so very fast.
A little about me....stay at home mom of 4 children, 18, 14, 8 and 2 years old.
Mj
The average age for boys to be potty trained these days is 3.5 years old. Don't push it. You can't force a child to poop or pee (you can threaten and they can choose to go instead of punishment but you truly can't >force< them to do it if they are set against it). You need to avoid a power struggle or it can get ugly real quick and last a long time. 1 out of 10 boys are diagnosed with encopresis these days (involuntary soiling of underwear due to impaction) and the majority of the time it starts with a power struggle over potty training.
I say wait a few months and try again. As his friends get older and get out of diapers then peer pressure will kick in and he'll start to be interested. One big thing I regret was trying to force my son to be potty trained before he was ready (started just before he turned 3).... it's now been 3 years and we're still dealing with encopresis -- which is NOT fun once your child is in elementary school. It normally takes 1-2 years to correct once diagnosed, btw.
Both my sons were potty trained almost to the day of their 3rd birthdays. Previous to that, absolutely no interest at all. My advice is to relax, don't struggle with him. It is good to introduce the idea by way of books and DVD's but my belief is that they will show the interest when they are ready. Some are trained before others, but I guarantee he will be ready before college...most likely even before Kindergarten!
All kids are different but I would say he should be fully potty trained by 3 1/2.
My oldest son was trained by 2 years and 3 months. My second was almost 4 when he finally was fully trained and my third (all boys) was 3 1/2. If you want to send him to pre-school he will probably need to be trained so to start working on it now is great!
Boys have such a hard time sitting still and taking time out of play that it's a good idea to have him sit on the potty and have a small table near by with something he can do (play-doh, coloring, big legos or whatever will keep him busy). Only let him do whatever activity you choose when he is on the potty. Stay consistant and positive!
I am looking for advice on the same issue. My son will be 3 in January and refuses to try to go on the potty. He says he is scared of the potty. My older son wasn't trained until he was 3 (he is 5 now). I stripped him from the waist down and he only had one accident, the rest of the time he went in his potty chair. Good luck.
Hi Kristol,
My children are older but I remember our potty training years vividly as my son was not interested at all in giving up his diapers. His preschool did not admit unpottytrained 3 year olds so I forced the issue. Big Mistake! I did what you are doing, books, rewards etc but it didn't help. It set us back a year in my estimation, he had accidents and felt badly about himself during the whole process. I encourage you to back off for now, even though you are crazy busy with both of your children. I can tell you that my son is now 19 and in college and having no trouble. haha....I'm just saying that if you give him time it will happen. Good luck!
Kathie
Please do not force him to go, he will use the potty when he is ready. You will only wear yourself out trying to force him and he will still show no interest in going. I went through the same situation with my son...I tried everything. He didnt start using the potty consistently until he was four! Good Luck!!!!
I wouldn't worry too much. Just keep encouraging him to use the potty and try to spike some interest. Boys tend to potty train around 3 or 3 1/2 (later then girls). The best advice I can give is that when a child is ready they practically potty train themselves but if you force it too much then you can actually postpone it more then help. Like I said just encourage and try to spike the interest by talking about "big boy underwear" and how he will get to wear them if he uses the potty.
Good luck!
Kristol, what worked for us was letting him run around the house naked and when he had to pee, he HAD to use the potty. that part of potty training was pretty easy for us, but he showed interest in it really young and we just went with it, and it was a no-pressure situation, and he got the whole peeing in the potty down before he was 3. Now, pooping in the potty was much different, but i have heard that, something about it scares them sometimes, we finally got one of those "kid" seat that you put on your own toilet and after a while he finally started going poopy on the potty too. Good luck, i know it can be frusterating, but peole i have talked to have sid that when they are "ready" they will do it
My son is just about a year older than yours, so I just got through it all not too long ago. We had a potty chair, but never any interest. He turned 3 in February, and still no real interest, sitting or standing. I took my week of vacation in March, and we hit it real hard. I took off the diapers and NO PULL UPS, they're the same as a diaper to them. We did big boy underwear. I started Monday morning, and by Wednesday, we actually left the house in underwear and came home clean!! He did not want the embarassment of an accident in public, which worked great for me. I had him stand, like daddy, and that worked best. I really had to stay on him about going, because he would hold it for hours on end. After this first week, I took him Walmart on Saturday and let him pick out 2 more packs of his favorite big boy underwear. We had an accident or 2 every day for the first few weeks, but if you catch a little tinkle, run them to the bathroom and have them finish in the potty if possible. Okay, so that was peeing, but #2 was a whole new battle. He was scared to death to sit on the potty and he said it hurt to poop, so for those first few weeks I let him have a pull up on at night, and he would poop then. It took almost 2 months longer to get him to go poop in the potty, but we were finally successful and stopped buying diapers and pull ups completely in June. They need to do it in thier own time, to an extent, but if you do not give them a little push, I'm convinced boys would wear diaper thier whole lives!! If you put him in underwear and he still has huge messes all day, he is probably not quite ready, but the biggest clue for me was that my son started waking up dry in the mornings, and that's when I knew he had definitely gained his bladder control. Sorry this is so long, I hope it helps. You will do fine, and so will your little guy!!
Maybe he needs to be interested. We started our girls out by using a kitchen timer - start it for 30 minutes and when it rings say it's potty time. We called it the potty clock. We also bought the kiddie kandoo wipes that are colorful and we call them the poopy wipes, so my daughters are excited to use them when they poop on the potty. We also bought the huggies clean team soap that blinks while they wash their hands. It helped to make it exciting for them and make them interested. Also, let him walk around without undies on.... Good Luck.