Experienced potty trainers please reply

[freshstart06]

Okay, I have four kids. Three girls and a boy. My girls were quite easy to potty train but my Three year (yes, three, I am so ashamed ) is taking his time. he almost has it but only when he wants to go. I want this to be a consist thing not every so often. For example, If I take him he will go in the potty but if I don't take him it is a sometimes thing.

Also, with young boys should I be training him to use the potty like girls do for right now or have him follow his dad??? My friends tell me to wait until he is a little older.

thanks in advance for all advice.

[$$only4ever]

Freshstart06:

I had 2 boys and I know exactly what you are talking about. I ended up taking them to the bathroom every hour on the hour. Rewards worked good, and a promise of underoo underwear worked for my youngest one. But on the positive side, they are 29 and 24 years old now and are potty trained, lol

[JollyGG]

My four year old potty traied at 2 1/2 and I had so many people commenting on how early that was for a boy. My understanding is that it is not that unusual for boys to potty train well after their third birthday.

Take a deep breath and try to approch it with a sense of humor. He won't go of to college in diapers (and if he does it will work out well at fraternity parties), he probably won't go off to kindergaten in diapers. It will happen.

To start we would ask him to sit on the potty and we would read to him there. He loves to read. When he went we would make a huge deal out of it. We had books by the potty for him to read while he sat. We let him drink tons of apple juice so he had to go pretty much whenever we asked him to sit on the potty. We made a trip to the book store and picked out some books on being a big boy and using the potty (friends may have some you can barrow if their kids are past that age), we got a DVD about potty training (Bear and the big blue house is the one we got but I think there is an elmo one out there and probably a few others) We read those books and watched the DVD all the time. We discoved he liked using a kids seat on the big potty becaue he wanted to be like mom and dad and he didn't care for the potty chair. We got him a stool to get him to the right height so that he could pee standing up like Daddy. At the babysitters all the kids went at certain times of the day so their was a certain heard mentality or peer pressure there. Everyone went before mealtimes, before nap, and after nap so he went too. We let him pick out his own big-kid-pants (even if he chose Dora panties). We called underwear big-kid-pants. When my son was almost there I resorted to bribery. Chocholate kisses, chocolate chips, suckers whaterver it took.
At the very end when we knew he knew how to do it and had chosen not to he went to the corner (I know all the books say don't punish them for accidents, but it worked).
I have a friend who's boy didn't potty train until just after his fourth birthday. She finally sent him to Grandma's for the week and Grandma made him sit on the potty once an hour until he had it mastered. Sometimes someone else will have better luck. Her's is a stubborn little guy and I always used to point out that that determination (too keep is diapers in this case) would take him far in life.

[freshstart06]

Thanks you guys, I just thought I was doing something wrong. My girls all started walking before they turned one, baby George (my son) did not start until he was 13 almost 14 months. My girls we talking all the time even if we could not always understand by the age of three, Baby George, although understands everything we say does but not talk much, he gets his point across but just not much of a talker. Boys are completely different then girls, I have finally learned. LOL. My mother is making me feel bad because she feels that he is too old not to be potty trained but I am trying everything.

[Granny]

When I raised my girls, we started potty training early, as soon as they could walk.

When I started with my grandkids, I remembered the days of running to the potty because it was always a last minute thing and I decided I wasn't going to rush it with my grandkids, so I waited until they were three. Neither of my grandkids wanted to use a potty chair, so we skipped it and went straight to the big toilet.

My grandson started out sitting because that's what he preferred. I've heard of using Cheerrios in the potty to give the boys something to aim at, but we didn't try it. I've also heard of sitting little boys on the potty backwards, so they are sitting but facing the wall. That seemed a little weird to me, so we didn't didn't do that one either.

Comparing training my daughters to my grandchildren, I prefer waiting until the kids are older, it just seemed so much easier. One thing for sure, you don't want to try it until they are staying dry all night. I think it confuses them to wear diapers at night and big kid clothes in the day time.

[JollyGG]

I've also heard of sitting little boys on the potty backwards, so they are sitting but facing the wall. That seemed a little weird to me, so we didn't didn't do that one either.

That one is for the aim. I did't do it with my son either but my cousin and aunt swear by it. They say it gets the pee acutally in the potty much more accurately.

[arkienurse]

I only had to train one boy and he was my first to train ever. I was getting so frustrated, asking him if he needed to go, and taking him if it had been a while. Finally we were moving and I left him with an older friend so he wouldn't be in the way. When I picked him up he hadn't had an accident and I asked her how she did it. She had left the bathroom door open and told him if he needed to go, to go. She also reminded him every so often about going to the potty. When I got home, I followed her lead and it didn't take very long at all.

Good luck, and just remember what everyone else has been saying.

[freshstart06]

I am going to try the cheerio trick, he loves games so maybe this will work. he still his not dry at night but that may because he loves to drink juice before bedtime.

[lrprn]

I am going to try the cheerio trick, he loves games so maybe this will work. he still his not dry at night but that may because he loves to drink juice before bedtime.

Pediatric nurse for 30 years here plus toilet-trained two of my own, a boy and a girl. My boy was also slower - that's typical. It's also normal to get down daytime before nighttime as well.

All the research studies done have shown over and over that pushing kids to train before they are physically ready is a big mistake. Kids' bodies mature at different times, even within the same family. Some kids are ready at two, others aren't ready until four. Pushing too early sets up going to the toilet as a negative experience and it should be very matter-of-fact.

My boy got the peeing part down pretty fast but had a hard time with "number 2" He was big on rewards, so we would put a little foil sticky star on the toilet for every successful pee and poop every day. He would then show daddy all his stars at the end of the day with a lot of pride. We'd start over with a blank toilet every morning. This way I didn't have to use food as a reward and he loved putting the stars on the toilet himself.

My mother and grandmother gave me all kinds of grief too when our son wasn't toilet trained by three. Frankly, he just wasn't physically ready. When he was ready, he did it. I think we make way too much fuss over potty-training in the US. It sets up kids for all kinds of power struggles when we focus too much on it. As others have already said, your son isn't going to stay in diapers forever. Relax. Reward for successes and ignore failures as best you can. It will be done before you know it!

[Granny]

I think we make way too much fuss over potty-training in the US. It sets up kids for all kinds of power struggles when we focus too much on it. As others have already said, your son isn't going to stay in diapers forever. Relax. Reward for successes and ignore failures as best you can. It will be done before you know it!

Amen. I agree totally.

Here's something else I have done differently the second time around and wish I had done it this way with my girls...I refuse to pull a baby tooth. I decided that pulling a tooth with a string or any other method is just too traumatic and too much drama, and not to mention painful, especially if it's not loose enough. So when my grandson's first tooth was ready to come out, we let him work with it until it fell out. Sure he was a little scared about the whole ordeal, but he was the one doing the wiggling back and forth, so he was in total control. This was a much more civil way to handle the problem, and the look of total surprise on his face when it fell into his hand was priceless.

A couple of weeks later, his sister bumped into him on the playground and the second tooth popped out by itself, no trauma there either.

[SinkingFast]

I have to agree with Lrprn and Granny on this one.

I was really pushing Son to be potty trained before our twins were born. He almost had it when the girls came along and then he regressed.

Hubby was dealing with kidney stones about the same time and had an Asian Urologist. Can't remember the country he was from. I asked him about potty training and he said not to worry. It would come on it's own when Son was ready.

Then Sis said,............. "Think about it. Have you ever seen a kid in Kindergarten in diapers?" And that really got me to relax about it.

We dealt with 3 in diapers for over a year. But when Son was ready, he did it all on his own. Seemingly overnight. And I don't recall any accidents during the daytime when Son decided it was time.

[juststupid]

[QUOTE=freshstart06;102963]Okay, I have four kids. Three girls and a boy. My girls were quite easy to potty train but my Three year (yes, three, I am so ashamed ) is taking his time. he almost has it but only when he wants to go. [QUOTE]

Don't be ashamed, my 3 year old is not potty trained either... he doesn't even want to try. Talk about ashamed...

[freshstart06]

juststupid (I hate calling you that LOL) Little Georgie does not want to try some days either, my mother just makes me feel so bad. I was really trying but I am going to wait and go slow.

[juststupid]

Haha, I know I need to change my user name... I should go do that...

I'm waiting with Jordon, I figured I didn't want to push and then have him rebel and pee all over the carpet LOL

[freshstart06]

Little Georgie, has peed on the carpet as well. LOL