I have a little girl, who is 4 years old and boy, who just turned 3. I have gotten my little girl potty trained, but my son is not there yet. He will not even try. I still have to buy diapers and it is starting to get nerve racking. I have sat him on the potty chair and he will not go. I try every half hour to a hour, but the same result. He still is going in the diaper. I have done the games and other things but nothing seems to be working. Help!
Have you read the 3 Day Potty Training method? It's an online training manual you can download and it really does work. My son still can't poop on the potty, but he goes pee every single time. Before I tried this method he wouldn't give the potty seat a chance either. Good luck!
My friend said the she would but cheerios or fruit loops in the toilet and tell her little boy that he has to hit the cereal in the potty. Target Practice. LOL
I have 2 daughters, so I don't know much about the differences between potty training boys & girls. For my first daughter, letting her wear a pull-up or diaper while we were training did NOT work-- she just waited until I put the diaper back on to pee. So I chose a long weekend that we were going to be home the whole time (and it was a comfortable temperature in the house) and I set her potty chair in the kitchen. Then I let her run around the kitchen for a day & a half with only a shirt on. Whenever she had an accident, I just said "whoops!" and rushed her over to the potty. I had her sit on the potty while I cleaned up the floor (and her) and told her next time she needed to go, she can run over to her potty chair. All of this was very light-- no expectations or disappointment or frustration-- just a fun game. By the end of the second day, she had it down pretty well and was wearing undies (I found that at first, the training pants felt too much like a diaper, so we went with thin undies and then went to training pants once she had it down pretty well).
I have also heard of people having success training their boys by letting them pee on trees in the backyard (the boys thought that was really fun). They then, of course, had to make it clear that they don't do that all the time. ;-) But it at least worked to get the boys to learn control. Good luck! This is definitely a challenge, but it will happen eventually.
Maybe back off and wait til summer. When he is ready, it won't take long for him to get it.
I hope he's not wearing diapers or pull ups while you're trying to train him as that won't work. Get little boy underwear and put it on and then take him every 15-30 min and keep it up all day and then the next and no diapers, at least in the daytime. You have to stick at it and decide a reward system you want to use and get it going consistently. Only if he goes for the reward.
I'm sure at his age he understands the idea and probably has control to do this but be sure there is no diaper or pull up and he will have to go, even if on himself and they usually get the idea fast after that happens a few times.
We had the same problem with ou son. Turns out he wanted to stand up to potty like his daddy! We made a game out of it..put cereal in the potty and tell him to try to hit them. ALOT of praise does wonders. Every time either one of our 2yr old twins uses the potty we clap and cheer...they just est it up!
I agree...wait until he's ready. He'll see his sister modeling the behavior, so he has some motivation. I started too early with my daughter, and it was such a drag for me. It wasn't until 3 weeks before school started that she really started trying (she was past 3). He's in control of this and knows it. If you aren't stressed about it he will come around eventually.
How old is he?
Our son was past his 3rd birthday when he was finally ready to potty train. We asked the pediatrician, and he said that boys don't always have the ability to physically determine when they need to go to the bathroom as early as girls.
It's not uncommon for a little boy to be 3-4 years before they are potty trained.
Try sitting him backwards on the potty, add a little dishwashing detergent and when he goes it will make bubbles. Maybe this will at least get him excited to try. Good luck!
I had to respond to this, I went through the same thing with my son (he would go if I sat him on the potty, but then 5 min later go in his pants, he just didn't care) Anyways, the BEST advice I ever got was to wait. I know, it is so frustrating to keep buying diapers. I ignored that advice for a while and kept at it and it just ended in tons of frustration for me and tantrums from my son from all the pressure/stress. Finally I gave up. I would ask him sometims if he needed to go and if he said no, I dropped it. He had underwear, he knew what the potty was for I just didn't push it. Finally one day when he was almost exactly 3 1/2 he said he wanted to wear big boy underwear, so I put them on him and prayed! :) He did great, he even stayed dry through the night. That was about 6 weeks ago. Yes, we still have accidents, maybe one a week. But for him waiting until he said he was ready, not when I was sick of diapers was the best solution. (I know, it's hard to wait, especially if you were like me and felt like every other kid you know his age is potty trained) Good luck!
