I am hanging on that my 3 year old who refuses to potty train and that he wont be 10 still in diapers. Ugh! Lol - Ok so Im having the hardest time potty training him and NOTHING is working. I tried rewarding him with m&ms, I tried telling the story that Nemo need his poo to be strong - i read that somewhere and it work for that little boy - I went out and bought potty time elmo and the dvd. I tried just flat out putting him in underwear and letting him wear it around the house - but nothing and I mean nothing is working. I tried talking to his preschool teacher about putting him on a schedule at school - she isnt up to it and she says she is encouraging him to potty but thats all she is going to do - so I send him to school with a diaper on because his teacher isnt bringing him to the potty frequently. When we are at home - in the morning he goes but for the rest of the day I will sit him there and we made our own little potty song and we will sing it but he just want to keep going in his diaper. He will sit on the potty and not do anything and soon as I put the diaper on he goes in the diaper. it's frustrating I want him potty train before he goes to kindergarten. I tried letting him wear his big boy underwear on the weekends but he will have an accident and wont say anything - I'll see a puddle or I would smell him. he wont tell me when he need to go, is about go or if he did an uh-oh. Any tips?
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My son was the same way. He wanted nothing to do with the potty. I tried all kinds of "big boy underpants", rewards, etc, and he wasn't having any of it. We finally got it a couple of months after we stopped "trying". One day he just said he wanted to use the big boy potty, and that was it. Aside from a few accidents at night he was fully potty trained from that day on. At this point it may be a power struggle between the two of you, and if you don't push the issue he may become more interested.
I babysit a little boy that is fully potty trained. His mom originally when starting to potty train him when he was 2 and put him in underwear. He would just go in them as if they were a diaper and his mom got tired of the mess that he was making on her furniture and floor. She put him back in pullups and left the issue alone. I would babysit him some during the week while she was at work and had to participate in the potty training as well. She let him take the lead essentially, she let him decide when he was ready. I was instructed not to show approval or disapproval if he went in his pullup. When he was about 3 we both started to notice that every time he would pee or poop in his pants he would immediately ask to be changed. I started making him wait a few minutes or so before changing which he didn't like. He started to dislike the feeling of being wet or dirty and wanted to be cleaned up right then. I started then telling him that if he just used the potty he could be clean and he wouldn't have to stop playing with his toys or games. After awhile he would say he needed to go potty. When he did I was really enthusiastic saying I was proud of him and what a good boy he was. Before long he wasn't going in his pullups anymore, his mom let him pick out underwear he wanted and now he is trained and in school. Sometimes letting the child lead the process produces the best results.
My 2 1/2 year old daughter is now fully potty trained :) I hear boys are a little tougher to train than girls tho. But im sure he understands that he needs to pee in the potty-because even my two year old knows that. Very rarely will she have an accident these days. How about getting some cheerios and just leaving some in a little bowl on the back of the toilet-and make it a game. When he has to go potty let him throw a couple in the toilet and "aim" or "shoot" at them. My brother really enjoyed doing that. He would get a treat like a popsickle or ice cream after dinner if he used the potty that day. When our daughter first started potty training she went two whole weeks with no accidents (and that is including wearing her panties over night) but then all of a sudden she just started peeing in her panties-and that kept happening for about 4/5 days. I dont know why she did that. But I felt she was just being lazy-because it was every single time! So I would swat her behind and tell her that she cannot pee in her panties-she had to pee in the potty. And she has been potty trained now for months. Very rarely like I said she will have an accident.
but try the cheerios thing. See if that helps. Give him a timeout/or swat anytime he pees in his underwear-im sure he will get the point that he cant continue doing that. It makes me think he is just being lazy as well seeing as how you said that he will not pee in the potty but when you put a diaper on him he will go in the diaper. So he knows and understands, but is just being lazy.
Just hang in there. My son was 3 1/2 when we started to potty train. Boys are the hardest to train and it does take longer for some. I started but once I knew he didn't have a care in the world I went back to diapering him 24/7. But what I did was once I went back to diapers, I left it alone. Did not talk about potty training nothing, just did the diapers. Then when he was 3 1/2 I tried again but I kept the diapers on him all the time and told him that he needed to start to be a big boy and let me know when he has to go potty and we can take the diaper off and let him potty then keep a diaper on for just in case but not to use the diaper on purpose. Of course nothing doing and talking to a 3 1/2 yr old I thought went in one ear and out the other. A couple days into it where I kept asking him if he needed to go potty and when I changed his diapers I kept on telling him to let me know when hes a big boy and has to use the potty. One day he just said mommy I have to potty. I dropped everything, we raced to the bathroom, I untapped his diaper, let him do his thing, praised him lots, re-diapered him and let him pick out a favorite snack (think it was ice cream) I said see how easy that was to go potty in the big boy potty? Did this for not quite 2 weeks and he was keeping diapers dry during the day time like a pro. The whole time he had diapers on and we went from using the diapers to just wearing a diaper for just in case then moved to uderwear once the diapers were dry for over a week. He still gets diapered at night for bed wetting which I know runs in the family which I am okay with. I know strange way to potty train keeping a lil one diapered but it worked and once I started it was less than 2 weeks and we were diaper free during the day time. Just be patient and it will work out.
One friend that I knew would put a small prize on back of the toilet.
When her child would use the toilet correctly, he could have the prize.
It worked for her.