Potty Training!!!
 

Oh my Lord, I never thought I would have such a frustrating experience. We are trying to potty train son, who turned 3 in November. This is our 3rd go at it. The previous times we gave up after a couple days. This is day 3. He still has not really peed in the potty. On day one he let a few drops go after my wife loaded him with fluids. It took him over 4 hours to pee on Friday. Then he promptly soaked his pants 5 minutes after "peeing on the potty" (the 5 drops). Ok, try again yesterday. Same story. Didn't pee all morning, despite being put on the potty every 20 minutes, and then soaked his pullup at naptime. Let another 5 drops go into the potty last night before bed.

Today was the coup de grace. Got him up and loaded him with fluids again. He sat on the potty for about 2 hours while my wife and I took turns, reading stories, singing, etc. He actually started to pee once but cut it off as soon as he realized he was peeing. He had to go so bad he was saying his tummy hurt. Eventually we took him off and put a pullup back on him. He's down for his nap now.

We have tried bribing him with M&Ms, running the water in the bathroom, giving him a favorite new toy for going in the potty, etc.

At this point it looks like he is actively holding in the urine instead of letting it go into the toilet and my wife and I are at our wits end.

Any suggestions or comments from those with experience??

You're not alone Rick. I have 3 kids. First two, no problem. Fen, who turns 3 in two weeks, had an interest a month ago, and now, none. Ironically, today we are refusing to put a diaper on her and she is not happy. Either underpants or nude--she peed her underwear once today, and then sat on the potty at least...M&M's worked a while ago--no go anymore. Our philosophy is that of "Don't force too much"--does that make sense? It'll happen eventually. Still frustrating, though. We're going crazy too!
Christian.

Nathan,

Relax...they'll make no porcelin bound poo before it's time.

Really, relax. My daughter was potty trained literally in the womb...my son had a different agenda. We stopped trying and everything worked out just fine. Less pressure seems to have a positive affect on boys.

Yeah, I think we are probably pushing him too hard. We talked about it and we are going to go with pullups for now and just keep casually asking him if he wants to go. Put him on if he says yes, otherwise just let him go in the pullup...

Pullups are a Dad's best friend...we came to the same conclusion and all was well. Have fun!

I'm freeballin' as I typ---whoah, TMI=======

Dad,

From the post it readsd like a competiton..

The no pressure route worked for our little one....now 4 and hasn't seen a diaper in about 16months.

We were lucky but we also knew that there was no 'time' in which it had to happen....we kinda just asked him if he need the potty at 'appropriate times'...usually it was no, but it was no problem.. than one day he siad yes...and he made it work...

Boys seem to respond better to this more 'casual' approach...

My nieces however were a differnt matter...

Our 2year/3month daughter is doing ok with it. She pees and occasionly will poop on the pot. We made a chart, with two sides, pee and poop. If she pees on the pot, she gets to pick a star. If she poops, she gets a NEMO sticker.

She is so young that we are not pushing anything. She still goes in her diaper too, and thats fine with us. We just introduced the pottty as another option, and she seems ok with it.

Try this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764152327/002-8415651-1289655?v=glance&n=283155

Ok sounds weird but we have always let our son watch us use the bath room. We got one of those "training toilets" when he was 13 or 14 months old. We let him sit on ect but never pushed the fact. At about 2.5 years we started asking him if he wanted to use the toilet - We never pushed.

Woke up one morning and he informed me he had to pee. I took him over to the toilet (real one) let him go. He refused a pull up and from that day forward he has been going strong - we still put a pull up on him at night but 90% of the time he wakes up dry or wakes one of us up in the middle of the night to go pee.

Make a game out of it. Toss a cheerio in the toilet and tell him to aim for it. If it works, reward him with something he likes, but not something he gets on a regular basis. It might help motivate him. Just a suggestion...

This is what worked for both of our children.

First of all, Don't give up. Be persistant, and he will catch on. Second, I didn't use pullups because they were too much like diapers. I took advice from friends and bought real undies with their fav cartoon charachters on them, and it did help, they feel the wet, instead of absorbant pullups. Third, most kids want to be like parents, let him watch you in the bathroom or else he has no idea what the heck is supposed to be doing. Potty after meals, naps and about every 30 min or so. He'll catch on, but you cant give up. It took 5 days of this with one of my children, and then he caught on.

He's not ready. Try again in a month.

It's not potty training, it's parent training.

Learn to let go. If he's not ready, so what? He won't likely be crapping his pants in high school and you won't be changing diapers forever. Believe it or not, potty training failures are tough on kids. They feel like they have disappointed you. Patience, grasshopper.

Excellent timing on this, guys!!
My son had an interest in the potty a few weeks ago then just forgot about it. He's only 2+ three weeks so I suggested to the wife that we wait a bit longer. We have a daughter due in March so he hopefully will learn quickly. I attempted to show him how it works(at wifey's urging!).
That is one wierd situation, I'm sorry. Whizzing while junior looks up at your thang just seems odd.

Thanks for the tips. We tried the Cheerios thing, I was great at sinking them and he thought that was funny, but no real interest in giving it a go himself. On the bright side, I had a good time.

We are going to go with the persistent yet non-pressure approach and see how he does. I think my wife and I both came to the conclusion that the only thing that changed was our outlook on things. He was in diapers 3 days ago and it wasn't a big deal so it shouldn't be a big deal if he is in diapers 3 days from now. We are just pretty ready to quit changing his diapers at this point, plus the fact that he is 3 makes us think he SHOULD be potty trained. He has his own timetable though.

two words - duct tape. Fasten the lil curt'n climber to the pot till there is production then reward them with a sip of water and a saltine.

Just kid'n - Relax. He will get it, they all do. Kids are like animals, they can sense it when your all tied up in knots. Besides, how many 14 year olds do you know that pee their pants? Well, keg parties aren't included. It will happen, it will happen.

Cattle prod.

Burlap sack, a length of twine and a brick.

ianc

My wife and i went on vacation for a couple of weeks, left our oldest (2.5 then) with the in-laws, came back and he was potty trained. Our youngest son wanted to have Ninja Turtles Undies just like his big brother when he turned 3 and potty trained himself to get them.

alf

Why the hurry ? I understand "potty training" is still big in the US. Here in Sweden its a non-issue at that age. More harm than gain.

As a fellow father of four and a pediatrician I suggest you let him be till he is good and ready himself.

As Moses put it - its a parent issue.

See that's the problem...exactly when is he good and ready?? We have read multiple books and searched the net and he meets all the criteria most people cite as "being ready". That's why we thought we'd give it a go. The only thing against his "being ready" is that he wouldn't do it when it actually came time to.

Every child is unique. Give it another try in a few months. Chances are his own motivation will kick in soon.

Dr Phil supposedly have a technique making them dry in one day. Go figure.

The only real deadline you have is when he starts kindergarten. Many schools will not let him start if he is not trained by then. Until then relax and maybe when the "pressure" is off your son will become more willing. Right now he almost acts like he is going to get in trouble if he goes in the toilet!

Exactly Kurt and that is what is so wierd about it. We have been talking to him about the potty off and on for almost a year, he has several books about potty training and he always talks about how tee-tee and poo-poo go in the potty so I can't figure out why he would be so afraid to just do it. It was really disturbing yesterday to watch him hold it for that long. My wife and I were pretty upset about it.

My wife talked to his daycare teacher today (he goes to school 2-3 times a week right now) and she thinks he is ready. I don't know, I think we are just going to back off for a little while and try to not put any pressure on him. Maybe it will happen. Who knows.

Worst case scenario he is in diapers for another few months. No big deal.

Perfect timing. Our second child is now 3 years old. Just yesterday I caught him "helping" us out by hittin' the head all on his own.

Later, I found out he crapped his pants and then went into the bathroom to deposit said crap...with his hands...into the toilet. :mad:

At least he's making progress. ;)

Hah, glad to hear I'm not alone.

Perhaps we need to put together a PPOT Potty Training Super Celebration in Vegas once all these little rugrats figure it out. We could have a big toilet shaped cake, lemonade which is just that special color of yellow...brownies...the list goes on and on!!!

My older one was potty trained by the time he was 18 months. We did the freeballing method with him and it worled great. He is 12 now.

My 2 year old shows no interest in potty training. We are not pushing it. We can afford diapers just fine so there is no need to stress us or him out. My wife tried freeballing him a week ago and he protested asking for his diaper back on.

She just picked up those diapers that let you feel it when you let go in them. We are going to use them on him when he is around the house.

WE HAVE TEE-TEE...REPEAT...WE HAVE TEE-TEE!!!

My wife just called, she took him out to lunch today just the two of them for being such a big boy and trying so hard yesterday. They went to the store and bought a Dora potty book (one of his favorite cartoons). Brought him home and asked if he wanted to sit on the potty before nap. She said he sat there for about 10 minutes and they read the Dora book and he suddenly leaned forward and......VIOLA!! A full bladder emptied into the potty. My wife said she almost burst into tears. She was careful to not overdo it, just calmly told him how proud she was and he seemed very proud of himself. Maybe we have taken the first step. Who knows.

I feel for you, Rick.

I thought I had it tough with my 13 week old Golden Retriever. He's 3/4 of the way there.

this place rules. i have tears running down my face i am laughing so hard. good luck nat, i hope he gets it pointed in the right direction soon.

i may try the cheerio thing myself next time i have some drinks.

Yeah, otherwise he'll be peeing on the bathroom door...

WOOHOO!!!!!
1 down. How many other's kids to go?

I heard something about hitting on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper . . . or how about rubbing their nose in it. . .

My Wife and I have two girls: 3 yr and 2 yr old, and the oldest one is just finally potty trained and the little one is almost done. We learned from the oldest, dont push them. They will learn and go when they are ready. Pushing actually makes them not want to go even more. The little one will be 2 in one month and learned from her older sister fast.

We tried the bribing thing with gummi bears, M&M's, heck almost everything and nothing worked. We tried forcing her to sit on the potty until she did something, yep you guessed it...no workee.
She would sit there and sing and just have a ball doing nothing and we would be pulling our hair out! We gave up trying.

Then one day she started telling us she had to go potty, and wella, she was trained. Just give him time, he'll come around. :)

I think this is a good idea. We were pretty lucky, and our daughter was potty trained by 2.5 years old. We didn't push her, just kept asking.

Is there a chance you have other kids in the area about his age, that he can see go potty on the toilet, that might help.

Michael

I recently read about some new diapers that apparently don't absorb ALL the wetness so the kids can feel it, making it a bit uncomfortable.

(IS anyone else amazed at how much those things can HOLD?! My 14 month old drinks a LOT of water during the day and those things end up like cantelope stuffed down his shorts. Maybe the 14 month old girls are impressed?)

Theory being they can better tell when they've gone so they can recognize the symptoms, then, since they're not dry and slightly uncomfortable it'll help motivate them over time...

Before our little guy turned one my wife accidently washed a new diaper - She was taking the laundry out and started laughing.

I went to go see what it was all about and I have never seen anything like it. This little diaper (size two I think) was as big as a ballon and not a drop was leaking out of it. We held onto it for a few days to see if it would deflate - never did and we laughed everytime we saw it.

They all learn it eventually, but not on any schedule. My daughter learned about 2 weeks before school started (which was good, since she couldn't attend until she was potty trained). She still wet the bed occasionally until 7-8. All of a sudden at about around 8, she no longer had a problem (she's 9 now). We never made her feel bad about it, said it was natural, but it still made her sad.

My son? He just decided at about 3.5 to give up diapers. No accidents since then (he's 4).

Your son will be OK. Just can't say when exactly.....

Good and ready? I had friends that had a 5.5 year old boy that was still had to put on a diaper in order to crap. That's crazy, but his parents were of the mindset to let him have his way. I'm sure this will be good for him as he grows up.

BTW, I can train a small dog in a matter of days, 2 weeks max, not to poop or pee in the house and to ask to be let out. Why should it be difficult to train a higher level species to use a pot to piss in? It's the parents fault/problem. I don't think my folks (old school) had any issues training their 6 children...

the time i really began to realize how much fun my life would be with my boys was when we could go somewhere without a diaper bag and they coud say "I want ketchup on my fries" or such.... I feel for ya bud.. :)