Boys and the potty

[KrazE]

My daughter was a breeze to potty train compared to my 3 boys; I'm glad that's all over with!

I used regular underwear with the training pants over top. Yes, it's a chore to wash out underwear when they have an accident of the smelly variety, but I found that for my boys, it worked to do it this way because there wasn't an absorbent pullup or diaper keeping them from being able to feel the wetness/mess. They learned to hate that feeling which meant more potty time.

I also gave them a choice, there was a potty in an easy to access location, and another one in the bathroom. In addition, if they want to feel like a 'big boy' you can buy a very inexpensive toilet seat that has 2 seat sizes attached - one for little bums, and one for adult bums; this way if they want to sit on the toilet at any time, you don't have to rush to click on any seat insert, it's already available to them right away. I saw them at Home Depot for $24 I think.

Best of luck!

[Tweetybird999]

My first son was very difficult to train. He is now 5 and gets up to go to the washroom at night, but occasionally has an accident. We started at 18 mth and it took until 3.5 years. He didn't care if he was wet/dirty. My other son is 3.5 and has no trouble staying dry all night, but we started after he was 3 because he wouldn't go near the toilet/potty and had no interest in underwear. He only took 3 months to train.

[vibrantflame]

ugh I hear you. My oldest son will be five (yes, five!) in March and still poops in his underwear. I've tried everything I can think of....we are at the point now were we're going to take him to the doctor to make sure it isn't a medical issue...

[MommyCouponer]

My son (who is 3) is gradually getting potty trained. I know that for boys it takes longer... Those times when he does his business in the potty, he gets a lot of praise, so I'm hoping he will do it more But he does not always tell me when he has to poop, which causes quite a few accidents. I try to encourage him to tell me when he needs to go potty, but a lot of times I have to read his body language

[princesskimmi]

My DS4.5 wasn't tall enough for the big potty so my DH taught him how to go pee outside! I hated it - it was embarrassing but strangely enough it worked I don't know how but it did. Once we put a big firetruck on the line he just started running to the potty. He has yet to wet the bed no nitetime pull-ups he just goes in the morning. My DD2.5 on the other hand can't be bothered to use the potty unless she sees her brother go. Now I'm trying the you can't go to preschool unless you go potty trick.

But I always remember that you never see a big kid or adult in diapers so everyone eventually figures it out.

[hogama]

Someone told me at Play Group the other week... If you want to take a month to train your child -- start potty training at 2. If you want to take a week to train them... wait until they are 3.

[robert12]

Dont take much tension, he will again start to tell you. But the good thing is that he use to tell you earlier.

[cotihill]

Just relax and don't push it, he will know when he is ready. Was the best advice I got! My little guy turned 3, 3 weeks ago and was having several accidents a day, one morning while I was packing his extra clothes for daycare accidents he said " i don't need those I am not going to have any more accidents !" that was a week ago and he has only had 1 accident since!! He still is taking a change of clothes to daycare...in case he gets muddy
Also, he has been waking up crying and very distraught in the middle of the night (very unusual for him) and we couldn't figure out what the issue was. Turns out he need to go pee but is to sleepy to figure out what is wrong. Now that we figured that out we are having dry nights too!

Also, he likes to stand to pee, he was able to verbalize to me that he didn't know how he couldn't stand up to poop! Once he understood that both boys and girls have to sit down to poop he was going on the potty that day!!

[start-the-car]

Someone told me at Play Group the other week... If you want to take a month to train your child -- start potty training at 2. If you want to take a week to train them... wait until they are 3.

Agree

When my first son was just over two I started to train him. He did great. First one, I didn't know better. Probably took a few weeks anyway. Next kid. I started when he was a little over three. The first time he pee'd in his pants he figured it out. Wasn't such a nice feeling. Probably took us a weekish to get it done. I also had my kids in cloth training pants. I think that makes a big difference.

[ame555]

I started with our little guy around 2.5 years (felt so much pressure from everyone!) -- he fought me non stop, it was a awful, screaming crying etc.

I gave up...then one day about 2 months after his 3rd birthday he woke up and said "mom I want to use the potty", I ran him to the washroom....we have NEVER had an accident since! It's been over 6 months now! For about a week after, he still wore a pull up at night, but then he didn't want to, and it hasn't been an issue.

[start-the-car]

I have a sister in law that says she had her first born stained at 1 year. I have laughed in her face. There is no way. Most kids can't even walk well enough to get to the potty in time at 1. Like I told her maybe you were trained. Everytime you took him to the potty he went. He's over 30 now and she still insists that he was trained ot 1.