Parental Advise - Potty Training, Boys

Almost 3 year old - ideas, successes, failures for training boys. Thanks!

 

Cheerios in the bowl for target practice. Mini M&M's for success.

A little food oriented around here...

 

How about learning by going off the back deck?

 

copying daddy- start with copying daddy doing other things, then go to copying daddy at the potty.

do you stay at home with him all day? if so- right after a meal,
set a timer for every 20 or 30 minutes, and when it goes off, make stand in front of or sit on the potty. there will be tears from both of you but /you have to win. do this until the next meal. it took me 2 days to fully PT my son this way, although now that he's nine he may need retraining to hit the bowl... lol

have a simple reward chart- 3 spaces. ask his 3 faaaaavorite things- guide him so he doesn't say a pony! make the chart BIG and colorful with an obvios empty space by each favorite. give a star each time he makes so he gets one of those faves.

 

Lots of patience! Three sounds ambitious for a boy, at least to me!

 

Also, I don't think I'd PT and take the paci away at the same time. He may need the security of the paci while he is learning to PT. (just my .02) Good Luck!

 

Oh yeah..I just like info before I think of anything. PLUS there's a new baby coming so we'll probably hold off on all of it until we're settled w/that :-D I'm not THAT crazy

 

Info is good! I am going to keep watching this thread too even though my little guy is only 16 months old. Congrats on your new little one.

 

We did the Potty Scotty potty training in a day method. My son had no use for the doll -- some boys do -- we still did the intensive, all in one day thing. He stayed with daddy, I took the baby out so it was just the two of them. And we taught him sitting. He sat for a few months until he really got the hang of it, saw what daddy was doing, then on his own time decided when to stand. (Sitting is neater... I wish he STILL sat, but that's another story.)

When we finally got him to pee in potty he got a phone call from Thomas the Train (my brother in law) congratulating him on what a big boy he is. That was the biggest thrill of his life. He didn't really respond to food rewards. Strange kid didn't even like chocolate. Anyway, once we pulled the trigger, there were NO diapers. We put him in the padded "training" underwear for a while to catch any accidents, and then at night we'd put him in a pullup which we called his "nighttime" underwear. All kids are different, but it was clear to me that he wasn't ready to be nighttrained then. He actually didn't start wearing regular underwear to bed until he was 4.

 

Boys are known for taking longer to potty train. My pediatrician (a man at the time) told me this and it held up. about 3.5, then girl was about 2.5 We started out sitting on the toilet, then using a target.

 

yes I can relate to this one. My daily routine includes potty time with my 3.5 year old who is now almost completely "doing" it all himself. I tried the intensive approach but soon found that it was more trouble than it was worth for my little guy. He responded better to a schedule and a routine at first. You have to get a good idea of how their little "system" works and get organized around that schedule.

We tried games for potty time, and that included singing, bringing "friends" with us to the potty (a toy of his choice) and sitting down on the regular toilet with a special insert seat for him. We tried the little training potty for about 3 weeks, the kind that sits on the floor, but it seemed like it was harder to use.

My little guy is at daycare too so the fact that he is there with peer pressure seems to have really helped as well. They seem to teach each other and that is how we got started standing up like big boys, on a stool. So funny to watch but it works great now. His potty trainer is now the stool to stand on for potty.

 

the child's personality and reason for not going makes a huge diff in what works. is it fear? power struggle? total lack of interest? when you figure out why your kid doesn't want to go that's step one. THEN you look at what makes your kid do what you want. incentives? pleasing mommy? wanting to be like daddy/mommy?

that's how you determine the reward. kids and chess- same thing. lol

 

I took the 3 day MLK, Jr. holiday weekend and did absolutely nothing but hang out with my 2 1/2 year old son and go potty every 20-30 min. We just up and got rid of the diapers and put him in "cool" underwear (all his favorite characters). We told him "You don't want to pee pee on >insert character name here< do you?" The first day was "I peed on ____", but by day three he was telling us "I don't want to pee pee on ____".

It takes time; but lots of praise and a couple pairs of wet pants later and i bet your son would surprise you.

Good luck!!!

 

I like this idea. No one likes soiling their favorite pair of undies.

 

My boys liked a video called "Potty Time" -- although it eventually drove my husband and I a bit crazy. Also, my boys loved getting hand stamps so everytime they went to the bathroom they got to put stamps on their hands. We got a set of the washable Crayola markers that have little stamps on the end. The great thing with this was that after they went to the bathroom, they then WANTED to wash their hands to get them clean and ready for new stamps. Now, at 9 yo, that lesson hasn't stuck as well as the PT -- but you can't win 'em all!