Hellobee Boards

@Mrs Green Grass: are the other kids in his current class mostly potty trained? Our LO totally regressed and lost interest and then I got pregnant and had no motivation to focus on it. But when she moved into a class with kids that were mostly potty trained the peer pressure was an amazing thing! She started the class on a Monday and the teacher told us to just send her in panties and by that Thursday she was fully trained. Two things I would suggest: try upping the reward from a sticker (our LO gets a jelly bean for going the whole day without any accidents and she gets psyched for it), and for pooping, make sure he's on a little potty or has a stool where his feet touch the ground. My LO really struggles to poop on an adult potty because she can't get leverage by pushing on her feet.

@matador84: we're in the exact same situation. DS1 will be three in September and can't move rooms until he is potty trained. He has minimal interest. I feel like forcing him doesn't help and everyone tells me he'll do it when he's ready. I agree so I don't force it. We tried undies and pull ups - neither worked. I figure one day day he'll come to me and say he's ready. Peer pressure at school hasn't helped. He's not interested there either.

We are taking a relaxed, slow approach to potty training. DS will be 3 in October. We started maybe 3-4 weeks ago now. Just started out with bottomless time around the house. He's gotten pee down really well. We even started doing underwear. Then he got sick 2 weeks ago and regressed since we put him in diapers because he had diarrhea.

We went back to bottomless around the house and he picked it back up in a day or two. Now he just stays in a pull up. He will tell me he has to go potty, run to the toilet, take his pull-up off and go pee. Pee has been so easy! Haven't attempted public restrooms yet tho.

Ok so poop on the other hand. We have yet to have a successful poop on the potty. That's why he's in pull ups right now. after cleaning a couple poopy underwears, we don't want to do it anymore. Today for instance, he was playing outside naked. Look over to see a turd half out of his butt. lol It plops on the ground and I run him to the potty but he didn't have to go anymore. ugh.

I feel like if he would just poop once on the toilet, then it will hopefully click for him.

I only have my experience, and the advice of friends, but I think it’s very normal for it to take a LONG time for kids to “get” pooping. And I mean, I have several friends (and LO’s daycare teachers) who said it can take *months* to get poop down 100%, even for kids who get pee down 100% within days. So, don’t feel like you or your LO are doing something wrong because he isn’t getting everything right away – not a fault on your part, or his part at all!

I personally would stick with underwear. With pull-ups, they don’t feel wet, so I think accidents are more likely, whereas with underwear, when they go they know it immediately. We tried pull-ups first, and asking if she needed to go, etc. and there was really minimal progress. The process happened when we switched to underwear: it was like night and day from pull-ups for us.

I carry around a gallon zip-lock bag in my purse that has 2 sets of underwear, 2 sets of pants and 2 sets of socks – because accidents happen and it’s stressful. Having that on hand at all times has really been great for my stress level during potty training because I know whatever happens, I’ve got extra clothes.

I also just throw away a lot of poop underwear because that shit (literally, lol) is NASTY. Nothing like poop in a diaper. Yuck, yuck, yuck. So, buy underwear in bulk in case you have to toss several pairs

I also agree with PP who said don’t just ask, but tell for going potty. Sometimes I’ll ask LO if she has to go, she says no, but I say let’s try anyway and yeah, she has to pee. A lot! So now I mostly just tell her we’re going to the bathroom and we go.

Also, for us, peer pressure at school was a great motivator, as were gummy bears. We also tried the sticker reward chart which I assumed would work better because LO is sticker obsessed, but the reward of getting 2 gummy bears after going is what really got her on board. So don’t be afraid to switch up the rewards either, if you use them. We only used gummy rewards for maybe 2 weeks tops, and then phased them out.

Potty training is a process, that’s for sure! Hang in there!

Yes, I can agree that sometimes it takes a while for kids to get pooping on the toilet. My son was able to go pee on the toilet pretty much right away, but pooping was another story completely.

There's some great advice from the previous posters, I won't repeat it, but know that you are not alone. It's difficult when you read that other kids are getting it right away, but for some children, it's going to take time.

We are potty training too! It's great that there are a bunch of us to support each other.
Summary: 28 months old, DS we started a modified 3 day method.
Pee: as long as we are home and he is naked, he has a perfect record! He initiates and no accidents. BUT in pants/pull-ups/underwear he forgets and pees
Poo: he has pooed a few times in the potty and seems excited and not resistant to it. This morning, while naked, he had a little poo accident. It seemed like diarrhea though and I've had a stomach virus so I'm afraid he might have it now and it will derail everything. FXed it's not!!

Following with interest! LO is only 21 months but is trying to potty train herself, haha. She has been asking to go and peeing on the potty pretty much every night after bath. I am nervous to miss this "window" everyone talks about so we are going to try official potty training in a couple weeks, I think.

@blackbird: I want to read that book. How old is your LO?

We have been encouraging DS (3 in two weeks) for several months but he only started wanting to go two days ago. This was after he saw his same-age cousin going pee in the bushes at my dad's house. Lol. Whatever it takes!

Summary: boy, 3 on 8/8. Hasn't wanted to use the potty until a few days ago-now he's all about it!

Method: So far we haven't used any specific method. I have read the 3 day method and will start using it if we don't continue to make progress over the next couple of weeks. I am going to start him in undies tomorrow I think.

Pee: He was great all day yesterday, aside from when we went to a birthday party. I couldn't get him to stop playing and go inside to use the potty.

Poop: Two poops in the pull-ups yesterday and no amount of encouragement (read:bribery) seems to motivate him to try this on the potty yet.

Me: I am just SO beyond excited that he's interested in going on the potty! It seemed like this day would never come. Haha.

We are on our third attempt. DD is 2.5 (30 months).

The first failed when she panicked and wouldn't pee in the potty or her diaper and literally erupted after I put her in the bath to calm her bladder. She was horrified by her urine and it was pretty awful. That was back in March.

The second failed when after two great days she peed in her box of stuffed animals after me telling her she should use the potty because she doesn't want to pee on her toys. Being elbow deep in piss soaked toys was too much for me so we took a step back.

Recently she's been peeing in the grass every time we're outside so we started again yesterday.

So far she's been doing really well. I just came downstairs from putting the baby to nap and she was pooping on the potty by herself.

This is my least favourite parenting task so far.

@bushelandapeck: we are sitting but I say go with whatever he prefers!

Great thread! It does seem like a lot of us are potty training right now.

We started Jaren last week - we are also taking a slow, go with the flow approach. He will be exactly 2.5 next month. I would've waited longer, but we wanted to do it now before he moved up to the next class in daycare since he is so familiar with his teachers and they help potty train.

He was doing really well, and telling us when he needed to pee and if he started to have an accident he would actually hold it in, tell me, then run with me to the potty to finish the job.

THEN, our family got struck with the stomach flu (great timing, huh?), and we had to go back to diapers for a few days and over the weekend so he wasn't diarrheaing all over the place. So here we are again. I put him in undies again this morning, and sent him off to school. DH is traveling this week so I'll be potty training solo, but hopefully he'll remember the progress he made last week and I won't go completely insane.

@bushelandapeck: I heard for boys it's better to teach them sitting starting out bc if you start with standing, they get confused when it comes to pooping... or they can't switch gears fast enough for standing to pee then sitting to poo!

@daniellemybelle: Go for it full force while she's interested!! Learn from my mistake!

@travellingbee: man I am jealous! The one day we sent her in panties, after days of being dry, she had four accidents in three hours.
@birdofafeather: ha! R was super interested and was so excited when she went. Then it was like she was bored with it. It wasn't new and exciting anymore. Frustrating!

E had a serious regression today. 5 accidents. Including pretending to be a frog with shit all over her legs. I'm scared to send her to daycare tomorrow and am tempted to keep her home another day

@daniellemybelle: everything I have read is to not do it when introducing another big change: new sibling, switching day care, transition to bed from crib, etc

I'm joining this thread, but only because I don't know how to start. We've been putting LO on the potty on and off for the last year. He will be 3 in September, and he has peed on the potty twice in the last YEAR. What are signs of readiness? He never has a dry diaper unless he isn't drinking. He won't go on the potty when we put him on it. He likes to sit on the potty, but won't go. Is he just not ready? I feel like I am at a complete loss when it comes to potty training and have no idea what I'm doing.

LO's day care is opposite - they won't start training him until he moves up into the next room, and that won't be until September. So I feel like I can't even start until they move him up.