Need potty training help!

[jojo72]

Little monster, that is exactly what I did with my other 2 and it worked well.
Unfortunatley, this isn't working with this one.
I've found that going nappy free isn't a good idea, as he seems to deliberately make a bigger mess! A least the underwear keeps in contained.
His Daddy has demonstrated, and his other brothers have even used the potty to show him!
I've been trying the bribery thing, but it's not working.
Will keep it up and let you know how it goes.

I'm wondering if sending him to school and letting him have a few accidents will help? Anyone done this? or is it just too horrible?
I thought maybe if he saw that all the other children used to bathroom he might be more willing.

[mumsy]

Hi jojo72,
My son also toilet trained very late when he reached 3yrs (he's fine for wee but still has a problem with poo).

From our own experience and although very frustrating, there's just no pushing them - they will become ready in their own time. We attempted toilet training many times over 6 months. If it just wasn't working or he got too upset, we left it and waited another few weeks.

We also decided to bypass the potty stage because we knew there would only be toilets at school. Initially he was very resistant to even going near the toilet and would cry if we tried to make him sit on it, but over time he started to take a interest - in particular pressing the flush button. We would also leave the door open and let him see us using the toilet.

We also tried potty books, DVDs and reward stickers but that never worked. But funnily enough, on his 3rd birthday, one of his presents was a sticker making machine. I said he could only play with it if he had a wee in the toilet, and that was our breakthrough. We agreed that he could choose and make 5 stickers each time, and then stick them onto a large piece of paper to make a collage.

He was supposed to be fully toilet trained for school and I even suggested he start later, but the school were very accommodating and allowed him to go in pull-ups and said that seeing other kids going to the toilet might help his development. Fortunately he's never had a poo at school yet. He's also not the only one not fully toilet trained, and even the ones that are still have the odd accident - it's to be expected at that age.

I'm still having trouble with his poo and the stickers/new toy approach is not working! If no progress is made soon, i might start to get 'mean' and ban all his favourite treats!!

[aussiegal]

Hi Jojo, everyone here has given you good advice but i thought I'd tell you something completely different that a psychologist said to a friend of mine. It might be completely off base but it sounds like you're desperate and willing to hear everything!

My friend's son is even older than yours and has been 'potty training' for over a year. Still won't tell her when he wants to do wee, wets his pants constantly (they took away nappies ages ago) and as for going poo, well you can imagine.

Anyway, he has a very, very regimented life and the psych says that it's his way of controlling the only aspect of his life he has any say in. I have no idea if this applies but it's worth putting it out there. If it's the case I would suggest letting him control a few more things in his life so he doesn't feel so powerless and things might just change.

Good luck. It must be so frustrating.

[Little Monster]

Before I started potty training my son, someone in the supermarket shared her experience in potty training. She put some colorful paper flakes in the toilet bowl, and asked her son to shoot the paper flakes with his pee. Just to make peeing in the toilet a fun thing to do.

I have never tried this. Maybe you can. see if it works. Good luck!

[babybat_mindie]

My husband has a three year old daughter. her mother loves to keep her in diapers as she doesnt want to do any work. We tried several things and some worked some did not.

Potty chart: putting stickers and getting stickers; didnt work stickers were fun for her for a day and then she didnt care about them any more.

Rewards: food; she doesnt like anything really but cheese so if she eats cheese all day then she doesnt feel its an award, so alas it didnt work

Showing her we use the potty: my husband and I BOTH showed her we use the potty. my husband even sat on the toilet to go pee. we bought her a training potty and set it across from our potty and put her in underware, when we went potty, we would make her sit on her potty. she barely wet her pants and she did awsome we had her trained compleatly in four days!

With our son (since we live in the middle of no where) we are just gunna take him out back and let him whis outside, my husband picked up this trait from his grandfather when they would go out in the woods or be out doing yardwork. it trained him. so we will try it out on our son when the time comes!