Potty training (Mothers with sons)***UPDATE

My son will be 2 years old on the 12th of this month. I don't want to start potty training him before he is ready. My sister in law started training my niece when she was 18 months. She didnt get her fully potty trained until almost a year later. I'm not trying to be potty training forever. I would really like to get the basics down in about 2-3 months and have him completely trained in about 6 months.

Is this a reasonable expectation if I am consistent? or am I kidding myself?

So tell me if these are signs....He is starting to cry everytime I tell him it's time to get his diaper change......He walks around holding himself...especially if his diaper is wet. He only poo poos in familiar places...home, grandparents house.

I am taking all the advice I can get. Give me all the secret tips and tricks. I guess I should add that I was a beginners potty training teaching for about a year when I was in college so I know the basics.

I am going to purchase a potty seat next week!!

Thanks Curly Moms!!

It sounds like he might be ready, my advice would be to save the pullups just for night. Kids can easily become dependent on them and make it take much longer. Also if you have like a week free to do it then wait till then so you can go into what i call potty bootcamp and put him every hour on the hour all day. Make sure to praise any goes and do things like ready and sing songs, anything to distract him so he won't mind sitting there. Consistency is the key. Good luck, it was pretty easy training my son, my daughter on the other hand, much diff story.

Thanks New-naturalle. I am a stay at home mom so I have plenty of "free weeks" LOL!!

My son turned 2 on jan 31. I started trying to train him at 18m just because I know it takes longer to train boys than girls (typically). My son is also lazy and although he is ready he only wants to potty when there are stickers involved.

But he is doing very well with it. my advice to you is dont use pull ups they will confuse them for diapers, use potty pants or just plain undies, I use potty pants b/c my son holds a lot of urine (enough said lol) Expect a lot of accidents. stick to a schedule, and use rewards (that's where the stickers come in) I also used a potty chart and when he goes he gets 2 stickers one for him, one for the chart. when he tried he gets a smaller sticker (unless i know he's just trying for the sticker, ie after trying 5 minutes later he tries again) When you start let him just check out the potty chair. Best time to start for my son was when he woke up, it usually was a sure thing that he would go. the first few times he was kinda like what the heck but if he doesn't go any other time of the day, he will at lease wake up and go. Oh and make a HUGE deal about him going potty. I also think the best thing I did as a single mom was let him watch his older cousins go "potty" so he had an idea what it was for. Now he's trying to stand an potty (lol) Let him follow you in the bath room when you have to go too. I know it sounds weird but if your son is anything like mine he first learns by seeing. Another thing I do is when he is in a diaper is when i change him i have him sit on the potty.

I dont think there are any real tricks to it, just to stick to it. I think what helped my son the most was making a HUGE deal out of him going cause mommy got excited and was so proud of her little man. I would call his nanna and dance all around the house sining that he went potty and of course the stickers helped. I also have a potty that sings, and he likes making the potty sing

I hope this helped and sorry if i gave you info you already knew. If you have any tricks that might help me please share!

Thanks JRoshelle!!!

I had a hard time potty-training my son but what worked like a charm was the Elmo's Potty Time Video. I got it from Wal-Mart for around $9.99. I played that video over and over again! I'd also watch it with him. This video also helped to potty-train my daughter when she was 1 and 1/2. I would definitely give it a try. If you can't find the video at Wal-Mart, look it up on www.sesamestreet.org Hope this helps!

Thanks Knatural!!! He loves Elmo!!! I will pick it up the next time I am at Walmart or Target.

I purchased his potty seat today. I was gonna get the Elmo potty seat but decided against it. Once I find some of those little rubber underwear, I am gonna get started.

Anyone know where to purchase them?

Walmart has the thick cloth ones and the plastic ones, just look in the baby underwear section, I think the cloth comes in a pack of 3 and 6 in the plastic. Sometimes for my daughter I would put the cloth ones on first then the plastic so if she went she wouldn't mess up her clothes.

This one is a little advance......
One of the things that I did and my son still remembers this! We played a game! He loved to sink the cheerios/froot loops/rice krispies. Place some in the toilet and let your son aim away! We made it into a game! My son was excited to potty! The seat is cold so boys hate to sit down!

My sister did this with both of her boys and they loved it! let me know your results ladies--!

extra note---brandon was fully potty trained by 28 mos! The pull up was for night time!

new-naturalle wrote:Walmart has the thick cloth ones and the plastic ones, just look in the baby underwear section, I think the cloth comes in a pack of 3 and 6 in the plastic. Sometimes for my daughter I would put the cloth ones on first then the plastic so if she went she wouldn't mess up her clothes.

That's my plan too.

I'm scared to potty train a boy, lol. My son is 10 months old right now so the day will come.

OH, What about the potty dance? When I potty trained my daughter we would dance and sing if she went in the potty. It worked out great. We had our own made up song, but now there's the potty dance from Huggies..I think the commercial is too cute. lol

My son was just plain lazy!! We started potty training at 18 months. He didn't get fully potty trained (big boy underwear 24/7) until he was 3 years and 3 months!! He didn't care if he was wet or poopy at all. I just couldn't understand it. Some days he would go to the potty all on his own, others he just wouldn't be bothered. Then when he was 2 1/2 he would poop in the potty but still pee on himself. I was happy to not have to change poopy diapers so I was kinda okay with it, but I guess he had to take his time and get trained when he was ready. My daughter is 2 and she is a real pro. She wears undies all day and pull ups at night. She has her occasional accidents, but still it is such a breeze. I did potty treats with both of them though, which is just 1 or 2 skittles if they go by themselves. It gets them excited. And like NikG we sang a song and did a dance, however this song and dance is incorporated into every accomplishment they do now from cleaning their room to eating all of their food to being a good listener. They are so cute!

We used pull-ups for along time(1 year and some months) So I just got tiered of buying pull-ups and just took my son to Walmart to pick him out some character underware and he has been potty trained since. However I told him the Diego doesnt like when he pee or stank on him lol .

It's not unreasonable to shoot for being fully trained in 6 months if a) you're consistent and b) he's really ready.


Good luck.

We havent officially started potty training yet but I purchased a potty seat, the potty training underwear (the padded ones), the rubber underwear and the Elmo Potty Time DVD. He watching it as I type. I brought his potty in the den while the video is playing. LOL!!

I think we will start in about a week.

Keep us posted on how it goes LL.

I too had a Potty song for my son and daughter. We started taking him straight to the potty as soon as he woke up in the morning and before he went to bed. During the day (if we were going to be home all day) we did a few things:

1) At the earlier stages, the potty was in what ever room he was in.

2) Later on, we got him his favorite character underwear and told him how upset they would be give he got them wet. That worked.

Good Luck!! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Lynnieluve wrote:We havent officially started potty training yet but I purchased a potty seat, the potty training underwear (the padded ones), the rubber underwear and the Elmo Potty Time DVD. He watching it as I type. I brought his potty in the den while the video is playing. LOL!!

I think we will start in about a week.

So CUTE. I remember that with my first son. Boys tend to be a little harder to train. The eLMO video and cheerio thing was a big hit. My son never liked pullups. He kept using them as diapers. So I waited until the summer and just let him roam around the house pantless. He was so cute and he learned to use the potty. Then we gradually put on the underwear, then pants. He just started to go to bed lately with out his underpant diapers. They grow up so fast. Now we have to do it all over again with my second one. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Potty training my son was hard work - my worst ever parenting chore! We finally achieved full time daytime dryness when he was 3.5 years. Our problem was stubborness and resistance on his part. He actually learned the technical how to do a lot earlier when he was 2 but refused to consistently go in the toilet until 3.5 years.

What worked was taking off all the pressure. No more practice runs, giving him bigger underpants than his size so that the motivation to not soil was increased and getting him involved with helping me clean up and take his undies to the washing machine and get changed into new ones. Just being really positive about it all! I had to really control my reaction with every accident and just be matter of fact. And this worked. He rarely has accidents since then.

So I would recommend giving it 2 weeks and then if no success put him back into diapers and try again in say a month. Be prepared for a lot of accidents to begin with in the first few days as it takes a while to learn something new after doing something naturally for 2 years. And be matter of fact with every accident.

My daughter on the other hand was a piece of cake - she was toilet trained within 2 days but funnily enough in the years following she has had more occasional accidents than my son.

Ok, so purchased "Toilet Training in less than a day" by Nathan H. Azrin and Richard M. Foxx. I dont expect him to be trained in less than a day but I want to have a "guide" to go by and so I wont be flying by the seat of my pants. LOL!!

I have one additional thing stacked again me. My son is not talking but we are still gonna give it a try.

ok so i missed this thread, hmmm!! ok so my son, mason just turned 3 (nov. 22nd) and we started when he turned 1...YES ONE!! mainly becuz 1. im lazy 2. diapers cost too dmn much and 3. im lazy!!

my neice was fully PT'd before she turned 2 and i heard boys are harder to train and blah blah blah! well, on his first bday he did his thing in the potty (attached to the toilet becuz again...im lazy) from there i slacked off a little and didnt really follow thru like i shouldve. we decided that we'd put him in Pre-K for 2 yr olds and they have to be fully pt'd. luckily, his sitter assisted w/pt too.

the key is to for everyone to maintain the same system and schedule. i made sure wherever he went and whomever he was with that they made him go to the bathroom every 3-4hrs. yes its a pain but when diapers cost dmn near $30 for 20 diapers i will take that pain! we started with pull-ups but thats only a form of more expensive diapers.

i fully pt'd mason in 2 wks by his 2nd bday by skippin the pull ups and puttin him in real underwear. they get the full effect of being wet n etc. he does his lil i got a pee dance and goes! it's tough in the beginning tryin to pay attn to their potty signs n etc but whether they talkin or not, they KNOW when they get the feeling to go and need to communicate it. I remember takin the lil detached potty everywhere i went; movies, dinner n etc cuz once u slack its easier for them to fall back.

after he turned 2 and got the hang of it, i didnt spank him for accidents in the bed but i tore his butt UP for being too busy playin outside and not wanting to stop to go to the bathroom. i aint havin it. since bein fully pt'd he's had an accident in my bed maybe 4 times and no accidents since starting school or even if he spends the night over someone's house! big mama aint havin it, lol. shoooot, the money i was spending on diapers can now go BACK in my pocket and into my hair products, lol. everybody is different and learns at their own pace.

i've had parents say "oh u pushin him to early and he'll learn when he's ready" uh...NO cuz those same people talkin aint spending THEIR money on diapers n etc. he dont tell me what to do I RUN THIS show!! i treat him like a lil man i know. my pet peeves are kids WALKIN with pacifiers. by the time they walk they not babies no more. i snatched that pacy out his mouth at 6 months. i literally seen a BOY wit a pacy at 4 yrs old...RIDICK!! full set of teeth n talkin better than news caster wit a pacy!! oh no!! these kids are smarter than we think and no offense to anyone who's let their kids walk around wit diapers past 2 but i cant do it.

LOL!!! Thank you Nubie! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So tomorrow is the BIG DAY!! Potty training full speed ahead. My son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder back in February so I postponed training until I spoke with some professional in that area.

I've decided to use a combination of training underwear and pull ups....underwear during the day at home...and pull ups on outings...but as soon as we return home, I will put his underwear back on.

Wish me luck!!