Potty Training Boys - Any Advice

MorganLeighRN

Boys are tough to potty train. I would just plain go cold turkey and no more diaper at all. Make a big deal about how he has grown up so much that he doesn't need "baby" diapers anymore. That was the only way I could get my son to stop going potty in his pullups.

^^This! Don't use diapers or pullups even during naps or bed time. He will learn to not like the wet or soiled clothes in no time. Once I switched my son over to this method, it took him about 2 days to be potty trained. Plan to stay home and do a LOT of laundry though, but it is much easier than fighting with pullups.

trophywife24

My older son was super, super easy to train. He trained right at 2 years old (but wore a pull up at night until he was just about 3), very few accidents and just caught on super, super fast.

My youngst is 2 years, 5 months old and has NO interest in the potty. If you ask him if he wants to use it, he says NOOOOOO! No potty! lol. It sort of scares him. I'm trying not to compare him to his big brother but come on, kid. I knew we wouldn't get luck twice.

I would train him sittng down, for sure. I would also skip the pull-ups for during the day and just deal with the extra laundry for a little while. Also find him an incentive. My oldest is a candy nut so we gave him an m&m if he peed and two if he pooped and it worked like a charm. You can do a stick chart with rewards, anything you want after you find what their currancy is.

natalie412

I second the cold turkey thing. My son was very stubborn and had major constipation issues. Potty training actually resolved that, but it took my husband deciding he had had enough and sitting him on the toilet until he did something. We had tried rewards, etc, and it just didn't work with him. Yes there was crying involved, and a little yelling, but it only took about 2 days of him spending a lot of time on the toilet. He is a very tough kid!

Wonderwoman2677

I've always believed you really need to let them show you when they're ready. If he's only going in his diapers he could get a UTI from holding his pee. Sounds like he's not ready. Offer treats as incentive, but putting him in underwear will just stress both of you out. If you haven't already, get a man to show him how to pee standing up. I didn't do this with my son, thinking he would learn on his own when he wanted to... he's 9 now and is just now learning What a mess! Read up about it on Parents.com.

c8linmarie

I tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, to no avail. I was starting to wonder if he was going to attend college in diapers :laugh:

He has no siblings, which made it even harder, because there was no one around to "mimic", as most children like to do. In order to get him around other children, we put him in a Montessori school. After a few months of being around older children and seeing them go to the restroom, he decided one day, that he wanted to do the same. Go figure, eh?? There was no poking, no prodding. Just sauntered into the bathroom one day, pulls down his pants, gets on his step stool (he hates those training potties) and aimed perfectly into the toilet. :noway:

Moral of the story: No matter how hard you try, they will do it in their own time, at their own pace.

caseythirteen

My son was late to potty train - he just wasn't ready. We made the mistake of trying to early and it backfiring on us. My advice would be to make sure to wait until you know he can handle it. Although since you have already gone this far, I can't see going back. Talk it up, let him know it's what big guys do, etc. Can your husband take him in there so they can pee together?

dperich1968

My son is now 20yo and I placed him backwards on the toilet, facing the tank, and used the cheerio method. Consistency and patience is the key. Tons of praise about what a big boy he was and we were done in a weekend.

Shannon2714

my son was stubborn too. What worked pretty well was having him go bottomless around the house. As soon as he'd come home from daycare, I'd strip him down. He never had an accident when he was 1/2 naked. Put a pullup or undies on him, and he'd wet them and not care. :grumble:

This is exactly what worked for us. We have two boys, and when our first one was 3, he still had no interest in the potty. My grandmother was the one that said to let him go naked for a few days. So, we did....and in 2 days he was completely potty trained. He's never had a single accident since. Our youngest is 4 now, it worked great for him, too...but he still needs a pullup at night. I'm perfectly fine with that, at this point!

Good luck!!

Lyssa62

did not read through all the comments so if this is a duplicate -- I'm sorry in advance.

use white underwear. Not even kidding. I thought my son would end up going from diapers to depends with nothing in between. Even had him go through batteries of tests to make sure nothing was physically wrong with him. After having a daughter potty train herself at 1 year (no lie)..this was frustrating to say the least. I was at my wits end and somebody asked if I had him in the cute little full of dye underwear...well of course I did. they said switch to white. I laughed and scoffed after doing everything short of inserting a pee bag on that kid....I kid you not. The very first day I put him in those white underwear ..the problem was resolved. I still to this day SMH over it..but it worked.



I feel for you..cuz it can be tough...those darn boys! gotta love em!

toomuchbootyindapants

My daughter was the PITA while potty training - my son (who was four years younger than her, so he had a role model/influence to help out in this area) was only 2.5 years when he was fully potty trained. Not sure if what we did to encourage it will work for you - but it's worth a shot. We were fortunate that he was training during summer months so we put him in a shirt, no bottoms, and had him running around the backyard to play. We'd ask him if he had to use the potty frequently. A few accidents dripping down his leg and he started to realize he was doing it wrong. We also used a LOT of positive reinforcement - but not just in the typical way of "hey kid, here's a star if you tinkle in the toilet" or "here's an M&M for your efforts". I had a treasure box and I filled it with little toys (like $1 toys or race cars, monster trucks, etc...stickers...just a grab bag of stuff). The initial investment was a little more costly than a bag of M&Ms...but it was WAY more fun to use the potty and get to pick from the treasure box! We used the treasure box more for when he pooped on the toilet since he seemed to pick up quickly on peeing in the pot. It didn't take long at all to have him fully trained and my in-laws were well impressed by this method. HAH!

TR0berts

I was difficult to train as a young boy - or so my mother tells me. My parents had one of those small wooden child's toilets. Apparently, I wasn't a fan. One day, they decided to get me one of those little plastic (I think it was plastic?) toilets that looked like a real one. Apparently, that's all it took - a smaller version of a "big boy's toilet."

sylwheat

Been patience, and wait till he is ready. I have two boys. Once I took the diaper off, I used underwear - no pull ups. Don't go back to diapers and you won't have too if he is ready. Let him "stand" like the big boys. My husband would take the boys with him everytime he went to the restroom. Both were very easy to train - but I did wait till they were ready, I think @ 2yrs old.

tabbykat6802

I am working w/ my youngest son(3) right now. The daycare started him some time ago and he seems to do pretty well w/ them. It's when he get home that it all goes downhill. Almost as soon as he walks through the door, he pees his pants. Lately he's done much better, showing/saying that he needs to go potty and sometimes being successful. Praises galore. Offered him a piece of halloween candy once, but he doesn't seem to depend on that treat, thank goodness.

My other 2 boys(now 9 & 7) didn't start until after their 4th birthdays(the lightbulb just clicked a few days afterwards). For my oldest: we(and my inlaws)t had a toy jar set up, so that he got a quarter for #1 & 2 quarters for #2. once the jar was full, he got to buy his toy. Chocolate worked for my middle son.

I was so happy when my youngest started out earlier than his brothers, but it has ended up being a slow going affair. Since we are not home most of the weekends, I have hesistated on going underoos only.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

My son is 3. As soon as I decided to let him stand to pee my son liked peeing on the potty. If he's not tall enough buy a stool and let him stand on that. We've just gotten rid of the last diaper, I told him that he's too big and they don't make them in his size anymore (we do use pull ups for nap time and bed time, he woke up dry this morning). I was very much against pull ups at all but they don't take the moisture away from the body the way that diapers do so when he pees or poops in them it's not comfortable like a diaper. I let him pick out his own character underwear, and we used to say "okay Bud, now remember that [Thomas, Buzz, Lightening, etc] doesn't like to be peed or pooped on." At one point I bought the thick white training pants and plastic covers, I sat him down and told him that if he kept pottying in his pants he'd have to wear those, I put him in his character pants and when he pottied in those I switched him to the trainers and plastic and he hated it. We would set the timer to take him every 30 minutes to try pottying, it takes them a while to learn what it feels like to have to pee before they HAVE TO PEE. We do treats at the end of the day when he's had a good day. We're still struggling with pooping, so that's become our focus now. We're at a point where we're not only giving rewards for pooping on the potty (2 chocolate chips) but we're going to start taking toys away when he goes in his pants which he can earn back by having 1 full good day. Hopefully this will work, I'm tired of cleaning poop off of everything.

n2thenight24

my son was stubborn too. What worked pretty well was having him go bottomless around the house. As soon as he'd come home from daycare, I'd strip him down. He never had an accident when he was 1/2 naked. Put a pullup or undies on him, and he'd wet them and not care. :grumble:

This is exactly what worked for us. We have two boys, and when our first one was 3, he still had no interest in the potty. My grandmother was the one that said to let him go naked for a few days. So, we did....and in 2 days he was completely potty trained. He's never had a single accident since. Our youngest is 4 now, it worked great for him, too...but he still needs a pullup at night. I'm perfectly fine with that, at this point!

Good luck!!

These!! I let both my boys just run around naked when they got closer to 3 years old. I never pressured them to use the potty, I just kept them naked, worked like a charm for both boys and as my pediatrician told me, just relax, have you ever heard of a 1st grader in diapers? They will learn when they are ready!!

caroldot

Boys are much harder for some reason! I had a 2 story home at the time so we had potty's all over the house for a while. He also never sat to go pee-pee like most kids start out - he did it like Daddy. My husband would have him come along when he had to go so he could see they're both boys & this is how this works.

Try putting cheerios in the toilet for him to aim at.

You could also try a reward chart on the wall. Everytime he goes potty, he gets a star & after so many he gets a reward. It can be something like a matchbox car.

My pediatrician also told me not to stress. Every child is different and will do it when they're ready. When my son decided he was ready, it was like it literally happened over night. And he was about 3 1/2 when it finally happenened.

caroldot

Also - someone probably mentioned this as well but let them run around naked! I know its not ideal weather for that right now but at least for a little while each day will help!

JessieGurlJb

I went with "poop candy" i put m&m's in a jar in the bathroom.. showed my son that i was doing it.. showed him to go pee and got myself and him a piece of candy. then i got a potty doll (it was a boy potty doll) and showed him how the baby goes pee in the potty.. then he and the baby both got one candy.. (he got to eat the dolls piece after "feeding it") then i would show him the doll having an accident on the kitchen floor.. we would together tell the doll NO NO and show it to the potty.. i did this several times a day to remind him.. when he went poop in the potty he would get an extra piece of candy. eventually i phased out the candy and the doll. my son turned 3 in september and has been completely off diapers or pull ups for 6 months.

Juliejustsaying

I have two boys...and I'll be honest...I just waiting until they were ready. They were both 4 years old...and one day I said. Well, I don't have any money for diapers, so you're going to have to use the potty.

Worked...

good luck...boys are the best...

mathjulz

As soon as it becomes a power struggle, you've lost. Trust me, my oldest son wasn't trained until after he turned 4 simply because he could really dig in and I didn't get it to stop pushing.

I looked at his favorite big-boy activities. It was the nintendo. I told him that Nintendo is for big kids, like his sister, and big kids use the potty not diapers. So no more Nintendo. He actually "didn't want" the video games for a couple of months :laugh: I didn't even mention potty for a while. But then when he started wanting to play again, I reminded him that it was for big boys. He decided that spring (right after he turned 4) that he wanted to go potty, and he was 100% trained in about a week.

Anyway, my point is to make sure that you don't make it a power struggle. Find something that motivates him, maybe, but don't worry too much. You have 10 months still.

Oh, and have him always sit down to start - that way he doesn't have to think about if he needs to stand or sit. The delay can cause him to have an accident. He'll learn to stand soon enough.