Potty Training Boys - Any Advice

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My oldest son who is 6 now took longer potty training, he was 4 when he got it down a couple months before preschool started. His motivation was that he wanted to go to school. He occasionally had accidents that first year of school. My second son who is 3 now was potty trained in a couple months before this school year. His motivation was also getting to go to school. I think you just have to find something that motivates them to use the potty.

Since he is physically able to hold til the diaper is on then he's probably ready to learn how to use the potty. Start by asking him if he needs to go and explain that he can now begin to use the potty. Watch for signs that hes about to pee and gently and matter of factly prompt him towards the potty. When he uses the potty it's happy time for him and you! Games, bribes, books, love and hugs whatever you need to make it pleasurable and non threatening. Game example if needed for boys- aim for the Cheerios in the bowl. :laugh: Good luck!