Chris and I have had the most difficult time potty training our youngest son Joshua. He will be 4 in March. He is a big 3 year old weighing the same as his 5 year old brother and wearing the same shoe size. His development seems a little slower than my first 2 boys as far as potty training and speech. This made potty training very hard. As I wasn't sure if he just didn't comprehend that poo-poo needs to go into the potty or if he was being rebellious. I have friends that will tell you to just spank them when they use the bathroom on themselves. Then there are others who say to just wait until they ask to go to the bathroom by themselves.
Well about 2 and half months ago I put Joshua in underwear full time except for bedtime. I just told myself I would try some potty training boot camp for 2 weeks and see how it went. This helped with pee-pee right away and he even began going independently about 1 month ago. The first month and a half of potty training myself or Chris would rush him to the potty when we saw him grabbing himself and doing the "potty dance". He has had very few pee-pee accidents and even wakes up most of the time with a dry diaper.
The poo-poo was taking a little longer okay A LOT longer than I had originally anticipated! We only had 2 times where we got Joshua to the potty in time for poo-poo. The other times which are too many to count happened in his underwear or in the bathtub.We made a bucket in the laundry room especially for the poopy underwear to soak in.
I felt like I was trying everything I even researched online....lol. Here are some of the things we tried to motivate our little guy to potty:
1)We rented a potty training movie from the library called "Potty Power".
2)We read "The Potty Train" book to him.
3)We got him a Lightning McQueen soft potty seat to sit on.
4)I played this little piggy with his toes while he sat on the potty.
Nothing absolutely nothing seemed to be getting through to him! Then finally yesterday he went to the potty all by himself and came back and said "poo-poo in the potty" and was jumping up and down in excitement. I looked in his underwear and no poop! Today he did the same thing! I will tell you that he needs some help wiping his butt....however that is so much better than rinsing out poopy underwear! So I am really excited my 3 year old boy is finally using the potty for both pee-pee and poo-poo! Has anyone else had a hard time with a little boy not going potty at 3 years old?
8 comments:
bless you! I waited until 3 when I tried to train my 3 and all 3 worked out pretty easy.
They are all different- takes lots of patience to be a good parent and your children are blessed to have you.
Did you have all boys Rhonda? I am learning that children are very very different even when raised in the same environment! It is still hard not to compare my children with each other in their different stages of developement. My little girl is way more advanced for her age than any of her 3 older brothers were.
Hi! Im an old college mate of Chris'! I've got a 3.5yr old boy. I have had the same issues. He did however do peepee fine. I took a week off work for Christmas last year and got him trained by making him wear underwear around the house with no pants and drinking lots of water. I would ask him if he needed to pee about every 20 minutes and take him to the potty and remind him thats where he pees. He wet himself a few times before he got the hang of it and he caught on quick by the second or third day. Now pooping has been the real struggle. He says he's scared of sitting on the potty and refuses to. He wears big boy underwear and will actually poop in them. He wont wear a diaper anymore. When he does this I ask him if hed like to try the potty but he screams and says he is scared. We have tried everythong from punishments to rewards including just anout everything youve done (minus the hose but we did try the shower sprayer!). My husband insists that shaming him and making him understand that by pooping in his pants he's being a baby and its bad. But I feel like he will do this on his own time and we shouldnt shame him but encourage him. Its gotten so bad that daycare is having a hard time because they cannot soak soiled underwear due to health laws and want him to atleast wear a pullup for ease of changing but he knows the pullup is like a diaper and refuses. I think when he poops in the underwear they fuss at him and it scares him bc he's been holding in his poop during the day and is getting very bad constipation now to the point he's coming home and its hurting him to go. We've had him checked by pediatrician and specialist and they say everything is fine and he will do this when hes ready . In fact he's trying to go right now. I did notice that when he goes he is standing straight up and down. Maybe sitting on the toilet is an awkward position to him so I tried to show him how to squat and bend. But he couldnt get the hang of it. This is all incredibly frustrating and we only want him to be healthy and not in pain. We are at our wits end. Any advice?
both my boys didn't get fully trained until 3.5. I think each child is different and I found the more I pushed them and more frustrated I got, the less they wanted to do it because it became a real negative experience.
After prayer and discussion we decided to just stop pushing and training, and about a month after that, my first son did it on his own. So I after a few failed attempts with my second son, I decided to wait until he was ready too, even though he was already 3.5. Potty training can be so overwhelming, especially with big boys who we think SHOULD be trained already. But having patience and doing in love is the best advice I received and when I yielded to that, it worked out much better!
You must be so excited your son is doing so well now. Yeah!
Aimee, I definitely can understand your frustration. We did alot of things wrong with potty training the first boy we had. We had some friends with 2 year old boys potty trained and they swore up and down the way they got them to potty was by spanking them after accidents. We tried this and found that our almost 3 year old was holding his poop in for long time periods causing constipation. Right at 3 he starting going poop by himself. Our 2nd boy basically potty trained by himself a couple weeks after turning 3 & I never spanked him. I wrongly assumed that our 3rd boy would just automatically start to use the potty by himself right around 3, but for whatever reason we had very little success at 3 then 3 &1/2 rolled around and still nothing. So at 3 & 7 months I decided I would just put on big boy underwear and watch him like a hawk for any signs of using the potty. It took over 2 months to fully train him, but it was worth every poopy underwear wash. I think some husbands put more pressure on their sons and want to see some negative reinforcement for accidents just because they feel like they are being disobedient and don't want their child to get away with what they feel is rebellion. There has to be a balance of postive and negative reinforcement as with any ,child training just like in the real world. I wouldn't worry about it too much though, In the meantime will the day care let him wear a pull up?
Andrea what a great point in praying and discussion with your spouse. Being on the same page is definitly the greatest tool in child training!
Sorry I just reread the part of him refusing to wear a pull up. Christmas break is coming up again so maybe some more one on one training time with your little guy will help =)
Way to go Josh!!
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