Calling on Disney Moms to help with info

[autiger86]

My 3-1/2 year old son is struggling with potty training. By early June, he was completely potty trained as far as going "pee-pee" in the pot, but not so much the other. We took a 3 week vacation in June/July and during that time he totally regressed. He is now struggling with both. We have backed off, but he starts mothers day out in Sept. and he needs to be potty trained. We are also coming to Disney in Feb. so we have used that as an incentive, but it doesn't seem to make an impression on him. I have tried rewards, logic, bribes, etc. and nothing is working. Does anyone have some ideas or insights. I know kids potty train at their own speed and we are not trying to force him, but I sense that this is more of a powerplay for him. Again--please help.

 

[moredisneyplease]

have you tried the total nude approach? What happens when you let him run around naked? I know my son did not like it so he went pee-pee on the potty. HOWEVER, the #2 part took much longer than the #1 part. He's now 3.5 years old and has it down to a tee.

Good luck!

 

[ljcrochet]

I have no clue. One of my girls potty trained herself at about 2 1/2 both day and night. The other one is still not fully potty trained. Funny thing is if you asked me over the weekend I thought she was potty trained, but she has had 3 accidents while at home both today and yesterday. She does much better when we are out and about then when we are home (but she did take her self to the potty to poop on Sunday).
Good luck.

 

[holly7347]

have you tried the total nude approach? What happens when you let him run around naked? I know my son did not like it so he went pee-pee on the potty. HOWEVER, the #2 part took much longer than the #1 part. He's now 3.5 years old and has it down to a tee.

Good luck!

That is how I trained both of my girls. With DD#1 it didn't matter what you put on her - diaper, pullup, cloth diaper, training pants, panties etc she peed in it. But as soon as I just let her go bottomless she almost immediately got it. We did a small kid sized potty with her too. She is scared of nearly everything and the big toilet was just too much for her. I don't know that DD#2 needed to be trained that way but since it worked for #1 I tried it with DD#2 and it worked great again and she trained nearly a year earlier than her big sister.

 

[Tam1067]

I went through something similar with my oldest. My two younger ones were much easier to train, I think because by then, I had figured out the "secret" which is that they'll train themselves when they want to.

A Disney trip several months away won't be an incentive to a three year old.

Are you using Pull-ups or underwear? My oldest did not do well with Pull-ups, I think because he was confused about what to do with them. They feel a lot like diapers after all. You might just have him wear underwear and then he won't like the feel of it when he wets.

You could, on the other hand, tell him he's going to wear diapers because babies who don't go on the potty wear diapers. Big boys wear underwear. End of story.

That's what finally worked for my oldest. He wore diapers for a few days (after doing Pull-ups and struggling and all sorts of issues) and decided they weren't so cool, and that he liked underwear better.

If it's a powerplay, take the power away from him. Tell him the decision is HIS and show him that it does not matter to you what he decides to do. Do not punish him or show frustration or try to reason through the issue with him. Three year olds are not logical.

I also would not mention the school thing to him because he might be anxious about that, too. Just make this a "big boy" thing that he'll do when he's ready.

 

[vcgirl925]

we do the nude approach too. Well they were shirts but no diaper, no pullup, and no undies for two weeks straight. I never did charts or rewards just lots of praise. However my dd is in your ds' boat, she won't do the "other" in the potty yet. But she's only two so i'm not pushing it.

 

[mjkacmom]

Nakey butt fan here, too - works like a charm. 2 of mine had issues with #2, but they still attended preschool, because they would only poop in a diaper - never in underwear.

 

[james'mommy]

We struggled with our DS (who will be 6 in 12 days). He seemed very content to sit in poopy underwear. He also has a with holding issue. We really only in the last year or so have gone accident free. The key for us was to make sure as soon as we saw the poop signs we made him sit on the potty. Some times we would make him push a certain number of times before he could get off the potty. We also used poop prizes. He needed to have a certain number of poops before we would go to target and get a small prize. We've pretty much weaned him off of rewards. The rule is no more poop prizes once he turns 6.

 

[jenb1023]

My DD made it a major power struggle as well. After trying everything - charts, ignoring it, making her sit several times throught the day, etc., we finally gave her the power in a sense but in a different way. We picked a long weekend where we didn't have a lot of plans. I told her she was done wearing diapers. She could choose to go on the potty or she could choose to go in her underwear or on the floor. If she chose to go in her underwear or on the floor, then she had to help clean it up. She went in her underwear or on the floor twice the first day and it never happened again. She "chose" to go on the potty the rest of the time. We used pull-ups at night for several weeks but stopped using those and she might have had two or three accidents in two years.

 

[wrighter]

Oh how I feel your pain!

My DS was a BEAR to train #2. #1 - it took him exactly three days and he never had an accident after that. #2 took about a year. A year of frustration, crying, hysterics, power plays, reward charts, bribes, threats, diapers, pull-ups, underwear, naked butts - you name it, we tried it. It was horrible, horrible, horrible. He would hold it for days if he needed to - the poor kid was so constipated! Very very stubborn, that one. On the advice of my pediatrician we just stopped trying - and eventually he came around on his own.

My DDalmost3, on the other hand, completely trained herself and makes in through naps and nights dry. Who knows?! One thing that did help with reinforcing her good work were visits from the "potty fairy." Each day when she would have a good day, the next morning there was a gift from the potty fairy outside her bedroom door. (These weren't insignificant gifts - it was in the spring, so I stashed all the summer clothes I bought her, bathing suits, shoes, etc - anything that I need to buy her anyway and doled it out day by day from the potty fairy. I did get some toys and a costume the last day the potty fairy came - but mostly I just horded her summer stuff.) She totally dug this. Perhaps with a boy a visit from the "Potty Man" might be more appropriate, but hey, I know where you're at, and I know you're willing to try anything.

Good luck - know that you're not alone! And what they say is actually true - they won't head into kindergarten in diapers. Thank God!

 

[scoobndolliesmom]

My 3-1/2 year old son is struggling with potty training. By early June, he was completely potty trained as far as going "pee-pee" in the pot, but not so much the other. We took a 3 week vacation in June/July and during that time he totally regressed. He is now struggling with both. We have backed off, but he starts mothers day out in Sept. and he needs to be potty trained. We are also coming to Disney in Feb. so we have used that as an incentive, but it doesn't seem to make an impression on him. I have tried rewards, logic, bribes, etc. and nothing is working. Does anyone have some ideas or insights. I know kids potty train at their own speed and we are not trying to force him, but I sense that this is more of a powerplay for him. Again--please help.

I can feel your pain. Both of mine had little regression stages due to major events. I know another post stated this but once we knew that they were able for the most part control the situation we gave them the choice to either go in their underpants or go on the potty. If they did go on the potty they did get some type of reward. My son and daughter both loved stickers and stamps so I bought some that were very appealing. Good Luck-It will come before you know it.

 

[autiger86]

I went through something similar with my oldest. My two younger ones were much easier to train, I think because by then, I had figured out the "secret" which is that they'll train themselves when they want to.

A Disney trip several months away won't be an incentive to a three year old.

Are you using Pull-ups or underwear? My oldest did not do well with Pull-ups, I think because he was confused about what to do with them. They feel a lot like diapers after all. You might just have him wear underwear and then he won't like the feel of it when he wets.

You could, on the other hand, tell him he's going to wear diapers because babies who don't go on the potty wear diapers. Big boys wear underwear. End of story.

That's what finally worked for my oldest. He wore diapers for a few days (after doing Pull-ups and struggling and all sorts of issues) and decided they weren't so cool, and that he liked underwear better.

If it's a powerplay, take the power away from him. Tell him the decision is HIS and show him that it does not matter to you what he decides to do. Do not punish him or show frustration or try to reason through the issue with him. Three year olds are not logical.

I also would not mention the school thing to him because he might be anxious about that, too. Just make this a "big boy" thing that he'll do when he's ready.

I think I will start with the underwear and giving control back to him. My grandmother told me to put him with just a shirt on and let him go outside, but here in Georgia it is so hot and the bugs are horrible. Thank all of you for your responses...I am feeling empowered again. Blessings to you all.

 

[pigget74]

We had a prize sitting on the vanity for when DS went poopy in the potty--he could have cared less. Then one day I bought some stickers and some tattoos. We made a chart for going pee in the potty an dfor every 10 stickers he got a tattoo. For every poop he got a tattoo. Well he cam erunning to me one day and said he went poop--I asked little or big (since he would go a little in the potty and then do the rest in the pull up) He said little and I answered well only big poops get a tattoo. He ran back to the potty and yelled---I got my RATTOO now because I went big. Sure enough he did. Everytime he went he got a new tattoo.

On 4th of July a friend looked at him and said-wow look at those tattoos. You want to see mine. Theguy had about 6 big tattoos on his arms and Joshuas eyes got really big and replied really loud--MR PATRICK YOU GO POOP IN THE POTTY LOTS OF TIMES> Our other friends knew what the tattoos were about, but not him. Everyone in the room was rolling.

Good luck,.

 

[Jenvenza]

Not potty training yet, but I have never heard of the naked method! Very interesting. I can see how that might work though!