Potty training for boys - questions

[lecach]

This may be a dumb question. But since my DS is almost 21 months and potty training may not be that far away I was wondering something......is it best to train boys to pee while sitting or should we get a stepstool and train him to pee standing? Or is getting his own potty the best thing to do? And can anyone recommend the best potty?

He seems like he might be starting to get interested in using the potty. He walks in the toilet room and says pee-pee. DH tried sitting him on the toilet when he did that and he didnt like it. Maybe we should get a potty just so he's used to seeing it? We really don't plan to do much training until they start at daycare. Once he moves to the 2 year old room they work on it.

Any advice?

 

[Manda]

I started with him sitting down and very quickly switched to standing up after the first time he wanted to use a public potty. I realized that it was much easier and cleaner to have a little boy who stands up to pee - I can basically just hold him over the toilet and aim. If I were to do it again, I'd start with standing up.

 

[ilovejack02]

I started sitting and then switched over to standing after he got a little taller. It was too hard for him to try to balance on the stool. He is a pretty short kid soo alot of potty's were too tall for us. All of my mommy friends start with sitting and then go on to standing after a little while.
Also, im a fan of the seats that sit on top of the big toilets, and there are portable ones that fold up small for going out in public. Ive had a few friends that were like dont do the seats just make them learn how to sit on the big potty, but my little guy doesnt like to feel like he is going to fall and he felt very insecure about itand FLIPPED the times i tried to put him on it.. so the potty seat worked best for us. I dont like walking around the child potty in bathroom nor am i a fan of cleaning it lol. Take your little guy and let him pick his own potty seat out maybe, mine picked a Dora one out

 

[rt2dz]

we started out doing DS#2 sitting. Not because that is exactly what we wanted to, but he started potty training himself at an early age, and he is such a peanut besides, that even with a stool, he had a hard time with standing.

Now, we did DS#1 standing from the get go. Much easier. 1) It is what is expected of boys anyhow 2) Much more sanitary on the go 3) No hassles of training them to do something else after they have gotten comfortable doing it one way; in some ways, it's like having to do it all twice.

 

[reelmom]

I started my first son with sitting down on his own potty seat. It was fine until we were not at home and then he would freak out about having to use the "big" potty. With my second son, we started with him standing up from day one and it went well. As for being too short out in public, have him stand on your feet when he goes. That way you can still hold him up under his arms but there is a little more control over where it goes because his feet are steady on yours. But each child is different so do what is best for the two of you.

 

[Gillian]

We started DS sitting. He's small for his age. When he got older he switched to standing and it wasn't difficult.

Public toilets were fine. He was able to balance with a little help. I wouldn't have been able to hold him over it, and he was too small to reach.

I also got rid of the little potty as soon as possible and switched to one of those soft inserts. DD 3 is still using a potty, but is starting to give it up (after ~2 months).

 

[KristinU]

We're doing mostly standing, mostly because of public restrooms as mentioned above - DH and I just have DS stand on our feet for a little extra lift

At home I found an awesome little urinal for him - it seemed crazy at first, but we love it! DS can go potty all by himself (he's 2.5) since it is the right height for him and he doesn't need to drag over a step stool or anything. It also saves me from lots of mis-aiming that was happening. Here's a link: Peter Potty

 

[Not so Dumbo]

Both of mine started by sitting backwards. It was easier for them to get on an off. Our bathroom is very small so adding a step stool was out of the question. They were to short to stand and way to young to put the seat up and down. They didn't start to stand for close to a year later. When they had to go in public either DH or I would just hold them over the toilet.

 

[4lilpoohs]

All four of my boys started by sitting backwards. No mess that way None of them liked the potty chair. When we were in public they would do the superbaby pee. We would hold them flat over the toilet.

 

[pweyl36]

My son started sitting too,he's 4 and sometimes he still likes to sit (it freaks my husband out ).but I think its laziness.

 

[mom_of_5]

After training four boys, I would say start with sitting on their own potty to get used to it with a book to keep them busy. I can't give a thumbs up to any particular potty, I still haven't found one I liked. As soon as they get used to the whole potty thing, I switched to standing. Good luck, it is always an adventure!

 

[minkydog]

For pee-pee we found that standing was best. My son loved to aim at targets--cheerios floating in the water. We never had a stool, just a thick dictionary covered with a plastic bag worked for us.

Poo-poo was a little different. He discovered during a bout of diarrhea that going on the toilet was much better than wearing it. Voila! potty-trained!

 

[ilovejack02]

We're doing mostly standing, mostly because of public restrooms as mentioned above - DH and I just have DS stand on our feet for a little extra lift

At home I found an awesome little urinal for him - it seemed crazy at first, but we love it! DS can go potty all by himself (he's 2.5) since it is the right height for him and he doesn't need to drag over a step stool or anything. It also saves me from lots of mis-aiming that was happening. Here's a link: Peter Potty

Ohh thats right id forgotten about that little urinal... hopefully ill remember it for the next boy. By the time I had seen it my little one was already trained, but i thought it was a FAB. idea.

 

[mjkacmom]

I prefer starting them sitting - sometimes it takes longer to get them to poop on the potty, and if they're always standing to pee, they sometimes poop-train late. Plus, standing can and does get messy, especially when they're little. I trained my 5 with a potty seat/toilet seat combo, so they were used to both. I don't like the inserts because sometimes they grow dependent on them, and you have to drag them everywhere for a long time.