Still unable to potty-train 3 yr. old.

[AndreaY]

Strangely enough, she has not really wee-ed during sleep since she stopped using nappies during the day. I put nappies on her for sleep but they are dry when she wakes up. This morning was the only morning for the past few weeks that she has wee-ed into her nappy, and that was my fault, cos she woke up and came out of her room, but it was my fault cos I was still busy feeding baby sis so could not get her to the potty in time. Does you son wet himself if you do not wake him? My daughter does not really drink much for about 2 hours before bed ans we try to get her to wee before bedtime, so that maybe why she does not need to middle of the night.

I must say though, I find it quite cute when she is in a rush to wee 1st thing in the morning and then points at what she has done and say "Oooh, a very big one"

 

[carang]

my son sleeps like a log... he doesn't wake up at all, even if he's wet, which is why i am waking him up to go. i'm hoping that he'll get used to getting up to do it and then do it naturally after a while.

the lollipop bribe seemed to work as he got up last night, twice to wee and didn't wet his bed. he also slept later (much) than he normally does... he usually wakes around 6 but this morning it wasn't until 7am! YEAH!

 

[wanfamily]

Andrea, (and anyone else that has gone cold turkey or has any advice...!) When you went cold turkey, did you buy regular knickers or those training pants?
Having a bit of a mad time with mine at the moment. Read all the books on potty training. Unfortunately the 'window' when she seemed just right for it, happened to coincide with 3 months of madness - me having another baby and moving home and country (a big no no in the books). Now we're in a nice routine, but toddler stubborness seems to have set in. She knows when she wants to go, but finds the nearest private space and does it in her nappy there. When we ask her to go to the potty, she screams something like 'no, I'm doing poo poo in the cupboard!!' and if there's a door nearby, she'll slam it shut to stop me going near her. She also seems to enjoy having her nappy changed 'cos it's just like her baby brother. Thinking of just stocking up on detergent, going shopping for big girl knickers / training pants??and not arranging to go out much for a week or so. Ahhhhh!

 

[pooch]

i got bored at home during the typhoon last week so decided to potty train my son (2 yrs 4 months). I have a 5 week old baby as well so all potty training books suggest that it is not a good time to start.....

I went cold turkey - straight into regular underpants on wednesday. he wee'd and poo'd his pants until Friday morning - when to be honest I was thinking I might need to give up as he didn't seem to have a clue what potty training was all about. On Friday afternoon we went to visit a friend of his who is recently potty trained. That afternoon when she went to the toilet. so did he. we haven't had a single accident since. we now reward him with stickers and lollipops to keep up the motivation as sometimes he says "had enough toilet!"

He does prefer the toilet to the potty. We have one of those soft toddler seats on the toilet for him.
I also went out and bought the baby bjorn potty which is far more comfortable for them.

we put a nappy on him for naps and and at night and I can't believe how dry they are when he wakes. Its incredible.

 

[Klam]

Like most of the replies here, I too went cold turkey with my son (2yrs 3 months).
I chose a week when we had no activities and made my husband do all the food shopping (we have no helper) and prepared myself for a week indoors.

The first two days were a nightmare with me spending all day mopping up the floor and feeling really frustrated. However, by the third day, things were improving and my son managed to wee in the toilet sitting on a soft toddlers seat. Everyday improves a little and by day seven he is fully trained.

The main things is you really have to promise yourself to be patient and strong and really go through with it even when you feel like giving up. I was literally crying and felt like giving up after day 2 as there didn't seem to be any improvement but I kept saying, one more day, one more day and it does get better. So hang in there. Some children will take longer than others so don't give up.

My problem now is trying to teach my son to wee standing up. Even after numerous demonstrations by my husband, he still prefers sitting.
Any suggestions?

 

[Klam]

I forgot to add that I decided not to use training pants but just let him roam around in his trousers so that he could feel how wet he was when he wet himself.

 

[wanfamily]

Thanks - I'm inspired and I'm going for it from today. We've just had a big 'you did a wee wee on the toilet' ice - cream celebtration. (She managed it this morning. She didn't have a nappy on at the time, so it may have helped). Going to go shopping for proper knickers just like mummy's in abit and then will have the mop and washing machine on standby. Here goes...!

 

[carang]

the first day we put our boy into underwear, he wet 5 pairs in about 3 hours!

the next day, he was virtually dry with only 1 or 2 accidents.

by the end of the week, he was pretty much trained, at least for the wee... took us a little longer for the poo. i think he didn't want to dirty his potty. but once he finally got one in the pot, he was ok

 

[jenayds]

My son is also 3 and we also did cold turkey a few weeks ago, with stickers etc etc. He does fine if we take him to the toilet at regular intervals (every couple of hours for him). But if we don't tell him to go, he just wees in his pants. We tried telling him that part of being a big boy is knowing when you need to go, and that we wouldn't remind him so much anymore, and he just weed his pants 4 times in a row. After two weeks of this we went back to nappies for a while.

Now I'm not sure when to try big boy pants again. He's apparently supposed to be toilet trained for kindy in a couple of weeks. Can I just send him in pull ups? He's unlikely to poo when he's at kindy, and he can perform on demand when someone sits him on the toilet (they have toilet time in the schedule). So I think it won't be a big problem - guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Klam]

jenayds, you may find that your son will train a lot quicker once he has started kindie. As you mentioned, the school will take them to the toilet on a schedule and he will copy what the other children are doing. Also the aunties and teachers are very helpful.
I have a friend who never really toilet trained her two girls, but sent them to preschool at about two and a half years old. The aunties and teachers at the school took them to the toilet on a schedule, the girls copied other children and they were trained within a week! I'm not saying this will happen to every child, but I think it will definately help for your son to see other children doing the same thing.

Also, you might need a chat with your sons school as some schools don't allow children to be in pull ups when they start K1/nursery (our sons school doesn't allow this). So you might need to put some extra trousers in his bag just in case.