So what is the trick? My dd was using the potty like an old pro at the age of 2, yet me 3 1/2 year old son is constantly having accidents. I am SO FRUSTRATED! He was doing well, with no accidents for the longest time, and now the last 5 days in a row he has had accidents. Today's lovely mess was the worst-he took a big old dump in the bath tub. And he thought it was funny.

Any advice? Please help! I am desperate!

Boys are a lot harder to potty train, so hang in there! My oldest son was finally potty trained a month before his third birthday. He was obsessed with dinosaurs, so I bought him dino underware. I told him if he peed on the dinos they would be mad at him. And it worked. Every child has their own trick, the problem is finding what works. Your son may be old enough to start taking privlages away. For example : "You can't play with that toy because it's for big boys, and big boys don't pee in their pants." Good luck though. Let me know how it goes. Oh, and you may want to invest in a carpet cleaner if those things don't work!

I was so lucky my son was totally potty trained in 2 days at age 2 1/2.........what I did was go to the farmers almanac online, they tell you the best astrological days to potty train (yes its weird but my relatives swear by the almanac for weaning cattle and such so I thought what the heck--ps I also did this to wean him off the bottle and both times everything went super smoothly)....... and then I totally got rid of all the diapers (I did warn him it was coming, I had a basket I kept the diapers in and when the basket was empty I told him I wasn't buying anymore...they just magicallly ran out the day the almanac told me to start potty training him!), for the first day he refused to wear the underwear and peed everywhere, the second day he wore the underwear and it just clicked.... he started using the bathroom and the accidents were pretty much over.....for the first few months I slipped a pull up OVER his underwear for naps and bedtime (just so I didnt have a huge mess to clean up if he did have an accident) I wanted him to feel the wet of the underwear because sometimes I dont think a pull up feels any different to them than the diaper. He rarely ever had a wet pull-up (and if it was dry I would re-use it so I didnt even use an entire pkg of pull ups during this training period)....... I did however take our potty seat with us anywhere we went for a couple of months.

I did have a toy up on a shelf and I told him when he was a big boy and using the potty he could have the toy, he really wanted that Mater truck so the second day he got it (after using the potty all day)

Having 2 boys and 1 girl, I have to say my daughter was the WORSE! My oldest son was easy--at 2 he was doing pretty well and was doing everything on the potty but we still had him in pull-ups. A couple of months before my second son was due, he began to regress, so we did not push the issue because we figured he would do some regressing when we brought the baby home. How lucky were we that the exact day that we brought our second son home, the oldest was instantly potty trained and no longer wanted wear pull-ups. He was a big brother now! Now, my second son was a big ol' pain in the butt! At 2 1/2 he was only going pee on the potty and still wearing pull-ups all the time. We tried many forms of bribery--stating at 50 cents, to $5 to a pick out whatever you want at the toy store, to going to Chuck E. Cheese's (his absolute favorite). We even had the staff at daycare tape 5 quarters to the wall for him if he decided to go at school (Yeah, my so REALLY loves money... ). Nothing would convince him to go! Finally when my daughter was six months and obviously not ready to go on the potty, my hubby sat her on the potty and called my middle son up to the bathroom. My hubby then states that his baby sister will be going to Chuck E. Cheese's before him becasue she is going poop on the potty. Oh boy was he ANGRY! He ran downstairs thoroughly upset. Ten minutes later, he disappeared and he called us up to the bathroom. He had gone poop and declared that he needed to go to Chuck E Cheese's. After that he was completely set. My daughter on the other hand did not want to do anything on the potty and was just over 3 when we really started cracking down with her. No form of bribery worked with her at all. We really tried everything and were just going crazy. What ended up working was so simple--a potty chart with stickers--basic smiley ones for pee and special pretty princess ones for poop--in three weeks she was completely potty trained.

So moral--each kid is different and sometimes the wierdest things make it "click" for them. But, yup, it is hard finding that one thing! Good luck!

Thanks for your responses. I'm going to try the chart thing next, then move on to punishement and bribery. He does seem to enjoy peeing off our deck. I draw the line at pooping outdoors, though!

Argh. He just pooped in the sand box! I have had it!

He said "Don't touch my poop. It's my special baby."

One thing I might suggest that no one else has is that he has to clean up his messes. When I was training my kids they had to clean up their accidents. Now, I know they couldn't clean things up perfectly, but they didn't like doing it. Once my daughter wet her bed (she was mad at me because I'd made her sit there to calm down). I had her pull off the sheets and she had to drag them to the washer and put them in. I helped her put in the soap and she had to put them in the dryer and help remake her bed. They had to dump poopy underwear and rinse it and put it in the washer and clean up their bottoms. I think it made a huge difference. All 3 only had accidents for a short time.

It also helped my boys to let them pee standing up (I kept a stool so they could reach).

Good luck!

I'm having trouble training my 3 year old son as well. I've tried the bribery, it doesn't work. He gets candy if he goes and is dry but he has a fit if he doesn't get it. I've put him in underwear now that i'm home 24/7 (first week as a SAHM). We set the kitchen timer for 45 minutes and that works sometimes...if it is on his schedule. I'm so tired of cleaning up messes & doing loads of laundry that are just little boy undies. I'm also up for any suggestions anyone has.

thanks

My daughter potty trained at 20 months! One weekend and she was in her 'pretty panties'.

Now my son was a totally different story. I didn't even start with him until he was a few weeks past his 2nd birthday (now remember this was in the late 80's). But at the same time he had not totally given up his pacifier either. He didn't use it out of the house, but when he was home and especially bed time he wanted it. So I had started noticing that when he would do the worse with his potty training was when he wanted his pacie the most.

Well late that summer - he was over 2 1/2 -- we took a trip to a lake and took the kids fishing. Well they both caught their first crappies -- then my DS got bored with it and started getting interested in other things. All of the sudden he started screaming at the top of his lungs, crying, hopping up and down and screaming no, no, no . . . he was so loud that his grandfather was way across the lake and heard the commotion and came over to see what was wrong!! When we finally got him calmed down trying to see what was wrong -- we couldn't find anything, no bites, no blood, no nothing -- except for a dead minnow in the bottom of the boat and the minnow net laying nearby -- we finally figured out he was playing with the minnow bucket and one of them jumped out and went up and down his legs and scared the crap out of him. In all of the commotion -- he lost his pacie -- we couldn't find it anywhere -- so I told him the fishie must have gotten it -- and he looked at me with his huge brown eyes with the expression on his face of 'Well that fish can just have it!!'

Long story short -- he never asked for his pacie after that day and he never had another accident after that either!

Opinion in the end -- they will do it on the own time when they are ready -- or when they are forced to by something 'bigger' than mom!!LOL!!

Good luck - and sending patience your way!! But the help cleaning up might not be a bad idea!!

I just wanted to add that when I made my kids clean up after themselves, it was a mean "LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" thing. I didn't get angry. I just said "well, you made the mess, you need to clean it up!". I didn't want them to feel bad about themselves for having an accident.
I just felt like it wouldn't be a big deal for them to mess themselves if they didn't have to clean it up!

Jodie

He does try to clean it up himself, and I have caught him throwing away his dirty undies, or throwing them in the washer. Nice little surprise. I think part of it might be that he is concentrating on other things and doesn't want to stop.

This is too funny. My daughter was a breeze to train. I was pregnant and was trying to train her right before she turned 2. I went into the hospital and my mom watched her while I was gone. When I came home she was potty trained. My son is not that bad. If I put a pull up on him he has an accident but if I let him run around naked he goes potty. I put a potty seat upstairs and downstairs. So he has a choice of where to run. He was doing pretty good with only three accidents is three days so I was so proud of him. Then yesterday he pooped in the playroom upstairs where there is carpet! He stepped in it with his new sandels and poop was everywhere. On the carpet, toys, bathroom floor, bathtub, and clothes. My husband got the floor and I got the boy and the bathroom tub. It was a nightmare. I have been letting him run around with minimum clothes and it seems to work. I do understand that he just turned two so I dont feel to upset with him. Good luck.

My mother just read the topic heading over my shoulder and started laughing.

She said that one of my brothers was hard because he never wanted to stop playing to go to the bathroom. He also had accidents for a long time at night because he is such a heavy sleeper that his body didnt get him up in time to go. But the pacifier thing made both of us laugh. The same brother had one till he was 5! Yes 5. It was taken away obviously earlier then that but he and the next child are only 2 years a part and he would always steal the baby's lol. At his 5th birthday we burned, yes set on fire the pacifier to signify the end of that era lol.

Good luck!!!

~Alicia

Thats funny about the pacifiers........my son is 3 and still takes his broken one (no nipple anymore--we pulled it off) to bed, he just holds it in his hand...I think its a security blanket type thing.... I figure at least he isnt sucking on it anymore!

I was just looking up potty training ideas this past weekend because DS #2, who is also almost 3.5 yo still won't go on the potty consistently. This has been going on for months. First son... fairly easy... trained before he turned 3 within two days.

On Saturday I went and bought a Diego potty seat, since big brother's Spongebob potty seat seemed to be an issue. Of course, that hasn't solved the problem.

I'm bribing now with hot wheels. He's just so darn stubborn or 'strong-willed' as they call it now.

I was at the playground not too long ago with the kids, and some woman asked how old my younger son was, and she said 'oh' (with an immediately identifiable snotty tone) 'he's not potty trained yet?' - she had seen that he had a pull-up on. I just replied... oh... he'll get it when he's ready. Boy, I was so pissed. Actually hurt my feelings and made me think that there was something wrong with me or him.

Thank you for starting this post..... nice to know I'm not alone.

I just hope that my little guy can use the potty the three hours on Tuesdays/Thursdays that he is going to be at preschool this year. Maybe the peer pressure there will help. Knowing him, he won't care.

Lin!