so my 2 1/2 year old started potty training on tuesday. i've been at work every day and i leave before he's up. i pick my sons up from daycare at about 4:30 and then they're all mine for the night as my husband works nights. i came home tuesday at about 5:15 with all 3 kids to find a turd on my pillow. no kidding -yes, i did say a turd on my pillow. yesterday he peed on the floor of our neighbor's garage & in the kitchen & pooped his pants once again, in my room. (i wonder why my bedroom brings out the best in him) so, he's gone potty in the toilet at the babysitter's twice and not even once at home. tonight he peed in the cart at target. i was there buying those plastic training pants. very ironic. so i put him in the new training pants for the ride home. ate a little supper and now he just peed and pooped in the new frickin' pants!!!

I cannot wait until bedtime. i had baby fever up until the turd fairy appeared.

ok, i'm off to stalk the boy.

Were you in my Walmart last night? There was a line of poops all along the cashiers, then curved into the restroom. Two employees were standing there in disgust, speaking in Spanish, I would have loved to know what they were saying. Prob fighting over the lucky soul who gets to clean it up.

Have you seen my potty training boys thread? I feel your pain. My ds pooped on the swingset the other day and went down the slide, leaving a lovely skidmark.

ok, that gave me a little chuckle. i have read that thread. this is my 3rd child. i feel your pain. i did go to wal-mart last night. to buy a new frickin' pillow! fortunately i went before i picked up the kids from day care!

Anything poop or poot related, my ds thinks is hilarious. He thinks the potty is a big joke.

LOL I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it. And, yes, I know I will pay for it. I've been trying to get my younges interested in the potty. She will be three on Sept. 6th and the only interest she shows in it is that once in a while she'll sit on it and then ask for me to read her a story.

I've tried reading, I've tried telling her I won't read until she does something on the potty, and I've even tried letting her "play" with warm water in a cup while sitting on the potty. I didn't have this much of a hard time with my son or older daughter when they were younger and both were trained (or at least reasonably so) by this age. My little one is really giving me a hard time with this one.

Hope it goes better for you, imagine76.

I know I have posted this before, but I potty trained my kid by the sign of the moon in the farmers almanac, I know it sounds nuts, but I also weaned him off the bottle when the time was right (My farmer relatives swear by this almanac when weaning their livestock so whatever i will try it), anyway potty training is on the list, my 2 1/2 yr old was trained in 2 days yes 2 days. (he is now just past 3 years old)... I also have a 3 month old so we will just have to see if it was a fluke or not. My son WAS SUPER STUBBORN. Here is what I did.... first a countdown to no more diapers, I kept diapers in a basket and I said when those diapers are gone there are no more (to which he replied "we go to the store and get some more" and I said "nope you are a big boy" he said "NO I AM NOT" I ignored it lol)....... anyway every other day or so i would point out the basket and say oh look not many diapers left etc.....did this for a week, when he went to bed the night before the almanac date to try, I got rid of the last diaper.....when he came down the next morning only underwear were in the basket, he through a fit like you would not believe, wouldnt wear the underwear, i said fine go without, and wear this long t-shirt so you dont flash your older cousin all day. He peed on the carpet ALL DAY LONG, no matter how many times i sat him on the potty seat, he peed, I told my mom .....this almanac stuff is total crap.....she told me something about rome not being built in a day, yadda yadda....for bedtime I put a pullup OVER his underwear, i read that they need to feel the wetness and lots of kids think the pull up is just a new kind of diaper, so i wanted him to feel uncomfortable but I didnt want to be cleaning up the mess. The next day started out much like the first, I got teary eyed after the second round of carpet cleaning, now whether it was my tears or he got tired of hearing the carpet cleaner, that WAS THE LAST intentional accident! We have had maybe 10 accidents in 10 months since that day, and most of them have been because he drank too much before a nap and I was silly enough not to make him go before bed, and even those he makes it out of bed and right into the bathroom before he has the accident.

Anyway here is the link to the almanac thingy

http://www.almanac.com/astrology/index.php

potty training dates are around the bottom third of the list.

I'm sorry but I'm laughing so hard right now. Poop on your pillow! I laughed at the last potty training thread too where the little boy pooped in the sandbox and told his mom not to touch because it was his baby . Karma will get me though, I have a 2 year old. Poop will be everywhere.
Anyways, down to business. What worked with my oldest son is I bought him dinosaur underwear (he's totally obessed with dinos), and I told him if he peed on the dinosaurs they would get mad at him. He was potty trained in less than a week.
O.K., so I have to know, did he place the poop on your pillow, or did it just happen to land there? I'm picturing all of this and still laughing my butt off!

Have you tried offering some kind of treat when he goes in the potty, I put my girls on every hour and offered my oldest stickers every time she went. I started working with both my kids when they were 18mths(most ppl work so it would be tough to do that so early, but im a SAHM mom) So my older DD took a while before she was completly accident free(few months) but my younger DD (she'll be 2 in OCT) was completely potty trained in 1 week, this kid is so stubborn so i was quite impressed with her swiftness! I guess im saying just hang in there, all kids are different, but itll happen sooner or later, of course that doesnt make you feel anybetter when you're scrubbing your carpet

I have to say thanks for the laughs

I will give you the same words of wisdom my mother gave me when training my youngest son (who had no interest in the pot at all) "Don't worry he won't wear diapers to school the other kids will make fun of him"

I truly thought he would never be trained, and it was really because he is stubborn, he was 3 or older before he decided he wanted a big boy bike like his brother, well, simply put big boy bikes are for big boys and big boys go on the pot not in their pants, well i had a long weekend and by the end of that weekend we were at the store buying a two wheel bicycle.

Just know he will go when he is ready, and no he won't wear those diapers to school even if it feels like he will be.

I'm in the same boat! I've tried everything and for a week he will be great and then he will pee and poop wherever. I even do the "pee pee in the potty" dance and he just laughs.

Heaven help me.

Thank goodness those days are in my past!! But you did remind me of the memorable moment during my son's potty training when he managed to pee in his own eye.

I do feel for you. Both of my kids were 3 before they showed the least little bit of interest. DD trained really quickly and easily when she was ready, but DS was horrible! He would drop trou and pee anytime and anywhere the urge arose. Eventually I gave up and let him (and the babysitter! ) get there on his own. He was fully trained within a month or so, I think it helped a lot that his babysitter had a bunch of kids training at the same time, so he wanted to be like his friends.
I definitely took the lazy approach, but it kept me sane!

ok, so i've told him if he pees his pants he'll make nemo cry -he pooped in stead of peed. i offered him jelly beans if he pees. nothin'
i've read books. nothin'. i've tried making him clean up the mess. he loves doing laundry (god bless that turd fairy!) i have through monday off so i'm going at him full force. i'm going to try to get my DH to take the other kids someplace tomorrow for a while so i can focus on the little guy. my house is a wreck. there's just 1 clean spot on the kitchen floor. it's where DH cleaned up a pee puddle yesterday.

i might be pretty drunk by this time tomorrow night. i think there's a bottle of tequila around here someplace...

I've got tequila and rum! The only thing that worked for me (for a little while) was a happy pee pee candle. I know funny but that was the only thing that interested him. If he peed then I would let him blow out the candle. He would come to me and say "happy pee pee in the the potty". It worked for about a week. He has high functioning autism, so I know that comes into play. Any other suggestions, ladies?

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack this thread

Imagine 76-you're saying your dh cleans up pee pudldes? Lucky you.

I just made an emergency trip to the liquor store. I need chardonnay for a recipe.

I have HAD IT WITH POTTY TRAINING!!!!! PRESCHOOL STARTS ON TUESDAY!!!! I will kill myself if ds gets kicked out b/c of potty training. I need a break!

Some kids take longer than others to potty train. With my first DD it took a very short time. She was just about 3 when she was potty trained. My middle DD...GOOD GOSH!! She was the stubborn one. She wasn't potty trained until she was 4. I thought she was never going to be potty trained. My youngest DD who is 2 1/2 is now showing some interest. She's used the potty a few times. She also knows our deal when you poop for the first time in the potty you get to go to Chucky Cheese. It was the funniest thing. She pooped in the potty and she said "Look mommy I did big poopies just like daddy does! I get to go to Chucky Cheese now?" I could hardly breathe after she said that from laughing so hard. Needless to say she got to go to Chucky Cheese. Maybe take him to the store to pick out "big boy underwear". My youngest just got her some My Little Pony panties. She's very excited about them. That's all she's talked about lately. Trust me he'll do it when he's ready. Obviously he's not ready yet. Good luck!

The ONLY thing that worked for my lil one was I told her older sister (who potty trained in 2 days with 2 accidents) that every time her sister used the potty, they BOTH would get a lollipop.

You dang well believe my older child had her sister making so many trips to the potty that she had no chance to have an accident. Hubby and I were busting up laughing the one night we heard from the bathroom "Hurry up and do something in that potty, I want a lollipop.....come on, you can do something and we'll BOTH get a lollipop, don't you want a lollipop?"

michelle you are cracking me up!

and, DH cleaned up. obviously i wasn't home.

hhmmm.... chardonnay... i might need some for a recipe too...

your DH needs a turd on his pillow! should i send joey over?

I dunno, Imagine, my son, also known as "Skidmarks" seems to be covering all surfaces in our house w/ fecal matter. Have you ever seen those Dateline type shows that show how dirty hotels are with a black light? God help me if anyone ever does that to my house.

we had a small breakthrough! joey peed in the toilet at a friend's house last night!!!

he goes at daycare once every day but won't go at home. i don't get it.

he really seems unphased by it all.

i'm impressed with myself for not freaking out about all the icky stuff i've cleaned up in the past week. i'll be so happy when it's over!!!

I'm going to write all of this down, so that I can torment him when he's older.

My guy pooped on the potty today, then made everyone come look at it, b/c it was HUGE (it was).

Okay, I'm happily training kid number 4. Here's my trick. Don't even try it with a boy until they are 3 years old. Mine has practically trained himself. If you have to keep asking if they have to go, then the child isn't trained, you are. Mine tells me when he has to go, I don't even ask. I'd much rather change diapers for 6 more months than start too soon and constantly be cleaning messes. Of course, I could just be lazy but it works for me.

And I do feel your pain. I've always said that potty training is the worst part of parenthood. I'd rather give birth again than potty train.

he pooped in the potty last night! he was so proud of himself it was SO cute! we called daddy at work, and grandma, and a few other family members. we sang the potty in the pot song, and the biggest deal... he got to choose 2 jelly beans! very exciting stuff!!

then my 4 year old wet the bed at 4 AM. -can't win 'em all i guess!

I'm on the preschool board at my church and we had a meeting last night. We have a new director and we were talking about our potty training policy. She believes neither kids or parents should be put through the stress of HAVING to potty train kids so they can go to preschool - YEAH.

My personaly view is that very few kids are actually potty trained when they're young, they are instead parent trained. Parents ask kids every hour or take kids every hour and the parents are doing basically everything. NOT FOR ME!!! Hey if it works for some great, it's just not me. My kids all potty trained quickly, but their ages varied. I waited until they could recognize they could go, get their pants off and on, wipe and wash their hands all on their own. THAT is what i consider potty trained. My oldest daughter was almost four, but her younger sister (15 months younger) potty trained soon after seeing her sister do it. My other two kids were somewhere between 2 and 3 also.

I did have some trouble with one daughter not wanting to poop in the potty. She had no trouble peeing, but didn't want to poop. We went to the store, she picked out a present and we made a chart. Once she had pooped in the potty 12 times she got her present. It still took a while, but the last 6 stars were all in a row and she never had a problem after that.

I think that diapers are way easier than potty training, but jeez, I've gotta get this kid into preschool!

Okay, let me say that I am enjoying all the stories and frustrations of potty training. I had an infant daycare for 15 years and I can tell you that I had a very good record at potty training both boys and girls before they turned 3. After 3 they are more independent and can outsmart even the best of us.

I would first tell the parents that when they were ready to potty train to first stop all liquids at night. The last drink should be no later than 7:00 p.m. Then after they master that task, they could start to train. I then would ask them to get big boy and girl underpants. No pullups or diapers except when going to a store or for bedtime. The child does need to understand that it is ucky being wet and dirty. Get them to pick out their underpants so that they can be proud of their choice.

Now for the fun part. I would tell the parents never say "Do you want to potty?" Guess what the answer will be. "NO" You need to say something like, "Do you want to eat (favorite treat, juice, fruit, etc.)? Well, you need to go potty first and then you can have some." No bargaining. If they don't go, they don't eat. Then a couple hours later, say, "Do you want to go outside? Go potty so we can go play outside." Do not take them until they go. You can say "Do you want to watch (favorite tv show)? Go potty and you can watch." Do you see how this works? In order to do something that they want to do, you make them go potty first or it's a no deal breaker.

For the mother's with boys, I would first put them sitting on the toilet facing the back and tell them to hold on to the back seat. This would make them aim down in the right direction. Then when they could do this with control, they would graduate to a step stool with their name on it. If they went outside of the bowl, I had wipes for them to use to clean it up.

When they started potting on a regular basis, I would get a calendar and at the end of the day, they would put a sticker on the calendar if they did not have an accident. When they got 5 stickers, they got to choose a book or some other small token from a box of goodies as a reward for no accidents. They were so proud to show their parents their reward. Once they went a month without an accident they would get a bigger reward that they would pick out. That was the end of rewards. Then they would teach the next child with me and help them choose a reward. It rarely took me more than a month to totally potty train a child as long as the parents cooperated. You just need to make them think that they can control their choices of whether or not to wet their pants. I would of course have a child once in a while beg me for a reward as soon as the mother would walk in the door and I would then look at the child and say, go in the bathroom and get your wet pants that were wrapped in a plastic bag and that is your reward for the day. They did not like that reward and would remember it the next day. It may seem mean, but they are little pros at mentally wearing you down to get what they want. That is why a calendar works, it is visual for them.

Oh, I forgot to say that when they did wet their pants, I would not rush to change them, I would get the cleaner and a rag and would have them help me clean it up and let them stay wet for a little while until I could see that they did not like it and then they would get changed. Yes, some children do not care if they are wet, but they do not get to do any fun stuff until they go potty and they stay wet until they potty. This seems harsh, but it works. For those who say don't force a child, this is not force, it is their choice. You do have to explain to them before you start this what you expect and that it is up to them to make it fun. Children respond to positive feedback instead of fussing. I never got mad or upset if they had an accident, I would just ask them to please help me clean it up and they would always try to help.

I'm with the ones who say just wait. My first was potty trained to pullups at about 3 yr 4 mo, then to underwear at about 3 yr 8 mo (and -- finally! -- wiping his own butt at 5 yr 2 mo). I have a 3 yr 4 mo old and I REALLY want him to be potty trained, but when I put the pressure on, he not only doesn't do it, he starts running away or hiding when he is wet or poopy which just makes things worse. I got really frustrated with him a while ago and he started taking off his poopy pullup in the livingroom, I presume in an effort to help me out with the poopy bum changes (or maybe to avoid me). Nasty. So I remembered about how I thought my first would never be trained and eased up. And from time to time, he uses the potty. I just told him about the candle idea (get to blow out a candle when he uses the potty) and he was pretty excited. He has used the potty. He knows what to do and can use it himself WHEN HE CHOOSES. But although I can force him to sit on the potty, I cannot force him to pee. So we make a big deal about it when he does use the potty, but I am not going to stress about it anymore. My oldest was trained in less than a week, once he decided he was going to do it. I'm sure this one will also be trained in a couple days once he decides that it is time. If I think of something really motivating, I will use it, but that's about it. Thankfully, I don't have any outside reason why he has to be trained by such and such a date. I guess it depends on what is important to you (thankfully, I also don't have a family yammering at me about why he isn't potty trained. They may think it, but they don't comment to me about it).