How do you potty train a 2 yr old boy?

Question

My son is 2 1/2 he will be three in march. I am having problems potty training him. He goes sometimes but he doesn't tell me when he needs to go. Anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Don't use pull ups. Just put him in regular underwear. He may have accidents, but that's good because he won't like it. He'll realize that he can't potty in his underwear because he feels bad. That's what we did with my son. He was about 3 when he decided it was time to use the potty. I let him kind of make the decision. (with a little help of course!) Good luck. Do the cheerio thing. Put a few cheerios in the potty and get him to try to hit the cheerios. This worked really well with my son.

Answer 2

I have potty trained one boy and am currently training my 2 1/2 year old. The 3 things I have found to work best are
Patience
be patient he is just learning and will make mistakes

Understanding
do not get mad or upset when he has an accident[I know this is hard when they pee on the couch or your freshly mopped floor}just clean him up take him to the bathroom sit him on his potty and say"this is where big boys go pee

Consistency.
This takes time and a little diligence but in the end it will pay off I promise. Take him to the bathroom often{ I took my son every half hour or so} Sit him on the potty for a few minits. Take him when you go ,have your husband take him when he goes. This way not only will he learn by example he will get the idea that's where big boys go pee.
And do not for get to make a huge deal out of it when he pees on the potty. Clap you hands ,yell yippy, tell him he is a really good really big boy and you are sooo proud of him. My son used to insist that we called dad at work .
Hope this helps you some.Good luck to you.

Answer 3

Hi- My son will be 3 in February and is just now really getting into potty training. There are all sorts of tricks and things that are supposed to work, believe me, I tried them and they don't. What works is waiting until they are READY. Some kids are ready sooner than others. When he becomes interested in the toilet, wants to flush it, etc. He starts to tell you that he has peed or pooped, even if it is afterwards. I feel like we are finally getting it. You need to be consistant, take him to the potty every half hour, lots of praise just for trying. The cotton training pants are better than pull-ups, but not a good idea if you are going out! Good luck, I'm sure your little man is close to being interested.

Answer 4

I think you can do it right now! My son oldest is also born in march. And when he was almost three I started training him around the end of the year. I would set him on the toilet every hour. And pour warm water down him (on his little wee wee) Everyone called me crazy and said it wouldn't work. My MIL said he didn't even know he needed to go I was just making him go! But as long as you watch him and when he is going say "Look your going pee!' He will get it. Once he has the feeling down you can make targets in the toilet or that kind of stuff but first he has to learn the sensation associated with going. Usually within a couple weeks of pee training they will train themselves on their bowel movements.
Besides my oldest son who is now nearly 10 I also trained my younger son and three other boys this way while I was working at a daycare. Just remember to reward and NEVER punish children during potty training. I think pull ups are for bed time only! So I wouldn't use them just be prepared for some accidents and keep taking him to the toilet every hour:) Good Luck :)

Answer 5

The way my wife and I got my son to go was to do what many people have said, put him on the toilet every hour and make him go pee. We added a reward to it also. If he goes pee then he got 2 M&M's. We would also read him books while he would sit there so it became family time too. Doing #2 was a lot harder. He refused to do #2 in the toilet. He would go pee in the toilet then run to the corner of his run and go #2 in his underwear. Yea, I know, we threw away lots of underwear. Most we could clean out, but others were not worth the effort. The only way he started going #2 in the toilet, and this may sound weird, but he saw our neighbors 2yo girl go #2 and suddenly he wanted to do that too!

The accidents are going to happen. The first year after starting the potty training you will have them. Sometimes you have to force them to go. I can remember several months back we were at my sister-in-laws and he was playing air hockey with my neices. He was so excited to be playing that he stood right there on the step stool and pee'd himself and never thought twice about going to the bathroom or letting me change him.

Answer 6

I'm also just starting to train my 3 year old son. What I have been doing is bringing him to the bathroom every 30-45 min (every child is different) he doesn't always let me know when he has to go but when I bring him and he go's I try to make it as rewording as I can. Make him feel good about just having gone tell him he is a Big Boy and Big Boy's go to the pottie. I also bought my son Spongebob under wear and he likes them. I hope everything go's well as hope the same for me (LOL). Keep me posted and let this be an experience for both of us. GOOD LUCK!!

Answer 7

My son was going on close to 3 1/2 when he finally started going on his own. We just kept working with him and giving him little treats if he told us he had to go. There's also little games in Toys r us (lol) that help potty training-little paper boats that he has to try and sink. It will take a little while for boys. Just be as patient as you can and keep showing him the potty.

Answer 8

Three is usually the magic number when it comes to potty training boys. (Thank God I have a girl!) I work with children and the way we help the little boys there is by throwing a fruit loop into the toilet and asking them to aim at it. They love it because it's a game. When he DOES tell you he has to go and uses the potty successfully, praise him and maybe give him something special -- a sticker, a cookie, whatever. He'll get it soon enough. Good luck!

Answer 9

My son was a little closer to 3 than yours when I began. I thought I would never be able to potty train my little guy at that age but patience won out. I started using pull ups with him and got him a potty chair. It took a lot of time and patience to get him over his fear of the potty chair and the convenience of the walkabout crapping style he knew. I learned to recognize the signs of when he needed to go, (the red face grunt is a dead giveaway) and would get him onto the potty chair. I reinforced how "icky" it was when he done that in his pants and what a good boy he was for using the potty! Unlike others I did not use bribes, (rewards) of candy, toys etc. ,( I think this sets a bad precedent), just positive reinforcement. I used training pants during the day after a couple of weeks as a positive reward for being a "big boy", we even went to the store so he could pick his own out, (so maybe he wouldn't want to "mess"them up). He eventually got the idea, the problem was that the pull ups were getting expensive as he figured it was easier to just rip the sides and walk on out of them rather than pull them down...I had to put up with him trying to pee like daddy in his potty chair and cleaned the wall and floor more times than I can count! Patience paid out, he began going in by himself and letting me know so I could clean his potty. He eventually started dumping his potty himself! The key is patience, it doesn't happen overnight and may seem like years when it is only weeks, but it will happen you cannot bribe or force the issue it is just another thing they have to be taught. The big potty is another story...

Edit: One detail I forgot, I think one thing that helped was, I allowed my son to wander into the bathroom when I was using it. It was a little annoying, not to mention embarassing at first, but I believe it helped him get the idea that using the "potty" was the big boy thing to do. He even started coming in and using his pot while I was having a sit down, bringing his own newspaper (comics) with him to look at while going, (is that what they call quality time?)!!

Answer 10

My husband and I have a little 17 month old little boy. Everytime either his dad or go potty we take our son in with us and while we go potty we have him sit on his training potty. at the point your at all you can really do is take him in the bathroom with you when you go and show him what to do. BE PAITENT it does not happen overnight. and ask him through out the day do you have to go potty. soon you'll be diaper free in no time.