How do you get a 3 year old boy to become intererested in toilet training.?

Question

He is a very bright child. He enjoys cartoons and game systems such as game boy and game cube. He knows how to use the remote control without problems and the tivo. When asked to use the toilet or set him on the toilet he cry's and says "I want my biper" and try's to run to get his diapers. He try's to pick out his diapers at the store. We have tried to explain how good it would be to be a big boy like his siblings and tried to get him to pick out new underwear but he doesn't want them, he just requests "his bipers" I have tried everything that worked with his siblings and he shows no interest. He also doesn't care if his diaper is ready to explode because it is so full. I have no idea on how to get him interested. I would appreciate any and all advice.

Answer 1

i have a 3 year old daughter with about the same problem, we tried letting her soil herself, giving toys as rewards etc. she couldn't care less. i think, i will just let it go for 2 months at a time and try again, but it puts too much stress on her and us to push the matter, i kinda ended up having comfort in the idea that she won't be wearing diapers at age 20. so my advise would be just take your time - they will be ready when they are ready and there's no need to stress everybody out over the potty issue. i'm sure yours and mine are ahead in other areas of development instead of potty... good luck to us :)

Answer 2

We have just started our 3 year old son the last few weeks. Previous to this he showed no interest whatsoever. It was like he enjoyed having wet and pooey diapers on!!! With kindergarten starting in 6 weeks we knew we had to really push the issue with him, so we took him and let him pick out his own underwear which he really enjoyed. Then we told him what a big boy he was, as he put them on in the morning instead of his diaper. We then set the oven timer for 30 minutes. When it beeped, this meant it was time to go potty. This method turned into a great game with him, and also built his confidence as there were no accidents. Gradually we increased the time until now he can go when he feels he needs to (with some reminders from us if we are going to the shops etc.) Offer small treats for each wee and a larger one for a number 2, and you will hopefully see a changed little boy!! I can still not believe our little boy has achieved all this in such a short time. Yes, we did go cold turkey with him on the issue, but he never complained about it, and is so proud of his big boy status. Good luck to you with this issue, I hope things work out soon!!!

Answer 3

I'm having the same problem and my son is 3 - He can use the toilet although it is not consistant and unless I constantly go on and on at him, he'll wet himself.
I have had many bits of advice - reward charts - a small sweet everytime he uses it - put cheerios down the toilet and he has to try and aim for them - telling him they are baby pants and he needs to be a big boy like..... - having other potty trained children to stay for motivation - but as yet nothing is working.
I have tried so much for so long - its coming to the point it might just be easier to leave him to it and let his nursery chums help him by example and hope hes sorted by the time he goes to school in Sep 07
Patience and time is just the way forward - maybe stop buying the diapers and then he cant have what you havent got!!

Good luck

Answer 4

#1 Sad to say but true. The most successful way to get him to be toilet trained is 1: let him pee outside and 2: put a floating object like cheerios or fruitloops in the toilet and have him "sink" them are use them for target practice. You said he likes game systems. This should be right up his alley.

#2 Sounds like he's using the diapers because they take away less time from the things he wants to do. I'd honestly limit his exposure to the activities. (15-30 minutes after a meal, he should have to go to the bathroom. Use #2 above and have him stay there until he's done Something, letting him know he can't continue his activity until he's done. Use a dry diaper as reward instead of a wet diaper as punishment: He can get 30 minutes of play time for each hour he stays dry or something like that.) If this is your boy in your home, you can let him go au natural or buy a little alarm that fits on the edge of the pull-up which will sound when he wets the pull up.
#3 Also, you can relate diapers to baby and underwear to grown up things like game boys, candy, etc. When he's in a diaper, he can't have those things. When he's in underwear, he's being more grown up and can have those things.

Answer 5

Well... I'm a mom of two boys... and it was not easy... essentially they did it when they wanted to and when they were motivated by something that they wanted.

These are the various things that were tried:
Star charts. Sticker Charts.
Program of drinking lots of juice, water for a day and then timed trips to the potty.
Floating cheerios in the potty to use for target practice.
Giving M&M candies for potty.
Choosing from "treasure" chest for potty.
Going cold turkey with underwear.
Obnoxious praise for potty.
Trip to Disneyland
Both attended preschool in Singapore over the summer and were exposed to very disapproving teachers.
Regular timed trips to the potty every two hours.

It came down to the following for each of them:

One really really wanted a dinosaur and I put it on top of the refridgerator and told him that he could have it after the first week that he stayed in underwear.

The other went to Kindergarten still not potty trained. It wasn't until he could not attend the afterschool program with all of the other kids that he finally became potty trained.

Good luck... Boys are notoriously difficult.

Answer 6

I had the same problem with my son - he will be 3 in January.
I started out by sitting him on his own little potty and I would treat him with an m and m if he sat on it with no pants on. Then I spent a week with him not wearing a diaper or anything. When he would pee he would feel it and say ewww. I would pick him up and put him on the potty and eventually within that week he got it. The poopie was a different story that took more effort and time. Just try to get him to sit on the potty then work on peeing then poopie. One step at at time.

Answer 7

Make potty training completely based on rewards, no punishments.

Take off the diaper. It's naked time.

Put up a chart. Buy a timer. Set the timer to go off every hour. For every hour there is no accident, give him a sticker on the chart. When he fills a row, give him a prize (temp tattoos, stamps, cookie, whatever...).

If he has an accident- no punishment other then no sticker. Tell him how proud you are when he gets a sticker.

If you aren't comfortable with naked time this works with underpants, although not quite as quickly.

Answer 8

Well I will tell u what I did to my child. At the age of 1 and a few months old we let her wear big girl panties to bed and she wet her bed, Soaked the bed, and that took about 2 months and then she only did it once a week sometimes 2 weeks. O and we also cut her liquids off at 6:30 or 7. Her bedtime was 8. During the day she would wear panties until I ran out then I would wash and put a pull up on till her panties were done. I would have to take her to the poddy every 20 minutes and really watch her liquid intake. She was fully poddy trained by 2 and is now 3 and gets up in the middle of the nite to use the bathroom. Sometimes you have to feel stupid and make the biggest deal ever everytime he/she poddy. I use to sing a little upbeat song and do a very silly dance that I seen on a cartoon. "We just went to the poddy" said that a few times then yelled YEAH. Clapped the whole 9 yards. After a while though she did start going to the bathroom to try to poddy and just wanted to hear me sing and watch me dance. It was alot of fun . My son is going to be poddy trained by my husband and that will be a few more months. He's 11 months. Well hope this helps you out.

Answer 9

When my little sister was 3 she was just as stubborn. My mom finally stopped stressing over it and stopped pushing the toilet training. When she started kindergarten at age 4 and saw that none of the other kids her age wore diapers, she toilet-trained herself so-to-speak. Never wore diapers again and never had any accidents. Peer pressure is a great motivator at any age.

Also, since he likes video games have you tried cheerios cereal in the toilet bowl? Gives him something to shoot at and makes going potty more fun.

Answer 10

He might just not be ready yet. Be patient with him, and in the meantime try a reward system. If he goes pee pee on the potty he gets 2 M&M's if he goes poopie he gets 4 M&M's. Allow for accidents, maybe let him wear pull ups as an in between to big boy undies.
Good Luck!