potty training 3 year old?

Question

i have a 3 year old son that has no interest in potty training but he does tell us after he has gone in his diaper. any suggestions on how to motivate him because i dont want to have a 4 year old still in diapers? my daughter was so much easier.

Answer 1

My husband has been providing "demonstrations" for our 2 1/2 year old. And, it is working really well. We put my son's potty next to our toilet and when it is time...my husband and son go to the restroom and "race". If my son pees successfully...we put on his pull-up diaper ("big boy pants") instead of a diaper. Good luck...I know this canbe frustrating. www.expectingexecutive.com

Answer 2

First of all, I completely understand how you feel..my daughter didn't get potty trained until she was 3 1/2! I realized that you can't push them into, because then it just makes them back track and not want to do it at all. Be a little more patient with him, but you can definitely try some things like only having him wear underwear vs. diapers and make him at least sit on the toilet once every hour, and make sure you do it every hour.
you could also try getting one of the little potty's and have him sit on it for hours at a time, watching his fav movies. My girlfriend said that this worked for her daughter and she never wore diapers again. She used the potty like a chair, and whenever her daughter tried to stand up or whatever, it felt weird to her so she would just sit back down and eventually she pee'd in the potty and got excited!
you could also try putting cheerios in the toilet and helping him learn how to aim for the hole's...I've heard this one is always kind of fun! But one thing for sure...you have to reward him when he does go and DON'T get mad when he has an accident....but just give it some more time, he'll get there.
good luck! :o)

Answer 3

My second child was almost 4 when we potty trained him so its not that big of deal to have him still in diapers. Here is a sure way to potty train which I also told some one else and it definately worked for two of my three boys. (My third one is still in disposable diapers). You have to remember, from day one they are put in diapers for going potty. Now we tell them hey its time to change the process and now do it this way. Getting little ones to change takes time.

Children dont like to feel the wetness and when using disposable diapers the diaper abosorbs the wetness so they tend to continue what they are doing (usually playing) and keep on using the diaper since its not uncomfortable. When I started potty training, I changed from disposable diapers to cloth diapers, pins and plastic pants. For about a week (maybe a bit longer) my son did his thing in the diapers (and I changed him regularly) but after the first three or four days he didn't like the feeling of being wet since he could feel it and started telling me he was wet. I would of course encourage along the way and tell him to let me know before he wet and he can go in the potty. Just after a week is when he started to tell me he had to go to the potty before he used the diapers. I let him use the diapers for about two days because I wanted to enforce the bad feeling of being wet. Then he started coming to me doing the potty dance saying he had to go so I would undo his diaper and let him go in the potty. (I think waiting for me to take off his plastic pants and diaper built up his abilty to hold it) Once he was dry for a couple days with no accidents, I put him in the cloth training pants with the plastic pants for the first couple days incase he did have an accident ( which he did have a couple). Then we went with out the plastic pants and he has been dry in the day time since.

It takes some patience and some extra laundry with the cloth diapers but it really works. I got this process from a lady who owns a inhome day care and this is how she potty trains little ones.

Answer 4

I have 3 boys and I can tell you that it was a chore on each and every one of them, for different reasons but the longer they are in diapers the longer they will stay in diapers. Over Christmas break last year I made up my mind and put him in underwear (he was 3 1/2 at the time) and he did go in his pants a few times but over those two weeks he was in underwear. He went back to preschool without the pull up and felt like a "big boy".

Answer 5

The best thing I did for my son (middle child who was reluctant to potty train) was allow him to be outside without a diaper on for the day. I really think it helped him recognize the feeling of "having to go" and when he did go, I made a really big deal out of it (lots of clapping and cheering). By the next day he was running in to the bathroom and by day, 3 fully trained. He is even waking up at night. (The small training potty didn't work for him.)

Answer 6

Try a potty chart. Make a calander on a piece of cardboard, hang it on the bathroom door and let the little tike put a sticker on every day that he does it on the potty.

We tried those underpants/diaper things but they actualy backfired because it made it less uncomfortable to have a mess in the pants.

Answer 7

Girls are always easier!

For a week mark the time he tell you he has gone (it should be fairly consistent) Then start putting him on the potty in front of the tv or with a book at bit earlier than those times. Let him sit there until he goes (don't make him sit there forever that is cruel-if you force it on him he will regress more)

Praise him immensely and take him to the store to buy big boy undies

Answer 8

My son started going to the potty at age 1, which was funny because my mother in law showed him while on vacations (with the plastic potty in front of the tv, we would all make pushing sounds).
We came back from vacations, at day care… he was to little for the teachers in his class to take him potty (he would go, but he wound ask for it).
After almost 1 yr in diapers again, the only thing that worked was telling him that “balu-lu” would take a bight from his dirty diaper (imaginary monster) but if he goes to the toilette, he wouldn’t have a dirty diaper for “balu-lu” to come.
We got him the sesame street cover.

It worked for us

Answer 9

I am going throught the same thing. My son is 28 months and the day care is really not supporting this. I can not afford to continue to by diapers. I ama single mom starting nursing school next month and this alone is very stressful and difficult.

Answer 10

It is true- boy's do take longer. It does sound like he could be ready any day now. My 3 year old did the same thing. We took her to pick out underware (hoping this would be an incentive )and told her if she wanted to go to school, she would have to pee and poop in the toilet. She woke up one morning and decided she was ready @3 1/2 years.