Potty Training Help

amyjoy18

 I am at my wits end with Nolan and potty training.  He's 3 1/2 and had zero interest in potty training until about 6 weeks ago and it went well for a few weeks.  Now, if he's outside, all is well because he likes peeing outside and will just go wherever he is at (at home--we have no neighbors).  We figured once we got him to stop going in his pants we'd work on the preferred place to pee--which seemed like a good strategy out of our despair and now may have backfired.

Inside he still frequently has accidents, as in he doesn't bother to go to the bathroom and if we ask him if he has to go he'll say  no and pee 30 seconds later on the couch.  Yesterday he took off his pants, and pooped in the playroom upstairs-5 feet from the bathroom.  Last week, DH caught him peeing on the wall.  I feel like I have a puppy instead of a 3 1/2 year old. Because he did the potty thing well for a few weeks, it just feels like he's doing this out of stubbornness/spite.

If he wears pull-ups he treats them just like diapers.  He also refuses to wear underwear, and will just wear pants/shorts instead--which I guess is OK if he'd just use the F*$%ing toilet. 

HELP!  I'm hesitant to back off from PTing because if he's not out of diapers by September, he'll be a preschool dropout before he starts :-)

sarahandtim

No advice here, but we're in the exact same situation except we haven't had a period where it went well. Logan refuses to wear undies or try to use the potty. He knows exactly how to do it and will do it here and there when he's bribed. I'm going to try the 3 day thing where you let them run around naked and don't leave your house. That sounds like hell to me, but he has to be potty trained completely by September for preschool. Is there a camp we can send them to where they can learn? Lol!

JNK71083

I was hoping someone would respond with some great tip since I'm feeling a bit like a failure when it comes to potty training and my mom is on a kick that they are 3 1/2 they should be potty trained by now.  I have one kid who if you put underwear on him he will hold it for hours but won't got in the potty he will wait until you put a diaper on him then go if you try to put him on the potty or ask him to pee outside he screams bloody murder.  And another kid who just goes wherever but will at least sit on the potty and does often go when on the potty since he knows he gets a sticker and m&m's if he goes on the potty.  We are making no real progress and since the one that holds it keeps getting constipated our pediatrician basically told me just to stop trying and to start over in a few months.

kris356

Ship them to their grandparents for a week and go on vacation. That's what my sister did.  :P

JNK71083

You know I told my mom if she was gonna keep complaining at me that was exactly what I was gonna do.

ryanthegirl

G was awesome with potty training. We started a few weeks after his 3rd birthday and were golden for over a month...then we went to a birthday party for my cousin's kids and he pooped his pants FOUR TIMES in a 4 hour period and it's been downhill with the pooping since.

With the peeing, which he's stayed consistent with, we did the naked thing. It worked really well for him. He hated how it felt when it was all over his legs. We also used a sticker reward in the beginning and that motivated him. We got him a big metallic piece of foam core and a bunch of sticker books from the $1 store and would let him pick one to put on his board, which we leaned against the wall in his bedroom. He was really in to showing it to people who came over.

The pooping, dear Lord, the pooping. We still have issues with it. I'm constantly scrubbing undies. It's disgusting. What has increased our success is watching him like a hawk, which is no fun. The moment I start to see what are his tell tale signs, I snatch him up and put him on the potty or the toilet. We have more success with letting him use the little potty for pooping. Unfortunately though, if I'm busy and don't notice, he'll poop his pants.

Good luck, this is so hard.

Luckystar2

I would back off. Dd was PTed around 2.5 and then started having accidents. It was frustrating because i knew she could do it but she just wouldn't anymore. We put her back in diapers and a month and a half later she asked for underwear again.

I will say that she is 7 and we still deal with accidents. Part of me wonders if we should have backed off way sooner and waited on PTing even though she was interested so early. Dd is SO Stubborn and that leads to her accidents. So while it is frustrating at 3.5 it's even Moreso at 7!!! But that's to say that I expect that more around 3 and starting out. If your kid is stubborn type I definitely think backing off is a better way to go even if there is a need to be PTed by the fall. I'd also talk with preschool about it again. I can't imagine every single kid is PTed by then

denalea

No advice other than to say pottty training was the only part of DS growing up/parenting that I was ready to say "eff this" and walk out.  I was cranky, DS was cranky, it was ugly. 

We too were up against the pre-school deadline.  I was sweating it out.  We were late-ish in starting because of some traveling (and I didn't want to be dealing with it) so we asked and prompted but didn't push.  In mid-August we started hard core.  (He had turned 3 at the end of May.)  Just went with no pull ups.  Straight undies and asking.  DS fully KNEW what do, he just wouldn't.  He would wait for a pull up/diaper or pee everywhere.  Which ZOMG, SO FRUSTRATING. I JUST ASKED HIM!  (Cue tears from both of us.)

I talked with the Pre-School director and said I didn't think we were going to make it.  Then the first day during the parents-stay-day he peed his pants.  (Cue more tears from me.) 

And all of the sudden then he got it.  There was one more morning that he didn't make it in time.  (Preferred to use the preschool potty rather than ours and so he wouldn't try at home...)  But he never had an accident at school.

He still doesn't like to go.  I ask him when I see signs and if he tells me, "no" I usually follow up with something to the effect of, "Since I've asked you, if you go in your pants we're going to have to stop what we're doing/go inside, etc. and we won't be able to come back out/do it again, etc. because we have to clean up."  I also won't let him do certain things if he doesn't try, which doesn't always work.  (I try not to give in, but sometimes we HAVE to get in the car and leave, whether or not he tries.) I try to be proactive in pausing his movie or whatever so that he doesn't miss anything.  He wasn't perfect right off, and still waits too long sometimes, but he is at least better.

So, hang in there Mommas.  Potty training SUCKS and I'm pretty sure I wrote a similar post to yours last year at this time.  It turned into a total battle of the wills.   Hugs.  And wine.  And Oxyclean to you all!

ryanthegirl

I just saw this post in my Facebook feed, I thought I'd pass it on...

http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2015/07/9-favorite-toddler-potty-training.html 

sarahandtim

This made me laugh today

amyjoy18

sarahandtim said:

This made me laugh today

LOL--how true is this one! Tuesday DS crapped on the floor again in his bedroom.  DH stepped in it and kind of lost his shit (no pun intended).  Yesterday was marginally better, as he he did not deliberately defecate somewhere other than the toilet.

Cristydz

I'm there with you.  We've been potty training on and off for a year.  I tried the three day boot camp thing last week.  It did no good at all.  I want to send her to preschool in the fall but it doesnt seem like it's going to happen.