OK, tomorrow is the day we take Carter out of diapers and let him run wild! Well, we will be putting underwear on him. We have been talking to him about what it all means and he seems somewhat excited about it. He has in the past peed on the potty, but will have NOTHING to do with it now and I think it's ALL about his being in power and nothing about not being ready. So, we are just going for it.

Does anyone have any experience doing this or have any suggestions?

TIA!

That's exactly what we did. It took about 4 days and she was trained.
I think I typed our experience out in another thread. Let me see if I can find it.

Start out taking him to the toilet every 20-30 minutes. And not "do you need to" but "lets go to". He'll always say no if you ask him!

Don't count accidents as a failure and give up. Caroline had 3 accidents and was day-trained within a week!

Line up some people who won't mind you calling a few times so you can hype it up as "if you go potty then you can call Daddy at work/Grandma and Grandpa/Uncle Whoever and tell them because they'll be so happy!"

Well...Isabelle REALLY loves to be a "teacher" and she's really into being a big sister, so one of the things we did was to stress how exciting it was for her to learn, so she can teach her little sister how to do it when she's ready. We also had a peeing doll that we had her teach.

And we also did frequent potty breaks. If she got really stubborn about it, we'd stop whatever activity we were doing- playing a game, reading books, watching TV, and tell her we'd start again whenever she went and sat on the potty. If she said she didn't have to go, we'd either have her sit there to the count of 10, or read a special story to her, and she could get up when it was done.

And don't give up and go back to diapers/ pull ups- we did that at first hoping it would be an incentive, but it totally backfired!

Thanks girls! I have a feeling he will fight me tooth and nail if I try to take him to the potty every 20-30 minutes. EEK! This is also not a good time to do this, but we are anyway!

I wouldn't do the 20-30 minute thing. He'll probably only have to go every 2 hrs or so. And at his age, he knows when he has to go. He might surprise you and get it pretty quickly.

We praised Rebekah alot with "Mommy is so PROUD of you!" kind of things when she went. She still asks me if I'm proud of her sometimes when she goes on the potty. And she'll hug me and tell me she's proud of me when I go. :lol:

And don't go back to the diapers right away if it doesn't work. It's going to take a few days at least. And he will ask for the diapers back at some point, probably to poop. My aunt put her son in diapers to poop when she started training him around this time last year. He STILL asks for a diaper to poop and he'll be 4 next week. They just went to the ped last week and the ped told him he's too big for diapers and he is to use the potty and told his mother to stop putting diapers on him. I don't know if it worked, though.

All VERY good suggestions and we did every one oe them. Another suggestion - give him TONS OF JUICE (or whatever drink is his favorite). I never give Julia juice and I made sure she had a cup with juice in it at all times the first few days. That way when you take him every 20-30 minutes, he can "produce" something!

Also, we gave Julia 2 M&Ms for pooping on the potty and she got to call Daddy at work to tell him (Chris loved this - we jokingly called it the poopy report! :lol: ) Whenever Julia had a success, we LAVISHED praise on her - WAAAY OVERBOARD. We did "The Hokey-Pokey Potty Dance" ONLY when she peed or pooped in the potty as a reward, she LOVED this! We just sang a verse of the Hokey-Pokey and we were VERY silly with her.

Also, I ALWAYS made Julia try to poop (still do) every time we go to the potty. I would scrunch my face up and grunt and ask her to try it - if I wasn't sure if she was really trying, I lightly pushed my fingers to her belly to know if she was contracting the right muscles to poop. It also helped her to know what muscles to contract.

She responded to all these suggestions really well - she was potty trained in about 3 days (and I did my very OWN Hokey-Pokey Potty Dance!! :lol2: ). GOOD LUCK!!

Oh yeah...my friend had her boy "potty-trained" in one day - she let him pee outside! :lol: He NEVER had an accident - not even once! :dunno:

Thanks for finding the thread Brooke - I read it all.

Also, thank you all for these good ideas. I love the Hokey Pokey Potty Dance! I may just have to steal that idea! I am also trying to think of something that we can get for Carter when he goes all day with no accidents. Something he would like, but I don't know what. Hmmmm............ Toys really aren't an incentive any more - he has too many.

OK, he's in underwear. We were in the bathroom and he was standing "trying" to pee. He didn't. Then we went to play and not even 5 minutes later, he said "Mommy - I have to pee" so we went to the bathroom and found he'd already peed. I think when he told me, he had already gone. He was like "ok - clean me up because I'm wet." He didn't really care at all that he was wet. I changed him and got on his clean pants. Then, same thing happened later. This time, I told him to please take off his shorts and his underwear. He is still in the bathroom screaming about taking off his underwear. He won't even try. DH is in there with him and he won't do it. Why won't we help? Because it's just like changing his diaper, but way worse for us. We have to get out clean underwear and shorts every time. You say he'll learn - how do you know? He acts very nonchalant about it. He doesn't even really care if he's wet. He wants to come out and play even though he's still totally wet. He just doesn't care. I think there needs to be some reason for him to want to use the potty. UGH! Do you think we are insane? He can do soooooo many things by himself, but won't do some of the simplest little things. It's a total control issue and I'm tired of it. That plus his constant whining about how "I caaaaaaaaaan't" UGH - God, please help me - this is going to be a rough week? 2 weeks? month?

Brandi, Joe is the exact same way. He just doesn't care if he's wet or poopy. If we figure it out we'll let you know.

Dennis

Now I feel like we've made a big mistake. DH suggests we go back to diapers but I've heard that's the worst thing to do now. He acts like we are killing him when we put him on the potty. There's no way he's going to pee when he is squirming all over the place. I don't know what to do. What if he isn't ready? He's been three for three months now. And, if he isn't potty trained by the beginning of school, he can't go. I sure this all changes pretty darn quick because it is HORRIBLE right now. Did anyone go through this when they tried potty training? If he was younger, I would just think he wasn't ready.

Maybe try sitting down on the potty first??? Saxon pees when he sits and we have a but round of "pee pee in the potty" singing. He thinks it's fun. Though he won't tell us he needs to pee and if he is too busy he'll pee in the pull up. So he isn't potty trained but with different issues.

Brandi, you haven't made a mistake. You hit the nail on the head when you talked about Carter wanting to contol the situaiton.
With that being said, maybe he isn't quite ready. Maybe still do the 20-30 minute pee break but keep him in diapers. :dunno:
Does Carter understand/know about school? One reason I pulled Dylan out of nursery school for the fall is because I don't know if he is going to be trained by September. I really hope he is because I hate buying pull-ups. Is Carter in diapers or pull-ups?

I don't think I really helped. Sorry.

Potty training is tough, isn't it? :bighug:

If he's protesting that much, I'd say probably it's not the right time to do it. You don't want to make it an unpleasant experience for him.

That being said, if you solider on, how about trying nakey time? Let him run around with nothing on below the waist. Eliminate the struggle to pull down underwear and pants, and make it just that much easier to go potty. Might be worth a try.

It can definitely be a long process. We've been doing this since Memorial Day, and Emma is still having her fair share of accidents.

I was also going to suggest naked time. The first time we did it with Aidan, he would go in undies, but NEVER EVER if he was naked (we had a regression issue, but I wont go into that).

I am feeling your pain. Emma will be three in August and she shows all the signs that she is ready. She holds it if she is naked and announces it if she is in the bathtub. However, she only wants diapers. If you ask her to sit on the potty she goes screaming in the other direction. I don't mind pushing back a little but how much is too much? I've heard that if you push too much it will just make it worse.

I think I am going to wait for a nice rainy weekend and do it. I will get all of my errands out of the way so that we are home all weekend and she can run around in just her princess and elmo panties with a shirt. If it is sunny out all of the kids are out playing and she will want to be out. I don't think the neighbors would like to see a potty chair in the middle of the street. :lol:

GOOD LUCK!!!

Well, we are giving up. I know it's only been just over a day, but this isn't right. It just doesn't feel right at all. I guess I shouldn't say we are giving up, but rather postponing. After reading all the things about this from you guys and on the internet - I just don't think he's ready. He's definitely comfortable in wet and poopy underwear - yes, he pooped in his drawers today and could care less. He didn't even tell me when he did it because he knew I was going to make him get changed. I asked him whene I smelled it and he said "no" he didn't poop. UGH. I really think he's not ready, but when will he be ready? If I can't send him to school in the fall, I'm going to be ticked. He'll be 3 1/2 by then. I'll either have to pay $450 a month to hold his spot until he's trained - who knows how long that could be - or pull him out. Just making the decision to send him there was unbleivably stressful. Now, we won't have a spot anywhere for him if he can't go there.

Here's my reasons for stopping:
1. he won't sit on the potty or stand or try to pee or poop at all.
2. he doesn't care if he's wet or poopy all day
3. he won't even try to pull his pants on and off - he just cries and wants us to do it.
4. he won't tell me why he doesn't want to do it - just that he doesn't want to.

DH and I got in a big fight over this today. I'm sick of all the pressure from him and others to get my son PT'd. If my FIL asks one more time, I'm going to scream at him. He asks multiple times while we visit if he is PT'd and why not. Then goes on to tell me that I should just make Carter change his own diaper. Yeah, that will really help when he could care less if he is wet and poopy or not. UGH! And we are seeing him the next 2 weekends in a row.

Well, it sounds like maybe you are making the right decision. Its frustrating. We're tackling poop with Aidan in a week, and I am scared because he is content to sit in his own poop (GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!) and lie to us about it. But come hell or high water, he's getting trained and I am remaining calm. But I am doing it next week b/c Chris is on vacation and will be home with me all week, so we can really focus on it. And Aidan WILL be naked from the waist down all week if that is what it takes. Because I know he wont poop if he doesnt have something on.

Anyway...about your FIL. My grandma asks me all the time. I finally snapped last week on father's day. She said, "so is he potty trained yet?" (after just seeing him the week prior and asking that time) and I was crabby after being a single mom all week/weekend and said, "NO! He is NOT. We havent been doing a damn thing, just like I told you last week. Rest assured, everyone will hear the joyous news when he's finally in underpants. PLEASE quit asking me!" I felt bad, but I think I got my point across. I dont get why its anyone else's flippin' business but mine, anyway.

Brandi, it sounds like it's definitely the right decision to hold off.

Dennis

Brandi, I"m glad you eased up on it and are postphoning it. From reading your posts, to me it seems like he's really not ready. Don't worry....what seems like he's not ready now doesn't mean he'll start being ready 3 mos. from now, kwim? I know how frustrating it can get...but putting 'pressure' on him when he's obviously not ready can make things worse I think, and backfire.

When Alexia's home, we started naked boot camp a few days ago. She is fine with poop...she always poops in the potty (with the rare exception sometimes if she's playing outside, having too much fun...she has done it in her pull ups...but hey, she's just a toddler and it's to be expected sometimes.) But the main issue we have with her is the pee still. She DOES pee in the potty but she still does it in her pull ups as well. I have noticed some improvement though since doing the naked boot camp, that she's staying drying longer. I know she's ready as half the times she does pee or poo on the potty, we don't even know about it....she does her thing all by herself and then lets us know about it afterwards. :lol: Anyway, I was going to start a thread of do's and don'ts when it came to naked boot camp because I want to be sure we do it right. Good luck, Brandi!

I just started down this dangerous road as well. I bought Lauren some princess undies and just put her in the undies and a shirt and told her she could not pee pee on the princess. It worked pretty well at first but then this week.. will not put the princess undies on and WILL NOT sit on the potty. Yesterday she told me she needed to poopy but REFUSED to sit on the potty and went in her diaper. So, no help here but I feel your pain!!

:bighug:

Thanks guys! DH won't give up. He is just trying to get Carter to sit on the potty and read to him. Great - he's sitting on the potty, but he says he won't pee. Well, he was running away from dh this morning after sitting on the potty and reading (but no pee) and I said "let's just see what happens if we let him go without the diaper." DH is so scared to do this, but Carter really wanted a diaper on and we knew he wanted to pee in it. So, he ate breakfast and kept asking for a diaper. He ran to the potty a few times, but then was able to hold it. FINALLY, he went! It was awesome! He was so proud. Then we put the diaper on him. He'll probably pee in the diaper, but we have a start! We will just move a bit slower than I thought we would.

that's great, Brandi.

Brandi, that's AWESOME!!! I hope you did the Hokey Pokey Potty Dance and made it as CRAZY as possible!! Kids SO love to see Mommy and Daddy act crazy! Another suggestion - haven't seen anyone say it - what about using CHEERIOS as something for him to aim for while peeing?? That's about the coolest thing in the world when you are 3 years old! :nod: