I’m a little embarrassed to admit this. And I hope you all don’t collectively throw rocks at me (or worse, shake your disapproving fingers at me!) when I say this but…
Liam isn’t potty trained.
He is 3 1/2. Will turn FOUR (4!) in July.
We have tried. We have a potty chair, some “Cars” themed underwear, some training pants, etc and so forth. I’ve had talks with him about it. I’ve tried sitting him on the potty but that has been less than successful. He just isn’t interested in sticking at it. I’m hesitant to have a potty out in the living room for fear that Evie will get into it (she is now in the Get Into Everything Stage). I worry that it’s too cold to let him go nude all the time.
Quite frankly: I have no idea what to do. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch.
I would like to maybe get him in a part-time preschool program. But as far as I know, there is NO preschool program here in Reno that takes non-potty trained 3 1/2 year olds.
It’s time. I know it’s time. It’s PAST time.
But yet, there is a stack of diapers for him and we’re still doing what we do. Day in. Day out.
HALP!
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7 Responses to “Confession Time”
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My Jacob was stubborn about potty training. He JUST got out of diapers 2 months ago. He is just a few months older than Liam (he will be 4 in May), and the only thing that worked for us was school. He wanted to go SO bad, and we told him he couldn’t unless he wore underpants. We let him run around the house in underpants for a few days, and if he had an accident, we talked about how it felt “icky”, and how much nicer dry pants felt. After a few days, we started having fewer accidents, and after about a week, he was dry all day, and going to the potty by himself. We have had only a couple of accidents since he started preschool. The biggest thing was sticking to no diapers except at night. He’s not night trained yet, but neither is my 5 1/2 yr old, so I’m not that worried.
I wish I had some helpful insight, but I’m right there with you, except mine will be 4 in April. He’s speech delayed, so I keep saying that this is why, but it’s not. The boy is smart, he gets things, I know he’d get this, too, it’s just hard since I have an 18 month old as well. What’s worse is that I’ve done it once before, my oldest is 6 now, I feel I should know what I’m doing. But I don’t. I just keep hoping it magically clicks one day.
C @ Kid Things´s last blog ..Morning, Afternoon, Evening
Marilyn, we went through this EXACT same thing with my son, who is now 17 and I assure you he doesn’t wear diapers anymore
He was totally resistant and at nearly 4 we were desperate, and I had fears his younger sister would be potty-trained before he was!
But one day it just “clicked” for my son.
Tips:
Forget the “potty” and go right to the toilet. Get a toddler seat for it that looks fun and is comfy — some even play music! Try sitting him backwards on the toilet, straddling it – it’s easier for him to point his penis downward that way – he will learn to stand up eventually. I think some of the issues with training boys is that they have to figure out they pee one way and poo the other, so starting out just straddling may help — it helped my Bubby a lot.
Bren was pee trained before poo, but he had a different issue that turned out to be a physical one. If you haven’t already, you might want to talk to your pediatrician to make sure there is no organic problem.
In the end, strangely, the thing that ended up working was simple: bribery
We found something he really, really, liked — which turned out to be ice cream. So when we asked him to sit on the potty, we read him a story while he was there. And if he was “successful” he got a bowl of ice cream
It took time and effort. We worked on having sitting on the potty after each meal. I would say make the potty a regular occurrance, but if he is really protesting don’t make an issue of it.
Be patient, is my best advice. Don’t get too uptight about it either. It will happen.
Like I always said back then: “Nobody walks down the aisle in diapers, and no one nurses on the way to college.” hehe
Good luck!
Moon HalloranLeady´s last blog ..Dear Andy-Drew…
I’ve felt this way. My daughter is a few months older than Liam and quite determined and tenacious about doing things her way. She simply didn;t want to stop what she was doing to go to the bathroom. She was physically ready but just plain too busy and ooooooooh the fights we had.
I found this site and it helped a lot: pottytrainingconcepts.com
Check out their message boards and you’ll see you aren’t alone and there are lots of ways to approach this depending on whatever his hang up is…
B´s last blog ..Culinary Delights
I was just wondering if Liam was potty trained because I just bought a little potty for Elizabeth (not that she’s ready. but it came with a training guide and I’m gonna need help) and there was a toddler seat for a regular toilet that was Cars themed and I thought of you guys since both are kids are obsessed with that movie. I was actually gonna ask you for advice because you’ve had more practice at this than I have.
So, since I’ve never done this before, I got nothin’ for ya. Except not to push him into it. Forcing kids to potty train before they’re ready can lead to all kinds of problems later on. Have you met my dad? Yeah. Like that. And we don’t want THAT for Liam. No we certainly don’t.
Okay – here’s what you need to do. Put him in the program anyway. Because the thing that potty trained Ny? Is preschool. They are more diligent about potty schedules and the GROUP THINK thing really helps them understand what’s going on. Don’t tell the preschool he’s not potty trained, just tell them something like “We still keep him in pullups because he does have accidents still” or something like that. See what they say.
And dont fret! Ny still has plenty of accidents and she’s 4. And there are plenty of kids in her class who do as well. Nothing to be ashamed about!
My oldest had to be naked to get the concept. Crank the heat up or put a space heater in the room you’ll be in the most and just let him be naked for a week. Watch a few potty training videos … our library has several. And if all else fails, do what I did with my youngest … bribe him. Think of a toy that Liam really would like to have and tell him he can have it if he poops in the potty. Go (secretly) buy the toy before he does it so it is instant gratification. Poop = reward. After that first poop, it gets easier, sing silly songs and dance around and celebrate when he does it. Silly, yes, but that is what it took with my younger son. Once he starts to get the hang of it, set a timer or something and remind him to go every hour or every half hour. Good luck!