Potty Training Boys

S

southside852

Registered User
This might seem like a totally daft question, but I would love some feedback on how mommies of boys started potty training their little ones. I am keen to get this started before my #2 comes on October 1 (or earlier). My son is 33 months old and can tell me when he's poo poo, but still has trouble telling me when he is wet. I would like to start this in the next couple of weeks, but would love some feedback on how mom's have begun this process:

- We have a potty chair and a topper for the toilet - any thoughts on which is easier for boys?
- Did you use a potty chart with stickers or toys to incentivise?
- how did you handle them going to school and being potty trained at the same time?
- what did day 1 of potty training look like for you?

Any other feedback that might be helpful in navigating this milestone would be greatly appreciated!

thanks!
 
I am currently training my 25 month old and we are making some good progress. We have a couple of accidents here and there but overall he is doing very good. Here are a few tips that have worked for me:

- buy some underwear with his favorite characters on them. Open them up together and be enthusiastic about them. It really helps when I am very animated and speak as if I am excited.
- Get him used to the potty. I put mine in the living room for easy access. You need to be really quick in getting him to the potty as soon as he needs to go.
- I never used a chart but when he peed and pooed for the first time, my helper and I jumped up with joy and clapped our hands! We made a really big deal about it to show him how well he did.
- My top tip is to say "bye bye". After every wee or poo, we would take the plastic reservoir at the bottom of the potty, bring it to the toilet, flush and say bye bye to the poo or wee. My son loved the bye bye part and sometimes sits on the potty waiting to pee just so he can say bye bye to it afterwards.

I wish you all the best with potty training. I personally thought my son wasn't ready but hubby gave me the push I needed to start him on it. The first days and week are tougher because you really have to watch your boy and keep reminding him that if he needs to go for a wee, he should go to the potty. Oh also don't make a big deal if he has had an accident. Just remind him that next time he should go to the potty. Hope this helps and good luck.
 
I have only toilet trained a girl, but one thing I was told by several people (and proved to be true in other areas, although not toilet training as my daughter was well down that track by the time her brother was born) is that it is best to avoid doing it too close to major change eg moving, birth of a new baby etc as it is quite likely they will then regress and you have to start all over again. I wouldn't suggest avoiding though as you might find he takes to it really quickly (I know a number of boys that did and were basically dry almost overnight) but just something to be aware of, especially as even though my daughter was trained when my son was born she was quite small and so still needed help getting undressed and on the toilet and that was sometimes very difficult when breastfeeding or when out and a toilet wasn't nearby!
But if he doesn't go well with it, it might be worth waiting until your new one is a few months old, because as BabyG said you do have to be quite vigilant initally and that would be hard in the 1st 6-8 weeks with a newborn; plus it takes some mental energy which is mostly focused on the new baby and making sure your big boy is happy being a big brother!
 
We potty trained during Easter break when he was off school. What worked for us was the charts/stickers / M & Ms (which he loved). We did get him a pack underwear with his fav characters on, but he didn't mind peeing in them :)
 
My son's training took quite some time... but it is easier in summer as he could walk around in underpants only. Like the others, we bought some underwears with his favorite characters, and he can choose them himself. My husband explained him how to pee in the toilets, and he will sit on a topper on the toilets for pooing (it took a bit longer to go on the toilets). We also showed him an easy way to put his underwears himself (sitting on the bed) and he doesn't want anyone to help now.
At the beginning we were asking him if he wanted a nappy or not, he would say yes or no, and one day he just said no. We kept asking him every 15 mn if he wanted to pee, and he would say yes or no. We didn't use any reward system and no potty.
And one day on the week end we just went out for some shopping without the nappy, told him to ask for pee (eventually we took another pair of trousers in the bag !), and came back one hour later, and he did great ! since, no more nappy during the day.
Night is another story.... considering the weight of his nappy in the morning, he is far from being ready !
There are still a few accidents when he takes a nap, but it's getting better and better.

We also waited for our second baby to be borned to start the whole thing, just in case he would like some nappies again. I think he really felt like a big boy, as his little sister was wearing nappies, and not him anymore.
 
I have also only potty trained girls, but my sister has potty trained a boy and she said one of the best (and funniest) tip she got was to put a few Cherrios or Fruit Loops (yes the cereals!) in the potty and he had to "aim" at them when he went! Worked for him!

Good luck!
 
Tagging on to this thread, is it better to teach a boy to pee standing or sitting? Real toilet is too high to pee standing (can add a step I guess) and is potty too low to pee in? They have to switch to standing when start school, right?
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I think it really depends on the boy... ours was always very uncomfortable when we tried first the potty, so we switched directly to the toilets, but then he needed someone to sit on it. As he is very independent, it's much easier for him to stand up in front of the toilet, he is just on the right eight to pee straight into the water. He has a little box of wipes just beside him, will use one to clean himself. He peed around at the beginning, but now he is doing really good, I don't need to take care of him anymore.
 
thanks everyone for the advice! will try sitting first . . .anyone have any advice on how to get him to sit longer on the potty and not get up after 2 seconds??

hope to get this going end of next week!
 
I don't think you have to change to standing for school but worth checking the particular school. The school I visited has little toilets and a urinal for the kids to use. Much easier to teach them to pee sitting down first.
 
how old is old enough? my son's almost 18 months and our relatives have been wondering why we haven't started potty training him yet... i hadn't even thought about it!
 
we started PT yesterday and my son has yet to get in the potty (lots of clean up), BUT he's gotten much better at holding. The first 2 hours, he must of peed about 4 times and by the end of the day, he had his legs together holding it in so I guess that's improvement in terms of having more control of his bladder. We are going to give it through Monday and if he's still not getting it, then I think we will postpone until winter holiday when my son turns 3.....I know boys are delayed in general but the only pressure we really have is for the American School in August 2011 who says your child must be potty trained for pre-school.
 
My LOL is 2 yr and 9 mths and not yet potty trained but we think he is ready now. Tried potty training during the summer holidays but he fell ill with Hand Foot Mouth and was not interested. Now he says Poop when he is going to poop and when I ask him if he wants to sit on potty - he is already done it in the diaper. So I must be quick to sit him down on the potty or toilet.
But the hardest is getting him to say Pee as he think it is still ok to pee in the diaper and that the running water in urinal in the boys toilet is a waterfall ! Dont know what to do! We tried him peeing standing up but shall we do this sitting down first in the toilet first and not the urinal as he gets confused? I am praying that he get potty trained soon as he just started K1 . Luckily there has no big accident in school so far....
 
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