Help!! Potty Training

**Krazy_glu3** · 07-28-2011 12:03 PM

My 2 1/2 yr old son is potty training. for about 1/2 a year if you would mention going pee-pee in his potty he would literally run away screaming no. All of the sudden he recently started peeing in his potty. I would take his diaper off every hour and he would sit on the potty and pee. If you sit him on the potty he will push until he pees and then jumps up all excited that he peed. We go and flush it and celebrate. He peed 2 times in his diaper in one day, which I thought was fabulous! I decided to move it on up yesterday and buy some Pull Ups. I got the one with the cooling strip. The first time he peed in it, he jumped up and said POTTY! And he finished peeing in the potty. But now he's peeing in them constantly. I'm not sure if he gets a kick out of the cooling part or what. Like I said, I was putting him on the potty every hour, but in his pull ups I cant go 30 minutes before he's peeing in them.
Are there any ideas or advice? Those pull ups arent cheap and I dont want him wasting them all by peeing in the every 30 minutes. I read somewhere that one mom said to put your child in regular underwear that way when he pees it will get on him and make him feel uncomfortable, making him want to use the potty instead. I have a portable carpet cleaner, and a mop, so I CAN clean up after it, but I'm not sure if making my child uncomfortable is the best way to potty train him. But at this point... might have to give it a try.
Does anybody have good tips? Because ever since I put him in pull ups he's no longer acknowledging that he has to pee, and he's peeing more often too. Help!!!

**Crystalblue** · 07-28-2011 12:20 PM

I'd try the underwear or nothing at all can work to. I would get tired of changing wet clothes, but if he's not wearing a diaper or underwear, it has nowhere to go and he'd be more likely to connect feeling like he needed to go, to going. Might have to clean up a lot at first, but this really helped with mine. Pooping was the hard part. With my second son, I struggled for a while until I found his motivation. He couldn't play video games with his older brother until he went poop in the potty. Worked like a charm.

**Krazy_glu3** · 07-28-2011 01:28 PM

Haha. Well, stay at home mom so I have time to clean up messes. I figured going #2 was going to be difficult. He didnt go yesterday. It was about the time he normally poops and we sat on the potty for seriously, probably 1 1/2 hours. My husband was like 'youre horrible!' haha. He was sitting there watching TV and singing along with the shows and watching. same as him sitting on the couch, only butt naked and I WANT him to go to the bathroom. I might have to buy some undies and just let him pee on himself and see if that works. Sounds bad, but.. I might give it a shot.

**Little.Chuck** · 07-28-2011 01:52 PM

If you think it's the cooling strip, why not buy some without it and see what happens?

**beaver-mom** · 08-20-2011 09:10 PM

When potty training my son, we went to the store and picked out big boy underwear, superman, ninji turtles, and he could wear them only if he didn't pee on superman ect.... worked pretty good, because he wanted to wear them.

**WildChild** · 08-20-2011 11:16 PM

I agree, go with the big boy undies. Save the pullups for nighttime. With my kids I used a couple other incentives too, we frequently read books about being a big kid and using the potty, whenever the kids used the potty they got to choose a sticker to put on a special paper. When they had enough stickers, they earned a trip to ToysRUs. In my son's case that was usually a small Lego box (we have an enormous Lego collection) or an action figure such as Batman or Poison Ivy. It has to take some real sticker accumulation to win the prize but not take so very long that they lose interest. That also teaches some delayed gratification.

**jns** · 08-21-2011 09:20 AM

Incentives and celebrations for doing it right are the keys. The cooling strips seem to motivate in the wrong direction. Being a little uncomfortable for a short amount of time is useful negative reinforcement. Being uncomfortable as an adult is great at motivating changes and production. Otherwise bosses would love you to death to get things done but they know that that doesn't work.

**Cyndie32** · 08-22-2011 01:19 PM

i used the big boy underware as well. make a big deal of the trip to the store and how fantastic these undies are going to be. I also used the t.p. trick. you put a little peice of t.p. in the toilet and the boy used his pee pee for target practice. yea! toilet training is fun! I also had my sons wash out there own undies if they messed in them (of course without there knowledge I would do it again). this is not punishment. it teaches responsibility and consequences for actions. I never scolded them for accidents. They just had to clean up there mess. alot of times children wet themselves because they don't want to stop what they are doing. this way, regardless, they must stop what they are doing. now the choice is theirs. pee pee in the potty and then go back to playing or wipe up the floor, rinse out the pants, dry up and then get new undies. no scolding necessary. but don't let him see you go after him and reclean. he is a big boy now. and big boys clean up their own messes. give it a shot. children are smart.

**Changing it up** · 08-29-2011 09:01 PM

I got both of my kids excited about using the potty, like using a penny per potty, or giving them stars toward filling their chart. This gave them some reason to like using the potty, so they would learn how. Then, after they knew how to use the potty, I put them in panties or underwear (because pullups are nothing different than diapers except the price) and spent a couple days cleaning up messes. We did not go anywhere, just focused on having very positive potty experiences. It only took a couple days, and they started keeping them dry, as long as you take them to the potty and not expect them to tell you.

**4eyemommy** · 08-31-2011 04:50 PM

I am also potty training my little one and I sort of made a game out of it. I got some of the cheap fruit loops and put some in his potty and when ever I ask if he needs to go he willingly goes with me asking or doing much else. When ever he hits one of the fruit loops we both say yay and get the job done.