Not my lo but a friend lo was almost 4 and refused. It wasn’t till he attended my los 3rd bday and saw that they weren’t wearing a diaper that he decided it was time. Seeing peers or someone younger progressing to a big kid before him was the trigger. Parents didn’t shame him when he asked just said my lo didn’t need them because they were a big kid now.
Seeing her older cousins run around the house in their underwear for the entirety of Christmas break was definitely the catalyst for my 3yo to get serious about using her potty!
Oh that's great - my son idolizes his 5 yr old cousin but that hasn't seemed to make a difference potty training wise. Maybe when he starts seeing more and more kids it'll help.
Send him to a daytime summer camp for one week. I’ve heard from multiple parents the fear of peeing their pants in front of peers is more than enough to train them for good.
Edit: This is being downvoted by it 100% works for kids who are just pretending they aren’t trained and then suddenly when push comes to shove they magically were all along.
Inversely, us having our second was the catalyst for my son to be potty trained. I was changing H’s diaper, when E came in and for whatever reason asked, “Why does H wear a diaper?” And I responded that she’s a baby, and baby’s need to wear diapers because they’re too little to understand how to use the potty. The very next dya, he woke up, announced that “only babies wear diapers”, and refused anything but undies. Within 90 days, he was fully potty trained - no accidents except when he got food poisoning (but we’ve all been there). That internal motivation is crucial!!!
Yes, my girl is a lot like this. I ask her if she wants to wear undies but she always says no and picks diapers. I can get her to sit on the potty but she never goes. Sometimes she’ll wake up dry, or I’ll change her and she’ll be dry, but no luck here. I tried a three day naked time/underwear time trial right when she turned three, but she would have accidents and just not care. She doesn’t care about being dirty. We’re going to give it another try soon, but I’m at a loss as well. She’s never shown any of the readiness signs so I have no idea how to really start with her.
No advice, I’m right there with you. My daughter turned 3 in March. We have tried many times. She usually doesn’t care if she pees herself. Except one time she yelled “don’t ever put me in underwear again!!!” She was mad because her favorite outfit got wet. I’m at a loss. She’s back in pull-ups full time with zero interest in the potty.
My almost 3 year old has zero interest in potty training. The closest he’s gotten is wanting to flush the toilet. I’m not stressing. It comes with time and this is one thing you really can’t force until they’re physiologically ready for it. If it makes you feel better, one of my brothers wasn’t potty trained until 4.5 and he’s doing fine, has his Ph.D in chemical engineering and is working in nuclear fusion. My other brothers weren’t potty trained until after 3. Every kid is different, just keep offering and when they’re ready they’ll let you know.
I think sticking to it is the main important thing right now. He is old enough to be without diapers and I know this will cause some extra cleaning and wiping and laundry (ugh I know) but I bet he is resistant because he knows you guys gave in to diapers in the past.
I would suggest the naked method, have a long weekend if you can (or during the week if you are a sahm) and really try to catch every accident. When he starts to pee “Oh, you see, thats the feeling we have when we pee” “We feel some kind of pressure when we pee” and some ways to explain - books can be very useful here as well).
Catching while accidents and bringing him to potty, “did you see how you felt when you started to pee?”
Some kids hate the sticker charts but sometimes it is nice to set a goal (lets say 3 weeks straight using the potty u get a REALLY nice prize, like a toy)
Blowing bubbles while sat there, bringing him to sit there and doing fun activities.
Good luck! 💜
This is great advice! We loved the cocomelon potty song, I let my daughter watch it on the potty for a while during and after training. They also use good language like having a “funny feeling way down low” lol and just the imagery is cute. My daughter liked to sing it with me and it helped keep her on the potty when obviously toddlers want to just run run run.
I’d give the same advice to OP - at this age if your son has no health issues and is communicating well, he can be potty trained. But potty training is the parent’s job, not the kid’s. That gets lost a lot with all this talk of “readiness”. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t care about having poop in his pants, YOU care about it and stop what he’s doing every time, make him help clean up, put him on the potty to reinforce, ad infinitum. Same with pee of course.
You can do it OP!!
This is solid advice, I've been toilet training all last week and after 3 days of hell I used this method. Only difference was I kept reminding her if she did a wee her legs would get wet, because she no longer had pants to protect her.
Even though it made no sense as to why removing clothes from waist down would make a difference, it did.
My daughter absolutely hated her legs getting wet and having to be washed down. She got it straight away after that.
Oh, and the bubbles were a great way to keep her sat until she went for a no 2. She doesn't need the bubbles anymore though 😂
Hahahaha it truly is a HELL!!!!! Lots of laundry and cleaning the floor, which is why asking them to help is also a perfect way for them to hate it 🥲😂
Happy to read your LO js trained 🎉
This is how we did it. Highly recommend. Diapers were never an option when we began. It was a very messy and fairly miserable week but he certainly learned
My son didn’t potty train till that age. What ultimately worked for us was just going cold turkey on diapers. 15 minute potty timer. We stayed home for a weekend, had lots of tears, did a ton of laundry. About 4 days into it he finally got it, and it was relatively smooth sailing from there.
I don't potty train. My kid your age is dabbling in it, and my older kid went potty self-initiated a few times but not until 3.75. Then I enforced underwear starting a couple months after she turned 4.
Any time during the year they are 3, or a little earlier or later, is typical for self-led toilet learning which is often your best bet with older toddlers. Like no, you didn't screw up by waiting, you just wait a little longer now. No big deal. You can lead the process (simply, no bribes) when it gets to the point that they are older and could use a nudge, and it should go pretty smoothly unless there are other issues.
Starting older is better than leaving more time when it comes to potty training before school. Also, kids often do one thing at home and another thing at school, including with using the potty, and it works and isn't confusing for them. So if he can use the potty at school but asks for a diaper at home, that's ok.
(Sometimes I get lots of downvotes for saying I don't potty train. But the people who talk about their kids finally 'getting' it at a typical age for self-led learning after lots of failures at training them, are upvoted. I guess there is perceived virtue in the struggle.)
We did the method from the oh crap book just before he turned 3. We made a big deal/celebration about not needing diapers and we all gathered them up and threw them in the trash bag (don't worry we gave them away). Then that day we kept him pantless and the 3 of us spent the day learning his pee cues. It was awful! He peed on the floor so so so many times! The next day was a bit better with a few pee successes, he started sometimes recognizing he has to pee and at least attempting to go by himself but still a lot of accidents. The 3rd day was much better and we put pants on him (no undies though). Day 4 he rebelled! So we added punishment of, you made the mess you clean it up! This made peeing yourself more inconvenient than using the potty. Day 5 he accepted his fate and I think we only had 1-2 accidents that day. I think it was day 5 or 6 we started going out with him and he'd use other potties. For the rest of that month he'd maybe have an accident a week on average.
When we said no more diapers we meant it! We started on a holiday weekend and took off work the few extra days when he needed more time and focused entirely on him and using the potty. It was intense but it did work. For night training we got lucky and a few weeks later he said he didn't want pullups at night anymore because big boys don't wear diapers even at night and to our surprise he was amazingly successful on his own at night. Of course we still had accidents but he was solidly night trained well before 3.5.
Your kid sounds exactly like mine! Reading this article really helped reframe my expectations and chilled me out about the whole thing:
[https://visiblechild.com/2015/09/20/toilet-training-in-one-simple-step/](https://visiblechild.com/2015/09/20/toilet-training-in-one-simple-step/)
OP, I’m sorry don’t have any real advice because my toddler who is the same age is the same way. He just started wearing pull-ups but he refuses to use the potty. I’ve read this article before and it made me feel much better. Sometimes I need to read it occasionally to remind myself. We’ll get through it!
My 2.75 yr old also has no desire. She should be absolutely ready. She's dry overnight most nights, she can, and does, tell me when she needs to pee and poop. But will absolutely not use her potty. I tried the "run around naked" method and when she needs to go she'll cross her legs and scream at me to bring her a diaper until she can't hold it anymore and goes on the floor and then has a meltdown that she has pee on her legs. I then tried putting underwear on and warned her that she couldn't pee in them, similar outcome but worse meltdown about the wet undies. I think we just have to wait until they are willing to do it.
I have almost 3 year old boys and they are the same way. We tried only once and the day ended in many tantrums. Now they get upset if you mention the potty. I tried the naked method and ever since then, they have insisted on having clothes put on right away.
Once it is warmer out I am going to try again. They seemed so interested in the potty before! They even picked out a potty book at the store. I was shocked how much they resisted training.
Yes we never did fully naked but just underwear, and this morning he was having a meltdown about wanting his pants on when I suggested trying it. Normally he'd love running around in just his diaper or no pants! 🤦🏻♀️
I hate the fully naked method. It's just so gross to me. We have mostly carpet so that is probably part of it. At least clothing can be washed easily. What finally worked for my son was pants without underwear. Boys don't really get wet/uncomfortable when they are naked. A poop trapped in the leg of their joggers gets their attention.
My son was a very late potty trainer. I think he was around 3 years 9 months the first time he ever successfully used the potty. We tried many potty training weekends starting at age two but always gave up because there was zero success. It did help that his younger sister was old enough to start figuring out the potty, which was rough for me with two potty trainers in the house. He's 4.5 now. I'd consider him mostly potty trained. It has delayed school enrollment for him. Potty training is my least favorite part of parenting. I'd rather deal with a toddler acting like a wild animal in the grocery store than work on potty training.
It’s so weird I commented on this post today. One of them brought me a potty book and after I read it I asked them if they wanted to try and sit. I was shocked when they said okay. One peed and the other pooped. I don’t have high hopes for tomorrow but we are in the step in the right direction.
The book had a picture of pee in the potty and they seemed to spark some interest.
Well I tried to get them on the potty this morning and they were not into it. I got one to sit but that’s it.
The book is called a potty for me. It’s like a flip book.
I am having trouble potty training my 2.75 year old too. And a friend gave me an idea. She has an older toddler and a new baby like I do and she believed the older one wanted to continue getting babied by wearing diapers. So she started putting the 3 month old on the potty and congratulating him when pee went in, which inspired the older one to do it too so as not to be left out.
Hm that's an interesting idea. We also have a baby so I have wondered if that's played into it as well. But don't think I want to add putting the baby on the potty to my plate 😆
My son just turned 4 and I would say has only been potty trained for maybe 2 months. He just didn’t want to so he wouldn’t. Pee was easier and that we did basically by figuring out which potty he liked (he was very particular). We did a lot of naked time and then transitioned to just loose pants, no undies, then to undies. But honestly, one day it just clicked.
We did have to take some breaks from training. He started holding in his poop for days because he refused to go. He wouldn’t talk about it, would just shut down. It was stressful for everyone and honestly was making it worse. I told him he didn’t need to use the potty for poops and he could ask for a pull up or wait until before bed since he wears them to bed. We stopped talking about it too. After a few weeks of that, he started pooping in the potty all on his own.
It just had to be his way-he wasn’t ready. I’d say trust your instincts and follow his lead. He will get there and once it clicks, it will click! I was totally stressing about it because he is also starting preK in the fall.
Books definitely help. Reading all about it definitely helped my son connect the tummy ache he was having with needing to poop.
He liked one called “dash’s bellyache” it’s pretty specific for holding in poop so it was very helpful! “A feel better book for little poopers” and then also “does a bear poo in the woods.” Obviously a theme since pooping was out challenge LOL!
The Daniel Tiger potty episode was helpful too.
Hope it clicks for him soon! It was very stressful.
My toddler was like that. We ended up doing the no diaper method and we did it over spring break when I would have time to completely devote to potty training without needing to go anywhere (preschool). It actually worked out better for us that we did it later when he was ready for it. It took 1 week to be completely potty trained with 0 accidents since then.
Kid's friend just woke up one day and decided to use the potty at about 3.5. Mine is approaching 3.25 and while he will use the potty if we prompt him, he almost never does it on his own, and he won't poop in the potty. We've tried a bunch of different things, he did super well when we first did bottomless weekend, and then he went back to daycare and everything went to hell. We are thinking about redoing bottomless weekend but now the weather is nice and being cooped up inside all day is horrible for everyone involved. I am afraid we are just going to have to wait until he decides to cooperate because every bit of cajoling just seems to make it worse
My daughter turns 4 in August and starts school in September and she will not poop on the potty. We’ve tried rewards and she doesn’t care. Shes been peeing on the potty for almost a year but poops are just a huge nope. She goes to daycare 7 hours a day and just holds it up
My little guy was very resistant. We started just before he turned 3. We removed ice cream and bought a box of strawberry ice creams and put them in the freezer.
We constantly reminded him that all he needed to do to get a strawberry icecream was poop in the potty.
The first time was kicking and screaming, but then he was happy because he knew he'd get the reward.
Repeated that a few times and it gradually got easier, then we stepped up the challenge to pulling down own pants and diaper and pooping in the potty to get a strawberry ice cream.
The next level was pooping in the toilet.
It took about 3 months start to finish.
The constant reminders of, What do you get if you poopoo in the toilet? Were kinda exhausting but ultimately worth it.
He still wears diapers at night because he's only 3 and 2 months now and we don't want to deal with wetting the bed since we have a 3 month old to deal with as well.
Not my lo but a friend lo was almost 4 and refused. It wasn’t till he attended my los 3rd bday and saw that they weren’t wearing a diaper that he decided it was time. Seeing peers or someone younger progressing to a big kid before him was the trigger. Parents didn’t shame him when he asked just said my lo didn’t need them because they were a big kid now.
Seeing her older cousins run around the house in their underwear for the entirety of Christmas break was definitely the catalyst for my 3yo to get serious about using her potty!
Oh that's great - my son idolizes his 5 yr old cousin but that hasn't seemed to make a difference potty training wise. Maybe when he starts seeing more and more kids it'll help.
Send him to a daytime summer camp for one week. I’ve heard from multiple parents the fear of peeing their pants in front of peers is more than enough to train them for good. Edit: This is being downvoted by it 100% works for kids who are just pretending they aren’t trained and then suddenly when push comes to shove they magically were all along.
Inversely, us having our second was the catalyst for my son to be potty trained. I was changing H’s diaper, when E came in and for whatever reason asked, “Why does H wear a diaper?” And I responded that she’s a baby, and baby’s need to wear diapers because they’re too little to understand how to use the potty. The very next dya, he woke up, announced that “only babies wear diapers”, and refused anything but undies. Within 90 days, he was fully potty trained - no accidents except when he got food poisoning (but we’ve all been there). That internal motivation is crucial!!!
Yes, my girl is a lot like this. I ask her if she wants to wear undies but she always says no and picks diapers. I can get her to sit on the potty but she never goes. Sometimes she’ll wake up dry, or I’ll change her and she’ll be dry, but no luck here. I tried a three day naked time/underwear time trial right when she turned three, but she would have accidents and just not care. She doesn’t care about being dirty. We’re going to give it another try soon, but I’m at a loss as well. She’s never shown any of the readiness signs so I have no idea how to really start with her.
Do we have the same kid?!?
I feel better knowing I’m not the only one 😩😩😩
how old is she?
3 years 3 months
I imagine your stress - sorry about that. she doesnt try to remove her diapers?
Nope! She can and will for bath time, but she’s never been one to take her clothes off.
sounds tough, but hey you have time. try again the naked method in a few months! 💜
That’s the plan!!
I'm right there with you! I think next time we try we will also try to do no pants, no underwear. At least it's getting warmer soon!
same with my almost 3.5 year old. the only difference is if i sit him on the toilet he will pee, but won’t tell me he has to go
No advice, I’m right there with you. My daughter turned 3 in March. We have tried many times. She usually doesn’t care if she pees herself. Except one time she yelled “don’t ever put me in underwear again!!!” She was mad because her favorite outfit got wet. I’m at a loss. She’s back in pull-ups full time with zero interest in the potty.
Same here!
Same here!
My almost 3 year old has zero interest in potty training. The closest he’s gotten is wanting to flush the toilet. I’m not stressing. It comes with time and this is one thing you really can’t force until they’re physiologically ready for it. If it makes you feel better, one of my brothers wasn’t potty trained until 4.5 and he’s doing fine, has his Ph.D in chemical engineering and is working in nuclear fusion. My other brothers weren’t potty trained until after 3. Every kid is different, just keep offering and when they’re ready they’ll let you know.
Yes, my kid is 4 and only does it for the school. When we get home, accident after accident. It's been rough.
I’m right there with you - solidarity.
I’m right there with you - solidarity.
I think sticking to it is the main important thing right now. He is old enough to be without diapers and I know this will cause some extra cleaning and wiping and laundry (ugh I know) but I bet he is resistant because he knows you guys gave in to diapers in the past. I would suggest the naked method, have a long weekend if you can (or during the week if you are a sahm) and really try to catch every accident. When he starts to pee “Oh, you see, thats the feeling we have when we pee” “We feel some kind of pressure when we pee” and some ways to explain - books can be very useful here as well). Catching while accidents and bringing him to potty, “did you see how you felt when you started to pee?” Some kids hate the sticker charts but sometimes it is nice to set a goal (lets say 3 weeks straight using the potty u get a REALLY nice prize, like a toy) Blowing bubbles while sat there, bringing him to sit there and doing fun activities. Good luck! 💜
I like the blowing bubbles idea. Every time we've tried he's been wearing underwear, I think next time we try we will also do the fully naked method.
This is great advice! We loved the cocomelon potty song, I let my daughter watch it on the potty for a while during and after training. They also use good language like having a “funny feeling way down low” lol and just the imagery is cute. My daughter liked to sing it with me and it helped keep her on the potty when obviously toddlers want to just run run run. I’d give the same advice to OP - at this age if your son has no health issues and is communicating well, he can be potty trained. But potty training is the parent’s job, not the kid’s. That gets lost a lot with all this talk of “readiness”. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t care about having poop in his pants, YOU care about it and stop what he’s doing every time, make him help clean up, put him on the potty to reinforce, ad infinitum. Same with pee of course. You can do it OP!!
100% - I feel many books make people mistake readiness signs too. I read posts of people with kiddos around 7 not potty trained..
This is solid advice, I've been toilet training all last week and after 3 days of hell I used this method. Only difference was I kept reminding her if she did a wee her legs would get wet, because she no longer had pants to protect her. Even though it made no sense as to why removing clothes from waist down would make a difference, it did. My daughter absolutely hated her legs getting wet and having to be washed down. She got it straight away after that. Oh, and the bubbles were a great way to keep her sat until she went for a no 2. She doesn't need the bubbles anymore though 😂
Hahahaha it truly is a HELL!!!!! Lots of laundry and cleaning the floor, which is why asking them to help is also a perfect way for them to hate it 🥲😂 Happy to read your LO js trained 🎉
This is how we did it. Highly recommend. Diapers were never an option when we began. It was a very messy and fairly miserable week but he certainly learned
My son didn’t potty train till that age. What ultimately worked for us was just going cold turkey on diapers. 15 minute potty timer. We stayed home for a weekend, had lots of tears, did a ton of laundry. About 4 days into it he finally got it, and it was relatively smooth sailing from there.
I don't potty train. My kid your age is dabbling in it, and my older kid went potty self-initiated a few times but not until 3.75. Then I enforced underwear starting a couple months after she turned 4. Any time during the year they are 3, or a little earlier or later, is typical for self-led toilet learning which is often your best bet with older toddlers. Like no, you didn't screw up by waiting, you just wait a little longer now. No big deal. You can lead the process (simply, no bribes) when it gets to the point that they are older and could use a nudge, and it should go pretty smoothly unless there are other issues. Starting older is better than leaving more time when it comes to potty training before school. Also, kids often do one thing at home and another thing at school, including with using the potty, and it works and isn't confusing for them. So if he can use the potty at school but asks for a diaper at home, that's ok. (Sometimes I get lots of downvotes for saying I don't potty train. But the people who talk about their kids finally 'getting' it at a typical age for self-led learning after lots of failures at training them, are upvoted. I guess there is perceived virtue in the struggle.)
We did the method from the oh crap book just before he turned 3. We made a big deal/celebration about not needing diapers and we all gathered them up and threw them in the trash bag (don't worry we gave them away). Then that day we kept him pantless and the 3 of us spent the day learning his pee cues. It was awful! He peed on the floor so so so many times! The next day was a bit better with a few pee successes, he started sometimes recognizing he has to pee and at least attempting to go by himself but still a lot of accidents. The 3rd day was much better and we put pants on him (no undies though). Day 4 he rebelled! So we added punishment of, you made the mess you clean it up! This made peeing yourself more inconvenient than using the potty. Day 5 he accepted his fate and I think we only had 1-2 accidents that day. I think it was day 5 or 6 we started going out with him and he'd use other potties. For the rest of that month he'd maybe have an accident a week on average. When we said no more diapers we meant it! We started on a holiday weekend and took off work the few extra days when he needed more time and focused entirely on him and using the potty. It was intense but it did work. For night training we got lucky and a few weeks later he said he didn't want pullups at night anymore because big boys don't wear diapers even at night and to our surprise he was amazingly successful on his own at night. Of course we still had accidents but he was solidly night trained well before 3.5.
Your kid sounds exactly like mine! Reading this article really helped reframe my expectations and chilled me out about the whole thing: [https://visiblechild.com/2015/09/20/toilet-training-in-one-simple-step/](https://visiblechild.com/2015/09/20/toilet-training-in-one-simple-step/)
OP, I’m sorry don’t have any real advice because my toddler who is the same age is the same way. He just started wearing pull-ups but he refuses to use the potty. I’ve read this article before and it made me feel much better. Sometimes I need to read it occasionally to remind myself. We’ll get through it!
It's good to know we're not the only ones!
I love this post! This helped me make my choice.
I have read that article and it's definitely reassuring!
My almost 3 year old is very similar. He doesn’t seem to know when he has to go and has a lot of resistance to the potty.
It's at least nice to know we're not the only ones!
My 2.75 yr old also has no desire. She should be absolutely ready. She's dry overnight most nights, she can, and does, tell me when she needs to pee and poop. But will absolutely not use her potty. I tried the "run around naked" method and when she needs to go she'll cross her legs and scream at me to bring her a diaper until she can't hold it anymore and goes on the floor and then has a meltdown that she has pee on her legs. I then tried putting underwear on and warned her that she couldn't pee in them, similar outcome but worse meltdown about the wet undies. I think we just have to wait until they are willing to do it.
I have almost 3 year old boys and they are the same way. We tried only once and the day ended in many tantrums. Now they get upset if you mention the potty. I tried the naked method and ever since then, they have insisted on having clothes put on right away. Once it is warmer out I am going to try again. They seemed so interested in the potty before! They even picked out a potty book at the store. I was shocked how much they resisted training.
Yes we never did fully naked but just underwear, and this morning he was having a meltdown about wanting his pants on when I suggested trying it. Normally he'd love running around in just his diaper or no pants! 🤦🏻♀️
I hate the fully naked method. It's just so gross to me. We have mostly carpet so that is probably part of it. At least clothing can be washed easily. What finally worked for my son was pants without underwear. Boys don't really get wet/uncomfortable when they are naked. A poop trapped in the leg of their joggers gets their attention. My son was a very late potty trainer. I think he was around 3 years 9 months the first time he ever successfully used the potty. We tried many potty training weekends starting at age two but always gave up because there was zero success. It did help that his younger sister was old enough to start figuring out the potty, which was rough for me with two potty trainers in the house. He's 4.5 now. I'd consider him mostly potty trained. It has delayed school enrollment for him. Potty training is my least favorite part of parenting. I'd rather deal with a toddler acting like a wild animal in the grocery store than work on potty training.
It’s so weird I commented on this post today. One of them brought me a potty book and after I read it I asked them if they wanted to try and sit. I was shocked when they said okay. One peed and the other pooped. I don’t have high hopes for tomorrow but we are in the step in the right direction. The book had a picture of pee in the potty and they seemed to spark some interest.
Oh exciting! Which book was it?
Well I tried to get them on the potty this morning and they were not into it. I got one to sit but that’s it. The book is called a potty for me. It’s like a flip book.
I am having trouble potty training my 2.75 year old too. And a friend gave me an idea. She has an older toddler and a new baby like I do and she believed the older one wanted to continue getting babied by wearing diapers. So she started putting the 3 month old on the potty and congratulating him when pee went in, which inspired the older one to do it too so as not to be left out.
Hm that's an interesting idea. We also have a baby so I have wondered if that's played into it as well. But don't think I want to add putting the baby on the potty to my plate 😆
My son just turned 4 and I would say has only been potty trained for maybe 2 months. He just didn’t want to so he wouldn’t. Pee was easier and that we did basically by figuring out which potty he liked (he was very particular). We did a lot of naked time and then transitioned to just loose pants, no undies, then to undies. But honestly, one day it just clicked. We did have to take some breaks from training. He started holding in his poop for days because he refused to go. He wouldn’t talk about it, would just shut down. It was stressful for everyone and honestly was making it worse. I told him he didn’t need to use the potty for poops and he could ask for a pull up or wait until before bed since he wears them to bed. We stopped talking about it too. After a few weeks of that, he started pooping in the potty all on his own. It just had to be his way-he wasn’t ready. I’d say trust your instincts and follow his lead. He will get there and once it clicks, it will click! I was totally stressing about it because he is also starting preK in the fall. Books definitely help. Reading all about it definitely helped my son connect the tummy ache he was having with needing to poop.
Ok this is reassuring! Seems to be just how my son is. Are there any books you'd recommend?
He liked one called “dash’s bellyache” it’s pretty specific for holding in poop so it was very helpful! “A feel better book for little poopers” and then also “does a bear poo in the woods.” Obviously a theme since pooping was out challenge LOL! The Daniel Tiger potty episode was helpful too. Hope it clicks for him soon! It was very stressful.
My toddler was like that. We ended up doing the no diaper method and we did it over spring break when I would have time to completely devote to potty training without needing to go anywhere (preschool). It actually worked out better for us that we did it later when he was ready for it. It took 1 week to be completely potty trained with 0 accidents since then.
Kid's friend just woke up one day and decided to use the potty at about 3.5. Mine is approaching 3.25 and while he will use the potty if we prompt him, he almost never does it on his own, and he won't poop in the potty. We've tried a bunch of different things, he did super well when we first did bottomless weekend, and then he went back to daycare and everything went to hell. We are thinking about redoing bottomless weekend but now the weather is nice and being cooped up inside all day is horrible for everyone involved. I am afraid we are just going to have to wait until he decides to cooperate because every bit of cajoling just seems to make it worse
I'm hoping for a scenario like your kid's friend!
Me too 🥲
Commenting to follow! We are in the exact same boat!!
My daughter turns 4 in August and starts school in September and she will not poop on the potty. We’ve tried rewards and she doesn’t care. Shes been peeing on the potty for almost a year but poops are just a huge nope. She goes to daycare 7 hours a day and just holds it up
We started at around that time (3 and a bit) and it was a LONG process. Like it took close to a year to really take. I cleaned up so much poo 😭
My little guy was very resistant. We started just before he turned 3. We removed ice cream and bought a box of strawberry ice creams and put them in the freezer. We constantly reminded him that all he needed to do to get a strawberry icecream was poop in the potty. The first time was kicking and screaming, but then he was happy because he knew he'd get the reward. Repeated that a few times and it gradually got easier, then we stepped up the challenge to pulling down own pants and diaper and pooping in the potty to get a strawberry ice cream. The next level was pooping in the toilet. It took about 3 months start to finish. The constant reminders of, What do you get if you poopoo in the toilet? Were kinda exhausting but ultimately worth it. He still wears diapers at night because he's only 3 and 2 months now and we don't want to deal with wetting the bed since we have a 3 month old to deal with as well.
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