Hey Mama Duck! My son’s preschool teacher (whom I would say is fairly strict and he likes it) told me that her indicator that he is ready for underwear and grasps what is supposed to take place regarding the potty is that everytime she sends him at school he goes. She sends him on the average every hour and it’s okay if he just tries, but he really should go every time she sends him. I bought my son a potty in January and he turned two in April. I would suggest taking a few days off from it and then start back up. A lot of us start too soon, but I think it’s completely awesome that he notices when he is about to start, just not so great that he doesn’t realize he has to sit down to do the deed. Don’t push him, just remind him that’s what he has to do…sit down to go the bathroom when it’s pooping. I dont’ think my son even knows he has to sit down to poop. He only stands up now to pee and so I don’t think he’s actually thought about the pooping yet. Try following his cues and oh, PRAY! ALOT! God cares about potty issues. I promise.
Enjoy the adventure.
–Karen

My youngest acted this way…so I let it go for a few weeks and tried again…eventually he was ready. We also offered rewards…starting with just sitting on the potty even if he didn’t do anything…he would get a reward for being a big boy and sitting on the potty…then..it went about 1-2 weeks then it was to where he would get a reward if he would use the potty..within about a month he had it down pat!

Potty training is imminent at our place. I can’t speak from experience, but just what I’ve read. You could try having a special book or toy for him to occupy himself with while he sits on the potty. Number 2 can take some time and it’s hard to be patient. It might help to get him to sit down, especially if it’s a special one just for that particular time.

We’ve tried potty training once, but it just wasn’t the right time. We’re taking a break, then trying again. It’ll happen.

Get him some of those pullup pants. Tell him how grown up he is and how he is now in big boy pants. Point out babies (younger than him) that are wearing diapers. This worked for me.

LOL great minds do think alike.

I’ve always been told that when a child can identify the need to go that they are ready to begin training. If Lil Duck is like Nate this is a ‘bad thing’ because it takes away from valuable play time.

For us we tried the pull ups and Nate still saw them as a diaper and nothing changed. We have both a potty seat and a potty chair for him.

We have just went cold turkey and put him completely in underwear. We got the character underwear that he likes like Thomas and Bob the Builder and explain to him that its big boy underwear that you cant potty in them.

So far for the most part its working for us. If you have plenty of time to devote to making sure that he goes and sits on the potty every hour then you might try the underwear approach.

I’m sure you could find duck underwear too!

It doesn’t seem like he’s ready yet. He’ll be more receptive when he gets a little older. Good luck!

Oh mamma duck I feel for you. My buttons just turned 4 and his training days still linger in my mind! He would always tell me about poop - AFTER he’d done it in his training pants. He had a great fear of sitting on the potty - but wouldn’t sit on his training one because he knew it wasn’t real, and wouldn’t even try the insert seat for the big potty. Eventually what won out was me holding him. The first success was totally painful and felt like it took forever but I knew he needed to go and as soon as we had success it was like it clicked for him. But he didn’t do both together. He had the peeing down for several months before we moved into success with #2 — he’d go hide! I wish I had some words of wisdom, but I just have a sympathetic disposition for you! Feel free to vent anytime!

Hugs,
Holly
Holly’s Corner

When Katarina was potty trainig, it was very difficult to get her to poop. She would be dancing around, you could tell she was straining to hold it in, but still she would scream like we were killing her if we tried to put her on the potty to do it.

So, here is our secret. We found this kitchen timer that looks like a chicken. When we noticed that she was acting like poop might be imminent (don’t you just love the things that you talk about as a mom!?!) we told her that we were going to play the chicken timer game. We would set the timer and tell her to sit on the potty and relax until the timer went off, and then she could get down. I would always say “you don’t have to try to go poo poo, just sit there and relax, becuase sometimes if you just relax it will just come out. But if it doesn’t, that is okay too. We will just try the game again in a little bit” The other thing that I emphasised to her was privacy. After I set the timer I would tell her that I was going to give her some privacy and to call me if she needed me. After the first couple of times it clicked and after a few weeks she was ready to go poop with no chicken and no more accidents.

I dont’ know if this would work, but you might be able to find a timer that is a duck!!

Mine advice is simple.

Wait till he’s ready.

And.

If you can bribe him to do it, he’s ready. If a bribe doesn’t work. HE IS NOT READY. This is what I trained parents to do and I did it myself as well.

Good luck! Every babe is different though. I hate potty training LOLOLOL…. hugs.

I have soooooo missed Lil Ducks antics LOL! It’s amazing, even when you’ve never met someone how you look forward to hearing from them daily and how you form friendships. Thankyou for the sweet words you left at my blog. I am so happy to be back here with you guys!

My advice on the potty training is to let him think that it was HIS idea to use it! With the brats (I’ve got to stop calling them that LOL), we’d notice that they needed to go and we’d say, “oh look at my big girl, I bet she’s on her way to the big girl potty, right?” And they’d look at us like, hmm, that sounds like a good plan! LOL Before we knew it, the diapers were nonexistent at our house! Also, my nephew (chad, who is 7) told them that other kids would make fun of them if they wore pullups to school. I dont agree with that tactic, because some kids DO wear them when they start school, and I would never allow my girls to make fun of other children. But, when he told them that, it was like, wow, we want to go to school, but we’re not willing to get made fun of! Once they decided to go potty (1 AND 2) by themselves, we never had a problem with bedwetting, or accidents in their pants! It was great!

I think what complicates this is that sometimes you don’t feel very good when you have a BM — stomach cramping, etc.

All my guys were around 3 before they were fully trained. My dr. said don’t worry about it — it will happen when they’re ready.

Our son has a little autism, so we have to do some things a little differently with him. We’re working with a system that the preschool uses. We have little laminated pictures, one for each stage of the potty process. One for wet diaper. One for pull down pants. One for sit on potty, etc. all the way through washing his hands where is is met by another series of cards for that above the sink. When we take him to change his diaper, we make him touch each picture and tell us what it is. He loves it. He likes to understand where the beginning and end of things are. That might be part of Lil Duck’s issue right now (or he might just not be ready). He hated the potty before, but now we can at least get him to sit on it whenever we want.

Good luck.