How to toilet train children

[waynemum]

My 3yo son got a funny habit. I’m not sure if he’s consider toilet trained.


He wears underwear at home and sometimes even for shopping. He will tell me f he want to urinate but one bad habit is if he wants to poo, he must be in his diaper else he refused to poo. I give in as i do not want him to end up being contispated.

Whenever he is in his underwear and want to poo, he will ask me to change to diaper for him and he if he has his diaper on with his short, he must remove his short!

There are few occassion when we are out shopping and he wanna poo, he wants to take off his shorts no matter how i persuade him not to. I have no choice but to give him as i am afraid he will suffer from contispation before he is willing to poo. . A real stuborn boy here.

Can anyone advise how can i get him to sit on the toilet bowl to do his business or to ask him to keep his pants on if he insist on wearing his diaper to poo?

[Keroppi30]

Hi waynemum,


my younger gal who is 2.5yo has the same problem she can usually tell us when she wants to pee however when she wants to poo she’ll tell us she wants to wear diaper. When we ask her if she wants to poo she’ll tell us no defiantly but she will do her business in her diaper shortly. I’ve check with her pd and he says its not a problem she probably feels more comfortable doing her business in the diaper.

[MLR]

I would suggest that after he pooed, bring him to the toilet and empty the diaper into the toilet bowl and explained to him that poo goes into the toilet bowl, so next time he should poo into the bowl. Its troublesome, but I did that for a week with DS (who is now 3) and now he would only want to poo in the toilet bowl.


Another reinforcement I did with him was to remind him that he is now a big boy and we would be proud of him when he poo in the toilet. I said this to him everyday when I drop him off at his childcare. His teachers and caregivers were also very supportive and reinforced this during his hours with them. So that was really very quickly resolved.

There were a few accidents when he was too engrossed with his play or tv times, but he was apologetic and he knew he did wrong.

Being consistant and get everyone to repeat the same to him whenever he wants to poo in his diaper. But must stress that cannot shame him or use a scolding voice when you talk to him, or it would actually make things worse, as I had experienced when i started toilet training DS. I had to stop for a 6 months period b4 trying and succeeded.

[waynemum]

Thank you for all your advice.


I think he feel better and comfortable to poo in his diaper as i felt that it might be too boring for him to sit thru the whole process as he likes to play with his toy while pooing.

Everytime after he poo, i will throw the poo into the toilet bowl and flush it away and each time he will tell me he will poo in the toilet bowl the next time but it nvr happen!

He’s 3 now and i getting abit impatience but i know some things can’t be rush else it will backfire.

[tinkerbell]

hi ...

agree..we shd not rush them.
My DD didn't get to be free fm diapers in the day till 4yrs.
Tho the teachers hv been training her but somehow she juz wasn't ready.
She will say \"no\" everytime i bring her to the toilet.
Then out of the blue...she said she wanted to pee in the toilet !

I guess when they are ready, they will inform you :lol:

As for the pooh part...well it juz happens naturally after 2 weeks.

Everything will juz fall in place somehow...

[cmm]

My nephew had this same problem when he was that age. Someone taught my sil to let my nephew wear diapers but sit on the toilet bowl to poo. By and by try to get him to do his business without the diaper.... viola! It worked for her!

[Liubei5659]

let nature take it course. Some will be faster, some will be slower.

My boy 7 year old still can wet the bed… but my girl 4 year old know how to wake at midnite to release herself.

[jedamum]

i am having a ‘problem’.

my ds2 needs to sit down to pee. attempts to teach him to stand usually ends up wetting his pants/legs. he prefers to climb onto the seat and sit. to do that, he needs to takes off his shorts. i had not let him go diaper-free in school cos i am worried that the toilet seats are dirty and he may dirty his shorts if the toilet floor is wet (and also cos at times if there is no reminder, he will wait until last min before requesting to go toilet and then will not be in time).

[david59]

Mmmm... I think if my memory does not fail me ( it was some 16 and 19 years ago), our two girls were fully toilet-trained by the time they were 18 months old. Not that I want to 'howlian' but it was out of necessity. We were rather poor then and so could not afford to spend too much money on disposal diapers. Our girls wore cloth diapers when at home and of course disposal diapers when going out. My wife was a SAHM then so she was able to change their cloth diapers when they were wet or soiled. Even then washing numerous cloth diapers every day was a no joke affair and so we were very eager to wane them off wearing diapers as soon as possible.

We kept on reminding them that when they felt the urgency, they must give us the signal by their expression of their face or verbally ( when a liitle older) and we would quickly rush the toilet bowl(potty) to them in time for them to do their things. Of course initially there were times when we were a little too late. But as times passed by, as this habit was being cultivated they were able to give us the signal a little earlier and eventually, they were able to go to the toilet bowl by themselves.
Though they were totally waned off from diapers, even during their night sleep, there were a few times when they still wet their bed. But it was ok because we always laid a rubber mat under the mattress cover to prevent the mattress from getting wet.
I guess times are different now. Then we were forced by circumstances to be more frugal.

[autumnbronze]

jedamum:

i am having a 'problem'.

my ds2 needs to sit down to pee. attempts to teach him to stand usually ends up wetting his pants/legs. he prefers to climb onto the seat and sit. to do that, he needs to takes off his shorts. i had not let him go diaper-free in school cos i am worried that the toilet seats are dirty and he may dirty his shorts if the toilet floor is wet (and also cos at times if there is no reminder, he will wait until last min before requesting to go toilet and then will not be in time).

Hi jedamum,

I have a 28 mth old son.

I started toilet training him at the age of 1, naturally he resisted. But by 18 mths he was able to verbalize but refused to go to the loo or take out diapers.

I left it alone for a while and just b4 turning two, started wearing him undies, so he was forced to verbalize and when he didn't, he would touch his undie, that is when we will bring him to the bathroom. Few accidents here and there, but funnily, he has a sense of shame so he will run to the bathroom to pee. Only in the last 3 weeks or so, began to poo in the bathroom too.

But currently, DS will only pee and poo at the shower area. Initially for peeing, he will squat, only recently started standing with his legs wide apart, but sometimes still wet his legs. I tried to make him sit in the 'big bowl' to pee once, but subsequently decided against it cuz boys don't usu pee that way rite???

I think my DS seems to be working in stages for toilet training ie verbalize when in diapers, then in undies, pee and poo first in shower area, then progress to the 'big bowl' later.

I was advised by a frd to get DH's help ie bring him to the loo to encourage him the right way to pee and even show via 'modelling'. I am trying to do that but DH is a bit old fashioned in the sense like, \"my dad didn't teach me ...\" Anyway, he only recently relented and promised to start this weekend.

Currently, I wear him diapers when we go out. Anyway, I too wonder how is he going to manage once he starts preschool ie dirty toilets and so on .. cuz I am thinking of sending him to a kindy mid next yr or in 2011. :?