Stay at Home Dad needs help with Potty Training

This is totally normal. It's fun an and novel for a week or two, then gets boring, so they stop. He might go back and forth several times before he gets it. 22 months is pretty early for him to be starting, as boys potty train later than girls. I wouldn't stress out, just continue to encourage him to use it several times a day, maybe with a sticker chart that after five successes he gets a small reward. It sounds like you're doing a great job as a stay at home parent, so go easy on yourself :-) He'll get the hang of it when he's developmentally ready.

I can see how this can seem pretty tough but its pretty common. You need to limit his fluids so you can predict when he's going to need to go first. What he is doing is deciding he's going to do things his way, so you need to institute greater control. When you limit his fluids and can predict when he will have to go, then you take him each and every time he should have to go so that he gets a little schedule in his subconscious. Then you have a way to remind him to stop what he is doing and go potty. You have to be very consistent and not relax until he stops having to be reminded and goes on his own for about 2 months, but it will work eventually.

It's great to see a dad wanting to take care of the children the way you are. With my boys at about 18 months old Every time I or their father went to the bath room we took the boys. We just went more often than we would other wise. It won't take long. Do you have him in those pullups. They are just like the disposable diapers and hold the wetness awy from him. Get him some training pants.That way when he wets or messes himself he will be uncomfortable and want them off. Those pull up are a deturrrent to potty training. Something that helped my grandson was we moved close to a play ground and he went to play and came home with wet pants. I told him if he wet or messed his pant again he could not go there to play. He never wet or messed his pants again. He was about 2 years old. Good luck, hope this helps.

My oldest was very east - the first time! After a couple months of being potty-trained, we moved across country and put him in a diaper for the long trip. What a mistake! We should have stopped every couple hours to let him keep going. It took me about 6 months to get him back out of that diaper! One thing that kinda worked for us was a gumball machine. We gave him a penny to get a gumball every time he went potty. Good luck!

I have not potty trained myself, but my mother who has potty trained 3, gave the advice that everytime they use the potty, everyone who is there go in the bathroom and clap for the child and make a big to do about it. This is positive reinforcement to go to the potty. Hope you haven't tried that yet and it helps some!

Potty training is such a difficult time, but the key is repetition. When I was potty training my children, I basically took them to the bathroom every 20 minutes. It seemed to take forever at the time, but looking back now, it really didn't take that long. My son only took two days and he was trained, and my youngest daughter took a week. I have potty trained a few other children and this method always seemed to work. Good luck :)

Give him a treat (sugarless!) every time he makes it to the bathroom on time. Make him feel proud of himself for making it to the bathroom on time! Boys seem to resist being pushed toward potty training, but if you can make him think its his idea, then he'll be happy to "show off" and earn your praise!

I know this has been said many times already, but really, I think you are starting too soon. I have 3 girls, 1 boy, and ran a day care center for 5 years. Despite the common belief, potty training is not and should not be hard. It is pretty much a natural thing, much like learning to walk, talk, and feed themselves. Do you have to "train" a baby to do these things? Of course not! They start doing it because they mimic what they see going on around them. I think because it is called "training" people think it is a job. It really is not. He will pretty much figure it out on his own. The average age is about 3, sometimes a little later for boys. It's great that he has already tried it a few times at his age, but you should really just relax. Keep suggesting it every so often, when he is ready he will just start doing it.

To get him to wee in the toilet try putting some washing up liquid in it first and for him to make bubbles he will need to wee. Worked a treat on my kids just you need to stock up on washing liquid. Good luck

A popular tool with potty training is, get your child super excited about going! I know it sounds silly, take them out and let them pick out some underwear, it doesnt matter if your son wants fairy ones, as long as he really loves them. That way, he wont want to get them wet ;) If that doesnt work, take him in, even if he doesnt need to go, and just talk to him about anything. Let him take in his favourite book if need be. That way, he might be more confident, and relaxed. I hope that helps!!

My little boy is pretty much potty trained now, although not night trained and he does his bowel movements in a diaper (he'll come and ask for one..) every kid is different. I know with our son, the main thing was to keep the focus on him staying dry and clean. If we focused too much on the potty, he wouldn't go, because he had all the power, but we could ask him throughout the day, "are you dry?" and if he was, we would praise him and give him a small treat, and then when he would go on the potty, we would tell him, GOOD JOB, you went potty to stay dry and clean.. and when he would start backsliding a little on it, we would start rewarding him for staying dry again.. otherwise, you can only reward him when he performs, and sometimes they won't do it. Also, I would suggest you take a couple of weeks off, and then start again, maybe it will help. It takes a lot of time, it's been 2 months for us.. and he's doing pretty good.. but he still has accidents some times. GOod luck!

I work with children and have found that a lot of children do that. At first they get really good at it and you think they're potty-trained then bam they don't want anything to do with it. I guess just work through it. Don't yell at him for having an accident, but be slightly firm. Also, when he does go on the potty, maybe you could have a chart. Every time he goes he gets a sticker, and when he gets a certain amount of stickers he gets a treat. That will make him more eager to fill up his chart, thus causing him to go on the potty!

hmmmm. i think that will be a challengging role for me as a new daddy. by the way my son is 4 months old. im really excited when hes ready enough for that training.

Maybe you could make a star chart...after he has a certain amount of stars he can have something special. Another *trick* that worked with my son was throwing cherrio's (cereal) in the toilet. This may sound silly,but it helped him so much with his aim! He also thought it was fun. Good luck...he will come around soon:)

I would say that he is not ready to be potty trained after all he is still very young I have a almost 2 year old that I need to get potty trained but its very hard wow I am wondering how I am going to get this done..

I only have boys so I can only give you the advice I have for your son. I had a step stool by the toilet so he could reach and I kept a small bowl of froot loops in the bathroom and my son would thow 2 froot loops in and try to sink the froot loops. My hubby had to of course show him, after that he was always so eager to go and I and my husband would follow and encourage. Potty time was funny. I even have a video of my sons trying to sink the froot loops as he was just very silly about it. best of luck and if you use my idea let me know how it went!

I think the key is if they are not ready don't push them. Both my kids were 2 1/2 and they trained quite fast. For both of them I put a piece of bristol board on my fridge and everytime they went they got a sticker. They enjoyed filling up the bristol board so they got the idea really quickly. But I tried my son at 2 and he wasn't ready. So I waited till he was 2 1/2 and he picked it up like that. So good luck, be consistent and he'll get it sooner or later.

Well it's hard to answer this question because first of all every child is different! And secondly, It was pretty easy to toilet train my boy. All I done was put him in underpants during the day (nappy at night till he got the hang of it!) And kept saying to him every 15 minutes - "Do you need to go?" "If you need to go, tell me won't you" "You cant wee your pants" I got sick of saying this over and over, and he probably did too, but he started to go more adventually! And a few times I did raise my voice when he had an accident, and It was then that he actually became really good at it!! ( I'm not saying yell at your child though!) lol. Maybe if he has an accident, you should leave him feeling wet and yuck so he knows it feels horrible and will want to go to the toilet again - praise him lots when he does, and tell him he is such a BIG BOY! And even give treats and tell him he'll get more if he keeps being a big boy. Hope this helps a bit! But I think praise is the key - he needs to feel good about it when he goes, but also let him know it's not okay to wee in his pants, and as hard ans messy as it is! keep him in underwear during the day! He will get the hang of it!! Good - Luck!

Don't worry about things getting a lil crazy :) Things get crazy here too and I only have one in diapers. All children will train in their own time. If you try to force the issue chances are that he will rebel and it will take longer. If it makes you feel any better, my lil man just turned three and is only going on the potty at home during waking hours. If we go somewhere, he needs a diaper and when he goes to bed he needs a diaper. You actually have an advantage in training a boy being that you are one.LOL. Let him come to the potty with you when you go. He is your lil man and wants to do everything Daddy does. If he isn't interested in the potty back off on it for a while and reintroduce the idea again in a month or so. Don't get discouraged because 22 months seems to be early judging from the posts here. If you can train him at this age....great, if not, please don't consider it a reflection of your parenting skills as it really doesn't have much to do with you but everything to do with what your child is ready for.

He'll do it when he's ready. It seems like all kids go through the phas before they are 2 when they want to try potty training and then they stop. My 18 month old has been potty training for 3 months now. He does it almost every single day. My 2 1/2 year old doesn't want to do it at all! It will be fine. Take it in stride.