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It’s Potty Training Time (and I’m scared)

It’s time. I really, really, really want to potty train my son. I kept saying that I’ll let it happen when it happens, and never pushed for it, but little man is understanding more now, communicating, and I can’t take the smelly diapers anymore (and with another baby coming, twice the smelly diapers??? Noooooooooo!!!!!!). I’ve been researching tips on potty training boys, but haven’t found anything concrete on actual how-to steps.

I am ready for our son to reach this milestone. I hope he is too.

I just don’t know where to start.

We know when he is going. It’s pretty obvious- he becomes quiet, stands still, and starts pushing. His face turns red and scrunches up as he strains. He can verbalize poop and potty, and he tries to put on his own diapers and wipe himself with the baby wipes, so I’m hoping these are signs that he is ready to potty train. When I see him straining, I say “Yay, poopy, want to go to the potty?” and he’ll walk with me to the bathroom, but he refuses to sit on his Diego padded potty seat. Instead, he takes some toilet paper, blows his nose, and tosses it into the basin and flushes. He thinks this is what the bathroom tissue paper is for.

We have a long way to go.

Today is a big day for us because we decided, since he wants to be independent and change his own diapers, that it’s time for him to wear training pants (aka Pull Ups or Easy Ups), those potty training pants for boys that they pull up like underwear. It’s supposed to have a sensor to alert him when he needs to be changed, and there are even some that make them feel uncomfortably cool to encourage them to use the potty instead of the trainer.

That is where we are starting, and when it comes to potty training boys, we hope it’s the right start, because we don’t know the next step after that. Little man is our first for a lot of things (his diaper is the first baby diaper I ever changed) and there are so many different sources of potty training information online. I also don’t know if potty training boys is different from potty training girls (which I never did either), so maybe I should assign this to my husband? Should he show him how to do it? Do we start by having him sit on the toilet, or does my husband have him stand up? My son still doesn’t tell us when he is peeing, so will we have lots of accidents? Do we do Potty Training Bootcamp like my friend Kelly did with her child, or go diaper-less cold turkey like my sister did with her daughter? What is the best method for potty training boys?

Any tips on how to potty train boys would be appreciated, because we are on a mission, and blindly going where many parents have gone before.




  • Toni @ A Daily Dose

    Oh I remember the days of potty training my boys. We sat them down to start and then as they got older and tall enough we let them go in with daddy to learn. Definitely a lot of accidents. My second son was really hard to potty train and so more often than not when I was at home with him (and no one was over of course) I let him go sans training pants or in regular underwear b/c the training pants were just like a diaper to him even the coolness didn’t affect him. but he didn’t like being bare or in regular underwear when training. Just feel it out as you go and you will know what does and doesn’t work for you all 🙂

  • Jennifer

    I dont have any advice since I have two girls but all I can say is Good luck. I do know that with both boys and girls you should keep them in underwear. It can get messes but they can feel the wetness more rather than in diapers.

  • Tammy

    It took me ten years to get my son potty trained. He’s autistic. Sorry I can’t help.

  • Canadian Mom Blogger

    With all of my kids I watched for signs that they were ready, like an interest in sitting on the toilet and recognizing when they had to go. With the boys, we started by teaching them to sit, and didn’t worry about standing to pee until they mastered knowing when they had to go. Good luck!

  • Mami2jcn

    Wow, your son was born 2 months after my daughter and I haven’t started potty training her yet! I feel there’s no rush. I had 2 boys in diapers at the same time and it was fine (they were 20 months apart in age).

    I trained my first son the month he turned 3 and my second son was 3 1/2 (he was more stubborn). I had them wear underwear around the house. That’s why you might want to wait a few months until the weather is warmer so your son doesn’t get too cold. My older son liked to use Cheerios as targets in the potty. My younger son liked to earn rewards like stickers and candy for using the potty. My younger son, although older when he was trained, never had an accident. I think he was just more mature and ready for training, so he was trained the first day.

    I honestly think your son is too young but it’s your call! Oh, and pull ups didn’t work for us. They’re just too much like diapers.

    I’ll be training our daughter this summer when she’s closer to turning 3. I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that girls are easy to train as everyone seems to say.

  • Maureen @ Wisconsin Mommy

    Definitely don’t rush it – wait until he is showing interest. Having someone (male) model what is supposed to happen in the bathroom definitely helps, as do those annoying videos and books.

  • Marcie W.

    After 2 girls that were pretty easy, my son was difficult. I feel the best way was to put them right in underwear during the day and nix the Pullups all together. Diapers at night/nap of course. When they pee/poop in regular underwear, hopefully they will see it feels different and yucky, so they’ll know to go to the potty instead.

    Every kid is different. My oldest was 17 months and never looked back, but my son was after his 3rd birthday. When they’re ready, they’re ready. Age means nothing to me.

    Try it and see how it goes, that’s the only way to tell. Good luck!

  • I would highly recommend a chair that sits on the floor and one that goes over the actual seat. My son was a nightmare, did great peeing, pooping no way was he doing it. Gavyn wanted to stand just like daddy, refused to sit which is why we had troubles with him pooping, and being stubborn on top of that didn’t help.

    If your son is the same way I’ve heard the Little Looster is a wonderful stool plus I met her at Reviewer’s Retreat last year, the stool looks fab.

    There are going to be accidents. We tried to go in every half hour with both of our kids. Rewards, charts do miraculous things with kids. Patience is the key here mama. You’ll do fine, he’ll do fine. Congratulate, give a small reward(we did M&Ms for Zoe) and just go with the flow.

  • Courtney

    I’m not looking forward to potty training.. no advice but I’m reading others! 🙂

  • noelle

    We used trial and error… my husband took him every time he went… then, we went to “big boy underwear” and let him go naked the first few days…. just to be able to see when he needed to go 🙂 good luck

  • noelle

    One more thing.. loved the little looster …. we were able to review one… awesome

  • Melissa Au

    We are potty training right now, too! Sigh.

  • Anne - Mommy Has to Work

    Gosh It’s been so long ago! I’ve heard putting cheerios in the bowl for to “aim” at works.

  • Amy

    Patience is my best advice. I struggled with that the most. Everyone else has it on the big stuff.

  • Kelly @ Texas Type A Mom

    I don’t have any advice on potty training boys obviously because I don’t have one. I think the potty training boot camp of just focusing completely on potty training for a weekend is the only way we would have got through to Cakes. We tried the going naked route all the time and that didn’t make a difference – we just got a lot of pee on the rug which resulted in tons of extra cleaning. It’s all trial and error but is definitely a battle of wills and patience is a necessity.

  • I only have a daughter so I don’t have any tips. Still, I wish you the best – just stick with it and hang in there! So cute how he used the toilet paper 🙂

  • Alison

    Lots of naked time will be the best bet I think. 🙂 Hunter had a lot of accidents but they lasted a week! And lots of patience. And rewards!

  • Donna

    With my son, we wait till he is ready. We’ve done this with everything. It’s what works best for him. When he was ready to potty train — he had it in 3 days. He only peed the bed 2 times after we took the pull ups off at night which was on his 3rd birthday. He’s nine, now. Good luck!

  • Laurie

    Mine just sort of did it on their own, granted they were closer to 4 yrs old, but it was a lot less stress that way

  • Devon

    I completely understand what you mean by being scared. We potty trained our twin boys and although it went well (ooookkk, so it went semi-well … let’s just say we got through it), we’re now potty training our daughter, and I’m nervous again, almost as if it’s my first time.

    Hang in there, it gets better and – as I’m sure you can guess – it’s worth it!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Yours is absolutely lovely! I found you on Facebook and can’t wait to keep up …

    Cheers ~
    Devon
    Reading with Joey