Toilet Training

[bboru]

Overdue is certainly a word to describe this fantastic site, well done dad.ie. Anyway here goes, after having no problems whatsoever when the time came to potty training our eldest DD we are now facing a major issue with our youngest DS who is nearly 3! He just refuses outright to sit on the potty and prefers rather to kick it about or better still hide it under his bed. Any ideas?

[omegoku]

I think this is normal. Generally boys are a lot harder to potty train than girls.

You could try treats? Whenever he goes to the potty, give him 3 jelly beans, always 3, and only if he goes in the potty.
I haven't gotten to the stage where my son needs to be trained yet, but this technique was used by my mother in law with her son.

[eoin]

I'm trying to train my son now, but he'll only use a toilet, not a potty, so we have to lift him up and hold him in place, which can be trick with a 1 year old biting at your heels also!
He's with a childminder half the week, and she doesn't have time to train him or help in that way, so it'll be a while.

[Dad2Two]

I've heard that desire to imitate dad can be a good motivator for boys to "get on with it". If you're comfortable with it, I've heard it suggested to leave the door open when you're going for a pee so your DS can see and then, hopefully, he'll want to do the same.

I wouldn't worry if he wants to use the toilet instead of the potty, just go with it.

Finally, I wouldn't put any pressure on him. It's no big deal if it takes him a while to be trained but you can cause problems by rushing him, putting pressure on him, or trasferring your anxiety. Just go with it.

[twinsdad]

Hi guys,

A big ask I know but any tips on toilet training twins girls. I had an incident with a chocolate log in the laundry basket ( empty thank god ) and a few wet patches on the floor. Should one twin learn of the other or should they both learn together? Any ideas or experience welcomed.

[eoin]

Wow, got your hands full there mate!
As was said above, girls are *normally* easier than boys. Our DD was trained (mostly) from 2 1/2 but she still has the odd accident. With our DS we found he wasn't interested in the potty and just wanted to use the toilet, when he thought of it in time...