At wit's end with potty training!!

[Pondlifeandfrog]

Just that really. My 3.5 year old DS is still not potty trained. All his peers at nursery are. He's never shown the slightest bit of interest.

I took a week off work last week to try and crack it. No joy whatsoever. He gets hysterical without a nappy on full stop and will not even contemplate sitting on a potty OR a toilet. Yes we have tried one of those special seats for the loo, plus an ordinary potty. Yes we have tried bribery and star chart etc etc. Yes he has chosen big boy pants. Zero effect.

His speech is excellent and in all other areas he is developmentally normal.

Anyone else? I feel like every other NT toddler we know cracked this long ago and I don't know what more to do.

Poor you.

I would get your child to spend lots of time with other children who are toilet trained.

Ans assuming there is not a physical reason for the delay, maybe just decide to get rid of say time nappies completely.

Be prepared for a lot of laundry. Good luck.

Stop - he is not ready. Children can be very advanced in one area and slow in others. He will have spotted that you are at your wits' end, so just let it lie for now, take the emotion out of it, enjoy the absence of laundry and re-introduce the idea in a few months time.

Leave him a couple of months, he isn't ready.

Have you tried getting a book for him to read where the character is potty training? Does he see you/his Dad using the loo?

When he goes for it, he'll probably be done in a few days!

Yes, he has several potty stories and he constantly sees both his dad and I use the toilet.

Wait for a month or so. Then, on a nice day in August, invite a potty-using friend around (and their mother) and have a long play-date. Encourage your DS to sit on his potty whenever the friend sits on his. If he makes a fuss about it then let it go, but give the friend lots of praise for using his potty like a big boy.

This was literally my life with my lg! Her speech was amazing, at 3 she wouldn't even consider it. My HV suggested a month long plan. First 2 weeks we didn't mention pottys or nappies at all. Week 3 we started talking about how awesome using th toilet was and how sad it is that she doesn't get to join in. Weeks 4 we left a potty laying around and carried on talking about how unlucky she was. 2nd day of week 4 she got up in the morning and said the she was a big girl now and she didn't need her nappies. She had 3 accidents that week and everything else was on the potty. It had to be her decision.
My mum then told me she had to do the same with me at 4 and my speech was amazing as well. (Would have been worth a mention all the times she saw us struggling!)

He might actually decide to not use the potty/special toilet seat but just go straight to using the toilet as it is.

He's not interested in using the actual loo either. He's really tiny for his age so I think he would fall down it anyway!!

He already spends pretty much every day with other children who potty train

Also, waiting til summer won't make much difference one way or the other as we live in a flat with no garden

He is just SO distressed at being without a nappy, he really hates it.

Everyone told me my son STILL wasn't ready at 3yrs 8months and was weeing and pooing in his nappy / pants daily. "Be patient" they said. "He'll get there eventually" they said.

One day whilst attempting yet ANOTHER potty training session I asked him if he needed a poo and he said no mummy. 5 minutes later he stood still with his legs open and pulled a face and did a poo in his pants. I'm afraid i lost the plot, shouted at him, made him take off his pants and put them in the washing machine and took him to his room, and shut the door. He cried and cried and after about 10 minutes he came out and said "sorry mummy". He never had a single accident ever again.

I can only conclude that he WAS ready all along, but just lazy. He is nearly 17 now and still has that mentality of, "oh well, mum'll sort it out", unless i get cross. He's still pretty lazy.

Not advocating this as a way of potty training YOUR child btw, just saying mine was basically having me on for months i think and my patience ran out.