Son holding on to wee, only drips in potty

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We started potty training our 2yr 8 month son on Monday. Sits happily on the potty but has been holding on and when he uses the potty can only let go a couple of teaspoons worth of wee. He crosses his legs, jiggles, holds himself etc and is very uncomfortable. While he'll sit on the potty for a while, now not wanting to and having accidents and becomes distressed. We've given lots of praise and rewards even when he's only done a little wee. Getting conflicting advice from friends. Wondered if anyone else has experienced this? Should we call it a day and start training again in a few months time or stick with it? Thanks

If he's distressed by the potty traing I would stop it. Maybe ask him what he'd like to do. Potty or nappy? You may find that when the heat is off and things are more relaxed that he actually wants to go on. Maybe put him in pull ups and keep up the encouragment. If he looses interest just try again in a month or so.

Many thanks for your advice - really appreciate it.

We gave our girl a choice - potty or loo - then left it till she was ready? She choose loo as that's what we use so I guess she didn't worry about being different. When we did the potty she didn't like making it 'dirty' - perhaps ask him why he is worried? A did same thing - then one day she just suddenly went to the loo. I let her dictate terms.

Hi there, just wondered how you are getting on and if you are sticking at it? My little boy (2yrs 9mths) is doing the same as you describe above. wearing pants happily, loving the attention and the treats for tiny tear drop size wees in the potty, but getting slowly more distressed as he holds on longer and longer to the main wee. This has happened twice yesterday and again this morning and I think I am going to stop trying, it's making me distressed too. I'm not sure if he is just being wilful (as he can be)so therefore I should press on or if he is genuinely scared of the wee coming out... don't even want to think about a poo (we only started yesterday and he didn't have one - hanging on to it I guess. Be great to hear how you are doing... thanks

Hello there! We did keep going but kept trying quite a few things. One thing we did enjoy was, in the bath, does he have any toys like dogs or anything that leaks? We used to say 'Look!! Dog-dog is going for wee-wees - terribly animated and so much fun!

She actually gets quite excited when doing a poo now - we make it an event - take a favourite toy and say he needs to go - that helped too! She is fine with it now - oh, and also get pants he really likes! We also say - shall we say 'hello to the butterflies and the little girl?!! (she has Dora pants!).

Sometimes after waking it, she is groggy and I have to give her a hug when she is on the loo but the biggest thing seemed to be that she was doing what we have to do. Have you also tried your husband taking him?

She has been using the loo for about 2 months now - went thru a time in the afternoon when she was very tired when she would have a few accidents but didn't worry too much tho did get annoyed a couple of times as I had literally just asked her but she couldn't be bothered!

I hope I haven't bombarded too much and hope it may help!

Hi
We decided to call it a day for a while - it got too much for us all I'm afraid.Our son was getting really distressed by end of play Thursday - holding on to a point where was very upset and then incapable of sitting on the potty or the toilet. It was very difficult - I was also really stressed (and I'm normally very laid back) and I'm sure he will have picked up on it. Thanks though for the advice as it will be useful next time and good to hear other experiences and ideas. We're giving him choices (currently wants nappies not pants) but also having time during the day when he runs around with nothing on. He still hasn't revisited the potty when he wants to wee but haven't pushed it. Cheers and good luck to those going through this too

It sure sounds to me like your son is afraid of the potty. I wrote a blog post about this topic. Here is the link:

thepottybootcamp.blogspot.com/2010/01/toddler-is-scared-to-pee.html

It's actually very common...you don't discover just how good kids are at bladder control until they start HOLDING it in fear of letting it fall into the toilet. LOL.

Hope it helps,
Suzanne Riffel, author of "The Potty Boot Camp: Basic Training for Toddlers:
www.thepottybootcamp.com