Christopher had been using the potty occasionally during the day, and every night before bed. Well, he started using sitting on the potty as a delay tactic before bed. Every night he would insist that he had to potty, even if his diaper was full or he had already gone. This resulted in us either sitting in the bathroom for 45 minutes or him screaming in his bed that he had to potty and refusing to sleep.
Needless to say, I backed off the potty training for a couple of weeks.
Now, I can't get him to sit on the potty at all! He doesn't even want to try. I don't want to force him to sit on the potty, but I know that he understands the concept and that he can do it, so I want to get the ball rolling.
What should I do?

By Kaye on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:46 pm:

Back off for a couple more weeks. Spend the next couple of weeks talking about potty stuff. Say out loud when you have to potty, comment to yourself about how nice it is to be a big girl, etc. Bribes can't hurt Some M&m's in the bathroom for going potty always made my kiddos want to go.

As far as a delay tactic, set some boundries. Use a timer, or read 1 book. Just be clear with your rules. Say okay it is potty time, you have 5 minutes, or I will read one book while you potty and then it is bed time. And make sure you enforce the rules and don't give in.

By Crystal915 on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:10 pm:

This is going to sound backwards, but what worked for my son was teaching him to stand up. We would have him stand at the regular toilet, and put his hand on the tank (causing him to lean forward). This angled his penis down towards the bowl, so he didn't have to "aim". Once he tried this, he wanted to use the potty all the time, and has had very few accidents in the past 18 months. Also, the movie "Potty Power!" worked wonders for my daughter, who was reluctant to go after her broken leg. I hated that DVD, but they loved it!

By Tayjar on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:18 pm:

I know my DS wasn't really ready to trained until he was 3. Then, it was a matter of about 2 weeks and he was even sleeping through the night with undies on. Maybe he just isn't ready yet. Oh, and as for sleeping through the night, my DS (7) still has probably a dozen friends who still wear pull ups to bed. It seems to be a fairly common thing with boys.

Honestly, I didn't potty train my kids. My DH did. He trained both of our kids in 2 weeks. I love that man.

Good luck.