Should I give up on potty training?

omurray

I'm not sure what to do about our potty training situation.  DS can and does pee on the potty several times a day, but he only asks to go when I get all his clothes off for a diaper change or bathtime.  He doesn't ask to go if he's fully clothed and just playing.  So, I figured I'd wait until he was asking to go out of the blue.  However, he started wanting to wear his boxer briefs and no diaper, so I figured that if he's refusing a diaper, maybe thats a sign he is ready for PT.  Starting Friday afternoon, he's been in boxer briefs and no  diaper except for naps and nighttime.  But, I don't think we've made much progress and he's had multiple accidents each day.  The one change I have seen is that he went from peeing almost every 25 min to being able to hold it 2 hrs or more, so that tells me he is gaining some control over it.  However, he still won't ask to go when he needs to and he won't go when we ask him to go.  I've tried a timer and giving him 5 min warnings etc to get him to take a potty break, but he's not having it.  He gets pretty frustrated so I don't want to force it cause I don't want to cause bad associations, but he also doesn't want a diaper back on.  So, now I don't know what to do - should I just keep plowing through and hope something clicks in the next couple days, or sould I just make him go back to diapers?  I'm so confused, cause part of me thinks he's not ready since he won't tell me when he needs to go, but part of me doesn't want to discourage his interest in wearing big boy undies.

katie277s

Putting DS in big boy underwear the first time did nothing for us.  He had accident after accident.  We decided to wait a few more months before trying again and it worked like a charm.  If he is still having problems with accidents, then I would hold off.  It sounds like he is wanting to be a big boy with his underwear, but isn't physically ready yet. 

Good luck!

Rebekah1021

Are you asking him to go potty or are you putting him on the potty? I started training DD last week. I would set her on the potty every half hour. We had quite a few accidents the first day. i used m&ms as rewards. Now I use stickers and today we had no accidents at all.

I still have been putting her on the potty every half hour.

Don't give up - just keep putting him on the potty

omurray

I'm asking him and he gives a definite "no".  If I force it by physically taking him to the potty, he gets really frustrated and upset.  I was reminding him and asking him a lot yesterday which just seemed to frustrate all of us, so today I decided to just lay off and let him figure it out.  He held it for really long periods, but still never asked to go.  The rewards don't seem to entice him either.  I had thought it was gonna work on Friday afternoon when he got his first reward (a mini fudge stripe cookie) and then asked to go again 2 times after that and was excited for more rewards.  But, it must have worn off quickly, cause now he could care less about the rewards.  Maybe I have answered my own question then.  I think he is either not ready or just too stubborn and either way I need to back off.  I think maybe I'll see what he wants tomorrow (undies or diaper) and see if there is any progress if he chooses undies.  If no progress tomorrow I think I'll give up for now and wait awhile longer.