Terrified Toddler Won't Potty Train?

Question

My son is now 3 and he refuses to give potty training a try. I feel he's ready because he brings me a diaper and the wipes whenever he's gone in his diaper. He's not afraid of the potty...he'll go in with me or Daddy and watch us (we are trying to show by example.."Wee! this is fun!"). LOL! And he'll flush the potty and isn't afraid of the noise. But, he just won't sit on his potty chair...or the seat we have that can sit on the grown-ups toilet. He gets so scared!!!

He has a mild speech delay and his communication skills are behind...and I just think maybe he doesn't understand. But...at any rate. Any suggestions? I have printable charts and stuff. I thought about having him watch some kids video's about potty training. Books won't work because his level of patience and understanding is just not there yet. He'll just point out things in the book and tell you what they are. And will totally miss the point of the book.

Very frustrated Mommy here. He's #5 and the other 4 were easy as pie! :o) He's such a sweet little guy...I just wish he weren't scared.

Any suggestions I haven't already thought of?

THANKS! :o)

Answer 1

My youngest has shown interest early, he's only 2 and wants to use the potty. But, he's terrified of the regular toilet and wasn't too thrilled with the potty chair either. What I did was put the potty in whatever room he was in, and let him go to it himself. He opened and closed the lid. He stuck toys in it. And then, he sat down on it for a few minutes.

The next day, we did the same thing, only we took his diaper off. He went through the same process. Playing and going over to open/close the potty every now and then. He played for a bit, and then sat down on it....and peed.

Just make it as fun as you can. Make the potty a part of 'fun time' and maybe he'll just take to it on his own. Best of luck to you and your little guy!

Answer 2

Well it sounds like your doing pretty much everything you can. Maybe hes just not ready don't push it he's only 3. Do it little by little start out like once a week asking then go to 2 and so on. Are you planning on having any more kids? Maybe he wants to stay a baby for just a little while longer there's nothing wrong with that. Most people are in such a rush to have there kids grow up he will do it when he's ready just give it time. My brother is going through the same thing right now with his three year old. His sister is 2 and already goes but every kid is different and they do everything in their time, Not Ours. Hope this makes you feel a little bit better just relax and offer good encouragement to him  I Promise everything will be ok.  

Answer 3

I was reading random stuff on babycentre.com once years ago and a mum had a similar problem, she placed the nappy in the potty and showed the child, the child felt more comfortable and secure in having the nappy in the potty and eventually started using the potty by itself.

Answer 4

What i did worked for my little girl. We would sit her on the potty and give her a little stool in front of her with a coloring book and crayons, or a few books, and she just got real comfortable sitting on there and sometime she didn't even notice she had gone, she was that relaxed!  Or we would have a special "potty" cd, (just a regular kids songs c.d.) that she could only listen to when she was on the potty. She loved the songs, so sometimes she would go to the potty just to hear it.

Answer 5

I know I'm not a mother, but I've been helping another mom by babysitting for her. What we do is whenever she attempts to use the potty is we give her a sticker and a special character diaper/training pants (Dora the Explorer ;P) and if she keeps doing it, we reward her some more with stickers and her favorite music.

It seems to be working so far. Also, my mom told me that I got into potty training because she would let me carry the pot (dangerous. lol.) to the toilet and let me flush it.