Suggestions for bringing potty training to the next step...Edited with another q.

My 2.5 year old will pee in the potty 1-2 times per day. At night before he goes in his bath he tells us he has to go and goes and sometimes during the day he will tell me that he has to pee in the potty. Otherwise that is it. I haven't pushed the issue partially b/c I have a newborn and just don't have the time and energy and, partialy b/c I don't wan't to turn him off to the whole thing. From the moment he wakes up until he goes to sleep he tells me when he is going but, most of the time not before. I ask him if he wants to go in the potty and he says no. I've tried to rush to the potty or to go preemptively but neither of these things work. I think the issue is he finds the whole potty thing to be disruptive to his play time and finds just peeing in the diaper to be the better alternative. I've tried reward incentives but, that doesn't really work either.

Anyway, any tips for pushing this to the next level without turning him off to the potty entirely?

Just for Bkd this has been going on for a LONG time - so he has been ready for a while.

TIA!

ETA: I took your advice ladies and all went well EXCEPT DS will only pee pee in the potty. In fact, I think he is afraid to go poopy and held it in and didnt go all day! I feel terrible for him! How can I work on this without traumatizing him? THanks again so much!!!!

Message edited 3/13/2010 10:47:47 PM.

Re: Suggestions for bringing potty training to the next step...

My suggestion would be to try the three day method. Plan a weekend where you don't go anywhere. Put your son strictly in big boy underwear and do not use diapers except for when he is sleeping. Take him to the potty every 1 hour and keep asking him if he needs to potty. Every time he pees in the potty, do a little dance to get him excited. He will have accidents, but it should soon click that there isnt a diaper there anymore and he will need to tell you when to pee. This method worked like a charm for my daughter. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Re: Suggestions for bringing potty training to the next step...

the only thing that moved my dd to being 100% trained was ditching the diapers and putting her in big girl underware

she had maybe 5 accidents in that week and that was it (there have been a few incidents here and there since she trained about 10 months ago)

Re: Suggestions for bringing potty training to the next step...

Thanks so much ladies! So I took your advice today and it worked pretty well - DS went in the potty ALL day today!!!! The only down side is he only went pee pee - in fact, he didnt have a dirty diaper all day which is VERY unusual - from what he was saying Im pretty sure he held it in b/c he didnt want to go in the potty

So what do I do? I dont want to traumatize him and certainly don't want him to hold it in - how can I convince him or make it less scary for him to go poopy in the potty?

Thanks again!