HELP! 3year old still refusing to potty train. dad at work and Mom in school.

[yongestoneof2]

My son is 3 years old im 33 weeks pregnant and my son is still not potty trained. Its seems impossible to get started because it seems me and my husband are not home enough. he works 10 hr days im still in school. ima senior only have 5 weeks of school left but i was hoping that i would have him trained before this new baby arrives so i dont have to be changing two sets of diapers. He just wont try it when we try to do it. He is VERY smart and he is old enough to come up and tell us to change his diaper and tell us what he did down there. haha. But he refuses to sit on the potty! is this ok is he really not ready. If I push him will he just resist more? or will it work.  And first of all how do I start it and what do I do?

[LittleGriff]

I'm not sure if this is applicable with an older child but I trained both our kids at about 16 months by picking a long weekend when we could stay mostly at home (and it wasn't too cold), leaving them diaper and pants free and sticking a little Bjorn potty in whatever room we were in. After enough accidents, they got it. Of course, there were plenty of accidents in the months to come but that got the ball rolling. (And we have wood floors which made clean up easy.) I love no diapers! Good luck!

[Hezzy]

My 3 1/2 year old just recently potty learned. No amount of cajoling or rewarding on my part made any difference. He was perfectly capable of holding it and of telling us. He just didn't want to. I have no idea why.

I found the less pressure I put on him, the better response I got. I explained my reasons for wanting him to be out of diapers - I think that may have helped a little. I would try to get him on the potty if I saw he was going or needed to, but often he refused. It was just a matter of him picking the time.

When I started to get really frustrated, I would just take a step back, try to remember that this wasn't going to last for ever, and let it go for a couple of weeks. Gentle encouragement and reminders were the most pressure I put on him, and he eventually got really close. Then one day I said, that's it, we're not going to wear any more diapers (except at night). He was fine with it. We had a few accidents, and now he's great.

Good luck, mama. Try to be patient!!

[Phoenix~Mama]

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[Alyantavid]

Originally Posted by LittleGriff 

I'm not sure if this is applicable with an older child but I trained both our kids at about 16 months by picking a long weekend when we could stay mostly at home (and it wasn't too cold), leaving them diaper and pants free and sticking a little Bjorn potty in whatever room we were in. After enough accidents, they got it. Of course, there were plenty of accidents in the months to come but that got the ball rolling. (And we have wood floors which made clean up easy.) I love no diapers! Good luck!

That's what I did with both of mine right after they turned 2.