Annie the Nanny
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Potty training
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Hi Annie
I have a two and a half year old son who won’t use the potty. I’ve tried everything to entice him and still can’t get him to co-operate. I bought him a crocodile shaped potty and he won’t sit on it. He’s still in diapers and I want to enroll him in playschool this September, but they have to be potty trained. Sometimes he holds in his bowel movements and then becomes constipated. Can you help?
Emma (Calgary)
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Hi Emma
Sounds to me as though this has become a control issue and believe me this is the one thing you cannot control, no matter how hard you try. I know you’re keen to enroll him in playschool and see it as a wonderful experience for him, but he may not be ready. He may well see this impending separation as scary and want to hold on to you any way he can. My advice is to back off. Does that mean that you stop suggesting he use the potty? No, but you do have to relax when it comes to the whole issue and realize that he’ll only use the potty when he wants to. Continue to offer encouragement and fruits and fiber, as well as lots of fluids to encourage his bowels to move. When you see the signs that he wants to go, suggest the potty, but do it in a very matter of a fact way. Offer him a choice too, potty or junior sized toilet seat. Let him see you go to the toilet. Make the whole process fun. Buy him some cool underwear. When he has accidents, clean them up without comment, but if and when he decides to sit on the potty, reward him with hugs and perhaps a congratulatory song.
Date Entered: 2006-04-10 13:48:11.0
Date Last Modified: 2006-05-18 16:08:10.0
Status: archive
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