Tips for Potty Training a Boy

Potty training is a stressful period of many parents, and when you are a mother it can be a special challenge to help male children to learn to use the potty. At least at the beginning of the process, you might wonder how you should teach your boy to pee standing up – without, of course, getting all of his clothes and the whole bathroom wet.

As the mother of a son, I worried about potty training quite a bit. Even after my older daughter successfully learned to use the potty, I thought that potty training would somehow be more difficult with a boy. Many children learn to use the potty after watching their parents use the toilet. As a woman, it is impossible for me to model peeing standing up. The thought of leaving potty training to the kid’s dad is quite appealing, because they have the same parts, after all. But if you are a stay at home parent, you are going to end up playing a huge role in your son’s potty training, whether you want to or not.

Relax

My number one tip for any parent who is helping their toddler to use the potty is this – relax! Never put pressure on your child to use the potty, and let him lead the process. Children will learn to use the potty, and will stop having accidents, when they are interested and ready. Only your child will know when he is truly ready to say goodbye to bamboo cloth diapers and use the potty.

After going through the potty training process with my daughter using rewards as encouragement, I decided to move away from either rewards or punishments with my son. When my daughter showed signs of potty readiness (wanting to watch others use the toilet, signaling when she had peed, and talking about peeing in the potty), I really wanted to take off the diapers as soon as possible. I was pregnant with my son, and didn’t want two children in diapers at once. Encouraged by books and the Internet, I thought she would potty train sooner if I gave her a sticker every time she went.

She did learn, as every child eventually does, but the process was not fun and not stress free. Helping your toddler to learn to use the potty while you are struggling with pregnancy signs – morning sickness (yes, in the second trimester!), a bad back, and frequent headaches, wasn’t so much fun either. The worst part was that, while my toddler was very willing to learn, she did it mainly for the rewards. My daughter used the potty because she wanted a sticker, and squeezed out minuscule amounts of pee every couple of minutes, smiling: “Sticker, mommy!”

So, how can you
• “do” potty training the simple, no-stress way?
• make it easier for boys?

Having a potty available in every room of the house definitely helps. Describing what is happening also helps. "You have just peed. Pee goes in the potty", is a good sentence. Slowly letting your son get used to the potty and what it is meant for is all you need to do. He will do all the rest. Gently asking your son if he needs to pee is OK, but pushing him to use the potty when he says he doesn’t need to can backfire, in my experience. One thing that really helped me was purchasing a mini urinal that attaches to the regular toilet. This handy tool helps little boys to pee without mom’s help. But if you can’t find a mini-urinal (ours is called “wee man”, look it up!), I am sure a regular bucket at his height will work too.

Now that I have witnessed both a daughter and a son potty train successfully, I can honestly say that it is easier with boys. They don’t have to take all their clothes off all the time to sit on the potty, and can just take out their penis to pee. When you are out and about, you might have the experience that your son’s pants will get all wet when he pees standing up. If you want a solution for that, try taking a disposable water bottle with you so he can pee into that. After he is done, just throw it away.

Tania is a R.N. and a personal trainer, passionate about all topics related to the female body, trying to conceive, pregnancy signs, pregnancy, and birth. A new addition to her site is a free and personalized Ovulation Calendar.

 

cc licensed flickr photo shared by abardwell