Potty training the boy

Whoever said potty training boys was harder than girls, put it mildly.  My son Caiden turned three last month.  He remains un-potty trained.  My daughter Campbell was completely trained by the time she was 2 1/2, even over-night!  My son, not so much.

We gauged Caiden's interest when he was 2 1/2.  On a scale of 1 -10, his interest level was about a -4.  So we waited.   A few months later we started slowly, very casually.  The kid WAILED to have his diaper on.  Did not want any part of underwear, even the cute boxer briefs I bought him.  If we changed his diaper and didn't put a new one on and walked away...he would grab a diaper and run after us, SCREAMING to put it back on.  The interest level was still seriously low.  So we waited.

The ladies at daycare were trying to help us out and suggested putting underwear on over his diaper.  But one morning my husband decided to skip the diaper all together and just do the undies.  Would you believe the boy went dry all day!!!!!  Like magic, he was great for about five days straight.  Even staying dry during nap time!! 

Then my husband and I went on vacation for a week, just the two of us.  It was WONDERFUL!!!  We totally re-charged our batteries.  Our son, re-charged his desire to not use the potty.  It wasn't a set-back.  It was a JUMP-back!  I bet we went through 3-5 pairs of underwear a day. 

We finally kind of got things back on track the last week or so.  He'll pee in the toilet sometimes.  We're trying to teach him to stand but he uses the toilet tank and wall as a backboard.  Bank shots are for basketball, not urination!  It's like a fire hose that got away.  We even put things in the toilet for him to hit.  I figure at least he's making an effort to pee but he refuses to poop.  I don't understand it.  He did it before. And we were all so proud!! 

Like clockwork, every evening he makes a deposit in his drawers.  That telltale sag, makes me cringe.  I'd take him to the bathroom to change him and it was like a game of "Operation".  You know that game where you had tweezers and you tried to remove bones from a person without setting off the buzzer.  It was like that, trying to pull his pants down in such a way that you didn't soil anything that wasn't already soiled.  And trying to keep everything in his pants without it rolling onto the ground.  It gets a bit stressful, especially when I have a rowdy crowd watching right at my heels (my two daughters).  At this point, Caiden and I are masters.

We've tried rewards, chocolates, lots of praise and it doesn't work.  We ask him every five minutes if he has to go.  We stopped asking and let him tell us.  Still, he holds back, literally and figuratively. 

So tonight, I'm making a rewards poster with stickers.  He loves Spiderman and all Superheroes.  So, I'm making a big poster with a spider web on it.  Every time he pees, he gets a small sticker.  The poops get a big sticker.  I'll keep you posted!