Getting Real With Wanda Morrissey

Everybody sing along: “I got the blues/ the toilet training blues/ my little guy/ just won’t go potty.”

That’s been my mantra for the past few weeks. I’m trying to toilet train my 3 year old with absolutely no success. This isn’t my first attempt at toilet training. I’ve tried it several times over the last few months and have had no luck. I don’t want to push him too hard because I don’t want him to become afraid or nervous about using the toilet but at the same time, I don’t want to be too lax about it either. I don’t want him thinking that diapers are forever. I’ve read all the information about the signs to look for in toilet training readiness and he displays them all, except he just won’t use the potty.

I’ve tried all the tricks. I’ve read him books about using the potty. We’ve toilet trained all his stuffed animals. I’ve put food colouring in the toilet so he could see it turn colour when he peed (he won’t pee so it won’t change colour so he lost interest in that one real quick). I’ve tried progress charts, treats and rewards. I’ve put him in ‘big boy underwear’ so he can feel what it’s like to get wet. Nothing seems to be working.

But I forget that he’s not developmentally 3 years old. My son was born premature. He was born in January but should have been born in April. This could have a huge impact on toilet training success. He looks and acts like a 3 year old but maybe his internal development hasn’t caught up to his external growth. I need to relax a little and not worry about it so much. I’ve been reassured time and again by other moms that one day things will just click and he’ll want to go potty. In the meantime, I’ll just have to try and banish this image in my head of my son graduating university still wearing diapers.