3.5 yr old not interested in the potty

My boys are a few weeks shy of 3.5 yrs. J is potty trained. R has absolutely NO interest at all. I've tried everything from bribary, just putting him into underwear, talking to him about it, etc, etc. He just has no interest or he doesn't get it, or he's lazy.
I will put him on the potty, then 10 min later he will poop in his pull up. I've tried backing off for a few weeks, etc.
HELP!!!!

 

It took Roycie a long time after Alice was potty trained to even want to do it. And he still didn't want to do it, so we just made a huge deal whenever Alice went and totally ignored him going in his pull up. We finally found his currency (gummy worms and being ignored while Alice was getting candy *again* for every time she went) and told him casually that in three weeks (next three day weekend) he was going to start using the potty like a big kid. That three day weekend came, he started going on the potty, and blammo! Potty trained except for at night.

For him, I think he was scared that he was going to fail. It wasn't that he wasn't interested, he was pretending that he wasn't interested because he was afraid of trying something new and failing. So we made it a non-issue, accidents happen, when you go you get candy, but hey, no big deal if you don't make it to the potty sort of thingy and he was trained one week shy of being 3.5.

Also, see if you can find the Elmo's potty DVD. If I knew where ours was, I'd mail it to you!!

 

Have you asked him why he doesn't want to go?

 

Our DS was 3.5 before he potty trained. I didn't think he would EVER train! DD trained a good 7 months before him. I think it was two-fold...he wasn't interested because he didn't want to take the time to do it and he was just being stubborn. He is our intense, strong willed, spirited child. Everything has to be on his terms or he will dig in his heels. I totally think that that is what happened with potty training. Finally, we just put it on him. We took him out of pull-ups and into underwear. We then turned it over to him. We told him it was up to him....up to him to keep is underwear dry (we couldn't do it for him). It was also up to him to clean up the mess if he chose not to keep them clean. Mind you, we knew he was 'ready' and we knew he understand the concept...so this worked for us. I think it was 2 weeks total after we changed our game plan that he was finally pee trained. Poop took a bit longer, but we just hung in there keeping him in underwear. It was messy, but I didn't want to go back to pull-ups and delay the process or take any chances in confusing him.

Good Luck! He will get it one day soon. You might just have to let it be 'up to him'.

 

My pediatrician said not to worry until they are 4... so I'd just keep trying every month or so and try not to sweat it (my kids still show no interest).

 

My boys are 3 years 3 months and they show very little to no interest in the toilet either. I just broach the subject with them every once awhile, they tell me "I don't like going in the potty" and I move on. :laughing:

My oldest DS was 3.5 when he was going pee on the toilet all of the time and more like 3.75 when he was *finally* pooping on the toilet. It will happen! :hug: