As a potty trainer, I often encounter questions about boys and potty training. As a Boy-Mom, I’m sure
you’ve heard that boys train later, or that they are harder to train than girls. Good news! This just isn’t
true. While boys are capable of potty training in the same age range as girls, there are some…
“mechanics” that are a little bit different for boys than girls.
Here are your top questions about potty training boys, answered!
I heard boys potty train later. Is that true? As I mentioned before, boys don’t potty train at a
different age than girls. The ideal age range for boys AND girls is 20-30 months. Already past
this mark? Don’t worry! This is the ideal range – when we find it to be easiest to potty train. Of
course, you can potty train later as well.
Is potty training harder for boys than girls? No, not really. If anything (good news for you) it
can be *easier* to potty train boys because it’s easier and more socially acceptable for them to
pee anywhere! Having worked with many pairs of boy/girl twins I can tell you that sometimes
the boy “gets it” first, and sometimes the girl does. Every child has their own learning curve.
Do I teach him to pee sitting or standing? Teach him to pee sitting. Kids need to sit to learn to
poop (which for most kids is harder to learn than pee). Until your child is comfortably pooping
in the potty, don’t teach to pee standing up. Exception: if they have a natural inclination to
stand (like it becomes a power struggle to get them to sit) then roll with it.
So, when do I teach them to stand? Basically, there’s no rush to do this. When they can stand
in front of the potty and are tall enough to actually get the pee in the potty, go for it.
Are there any boy-specific potty training items I should purchase? I don’t recommend many
potty training products in general. You can find my recs on my products page
(http://ohcrappottytrainingwithjenny.com/products) – my recommended potty has a good
splash guard (actually, this is important for girls too!). When working with parents of boys, I
have never needed to use a kid’s urinal, special toys to help them aim, or any other extra boyspecific
products. Save your $$!
How do I teach him to aim? Potty training sitting, this is easier than it sounds. You can gently
hold his penis down for him, teach him to hold it down himself, or my preferred method: teach
him to lean forward a bit which naturally points the penis down. Once you’re working on
standing, a cheerio in the toilet to help aim is sufficient.
What about night-time? Don’t boys wet the bed more than girls? THIS is true. However, it is
still a small percentage of kids for whom bedwetting is an issue, and it is FAR more likely to
happen if you or your partner wet the bed – scientists have found a genetic element to this. By
age 5, 15% of kids wet the bed, with twice as many boys versus girls making up that number.
This is a significant percentage, but still small. So, this does NOT mean that you should assume
this will be your child, and I always recommend that you work on night-time potty training with
your child by age 3 or 3.5 at the latest, regardless of whether you have a boy or girl. If your child
continues to wet the bed with sustained night-time intervention from parents, then it would be
a good idea to talk to your doctor about enuresis or look into potty alarm solutions. You can
read up more on bedwetting here (http://www.webmd.com/children/features/bedwettingcauses#1).
Now that you’re armed with this knowledge, the next step is to learn more about potty training
techniques. Of course, I recommend picking up a copy of “Oh Crap” (http://amzn.to/2oDfb2Q), or
attending a class (http://ohcrappottytrainingwithjenny.com/classes) to learn all my tips and tricks.
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