Potty Training

[LittleB]

Apologies in advance... this is a bit of a dull one!

I’m after some advice on potty training - so many people have told me different things and I’m feeling really confused.

My son is 2 years and 4 months. I bought a potty around a month ago to have in the house, for him to see and get used to. Since then he has started doing wees on it while he’s had his nappy off, and he has also done one poo. All of this was with a little guidance but mostly lead by him.

I decided to go for it and start potty training fully with him today as he seemed to be doing well so far.

He happily put on his ‘big boy’ pants this morning for the first time and I explained that if he needed a wee or poo to let me know and he could do it on the potty.

I asked him to sit on the potty every half hour to have a ‘try’, which he did, but each time he said he didn’t need a wee. A few minutes later he would wet through his pants and trousers without any warning and looked surprised/upset. This continued for the rest of the day and happened every time he had a wee. When it came to bath time I took off his clothes and nappy and he sat straight on his potty and did a wee and a poo with no encouragement needed.

My mum has told me to just put a nappy back on him.

My cousin has told me never to go back to nappies now he has worn pants.

My friend has told me to try and gradually get him used to the pants.

I really don’t know what to do with him tomorrow. Does he sound ready? Should I persevere and just let him wet through his clothes until he gets used to it? Shall I wait a few more weeks/months and then try again?

 

[BettyCrocker]

He’s maybe not quite ready yet, id be inclined to put him in pull ups but carry on encouraging him to go sit on the potty and praise for whenever he does it in there. As he gets used to it over a few days/a week then maybe try the pants again.

 

[Prodcon21]

In a similar situation, so can’t offer much advice sorry!!

But for us - We’ve decided not to go back to nappies.

Yeah - we don’t seem to be moving forward very fast, but don’t see the point in undoing the bits we have progressed with!

Depends on your situation though. We are persevering because of lock down, i.e not going out much.

He’s in nursery as well, but with less kids so the nursery teachers/ assistants are more on the ball with him as well.

 

[LittleMy]

I’m currently potty training my youngest (he’ll be 3 in August). It does take some time and perseverance. I think the fact that you’ve introduced it gradually is good, but don’t worry, most children will have minor setbacks. It’s all about keeping calm during accidents and reinforcing the idea time and again. Maybe try a few days at home without pants so he can run free? I personally wouldn’t go back to nappies unless he really wasn’t getting it at all and there were more accidents than victories. Lockdown is the ideal time because we’re all indoors. My wee boy was getting to the point he was holding it until he couldn’t anymore. He wouldn’t go in the nappy and he would absolutely refuse to sit on the potty. Turns out he just didn’t like the potty so we got him a seat and stool for the big toilet and just praised him up every time he went and he has been going ever since. We still have to direct him sometimes, but there have been very few accidents and he’s asking more. Good luck, it’s not the easiest part of parenthood but you will get there x

 

[Lindssdnil]

I work in a nursery. Once you start we advise not to go back as it can be very confusing! I am personally against pull ups as they are basically just a nappy. Be consistent, it is very normal for children to have ‘good’ and ‘bad’ days with toilet training, even some children I work with that have been using the toilet for around a year can have accidents. Lots of praise for when they use the toilet/potty, if there’s accidents I wouldn’t focus too much attention on it just a ‘oh no are your pants wet let’s get changed and use the toilet/potty’

 

[W33dee]

Apologies in advance... this is a bit of a dull one!

I’m after some advice on potty training - so many people have told me different things and I’m feeling really confused.

My son is 2 years and 4 months. I bought a potty around a month ago to have in the house, for him to see and get used to. Since then he has started doing wees on it while he’s had his nappy off, and he has also done one poo. All of this was with a little guidance but mostly lead by him.

I decided to go for it and start potty training fully with him today as he seemed to be doing well so far.

He happily put on his ‘big boy’ pants this morning for the first time and I explained that if he needed a wee or poo to let me know and he could do it on the potty.

I asked him to sit on the potty every half hour to have a ‘try’, which he did, but each time he said he didn’t need a wee. A few minutes later he would wet through his pants and trousers without any warning and looked surprised/upset. This continued for the rest of the day and happened every time he had a wee. When it came to bath time I took off his clothes and nappy and he sat straight on his potty and did a wee and a poo with no encouragement needed.

My mum has told me to just put a nappy back on him.

My cousin has told me never to go back to nappies now he has worn pants.

My friend has told me to try and gradually get him used to the pants.

I really don’t know what to do with him tomorrow. Does he sound ready? Should I persevere and just let him wet through his clothes until he gets used to it? Shall I wait a few more weeks/months and then try again?

Hey, I am in exactly the same boat as you! My son is slightly older by a couple of months. We did similar to you, bought a potty but he wasn’t overly fussed about using it. I also bought a ladder seat for over the toilet. For months he has refused to put pants on. About 2 weeks ago he put them on, for the first 3 days he just peed everywhere and on day 4. He got up and shouted “big boy toilet” and ran to the loo. So he now uses the actual toilet. I have noticed he is so much better at knowing when to go when he is naked. For the first couple of weeks I have kept him naked and only now have we started putting pants on him. It’s not perfect but probably 75% of the time he goes when he needs.
My point being, unless he is looking for a nappy or showing any signs of upset, I’d keep going with the training. I personally think pull ups send a mix message because of their texture but I’m sure others will disagree. I expected the process to be straight forward and click really quickly! How wrong was I! Haha x

 

[Fairypop]

I would keep going for at least a few days & be consistent with trying him on the potty or toilet, it sounds like he’s starting to be ready for it. It does take perseverance! Stick with encouragement & praise when he does well. I’d also recommend Pirate Pete’s Potty on YouTube, I’m sure there are plenty of other videos & books too which may encourage him as well. My eldest loved an app called Poo Land & to be fair it did help .

If carrying on with it causes more distress then I’d go back to nappies or pull ups for the time being, for me it isn’t worth the upset! But if he’s fairly happy I would continue Good luck! X

 

[Tree_]

Do you truly believe he is ready? Does he have the understanding if what he really needs to do? If so carry on. My son was 2 years 6 months when I trained him. He was accident free in 3 days. 1st day we went through 11 pairs of pants. 2nd day 2 pairs third day he was dry completely. Never had an accident since. I just made it really positive and made him sit on the potty every 20 minutes and gave him chocate buttons every time he went on the potty. I sat on the floor the whole time with him for those 1st 2 days. Never used pull ups. Hopefully some of this might be useful. Think I've just been lucky though.

 

[Silbee]

It's all about muscle control and until he has full control you're on a hiding to nothing. You'll know when bladder control is starting your child will be dry in the morning when he awakes. Wait a couple of weeks to be sure and then start in earnest.

That was the advice Miriam Stoppard gave in the baby book I bought when my daughter was small and it worked well for us. Good luck. : - )

 

[Ems55]

If he seems surprised when he wets, then he probably doesn't recognise the sensation of needing to go yet and therefore isn't ready. He's still very young so I wouldn't be disheartened, although personally I would say it's reasonably pointless persevering at this stage.

We tried when my son was 2.5 and had pretty much the same experience as you. Put him back in nappies for a few months and tried again when he was closer to 3 and he cracked it in a matter of days. I would wait a bit longer if I were you x

 

[Lockdownliving88]

I started training my son at 2.5 (aug19) as I was due to have my second baby in the Oct and every one kept telling me “you don’t want two in nappies.”
He definitely wasn’t ready. He would sit on the potty for ages at a time and then get off and Wee/poo on the floor. In the end he was distressed and could sense my anxiety, so he began to refuse to go near the potty. I gave up and went back to nappies. I tried again 3 months before his 3rd birthday. By day 3 he had cracked it.
I wouldn’t be afraid to go back to nappies and try again later. In my opinion, When they are truly ready it won’t be so hard.
Good luck x

 

[Prinfluencer]

I started my daughter in July last year. She was 2 years 3 months. She just ran round with no nappy on and eventually found her way into the potty. We bought books and everything. We kept pull ups out of the house at first and then progressed to knickers under pull ups for days out so she knew she was wet. I didn't force anything took it slow and my god it's been slow, so many phases of dry and then accidents sometimes 4 a day. We cracked it after Christmas last year but during lockdown when my husband has been working at home and looking after her when I'm working she's having accidents again. I've gone back to basics with a sticker chart and reminding her and it seems to have worked but she's due back at nursery next week and I think it will all go wrong again.

 

[Itsallaboutmememe]

i have 6 kids-with no1 I was the same as you
i wrugh myself into pieces-I told her off her something,turned round and there she was-doing both into the potty
no2-same-he just wasn’t ready
no3-I left it-at that point I didn’t care if he was still wearing a nappy as a teenager-one day (aged about 2 3/4) he just whipped it off and peed on the potty
he did this twice and then refused to use it
no4 had issues with his knees-didn’t walk until he was 2 1/2-i took a potty to nursery and they told me to leave it at home ‘we’ll catch whatever falls’
he never had a nappy again
no5-handed me his nappy and refused another
no6 was a nightmare!she just refused both potty and toilet and it took starting nursery for the penny to drop (god knows where she gets her stubbornness from-I blame her grandad…)

my advice would be back to nappies
leave the potty lying around and there are lovely potty storybooks to read to little one-try not to make a big deal out of it and try not to stress
let him follow you into the loo (and be ready for the ‘mummy,why has your willy fallen off’ question
(you could try no clothes in the garden on a few hot days-he’ll-get wet feet and it may click-only problem is the weather)
i promise that one day he will just get it-he won’t be in nappies as a teenager

 

[SunshineDreamer]

Only you know your child, is my opinion and sometimes it’s easier to save the hassle and go back to nappies until they are truly ready.

I’ve got 4 year old girl/boy twins. My daughter was out of nappies by 14 months where as my son was about 2 and a half. My youngest is a year and shows no signs of being ready.

 

[AnnaBananaPie]

They’re all so different! My boy trained just before his 3rd birthday after numerous attempts and a move from abroad to upset the Apple cart and my girl when she was just 2.4!