Advice on Potty training

Rachel021967

I would try pull ups and maybe ask the grandparents if he can visit them for a few hours each week to give you a break. It gets easier as they get older.

marywooyeah

my son is coming up to 3 and we have tried a few times. this weekend just gone was unusual as we had 4 days off, so we let him run round in pants most of the time and found that he would start jiggling about and when he needed to go he would start touching his bum or willy so we would then say "Need toilet Dylan? potty? big boy toilet?" giving him the choice
he kept saying no wee wee, no toilet.....then 10 seconds later he'd shout "oh no wee wee!" and wee all over my carpet/bed/uni coursework through his pants! it was very frustrating, but i bit my lip and said its ok but this is why we need the potty! i also got him to help me clean it.
after a couple of days when he did the wee wee or poo poo dance we'd scoop him up to the toilet and read him the same book so he associates the book with the toilet and he starts asking for it, so we have had a couple of sucesses over the weeekend.
tommorow i am planning to send him to nursery in torusers and pants with loads of spare changes and wishing them luck to deal with him! try the book thing

rachbc

if he is wetting that frequently he's NOT READY! Both my kids were 'dry' within a couple of days because they we ready - with ds it was when he was nearly 3, with dd just turned 2. They don't need training/ reminding/ nagging once they have control

jackyann

Good parents do get stressed & it can be very hard to back off, even when you know it's the right thing. I only ever offer advice in the take it or leave it spirit, so here it is:
normal child development shows that bladder control is usually gained between 2-3 years (barring the odd stress/accident), why boys are later than girls, when they can play "hit the ball" is a mystery.
Socially & emotionally it's easier in the summer when he can be outside in pants. Get cheap pants & a bucket of soapy water to put wet pants in.
If the stress feels overwhelming, there's usually a reason this is affecting you more than other child-care stuff. Find someone you trust to talk to about it (health visitors are not overwhelmingly loved on this board, but they can be great)

frugalfreda

I am thinking, or actually to be precise, 'going to start' potty training my 22 month old girl soon.

MIL has been on about it since my daughter was 6 months old and it is now stressing me out and I feel uncomfortable about it, and a bit cr*p. Even my mother has made comments but doesn't make me feel so uncomfortable about it.

I work part time and intend to take some days off soon so that I have 10-12 days at home with her to start it off and will not go out during this time. This will be before her 2nd birthday. The ideal time would have been earlier this month when I was off work for 3 weeks but my daughter came down with a sickness bug so puking and toilet training wouldn't have gone well with each other.

My daughter has a potty and seems to have a grasp of what it is for but won't sit on it for any length of time, although admittedly I have not pushed her for a while. I don't know if the potty is smaller than average as it seems small for her but she is average for her age.

I am just curious about other parents' approach to it. I know someone who went for the 'all or nothing' approach with her son and didn't go out of the house for 2 weeks, and this worked - he was 2 and a bit. Also, hear of people who keep nappies on their child during the potty training. Do people still hold their child over the potty just before they go to bed (this would disturb my daughter too much and wake her up!)? How long to keep nappies on at night? So much to think of!

Just interested in other views really. Thanks

mum2one

What I did with DD from about 18mths old, we had the potty lying around, we just had the basic models, we had one upstairs in bathrm, and the other in frontroom, so that she got use to seeing it around. After a feed etc, we'd sit her on the potty, she still had pull up ons, it was trail and error, sometimes nappy wet, other times she'd use the potty.
Everyone is different you may have a child that takes to it like a duck to water, whilst another - may prefer straight to go for the toilet seat (can buy a small toilet seat - fits inside standard one).

Once we'd mastered the potty, we went into just knickers, with pull ups for emergency purposes. Think within 1 week, DD used the potty, - then we transferred to the toilet, but for a few months we used both. Thou she was so funny she wouldn't do a no 2 in the toilet it had to be the potty, she was 3 by then, then one day she went for a wee and did a poo, (sorry to be graphic), - after that the loo won over.
The weird thing was when she was dry at ngt - we use to leave the potty in her room, and when we went to bed, we would pop her on the potty, (did that for 6 months, - then we did the loo visit..... stopped that about 6 yrs - by then she would know she needed the loo.

The best thing to remember its trail an error, your sound find your style that suits you best, a friend of mine she was luckly they had downstairs loo and she just went for the all or nothing approach for her both children and it worked perfectly for her.

Good luck with it all xx

pigpen

Stuff what the inlaws and the outlaws and the vet say.. do YOU think she is ready?

If not tell them to bog off and you'll do it in your own sweet time.. there isn't any hurry. 'no' is a very useful word!

Pee's me right off when older relatives claim their child was trained at 3 weeks old.. actually no they weren't you are old and your memory has gone to lalaland!

Personally, unless she is refusing to wear nappies (like 2 of mine did at 18 months!) I'd leave her until the summer. My 6 y/o I never seemed to have time so she trained herself at 2 and 4 months.. piece of cake and highly recommended!

alm721

My mil was on at me for ages about my son still being in nappies at 3. (All hers were out of nappies by 18months at the latest apparently). My son was nearly 3 and a half before we managed it and he still has frequent accidents (hes four in a week). He just wasn't ready any earlier. My daughter was out of nappies on her 2nd birthday. One day she told me she didn't want to wear nappies anymore, I told her she would have to ise the potty all the time. Within 2 days she was dry, within 5 days she was out of nappies at night and never had an accident.
All kids are different. By all means if YOU feel YOUR child is ready, then go for it. If not then wait. It is not important what your mil or mum thinks. They all get their in the end and very few children are in nappies when they start school, seriously don't worry about it.

pigpen

alm that is exactly what my 2 older girls did at 18 months.. and they were both fabulous, DD3 however still had regular accidents at 6.5 and is still in bed nappies at 10.5! DS3 was 3.5 before he was anything like ready.

faithcecilia

The little boy I look after was dry day and night within 2 weeks - and he too had a tummy bug in the middle (lots of extra times to practise:rotfl:). We didn't mix nappies with pants - once he was in pants he wasd in pants, we just accepted there would be a bit of extra washing for a while, I think this was less confusing for him as he knew from that moment on he didn't wee except on the potty. We went on a longish bus journey (maybe 45mins each way) and shopping trip a few days in and I just stuck the potty and a couple of changes of clothes in the bag, no more hassle than nappies, wipes etc. If I did have to do it again with another child I would go with a complete change to pants again, I think its easier all round.

Being dry at night is different though as it is a physical/chemical development more than anything else. The little boy had been waking up with a dry nappy for some months so was physically ready, but we wouldn't have taken him out so quickly if he was waking wet.