Tell me your POSITIVE potty training stories!!!

[Lozario]

Am posting this here as the Potty Training forum seems to be mostly full of people like me who are struggling with things so it's scared the bejesus out of me!

DS1 is 2.2 and lots of his friends are starting to potty-train, with various degrees of success. We're gearing up for it - DS is very good at talking now so the communication level is definitely there. The problem is, he HATES doing poos and cries every time. He's been on lactulose for the last few weeks again but I don't think he's particularly constipated - he just hates doing them.

Because I'm so so sooooo scared of this stage - I wondered if people could give their nice positive it-wasn't-as-bad-as-I-feared stories, and maybe one top tip???

Thanks! :)

[StitchingMoss]

Top tip: don't worry about what everyone else is doing and don't try too early. I trained DS when he was 2.9 - dry day and night in 24hrs!

[ppeatfruit]

Yes I 2nd stitching try not to compare yr DS with any other DCs; it's like walking some Dcs do it earlier than others;there's no right or wrong.

As an ex nanny and C.M., mum of 3 and GM of 2 i would say that if you leave a potty next to the loo (in all yr loos if you have more than one!) and get him used to it so he sees it as just part of the bathroom and nothing special; he may want to use it or go on the toilet like daddy and mummy. Some DCs are frightened of balancing on the loo even with the special DC loo seat BTW he's young a lot of boys are dry later than girls not all of course!

[ppeatfruit]

Another tip is that wheat gives me constipation so it might be an idea to look at his diet. HTH

[pranma]

dgs was 2 in February-started training in June after answering 'NO'when asked if he wanted to wee in the potty.One day he said,'YES!' and did.My dd had potties in every room-they shopped for 'big boy pants' and his 4 year old brother encouraged him a lot.In three weeks [honestly]he was clean and dry day and night and has remained so.When they are ready it just happens.

[SkiBumMum]

We went cold turkey on nappies at 2.1 (due to extreme morning (all day) sickness - I just couldn't bear nappies!!). Dry and clean day & night 2 and 5 weeks later. I have a very 'big girl' DD though so I suspect she was just ready not to be a 'baby' anymore. We kind of followed GF's book but tbh it was the cold turkey element that made it work for us as she had no choice once she learnt wet pants were horrid. Once you get over the staying at home all week boredom, it's really not that bad and so worth the effort. We may just have been lucky though!

[notcitrus]

Finally got there with ds and dn recently (now 2.11 and 3.2), took about a month each to really get the hang of it.

The crucial bits seemed to be: will they sit comfortably on a potty/toilet - ds wouldn't before as he was too small for most of them.
Can they pull their own pants/trousers down? We tried when ds was 2.6 and found he simply couldn't and got hugely distressed. A couple weeks of pullups and mornings of practising up/down really helped.

Then we went out to buy COOL PANTS - Thomas the bloody Tank Engine is finally useful! And then told him the plan. He was miffed, to say the least.

The vital part was he was now old enough and motivated enough to understand bribery (peer pressure didn't help at all and he doesn't want to be grown up).
So a chocolate button/smartie for every wee/poo done on the potty (after a couple weeks, refined to wee actually IN the potty! Willy points down...), a sticker on a chart (actually sticker on him, tick on the chart) for every day of reasonable cooperation, and after 20 stickers, I would order a scooter.

Now he doesn't get chocolate for wees as he has a scooter for being so good at weeing - as he tells me smugly regularly! And using a potty (or toilet at nursery, but he's too small even with a seat and step to use the one at home) has really solved his chronic constipation problem!

Even Grandma was impressed when she took him out for the day last week - he asked for the potty every time, they trotted off to the Ladies, he weed neatly and washed his hands!

So based on my sample of 3 (dn was similar only motivated by copying ds, neighbour's son then visited and wanted to copy both), the key is creating motivation to learn and reassuring them it takes practice.

[olibeansmummy]

Ds was potty trained At 2.1. It took a week and a half for him to have no more accidents during the day and 3 weeks to be potty trained at night. He only ever had one accident on public and one pop accident at all ( at nursery )

Top tips:

Wait til he's ready.
Go cold turkey even when out.
Take a potty out with you.
Have a potty upstairs and downstairs.
Try and get him to use the potty on an easily cleaned floor!!
Teach him to push his winkle down when weeing.
Use massive over the top praise, clapping etc
Use small chocolates/ sweets as bribes but stop as soon as possible.

HTH and good luck!

[olibeansmummy]

*poo not pop!

[An0therName]

postive stories - I was dreading potty training with DS1 - he got interested quite young - under 2 -so we got him a potty - he was very regular so we used to sit him on the potty at the right time - about 6 pm I think and he watched tv while he did it - but we didn't move to pants for quite a while after that - he had pull ups and we let him do what he wanted
i bought no cry potty training solutions which has a readness questionaire and decided I would wait for a while - when I decided he was ready which was about 2.3 - I took a bit of time off work and we went into pants. Had one poo in pants - no pleasant for any one and quite a few wee accidents - did chocolate buttons for every sucessful potty visit - was done pretty well in a couple of weeks. I also got Gina ford potty training book out of the library and got some ideas from as well.
there is no rush - loads of my friend's DCs were well over 2.6 its most important you and them feel ready

[Lozario]

Eek - he might be ready sometime soon but not sure I will be!!! Thanks for all the stories and tips so far! Keep 'em coming....

[BikeRunSki]

I waited until DS was really old (2.8) and he got it straight away. Night and day, wee and poo.

[Doitnicelyplease]

Had a failed attempt at training DD at 2.6 (did it all by the book but she was reluctant) but tried again at 2.8 and she got it right away with very few accidents.

We did smarties for a wee or poo, and only used pull-ups for nighttime and naptime (now phasing those out as she was dry during nap last week).

It is scary when you first venture out but just bring a bag of spare clothes, wipes, towel, potty etc and you will be ready for anything.

DD is now 2.11 and moving on to the 'big' toliet with no issues. She has a little seat insert and a step-stool.

Good luck!

[PontyMython]

When DD was that age, I was getting a bit worried about potty training so we gave it a go. It failed.

In hindsight, the mistake I made was being paranoid - I was constantly checking her, asking her, bribing her to try etc.

We left it for several months until just after her third birthday, when she suddenly decided SHE was ready. And she was! It took one morning - she put knickers and trousers on, played at home like normal while I got on with other stuff, and I forced myself to accept the fact that there would be accidents. There were two in the first couple of hours, I didn't make a big deal of it, just encouraged her to try the potty next time. We did a star chart for each time she used the loo/potty, for about a week, then it didn't seem necessary. She ditched the night nappies about a week after and was dry straight away.

I know some other parents looked down on DD for being a late trainer but I'm really glad now that we left it, as it was a totally pain free process with minimal cleaning involved :)