how long does it take to "click" and take themselves to the potty?

[tuffinmop]

Any experiences welcome please.....
My little boy is 2.8 and very placid and accepting. We have been potty training for a week now and have had lots of wees in the potty and a couple of poos but kind of by chance. However, also lots of accidents and although he will tell us when he has had an accident he does not take himself to the potty.
Lots of progress has been made, on day one is was constant puddles every 15 minutes! Now he has been going much longer and as long as we put him on the potty he will go, no fuss.
I am just wondering if he sounds not quite ready or is it normal to take a good while to really get the hang of it?
So should I keep going?
Thanks

[ReallyTired]

Have you given him the chance to ask? If you give him too many reminders then he will not have a chance to take the initative.

DD was trained at 2 years 7 months in two days.
DS was trained at 3 year 3 months in 8 days.

In my experience when the child was ready it clicked very quickly.

It sounds like you are having sucess and its probably worth continuing.

If I was you I would increase the gaps between reminders. Some people get into problems as they never allow children to have accidents. A child has to experience the sensation of being full and knowing that if they do nothing they will get wet. If a child is constantly put on to the potty they will never experiene the body signals telling them to go. Young children often have better bladder muscles than their mothers and can go for hours without a wee.

With my children I bribed them. Ie. I let them wet themselves and just calmly said. "If you do a poo poo or wee wee in the potty you can have a pringle." Inorder for dd to get the pringle she had to ask for the potty and produce.

[tuffinmop]

Thanks r eallytired I will try that tomorrow. I agree he needs to feel full and the consequences of that. Is it normal to leak a little bit too at this age? His pants always seem a little bit damp even when he has not had an accident.
Thanks again

[ReallyTired]

"Is it normal to leak a little bit too at this age?"

yes, little boys need to wipe their willies after a wee with some loo paper.

Don't try to clean his foreskin as you could do serious damage, but sometimes a bit of wee ends up in the foreskin and then it makes the pants damp later.

[tuffinmop]

Thanks again. 4 accidents followed by 4 good wees on the potty today already. He does a bit in pants, I notice, put him on the potty and he does the rest with no fuss.
Shameless bump to ask again if anyone elses children clicked after a few days of this or have I started too early? If I go back now will I damage the whole process?
He will be 3 in August btw.

[ReallyTired]

I think you should carry on. Children vary at how fast they click. For some children it take hours and other children it takes months.

Has your lo actually asked for the potty yet? Sometimes being bare bottomed and just having the potty to hand helps. It is tough resisting the urge to prompt them when you know they have not done a wee for six hours and you are expecting the floodgates to open.

I know its hard, but I actually think you have to allow your lo to have a full blown accident. The difficult part is remaining postive and resisting the tempation to lose your rag.

[lemontop]

Sorry no advice tuffin but just to say I am in the same situation with DS. We are only on day 3 so just seeing how it goes. We had no accidents at all on day 1 when I was reminding him to go every hour, but we've had lots since I started trying to get him to ask for himself.

Today's tactic is bribery! He gets a mini egg every time he asks to go to the toilet himself and does a wee. If he does a poo he gets two. I have no idea if this is a rubbish tactic but I think it's keeping the thought of having to go in his head. Having said that he pooed his pants this morning then later asked for a cuddle and peed all over me! It's not glamorous this potty training lark.

[tuffinmop]

lots and lots of accidents today and then like a beacon of hope, he sat on the potty without prompting and did a giant poo! Hurrah! I think it may be sinking in!

[MrsFlippingHeck]

How are you getting on now ladies?

Dd is also 3 in August and we are having the same problems. She uses potty if she has a bare bottom but needs reminding all the time if she is dressed. I'm wondering if we should give up for now or push on. It's been 7 days, but she's being using the potty with bare bottom with lots of success for 6 months so she does know what she's doing.

[bringmesunshine2009]

Same situation. If DS wees himself he doesn't seem to notice or care. He responded to the bribe once. We are about 50/50 accident/success. But I think I am just catching wees rather than him doing them because he is sat. He stopped himself after doing half a wee and poo on the floor I put him on the potty and he finished it off. Am thinking he's not ready as I just can't see him saying "wee wee" and taking himself. Maybe I sould leave it until he is three.

[Lexilicious]

My DS is the same age as a couple of your DC so I hop it's ok to join in?!

Last week on Wed/Thurs/Friday mornings when we got up to get dressed DS did a wee in the toilet (Standing up "like daddy" !) so I took a risk and took him to nursery on Friday in pants (20 minute walk in buggy). Sort of on a whim, I thought he might be ready. Well, Friday afternoon when I picked him up he was still in the same set of clothes - RESULT! He had even (just) held in a poo and they took him to the toilet because they could see he was uncomfortable but not quite turning it into a request.

This weekend we've been away to see friends on the train (with a bathmat to protect the seat!), and also to the inlaws. We work on giving him lots of reminders, but he gets to choose whether to go to the loo or not, until I think it's been too long and decide for him that he's going to sit on it, and lo and behold there it came. We had one accident on Sunday morning (in a cafe ) but that's all.

[MrsFlippingHeck]

We've given up for now

But then just to confuse matters she pulled down her pull-ups and pooed on the potty today with no prompting or anything (never ever used potty before when in pull-ups)

Decided to stay in pull-ups and reward any potty usage with massive praise and mini eggs (massive stash bought for this purpose)

[southernbelle77]

I'm also in the same boat. Have been trying dd since Friday with hit and miss success. She wants to wear pants and gets excited when uses potty but is a little reluctant to actually want to go on it. I think I might have been asking too much so trying really hard not to today. It's hard when she is dancing around the room clearly needing to go. We have had one big one on the potty this morning after all the dancing and she told me her bottom hurt so she sat on it, after my prompting, and she was very excited that she had done it so keeping fingers crossed for more success. I have told her we have no more nappies so want to stick with it as long as possible!

[Lexilicious]

DS is on day 5 and had a totally dry day yesterday! However DH didn't get him out of his overnight nappy straight away when they got up this morning so he did a poo in the nappy. He then wanted it to be changed straight away because he knows that pooing in the toilet means no nappy rash (he's had a couple of nasty bouts in the last few months).

Things which may have been good tricks to date: calling them "big boy pants" and praising big boy tendencies; peer pressure, talking about other kids we know or at the nursery who are big boys/girls; rewards for every successful toileting (episode of Bob/Pingu/Thomas - our version of MrsFlipping's mini eggs!) which we've quickly changed to a reward for a full day's successful toileting. Might sound crap but as he doesn't habitually watch any telly at all this is a genuine reward.