To ask how long it took...

[hidinginthetoiletagain]

To potty train your child?

My daughter was 3 last month and we have a newish baby, so had let it slide a bit...

Finally decided we should probably bite the bullet about 10 days ago. She is fairly happy to pee/poo in the toilet/potty and if we pop her on there every hour or so can just about be dry all day. However, when at nursery (when I assume they aren't able to monitor her as closely) she'll have several accidents in a day. Similarly at home if I just ask/remind her rather than actually persuading her onto the potty she'll generally say she doesn't need a wee etc. and then wet herself...

All our friend's children seemed to have been trained 'in a weekend' though they're mostly school age now, so I wonder if the parents have just forgotten!

Are we trying to do this when she's not ready and we should give up? Or am I expecting way too much and it'll just take time?

I was very chilled about it even though the DC were potty trained relatively early (all 3 started just after their 2nd birthday). We had increasing amounts of time at home with a bare bum and then we slowly added clothes. But for nursery or if we left the house they had a nappy and clothes on, I still don't think a child will learn anything by wetting their pants when they have no access to a toilet. When they were reliable at home without a nappy and had managed a few trips out then they went nappy free at nursery, not before. I did tell nursery we were potty training and to let them use the loo if they asked. None of them got 'confused' about nappy vs pants, when we went somewhere we always went to the loo straight away so they knew there was one and we only a couple of times had an accident outside the house. Nighttime potty training varied from 2 (at the same time as daytime) to 5.

DC1 and DC3 took a good few weeks to be reliably potty trained. DC2 on the other hand took a couple of days.

DD aged 2.9 months just declared one day she didn’t want a nappy and wanted to use the toilet. Completely trained within 3 days. She also has a bowel condition and we were advised not to train her so her consultant can’t believe we’ve achieved the impossible so easily!

She also went dry overnight at the same time so no nappy at bed either.

Doesn’t sound like your DC is completely ready. I’d wait a bit. My HV told me not to rush and if I did it when they were ready I’d crack it in 2-3days. She was completely right! X

It was quite quick once I decided they were ready; that was about 2y 9 months. A few days? They had to take themselves to the potty by the end of day 1 or I would give it a go another time. I had two attempts with DS - his first was at 2 and a half, and he was a bit too young. With DD I just waited until I knew she'd definitely be ready for it. Her sleep hormone took a while to kick in though - dry about age 7 compared to DS who was dry at night within a week of potty training.

Both had occasional accidents, but not regularly.

Just read the post by Smilingthru and it's very similar to my experience.

Not a parent yet but nursery worker - always more accident at nursery than home.
Partly because there's not the one to one (or two) level of attention to spot the signs and remind, but also because the toilets tend to be further away than the potty is at home!
We do try and remember to remind every half hour or so when first in pants though. "Do you need to use the potty/toilets?" If they say no twice in a row we will try "let's go together" or offer to look after whatever it is they are busy doing and the 9 times out of 10 they will go.

Generally speaking I'm no fan of sticker charts but getting a sticker to wear when they go to the toilet / potty (even if nothing is actually done on it) really does seem to encourage some children too.

Dc1 and Dc2 both toilet (never used potties) trained in 24 hours with a couple of accidents when they were 2.9yrs. Dry at night a couple of months later. Dc3 has some learning difficulties but was toilet trained within 48hrs at 3.5yrs.

I just put them straight in pants and told them not to wee in them! DC1 was really quite upset when I had to cut his Bob the builder pants off after a 'code brown' accident.

My eldest took ages. Understood well enough just wasn't that bothered! In the end, I employed heavy duty bribery (jelly babies every time she used the toilet) and that did the trick. I phased out the jelly babies by not offering them, just giving them when asked for, and they were soon forgotten about. My middle one I set out with the bribery straight away (smarties this time) and it was all sorted very quickly. Did the same with youngest (chocolate buttons) and likewise was all done very quickly. So my advice is to use bribery! Find the thing that makes it worth it for them.

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling weirdly so down about it, which I know is ridiculous! I think it's because I'm on maternity leave and don't have enough external distractions to stop me obsessing... My day now seems to sink or swim dependent on my toddlers level of potty-based success. Ridiculous! I'd say we now seem to be going backwards with each day, but I'm wondering if it's just a little backlash/worn off novelty/boundary pushing as she did do well at first, so I'm loathed to give up yet... I think I just need to get a grip!