I keep putting off potty training - help!

[ChiccaD]

Dear clever MNs. Please tell me how you went about potty training your children.

I keep putting it off and at this rate we will be in primary school before we are out of nappies.

Neither of my sons did any of these 'signs' trained at 2 years 4 months and 2 years 5 months, both within a week. No drama.

We started off where he was naked below the waist all day. Obviously we didn't leave the house, but stayed indoors (hard floors) and the garden. Once we'd had a day with basically no accidents, we added pants. No trousers so again we stayed home. Again, we waited until he'd done a whole day with minimal trouble and then added trousers.

In our case, DS was 33 months. We started on Friday and then he went back to nursery on Monday in pants and trousers. But that was after we'd had a few failed attempts at training in the past, so the concept wasn't entirely new to him. A month in, he rarely has accidents and is learning to hold it longer when out and about or in the car.

It's awful for a few days, there is wee and there is poo but you just have to grit your teeth and dive in. Keep your cool so it doesnt stress out the DC. It's worse if you have carpet, I covered our living room with a dust sheet/ towels to make it a bit easier to clean

I did it with mine at 2 years 9 months and he cracked it in a few days - we did it while away staying in a static caravan for a few days. No poo accidents at all. A few wees for the first few days and then nothing after that. We came home with a potty trained DS. I think he was just very ready by that point.

just saying what worked with both our kids - we found it much easier to be in the car/house if they had pants on

For those with kids at nursery, did you involve them in the process? My 25 month old is showing signs but is at nursery three days a week and taking a week off to do the training isn’t an option.

I really think you need a week off. I took mine out of nursery for a week so had Saturday to the second Monday at home for a proper stretch

Mine is also at nursery Monday to Friday and taking a week off is also not really an option.

What's the issue with taking a week off? Doesn't annual leave cover it?

Summer time with this weather is perfect. Naked from the waist down, out in the garden as much as possible. It generally takes around a week. Currently re-training my DD after a severe bowel impaction which has led to lots of bladder leakage.

@pizofaz because my employer doesn’t give me endless annual leave.

But some annual leave though? Potty training is an inevitability, not a surprise

Reading all the posts it sounds like some people did it over the weekend, or long weekend?

Can I ask how many of you took nappies off for the night from the beginning? Trained by daughter just after 2, dropped evening bottles etc but soaked and dirty overnight nappies still (2 3/4) so haven’t dared remove overnight.

We did a fortnight of dry nappies before removing them at night

We had a couple of wee accidents. She didn't poo for 2.5 days as she was holding it but when she really did need to go she used the potty and was fine after that.

With regards to nursery we started training on the Friday and she went back to nursery on the Tuesday. Had one wee accident and was dry after that.

Night dryness is physiological. It can't really be 'trained'. Some babies do happen to go dry day and night at the same time, but a lot don't. I wouldn't worry about it. Just put a pull up on and leave them to it at night.

Honestly?

I started mine around the age yours were now, and after two accidents I just stopped. Back in the nappies.

All three of my boys were trained by 3 years and about 2 months IIRC - that was when they actually knew what to do when the urge happened. No accidents right off the bat. Wees anyway. My older two were devils for withholding poos and then having accidents, I don't care to remember how many times I was brought to tears because they'd sworn they didn't need to go only to shit themselves the second we were far enough away from home to not be able to do much about it.

Also we didn't have a garden? Lots of people don't. Yes I let them have naked bums but only when I was reasonably sure my carpet wasn't going to get ruined!

You technically can. My DD cracked it over a long weekend using the naked waist down method. We then went to baggy shorts, no underwear for a couple of weeks. You do however need a very understanding nursery/ child care provider who is willing to help with the frequent accidents for the first couple of weeks until they get the hang of it. Lots of changes of clothes in the bag. I know quite a few nurseries around us are very reluctant to "potty train" children and will tolerate a couple of accidents a day but are very quick to put pull ups back on children due to "staffing" or "health and safety". I'm fortunately very part time in the family business so I was able to have the time to transition from naked, to baggy shorts to pants.

Did over a weekend with my DD, she went back to nursery (also 5 days a week, also same age as yours) but the room she was in, she was the only one doing toilet training, so it was a bit stop and start. She basically holds on until she can’t anymore, rather than actively using the potty. Since she’s transitioned to a room where loads of them use the potty, she’s not having any accidents at nursery anymore. It’s all a bit trial and error, but worse in your head than the reality I think!

By all means trying your best want to, but sounds young to me. We did it at age 3 with no problems. Boys generally do it older than girls. Why the rush?

To be honest probably social pressure. Everyone is asking is she potty trained yet makes me feel like she ought to. From my POV I don’t really know the upsides vs downsides of doing it later vs earlier.

I would think the older the easier it will be. It does also mean not having to worry about toilet when out and about whilst in nappy.

But feel like we ought to give it a go.

Honestly it's not that stressful if you just crack on with it - lots of good ideas on here.

The recent idea that you need to watch for sigs of being ready is just nonsense - most NT kids do get the basic hang of it fairly quickly from about 2 or 2 and a half.

Yes plenty, my first found poos really tough.

Some kids just become more resistant the older they get.