A week into toilet training - accidents??

[Bells3032]

Aibu to ask how many accidents your little ones were having about a week into toilet training. We started last Saturday. We seem to be doing well with wees though still the odd accidents but her pooing acknowlement is not ideal. We've only managed to get two into the toilet/potty in a week and A LOT of wrecked clothes.

She also seems to be getting very bored/annoyed with it now. How to keep her motivated without giving her stuff all the time (as she just has a temper tantrum when she doesn't get more).

Please share your advice and experience.

Thanks

Loads to be honest. There will always be people on Mumsnet who say their child got it straight away and never has an accident again but for both of mine it didn’t happen that way. It’s totally normal for it to be a process that takes time.

None, but we waited until 3 after a lot of accidents when attempted earlier.

How old is your child OP?

I tried potty training at 2.. wee's no issues. Poos didn't "click" until a month before school at 4! The panic!

Phew. Thanks for the replies guys. She's 2 years and 9 months. We tried two months ago and it was an absolute disaster so stopped and started again this time.

It's been much better esp with weeing but just struggling with poops soooo much it's doing my head it and she gets so upset each time.

We waited until 3. It took all of two days but I did it in February and we did a lot of walking. He had an accident and was freezing! That was it, he was so uncomfortable he was sorted but he understood the cause and effect . Poos were another thing altogether, he would only do them in a nappy behind the sofa!!!!

If she’s getting upset about it I would leave it for a while as she’s probably not ready.

Some children find poos easier some find it harder.

Poos in theory should be easier - if her diet is good and she is not constipated, she should usually go naturally around 20-30 mins after a meal, so you can target having a bit of potty time.

If shes got in a habit of pooing standing up, or hiding to poo you need to get her used to sitting.

You need to give her a few days of bare bum and bringing potty all round the house.

Then try her with loose fitting trousers, like joggers (no pants).

But if she has no idea if she's weeing it pooing, then just stop and try again in a few months.

Ds1 D 3 had quite a few accidents but by week 2 they got it. Ds 4 and 5 more or less trained themselves as the wanted to do what their big brothers were doing! Dd took at least 4 months. All of them refused a potty preferring the loo instead. As for bribery I was all for it but it was a quick story for a wee and a chocolate button ( or 2 ) for a poo. Again Dd was having none of this and wanted the whole packet or 6 books, so I stopped. Shame though but her personality is just different. Thinking about it the thing that motivated her was a pack of stripey knickers from Asda, she didn't want them wet!

Honestly bowel control emerges in kids earlier than bladder. There are reflexes that mean we poo predictably after meals when our diet and habits are good. It should be possible to train most toddlers to poo in a potty after meals from 18m.

Bad habits like hiding to poo, requiring a nappy to poo, holding stool and then pooing at night, or pooing stood up, are what happen when its left longer.

Kids hide as well if they don't see mum & dad poo - they think its something to hide. Let them come in the loo with you, they need to know everyone poos and its normal.

Oh and yes, you'll get two types of posters
First will be "we trained at 24 months, not a single accident" and the "we potty potty train.toi late these days, modern nappies make you lazy, babies were dry by 12 months back in my day"
Conveniently forgetting all the kids that continued to have accidents at that age or they were spanked to get them trained etc

You say a lot of wrecked clothes – if accidents are still consistent, then they shouldn’t be wearing bottoms til they very reliably get it.

This.

My DD spent most of her first week of toilet training naked from the waist down. Then the next month with one of us religiously putting her on the potty every x minutes with x getting longer. She was 2 years 2 months.

It took older children normalising going to the toilet at her CMs to remind her she could go too to decrease the number of accidents. The vast majority were wee accidents.

DD1 had two tries at it. The first time, she didn't really understand and there were several 'wee' accidents. So I put her back in nappies.

The second time, she told me that she was ready. We discussed what that meant and proceded from there. There were one or two poo incidents but she learned from them.

I can't remember how it went with DD2 so it must have been pretty easy.