What age was your child reliably potty trained?

[tinkersmell34]

Dd will be 3 in May and still in nappies. Had one attempt at potty training about 6 weeks ago. Didn't go well, a few wees on the potty which we praised. Lots more on the floor which we ignored. But after a few days she became really resistant of it, crying and screaming so I concluded she must not be ready and we'd come back to it.

Getting conscious that she's getting older now and it's been mentioned by nursery staff that all of her friends are toilet trained which felt a bit like a dig.

Is this a cause for concern yet?

DS is a switched on child too and was ahead in all other milestones but didn’t get potty trained until 3.5
Like you we tried at 3 but he couldn’t get it and got quite upset when he had an accident so I waited for warmer weather - fewer layers to negotiate with!

My eldest was 2.5 and easy but my next girl just turned 3 and hasn't got it figured out yet, we're hoping it happens soon as I'm running out of ideas

Aged 2 my children were both potty trained but it doesn’t matter what other children do! as long as she’s potty trained before school don’t stress!

2 and a half DS was potty trained and got it straight away. Now he's 3 and has regressed a bit. If he's busy having fun he will have the odd accident. It used to be only occasionally but at the minute he's having an accident daily - usually just a small amount in his pants when he's left it too late to tell us.

1: 2y7m day, 3y night
2: 18m day & night
3: 2y11m day, 3y4m night
4: 2y6m day, 3y night

All had to be out of nappies before starting nursery school, 3 & 4 did it by the skin of their teeth.

I find your attitude really refreshing. I had friends who potty trained around two and it worked so well for them. But they made out I was failing my kids; they don't actually need to be able to use the toilet independently if they're home with me full time and nowhere near school age.

At not much past 2 - I started them both shortly after 2, it took a week both times. But there would still be the odd accident when they were very absorbed with playing, or there wasn’t a loo very close by when needed. At that age AFAIk they still don’t have the control to wait for long.

Dry at night took rather longer, especially with the dd who slept so deeply, she wouldn’t even wake when we ‘lifted’ her before we went to bed and sat her on the loo!

We potty trained at 2.5 and it went really well, but we had a big regression several weeks later because he didn't like being prompted and got really stubborn about it. We didn't put him back in nappies, just stopped reminding (and asked nursery to back off) and then he was fine again. @tinkersmell34 does your DD maybe just not want to be nagged? We did the oh crap method, which I know some people on MN don't get on with, but I liked that the main focus is getting them to recognise the signs of when they need to go (rather than, e.g. prompting at set times). That means you can let them have the independence to decide for themselves when they need to go, which I think is better if they are inclined to be stubborn about it.

DD was 2 years 10 months and it was a horrible battle of wills so I got to DS much earlier and he trained easily at 23 months. It wasn’t until around the time they turned 4 though that I felt like we were properly through it and I no longer had to give any thought to their toileting i.e. they didn’t need reminders, no accidents ever, consistently dry at night and able to wipe their own bum! No matter what age you start it’s a process!

Ds was 2.5yrs, DD a little earlier at just over 2. Both got it straight away, never had any issues with poos either, or needed more than 1 day in the house. Dd was dry at night from day 1 too, DS took some time with that. We skim read Oh Crap book and vaguely did that.

I do think people over think this, make it a massive thing and stress out the kid.

I think I'd be worried at 3.5yrs if they hadn't got it by then, that seems quite late and they are little people by that age not babies! Bit awkward if they end up with memories of nappy changes.

I think you did the right thing going back into nappies, a couple of months can make a big difference at that age. She's physically capable of being out of nappies but they need to be emotionally ready too.
Ignore comments, you're not being lazy you have tried, you're just doing the best thing for your DD, they're all different.
I have 2 DDs, the eldest was out of nappies a couple of weeks after she turned 2.5 (very stress free potty training) and the youngest was 3 and 2 months.
We waited longer with the youngest because she was completely determined that she didn't want to try the potty, wear big girl pants etc so we just waited until she was on board - then one day she said she wasn't a baby anymore and didn't want nappies, that was on the Thursday and by the Tuesday after she was back in nursery in knickers and fully dry, never had an accident in nursery and only a handful at home.

Three. Used a book called 'I want / or where's my potty!'

3 years old dry day and night.
Did have the odd accident.

I think she might have been 4, definitely 3.5 anyway. It took a good while. Nursery were really nice about it.

She's bright with academic stuff but was a little delayed with rolling, crawling, walking etc.

She was also anxious, her dad wasn't well (mentally) and things were strained at home. The authorities were involved to help us. I look back on that period and feel so relieved that it's over and things are much better now. This may have contributed.

She's six now and still in her nighttime nappies. They are dry about 2/3 of the time so I'm not pushing it yet.