Losing my mind with potty training

[ElizaSchuylerHamilton243]

My second DC is the most stubborn child ever. Day 2 of the Oh Crap method (which worked with my first). He knows when he is about to go and can sit on the potty for two seconds before bouncing up again. At this point only a small amount of poo has made it into the potty (when I carried him over mid poo). No wee at all has made it - it's all on the floor. He will say about five times and try the potty five times before then weeing on the floor.

Honestly I'm losing my mind. I feel like we make more progress without other people and distractions. We are trying not to overprompt but he just doesn't want to sit. Help!

How old?

I never used a potty with any of mine. Straight to the toilet! Might be worth a try?

My gran always said boys are lazy when it comes to potty training. Bribery with chocolate often works.

@Beachbeach Sorry should have said. He's 2 and 1 month.

He's v young. Try again in a couple months, its not worth the stress.

I say this as someone who trained my three at 2ish/2 and a half.

Mine trained in 2 days just before he turned 3. Leave it a while.

Probably not ready.
Give it a few months and try again.

No such thing as being ready.
Look at the eric website. I used this to train 2 kids. Both at the same age as yours. One for it immediately, the other it took three days before anything made it into the potty.

Don't take them out of nappies and then back in. It confuses them.

You've got this.

I’ve gone against the trend with mine but he is 2.5, and probably has a bit more understanding than yours. Instead of the 3 day method I’ve started introducing gradually to test his readiness, started with adding potty to his routine so he sits on it before bath and before breakfast. Chocolate button for a wee, if he manages a poo in the potty (not managed yet) I have a bag of cheap bits like Hot Wheels from the pound shop and he can choose a present.

At home we do nappy off as often as possible, longer stretches each time and he’s doing really well. When we are going out I talk about how he is still learning and ask him if he wants a pull up or not. In a couple of weeks we will try outings without nappy, when he’s a bit more consistent. I know everyone says it confuses them but he doesn’t seem confused, just like kids understand they still need a nappy at night times when they are day trained.

I’d say he’s too young. Wait for him to dignal
ges ready to use potty. Mine boy was nearer to 3 as were all my friends boys. My daughter was 2. Boys seem to be older.
he’s just not ready yet

@OneMoreCookieMonster tosh

at just 2 physiologically he may not actually be ready even .

There is such a thing as not being ready. The neurological pathways to controlling continence do not mature at the same time in all children and certainly not before at least 2 years old. Two to three years is about average so I this fine to wait a while. I say this as someone whose three DS were all quickly trained at about 2 and a half, but I wouldn’t have forced the issue if it hadn’t worked first time

My son (apparently the harder sex) was potty trained by 22m.

He isn’t ready, it won’t be that stressful when he is.

I tried at 2 with my DS and, after a lot of frustration and him preferring to wear the potty as a hat while weeing on the floor, I gave up, left it 6 months and he clicked over a matter of hours the first day we tried. Took him shopping beforehand and let him choose his own pants which he didn’t want to make a mess of which might have helped.

I’d say he isn’t ready. When he is it won’t be difficult at all. I’d say try again in a few months

Same here just before his second birthday

Mine is just a bit younger and he's doing really well with the Oh Crap method. However he's very food orientated and it's the chocolate bribery that has swayed it.

Too young for a boy ime. DS1 managed it reasonably well at 2 and 3 months. DS2 was a week or so past 3, having refused to cooperate months earlier. DS2 was the easiest potty trainer in history - because basically he didn’t do any training. He just announced one Friday morning that he wanted to wear big boy pants now and that was that. Not a single accident.

If you really want to persist, my HV advised me to have a book or comic that only appeared when he was on the potty. DS1 was obsessed with lawnmowers at two so I potty trained him assisted by the Argos catalogue. That was when he was allowed to look at it. You need to find something that makes him want to sit there for long enough.

I’d take the oh crap method with a bucket of salt. She makes it sound like it will be an absolute disaster if you haven’t done it by 30 months. I trained my daughter at 26 months and it was months if not years before she was dry. My son I tried at 28 months recently and gave up after 2 days as it was too stressful.

Everyone I know who waited until closer to 3 or over 3 talks about how easy it is.

Im going for a more gradual approach over the next few months with more nappy free time and sitting on the toilet before baths etc before removing nappies again.

I think 2 things are true:

1. For some kids you can’t just keep waiting until they’re ready, at some point you just have to call it and help them learn before they get too old.
2. For other kids, there’s a window of time in which they’ll move naturally from not ready to ready.

I don’t think you’re at (1) yet, he’s still at the young end of the range for potty training. He’s still in that window where it’s probably worth waiting a bit before trying again.

Well he was before the average then. You were just lucky. I wish people wouldn’t make early toilet training some sort of trophy. The average is two to three years. Average means it’s not true in all cases. Some are trained before two, some after three. On average between two and three. And it depends on when the neural pathways mature. You don’t stand a cat in hell’s chance of training them if they haven’t. This is different, of course, to parents who CBA to train their children and think someone else should do it for them, or for some children with special needs. But it isn’t a massive achievement to potty train a child in most cases

Yabu ! It’s only day 2 ! Have more patience. It can take a couple of weeks.

You were the one saying that it would "certainly not" happen before two. I never claimed it was a trophy or a massive achievement, my son was far from irregular in his little gang - about 1/3 trained before 2 without issues. Nobody tried and failed.

Has he shown any interest in the potty ?
have you just decided that now he’s 2 he needs to use it, because your going to be up against it if it’s totally your idea.