yet another toilet training question..any/all responses will be very appreciated.

[MaMattoo]

I have a 21mo DS who has a few words now but not much in terms of talking. He points and mumbles and says Shoes and Car quite clearly :) ticking both boxes of parental pleasing!

He has been put on a potty after morning milk since 8mo. Now he poos on the potty as part of his routine. He is put there and he stays, chats and plays and does a poo and wee in the morning. He does not say he is done or indicate his bowel movement in any way. I can see that he goes still and stops talking when he poos. That i seem to have got right.

For the past 2 weeks he regularly holds his willy and says 'ai' indicating something. If i ignore him, he stops saying it and carries on playing. I have checked - his ai seems to be indicative of his peeing. Now my question is - simply - what do I do? By the time I take his clothes and nappy off he has done his business in the nappy. Its not exactly cold but we live in a rented, carpeted house. I was contemplating putting on easy to take down nappies - dont know if this is training pants? or nappies without side tabs. I would like to ship him back and forth each time I see/hear an ai but keep him in nappies till...I dont know..when. I am lost.

he clearly knows how to sit on the potty, he knows what to do on it, he is showing me something..and I dont know what to do. Ditch the nappies and keep going - at risk of patchy carpets and a smelly house? Get pull up nappies instead so i dont ignore his signs and we pee in the potty as often as we can till...the next sign appears?

SIGH. He is growing up quick!
Please help/ advise/guide - tell me.

Wait until the weather warms up a little, take him into the garden with no nappy or trousers on, and when he does a wee, say 'ai' and point, so he can make the connection (he may never have seen wee coming out of his willy before). When you've had this exchange a few times, bring out his potty and say 'ai in potty?'. You could indeed 'ai in the potty' yourself, just to show him, or squirt some water from a fairy liquid bottle into it.

Then hope for the best but don't be disappointed if he doesn't cotton on. 21m is young imo.

Have a look at the Born Ready site - lots of info and a good forum.

Thanks both! I looked at the website angeldog and it's really useful, thanks.
Went to the supermarket to check out what's available. Came back confused..pull up pants, training pants - look like what I want but I am not sure if they look like pants but are really nappies. I then saw easyup by pampers..shall try it tomorrow. I know he is indicating, I perhaps need to be quick enough to take him to the potty, pants down and sit. And he can still be ok wearing easyup while out and about and at nursery.
Can anyone enlighten me if I have figured this out the the right way? Easyups are normal nappies with a different way or wearing. Step in pants won't be work like nappies? Too many confusing options!!!

Step in pants are just nappies without velcro.

If it's not too cold, you could put him in legwarmers and a nappy so you don't have to take off trousers. Or you could make split-crotch trousers and put a nappy over the top to prevent accidents (those trousers are widely used in China apparently).

We have carpet in our lounge, so we bought some of the waterproof tablecloth fabric from the market and laid it on the floor so DS could be nappy free without me worrying about accidents. Ensuring you have a potty in every room will help reduce the time it takes to get him to the toilet - put it on its own waterproof mat if that helps.

Hi Ma - we have followed a really similar approach to you with respect to potty training. We started putting DD on the loo-seat at about 11 months at regular times during the day. Now 17 months old she does 'poos' easily as part of her daily routine (and will communicate when she's ready to do a poo by making very loud grunts and saying 'self' - as she likes to climb up on to the loo-seat by herself using her little steps). Now we're ready to try and catch wees, I think, but she's not so sure of when they're happening. So I'm watching this thread with interest.
A couple of comments on your post from my own reading-up on the topic:

1. Plastic/disposable pull up nappies are designed to absorb the wetness, so may be counterproductive. (Also they are costly and have an environmental impact). Perhaps try reusable training pants that allow a feeling of wetness, like BrightBots?
2. You could cover the lounge with a plastic sheet for a couple of days and see what happens. I'd like to do this but I need to summons the courage as I'm naturally quite tidy and I hate clutter/ugly stuff in my lounge!

I'd really love an update from you, OP, to see how you go. In the meantime, I'll put my supply of BrightBots for DD to one side.

Thanks for the link AngelDog :)

My pleasure. :)