Potty training emergency!

[Fuchzia]

2 1/2 year old suddenly decided that he wants to use the potty, leaving me unprepared. We had Thomas pants so I've put him in those and reminding him often that he might need a wee etc. I'm totally clueless about what to do though and I don't want to get it wrong! Thought I'd have time to read up and make a plan after our hols!

Anyway does anyone have any tips? I'm giving him stickers to put on the potty when we have successes, and we've cancelled our outings for today but we have a lot planned this weekend. Should I still put nappies him at night and when we are out or will that put him off?

Any advice gratefully received!

www.mumsnet.com/toddlers/potty-training

That page is quite good :)

We are a week in, if he doing it himself it should all be fine. I started by encouraging him to use the potty every 20 minutes or so, now if he hasn't been in an hour I encourage him but he is generally going by himself.

We are still using nappies and nightime and have gone for pull ups when out and about BUT as he hasn't wet them yet I will brave going out in pants soon.

Didn't want to read and run! I'm no expert but just went through the same with my DD, having read absolutely nothing about it and feeling really unprepared!
The way we did it was to have her pottering about one weekend at home wearing just a T-shirt and getting her used to the potty; in nappies whenever we went anywhere other than the house, and at night.
The following weekend I spent a whole day indoors (prepare to be bored) and made sure the potty was in whatever room DD was in; I had intended to give stickers for successes but ran out of them so we coloured in squares on a chart instead. In the afternoon it had been going really well so I moved the potty to the bathroom; still worked so we ventured outside for a nerve-wracking 20 minutes. Nappies on at night.
Day 2 we ventured out but with lots of encouragement to use the potty beforehand; we just went to places where I knew there was an easily accessible loo. It went so well that we tried ditching the night nappy as well, but that didn't go so well so we've used pull-ups at night for the time being. No other accidents.
DD has been dry every day and most nights since: apparently it's quite normal to do night training later. I did use training pants for the first long car journey and first trip to soft play, but they weren't needed in either case. Ditching the night nappies is my next step...

To be honest, DD was happy enough if a bit bemused by the reward system, but it was consistent with the approach at nursery so helped in that sense. I think if your DS wants to use the potty it's more likely to be a smooth process; I was expecting a nightmare but it was fairly easy (very lucky!)

Thanks all nice to know I'm not the only one unprepared Festival. Pull-ups are a great idea for out and about. Just have to work on getting to the shops to get some! I feel we cant stop now we've started so I'm going to read the mumsnet advice and take it from there.

I never used pull ups as I feel they confuse the situation. Have you thought about a portable potty instead?