Can I have an idiot's guide to potty training?

[Thurlow]

I don't feel like I have a hang on this one at all!

DD is 2.4yo. We'd had it vaguely in our mind that this summer would be a good time to potty train as she can run around outside with no nappy on. A few friends have started training their same-aged DC, which has got me thinking about it again. I don't think that DD is ready - but I also don't really know what I'm looking for...

Can anyone share 1 - why you thought your DC might be ready and 2 - how you actually went about training?

(Also on a related note, sorry if this one is slightly TMI but DD still doesn't have fully 'solid' poos at the moment and I can't help worrying that that won't help, did anyone else have that?)

Any hints and tips would be very welcome, I've been reading about online but it all seems so out of context...

can't offer help but in same situation so will wait for others to enlighten us

DD is 2.2 and we have a potty & toilet trainer seat & pull ups at the ready (but not yet used) now what??

have 3 wo DD too so cant cope with 2 lots of nappies for much longer!

DD has a potty in bathroom & did a couple of wees on it when we first bought it. she also pooed next to it a couple of times. this was before bathtime when encouraged to use it. its all gone a bit out of the window now though.

DD does shout at people to leave the room when she poos or goes & hides so she knows when she needs to go. she's also toldme she's doing wee wees a couple of times. she's fully aware of what the potty is & what it's for but not entirely sure how to make the jump!!! and how does leaving the house & potty training work???

See, I don't even think we're even at that stage yet! She knows that people sit on a toilet to do wees and she'll pretend to do one, but I don't actually think she has any real concept yet that she is going. She's not shown any dislike for a dirty nappy in the past few months. So she's probably not ready, but how do you know, when do you decide to start?

It's like weaning again. I bloody hated that too!

I can tell you my old school method but it is kind of out of favour now. I was lucky that it worked a treat with all four of mine.

When your child is about two and a quarter, buy some nice pants and a potty. Set aside three or four days when you are going to be around the house, say a long bank holiday weekend. Possibly get in some little treats like chocolate buttons or stickers.

Put little one in pants first thing in the morning an give lots of drinks. About 20 minutes or so after each drink (you will soon gauge the time interval for your child, get them to sit on the potty for a few minutes and try to wee. Lavish praise for each success, oh dear and a shrug for wet pants.

Try not to be tempted to backtrack to pull ups until bedtime.

All of mine took two days at most with this method. It does require lots of prompting and reminding but they do quickly become reliable.

I am aware the modern way is to leave kids to three or so but this worked for us.

tinkly... yes. I am going to do this. what happened after the 2 days? did they start telling you they needed to go? did u use potty or toilet or both? did u just put them in pants or clothes as well?

First I did lots of asking "Do you need a wee?" "Shall we have a try?" But pretty soon they just asked themselves. And yes they were in proper clothes not just pants. We didn't use the potty for more than a few days either, I got them to use the loo as soon as possible.

To be honest I never tried to train any of them at night. The plan was to leave them in night nappies another six months or so but they all decided pretty soon they didn't want to wear them.

I think I was pretty lucky with all mine; they got it really quickly. My oldest is 20 now and everyone used to train like this. Youngest is 7 though and I remember everyone at play group insisting two was too young and dragging things out for months with their three year olds, swapping back and fore with pull ups and pants because they "weren't ready". It does work though, the short intensive approach.

The first few trips out are the scary bits; hold yor nerve and stick with the pants. I remember laying a nappy over the car seat to protect it. A quick trip to the supermarket and a try in their toilet, and a quick try before you go home. As long as you have a change of clothes what's the worst that can happen?

We are in the early stages of potty training and it is very hit and miss. We reward and praise when our little boy uses the potty and use phrases such as 'oh dear' if he has an accident. Bottom line is not to put too much pressure on your little one.

These are really useful, thank you! I feel really torn between taking advantage of summer and waiting until she's really ready.

How do you know when they are ready?

I'm toying with the idea of training my twins next week, they are 2.9. I'm still not ire they ready (ex preemies so no idea if that still counts developmentally). They have potties, and will wee on them before their bath but then stand up and wee on the floor straight after and we had two poo in the paddling pool incidents yesterday even though their potties were there.

Anyway, in preparation I have bought a porta-potty an they both have a 'piddle pass' that I found on eBay that are washable absorbent pads that can go on the buggy / on a car seat.

If I'm feeling brave we are going to go of the intensive method as well but if it doesn't work I am am going to put them back in nappies and try again later.

They know when they have done a wee and hide when they are doing a poo but I'm not sure they've got when they are about to do it.

Piddle pads, not pass.

I had a couple of false starts with my eldest, in that I tried before she was ready and ended up switching back and forth between nappies, pullups and pants which just confused her!

I gave up and waited until she was nearly 3, and went completely cold turkey on nappies. After a morning of constant wet knickers and screams for her nappy, she got the idea and was dry after 3 days.

With DD2 I waited until about 2.9, and she took less than a week as well.

Hi there, I never felt that mine were ready either tbh. DD we did after 2.5. I used the stay at home cold turkey approach with her. DH & I were both at home at the time as DS was just a baby and I was on maternity leave so this made it easier to avoid going anywhere with her for a few days. DD took to the wees easily enough but would disappear off somewhere when she needed a poo (luckily she stuck to wooden floors!). After a few days of this I was really starting to despair until I remembered all the Easter Eggs still in the cupboard and once I told her that she would have some chocolate if she did a poo in the potty there was generally no looking back. With DS I tried him over one holiday at home when he was over 2.5 and it was a total disaster. I had to leave him naked from the waist down for him to use the potty at all and he ended up getting a cold! So I left him a few months later it was much easier with the wees. Poos were another matter - one thing I found helped if you can do it, is buy the cheapest pants you can find and then if they are pretty grim and you can afford it, treat them like a nappy and bin them. They all get there in the end. Both of mine took ages at night though, 6.5 and 7.5 for DS. I know this is unusual and with DS I was thinking about going to the doctor but now he has finally mastered it. I had tried everything bar the alarms but sometimes their bodies just don't seem to be ready. Good luck and remember it will get better however much you despair when things don't go to plan

Nice to hear some later starters! I know a lot of people are trying now at 2.4ish, which is what made me wonder. But if they're not ready, they're not ready, I suppose. So far we have had absolutely no indication that she knows when she is going to pee or poo, no taking herself off for privacy, no announcing that she has done anything. I suppose other kids must give some of those signs before parents start?

I've tried once or twice to get her to pee in the potty just before the bath, but she pretends to do, doesn't go - and then just pees the moment she gets in the bath...

I'm erring towards later now - better to try when they're definitely ready, rather than confusing them, surely?

Nice to hear some later starters! I know a lot of people are trying now at 2.4ish, which is what made me wonder. But if they're not ready, they're not ready, I suppose. So far we have had absolutely no indication that she knows when she is going to pee or poo, no taking herself off for privacy, no announcing that she has done anything. I suppose other kids must give some of those signs before parents start?

I've tried once or twice to get her to pee in the potty just before the bath, but she pretends to do, doesn't go - and then just pees the moment she gets in the bath...

I'm erring towards later now - better to try when they're definitely ready, rather than confusing them, surely?

Neither of mine ever showed any of the "signs" of being ready. They needed to be out of nappies for the preschool that my daughter was down for at just before three and that was my motivation. Steps and one of those inset seats for the big toilet also help. DS actually had a potty that looked like a toilet with a tune when he weed and it's own toilet paper holder to try and encourage him - the things you try and I am a sucker for a product

I've just potty trained DD 2.5 yrs only took a couple of weeks. Didn't really show any signs of being ready but she was so good compared with my boys! We had a potty out for a while did a lot of sitting on it and playing with it to make her comfortable with it before we started. We went for big girl pants no pull ups. When she wet herself she was told what had happened and that it needs to go into the potty. We did regular potty sitting maybe every 20mins at first and then increased it. If she weed on the visits got lots of praise and sometimes a sweetie. At first I would initiate the potty visits and looked for signs she needed a wee for example she would start feeling down below, but after a week she was doing it herself.

DS1, last month at 2.7, said he didn't want to wear diapers any longer. So I went with it, for the first few days putting him on the potty every thirty minutes. He had only two accidents, so the next week I put him in underpants and rewarded him with a chocolate chip every time he went to the potty. And then he was telling me, and that was that, all done.

Everyone else seemed to be doing it around 2.4-2.6. I dd t think DD was ready at 2.4 but we'd had several friends round with kids of a similar age who we're using the potty (primarily driven by DC2's imminent arrival).

I had a week off work so took DD shopping for 'big girls pants' the weekend before. She got to choose which set she wanted. Then on day 1 I just put her in pants and a dress and let her play as normal. She had 2 wee accidents and I just said 'oh dear - let's try and get to the potty next time' and changed her clothes/pants. She's still having a pm nap so put her in pull-ups for that just in case.

We had 1 poo accident and then she used the potty from then on.

I was advised to by-pass pull ups as they are supposedly too nappy like so can be confusing and it really worked for us. Was very surprised at how quickly she took to it all.

She was dry at night within a week too, although we still put her in pull ups as in the past 2 months she's had an occasional wee during the night. She stopped wearing pull ups for naps after a fortnight, but she naps on the sofa so I just put a small towel under her just on case.

Carry a smallish potty in a plastic bag so you can do emergency wee's whilst your out and about.

It was surprisingly easy but I realise we might just have bed lucky!