At what age did you suceed at Potty Training and do you wish you had ....

[tryingtobemarrypoppins2]

done it earlier or left it later??

Both dc (a girl then a boy) did it at 2 y 9 months. And dry at night very soon after. No looking back, no false starts, very few accidents. I think between us all we chose just about the perfect time.

Both mine were done by 2.6. Initiated by me, it was a few 8+ years ago and they had to be dry to go to pre-school. Never had any issues and just a few accidents. All their peers were also dry by 3 at the very latest

Omg my dd must be the oldest one on this thread, thats why i have initiated instead for her or we would be waiting for the second coming tbh. I am just having a calmer approach, if she wets i say to her calmly she is wet and get her to take off her dirty knickers and help with cleaning up. If she does a wee in the potty she gets a chocci button. She sometimes tells me when she needs to go, but more often than not i have to take her at certain times and she does a wee.

DD knows she is being a little madame, back in nappies is a no no as we have made progress and she would be going back to square one if in nappies. its such nice weather its a shame to be in them, she gets awful rashes in the summer in nappies.

We waited til she just turned 3 and was telling us she was having a wee in the nappy. Offered stickers each time time 'produced' and bingo - dry day and night within a week. Had 2 wet beds in 7/8 weeks now I think.

Had tried a bit earlier but she obviously didn't know she needed to go til it was too late, would definately do it the same way again.

DD1 potty trained at 23 months; wish we had tried it a couple of months earlier when she picked up the potty and used it herself. But because she wasn't two years I didn't believe she would be ready.

DS - first used the potty at 3.5 and took about 6 months to be 99% reliable - probably 80% reliable within days. Lots of earlier false starts - this was the first time he was willing to try. Wish I had left it later really and it might have been quicker but felt under pressure by this age and it was in part his idea

DD - 2.2 her idea to start - maybe an accident a day for a few weeks gradually reducing over around 3 months - think we timed this one just right to be honest - or she did anyway.

DS was 2.3 - he was ready a couple of months earlier but DD was only a couple of months old then and i needed a bit longer to adjust. He had very few accidents.

DD was 19 months when she started ripping her nappies off. They were reusable as well - thought it would take her a bit longer to work out how to get out of them. If I did it again I woukd have used gaffer tape or something to keep her in nappies longer as she had more accidents and it was more wearing. She was fine both day and night by 2.5 but would have been nice to have had fewer accidents on the way.

DD1 was 2.3 months and was very quick to catch on, dry at night about a year later.

DD2 is 3.5 and still not reliably dry during the day, if is very frustating (for me) she doesn't seem to care about it at all and will hapily trundle around in wet pants. Only thing stopping me going back to nappies is that she hasn't had a poo accident in a year and will always zoom to the loo for a poo.

I wonder when she will ever get dry though...

In the past there was definitely some kind of shame in letting your DC's be in nappies after 18 months. My Mum and all my friend's Mums reckoned that we were totally toilet trained by 18 months. My 3 eldest girls were all out of nappies by 2.4, but the pressure from my Mum was incredible as soon as they hit about 17 months. I ignored her, of course. DD4 is 17 months now and although she tells me when she has done a 'pooooooo', I would not even consider training her yet. She's still a baby ffs. I think in the 'olden days' they just sat their DC's on a potty every 20 mins and hoped for the best. Apparently I was also reading fluently when I was just 3.

DD1 was about 2.8 and DD2 about 2.4 months when they were all done and dusted with it. I was happy with that age if only cos i wasn't wasting a bleeding fortune on nappies any more. Such a nice feeling when you go to do the weekly shop and you don't have to go down the nappy ailse any more.

There was prob more pressure in your parents' day to get them dry by 18 months cos they were all using Terrys and desperate to stop having to do all that washing.

I waited until dd decided she was ready (2.10) & would do the same again. Lots of my friends did enforced potty training & it seemed to me to just cause unnecessary stress all round. My dd only used the potty for 1 day & announced she wanted to go on the toilet like Mummy. She had 2 accidents in the 1st 48 hours and that was it.

I know about the pressure, when dd turned 3 i did feel under immense pressue, and also put on by myself as most of my friends dcs her age are toilet trained and did it naturally. I was starting to wonder when she would get it too. Did not really want to leave it until she started school and the weather was good. Since i have been doing this (1 month)i have seen progress, she is more aware of her bodily functions, and has more control over her bladdar than in a nappy. I am adopting a relaxed approach, take her to the potty every 1.5 hours and she usually does a wee if not she was no. DD can recognise when she needs to go as she sometimes takes herself off somewhere to do it, not necessarily the potty. But at least she knows and when she is ready she will, i am just preparing her really to mae that step.

DS 2.9 has been 'in training' for 6 weeks now. He was pretty much dry during the day within a couple of weeks. He has, however, been holding his poos in for days before hiding and doing them in his pants. Refuses the potty and tells me to go away!

On reflection, probably should have waited a bit longer but felt under pressure to start as he is the only one of his peers not trained (oh DC2 is due in 6 weeks...)

My DD is 2.9, brilliant about wee's on toilet (now I've bought a family toilet seat and she feels secure on there) but hides to do poo's. Trying a new approach now, in that I'll buy her a scooter is she starts doing poo's on the potty. She tells me it's not fair

2 good friends said buying them something they really wanted worked for them. They also took it away if they started to refuse to go to the loo on the toilet/ potty again. Feels a bit mean to do that, but it is tempting if she relapses

My DS is 3.7 and not potty trained yet - he does have dyspraxia though, so has been a bit slower to do most things. We've had a few trial runs and he's happy to sit on the toilet to do wee-wees, but when in pants he isn't catching himself in time to let me know he needs to go. He'll say 'I'm doing a wee wee' and then is upset because his pants are wet. We're just taking it slowly, I don't want to put any pressure on him - I do worry because he's 3.7, but nothing I do is going to make him learn any faster, so there's no point really. He'll get there in the end.

Teaandcake

My (usually) helpful mother did point out to me that if was unfair and confusing to take back something you have already given for success in toilet training. I think she'd probably right but as you say very tempting!

We had 2 failed attempts at 2.10 and 2.11 months with ds1. He showed no signs of being ready or interested at all. On the 3rd attempt, at 3.1, he got it straight away.

Bribery worked very well here (Playmobil figures). Cost me a small fortune but was well worth it.

We did bribery- but was just a chocolate button for every wee in the potty....how does that work with playmobil?

1 piece per dry day?

DD started showing an interest at 2.5. It wasn't a good time as we were just about to move house and change nursery. May have missed the window of opportunity as it turned out.

Started training at 2.8 under huge pressure from my mum (who we were living with) and her friends (who considered that a child of 2 in nappies was the sign of a "lazy mum" ) and from nursery.

So far we have had odd fortnights of DD being completely dry, followed by 5 pairs of wet and dirty pants a day for a couple of weeks.

I took her out of night nappies a couple of weeks ago after realization dawned that her night nappies have been dry for over a year. We have had no wet beds at all, but still having regular wet pants at 3.2.

DD started at 19mo. wish i could have started a bit earlier, because she had bladder control so iron-cast that it actually made her harder to train....(no wee to catch in the potty, she would hold wee, believing the nappy to be the 'right' place..) ..but i had a newborn when she was 18mo.....'left to it' was never going to work with her, once she believes something is 'right', it is very difficult to change her mind. she didn't see enough of other potty-age kids to learn from them (i demonstrated plenty though!) - that would have realy helped. She was 99% dry in two weeks, poo took longer...

DS i will train as soon as i am on maternity leave, going for the 'training whilst heavily pg' instead of 'training whilst with a newbie' difficulty...as he's seen his sister on the potty he's already happy to sit on it. very different little character though, i expect he's less likely to be reliable once done though. we'll see.

DS1 was 25m and was dry in the day straight away. After 3m we dropped the nappy for naps, and 3m after that the nappy for night. We did it in stages, it worked well for us.

DS2 is 26m and has just got the feeling of about to wee (grabs his willy) so will give him a go in a fortnight when hes back from his holiday with his dad. If he's not ready I'll leave him for another couple of months and try again.

DS1 - 2y 4m - took about a week and a few weeks until dry at night. Because it was so easy decided to start earlier with next two.
DS2 - 2 y - instantly got it day and night.
DS3 - 2 y - took a week or so then a couple of months until dry at night as well.
We used smarties - 1 for trying as well as 1 for doing a pee and more for a poo! They showed no real interest in potty training so thats why we used an incentive - I know they say to wait until they are ready and interested but you could wait a long time.

DS1 was 2.4, and dry within two weeks with occasional accident until about 2.8. Dry at night, 4 yo. He just didn't get the night thing at all.

DS2 turned 3 last week, he has a severe speech delay and will not tell us if he needs wee or poo, but if I leave the potty in a corner of the room he will go on his own. He still wears pull ups if we have a long car journey or if we go somewhere where I can't just stop to the loo often (like supermarket). His communications skills lag behind so we can't really compare him.

I don't think I'd change when/how I trained them - but I do think that DS2 would have been able to do what he is doing (just go on his own to the potty) months ago.