Potty training - please help me not to end up crying this time!!!

[Ellaroo]

Would love some advice....without wanting to invest in a book (iyswim) I have heard it is possible to potty train in a week. When I potty-trained dd1 it took over 3 months and then over a year to be fully dry (whole process not finished until 3 and a half!). Please please can you tell me what the pertinent points of achieving success in a week are (has anyone achieved this?) as we are on day 1 and he is looking as clueless as dd1 and can feel mental stability rapidly ebbing away? Chocolate button incentive is being shunned in favour of weeing on the floor. TIA x

Do not go back to nappies (except for sleeping) at any time! Consistency is key! (And keeping your cool - don't lose it, whatever happens.)

Good luck.

How old is he?

IMO you can't really potty train till they are ready. I waited till DS was wanting to do it himself.

He is 2.8 years old. Really need to do it asap for him to start nursery though.

Hmmm. Mine was 2.11. That few months can make all the difference.

can only confirm what other posters said already: wait until he's ready! my ds1 (now almost 2y11mo) was not interested until just over a week ago. we started wondering if we had missed our opportunity (esp. as several younger friends from nursery were training already)... now he's dry during the day, and most nights. we've had the occasional accident (esp. poos are difficult) but can so far count them on one hand.
once you leave off the nappies, don't go back. not even when going out (we spent 2 hours in the car on a trip to London, 3 days after we started training him.... , but survived, not one drop!). And don't concentrate on the accidnets: praise him into heaven when he goes on the loo or the potty, but just change him quickly without making much fuss if he misses. We didn't do the chocolate button thing (our ds1 doesn't actually like chocolate), but we did have a stickerchart to start of with, but ds1 didn't really care about it. You could try if it works for you though. We also got the tip to go and buy some cool underpants, with Thomas the tankengine, or whatever your ds is into.. Our ds just wanted ones that looked like his dad's, so he ended up with mini-boxershorts.
Lots of luck!

I was firmly told by my childminder when it was time to move my daughters out of nappies (as in 'she's not coming back here in nappies'). DD1 was about 2.10, I think, and got the whole thing over a weekend, she really did. DD2 was a bit younger and it was a slower process (poor little thing had a terrible tummy upset the weekend we started) but we did get there in the end.

The No Going Back approach does seem to be the one to take, although I will confess I did end up bunging a nappy on poor little DD2 after the Nth bout of diarrhoea.

I can dissent if it will make you feel better. I waied and waited for my children to be ready and they showed no sign of it at all. In the end, I initiated things with all of them: ds1 aged 2.11, ds2 aged 2.8 (so he could start playgroup), dd aged 3, and ds3 aged 2.6 (so he could start playgroup). I was particularly reluctant to start with ds3 as he was really young IMO, and I have to say he did take longer to get right, but he also start 2 afternoons at playgroup aged 2.6 and only wet himself there once, so I feel we got to a reasonable level in time for him to go.

If you are consistent, I don't think 2.8 is too young, and if you have an incentive to keep going (eg going to nursery) I think that will help too.

Thank you so much for all your brilliant advice and encouragement. We got to the end of today having had five pant-accidents (most of which he seemed completely unaware of!) and no potty action at all. He will sit on it for about five minutes and keeps telling me he has done something (he hasn't!) before bursting out laughing and saying 'chocolate button now?' and then laughing even more. We are out and about quite a bit tomorrow so was planning to do a mix of nappies and pants...but thinking maybe I need a week when we don't leave the house.

I really dont beleive in training.
With both of mine i bought a potty and just had it around to play with, lots of nakedness at home they just picked it up on their own really. Both were dry in the day by just after 2nd birthdays.
With Dd who is 2.5, she started telling me as she was weeing, and thats when i started leaving her nappy of at home and trying pants.
Have never used rewards for it either.
Just loads of praise and clapping when something goes in, ignore any accidents.