Potty Training Advice please

[wifey6]

My DS is 22 months & I would like to start potty training...not full blown ( no more nappies) but just setting a routine of when he uses potty to get used to it etc.
It's got me a bit panicked & was wondering if any one could offer any Dos & Dont's please?

My sister has recommended (for my 2 year-old) having the potty next to the bath at bath time and letting my LO run around nappy free, to get her used to the idea of sitting on it/doing a wee (on the floor or in the bath)/ eventually doing one on the potty. I wouldn't worry too much though, until your LO has shown loads of signs he is ready. 22 months is still quite young.

I had a potty in the bathroom at that age as the DDs would often be standing around naked just before bath - we caught the odd wee, but nothing structured. My advice would be to wait until they really want to be out of nappies.

I tried potty training when DD1 was about 28 months old and nada - she was just not ready. When she was 30 months, the weekend before I went back after mat leave with DD2 in fact, she was in the paddling pool, came out, I suggested getting her nappy back on and she threw a major wobbly and refused the nappy. So I said fine, but then all the wees and poos go int the potty or the toilet. I wasn't thrilled - baby starting at nursery plus potty training during first weeks back, but hey...

By the end of the first week she was dry and clean, going on the big toilet independently both at home and at nursery, we never looked back. With DD2 we waited for the tantrum and did the same thing, with exactly the same result at the same age. It was sooooo easy, I'd recommend waiting if you possibly can.

Thank you both for your advice. It seems the key is to make sure they are ready before attempting or expecting too much. I think I will do as suggested & have potty around & try him now & again. Thank you

I left dd till she was 2.6. she took to it on the first day.
We had a potty in the bathroom from when she was 2 and she used to sit on it when i was on the loo, not that she did anything most of the time.
It was just for her to get used to it.

But the way I did it was i took her shopping for pretty knickers and we bought pull ups for the night. and then left her bare bottom and had pottys in the living room kitchen and bathroom.

(we havent done night time though and she goes to bed in pull ups.)

I think I might be trying to early then??
I'm leaving the potty around & occasionally will sit him on there & he will be look at a book. I'm going to keep doing what I am doing but wait longer til he understands more...

Just wait till he's ready. 22 months is a tad bit early. Boys also tend to potty train a bit later than girls..

I started really early and just did it part time when we were at home for long enough. I started with lots of talking about nappies - what's in them, where the poo goes, big boys/girls don't wear nappies etc. then I got a book to read about using the potty and then I got a couple of potties - one for the bathroom and one for downstairs for when I started proper potty training.

It took a few trials and errors to find the perfect potty - a potty chair with support round the back and arms so they could get themselves up without tipping over the potty! Then I started leaving the nappy off for longer and longer at nappy change times, then if/when they started weeing I'd get them to the potty and tell them that's where the wee goes. I did ds1 over the summer in a house with laminate floors so it didn't take long. After a while they could manage no nappies at home, and a nappy to go out till I started proper potty training.

Great advice naturalbaby....in fact all of you have given me helpful advice & insight.

DS1 wasn't ready til he was 3yo, tbh. And he just took to it there and then. If you start too early you'll give yourself more work. I'm waiting til DS2 is at least 3 before attempting it, personally.

I did very similar to naturalbaby with DD2 and DS. A potty upstairs and down, lots of talking about it and reading of potty books, a bit of nappy off time before bath and sit on potty before bath, longer stretches of nappy free time at home. DD2 fully trained at 23 months (I took the initiative, but she got it v quickly). DS decided a few days after his 2nd birthday that he no longer needed nappies (it was not my initiative - we were in the process of moving house and the last thing on my mind was getting him out of nappies) and that was it, very few accidents from him ever.

I think the trick to potty training is making sure that they fully understand what is expected of them before you actually go for nappy free, so a gentle warm up over a couple of months really helps and is no particular effort on your part. With DD1 I tried (disastrously) to potty train her around when she turned 2. We went straight into it with no warming up period. After about 5 days I gave up and went back to nappies, but never stopped talking about potties and poo etc and still had all the books and potties around which she would sit on regularly and 3 months later she trained really easily, so with the next two children I made the effort to familiarise them with the process before I actually started it and everything was much easier and calmer.

There is no doubt that if you wait until 3 they usually pick the whole thing up in an instant (I have seen lots of friends do this) however, for me the idea of changing nappies for an extra year was not something I had any desire to do and I found that for a small extra effort I was able to avoid that (and - taking 3 children into consideration - save another couple of years worth of nappies going to landfill)

Excellent ideas Nelly...thanks so much. I like the idea of a 'warming up' period first. I'll be giving that all ago!

I love these low fuss descriptions of potty training! Something to look forward too, really...

(I'm rather under-incentivised - changing dds nappy is one of my easiest childcare tasks. Since she was born her changing mat has been one of her favourite places in the world, and we always enjoy a bit of one-to-one time when we do it.)