For those with children who took 3 wks plus to "get" toilet training, please give me tales of hope

[alex8]

My son is 2.10 and we have been out of nappies for 3 weeks. He can hold his wee, but very rarely tells me he needs to go. He cannot hold his poos at all and has only told me about once that one is coming. He has done a few in the toilet when I have noticed him starting one in time and wasn't freaked out by it and thinks the plop noise is funny. He has also started making a fuss about going for a wee too and I have to cajoule him into it each time. He has never used a potty and went straight to the loo as he looks quite big and uncomfortable on it.

I would have waited till the summer but wanted to give him a few months gaining confidence before he starts a school nurery class in September where he will have to do it all completely unaided.

I have tried star charts and chocolate, letting him choose new pants. I can't really go back to anppies cos every time he does a poo or wee he walks like John Wayne and/or takes all his clothes off anyway.

oh no, there is no hope!

3 weeks isn't that long. My dd was just past 2 and she started to train herself. I would say she ewas only partially trained for about 3 months although that could be because she was so young. She was trained at home but still wore trainer pants or nappies when out and it didn't seem to confuse her. Why not try trainer pants on your boy which are more difficult to take off. You've still got plenty of time till September and the whole summer to work on it. I'd say he's still a bit young for star charts but you know him best obviously. Good luck :)

Has he made any real progress over the 3 weeks? If not, personally I'd switch to something like pull ups (because if he does tell you he needs to go they can be pulled down/up like pants) and give him a break from it for a couple of months. Both DSs had 2 attempts at training - they made no proigress first time round and then got it in 2 weeks a few months later.

Agree with Soupy. Don't worry if he doesn't seem ready. Leave it and go back to it a bit later and it'll all suddenly 'click'.

You've still got loads of time until September and actually the routine and wanting to be like the other children at nursery will also be a fantastic help too once he's there.

He is quite young still and everyone says boys can take longer. Ds is 2.7 and still won't poo in his potty. Don't know what the deal is, but he will run up to me yelling, "Put a diaper on me!" I wonder if it is that they get so used to pooing standing up? Anyway, now that it's warmer I am letting him go around naked much of the time and that is making a big difference.

thanks for the responses. I wondered about that pooing standing up thing too.

He has made some progress, he can hold his wee and will mostly wee on demand (before we go out, when we get somewhere) and so hasn't had many wee accidents in thelast 2 weeks.

took dd 3 weeks. 3 weeks of peeing on the floor and then suddenly a eureka moment and we haven't looked back. dd got the holding on thing really quickly and understood about the potty but it took a while to work out how to 'release' on demand. there was alot of dancing round the potty, then sitting on the potty and then getting up and peeing everywhere. hang on in there he will get it. its a miserable business potty training, i think my lowest point was catching a poo in my hand .