Potty training 22 months

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So, I have bought the book "oh Crap".
It says key age to potty train is 22 months to 30 months. And seems to have a clear guide to follow but says you can do night time training separately, but doesn't advise it,

So I am asking has anyone potty trained around 22 months and did you do night time and day time? Or did you do day time first and wait until a bit later for night time training ?

Any advice/stories good and bad on training around this age would be great.

I tried training at that age. It went fine as long as I reminded dc to go to the potty every 45 mins, but fell apart as soon as I stopped reminding and started trying to let them realise they needed a wee by themselves. (which is my definition of being potty trained). Took till after 2.5 for both DC to reach that stage.

I do know DC who have trained at 21/22 months but they were children who hated being wet or dirty whereas mine didn’t care that much!

So, I have bought the book "oh Crap".
It says key age to potty train is 22 months to 30 months.

The key stage is when the child is ready.

I think there is a good reason why the book is called oh crap!
Sounds like a load of crap.

Potty train a child when they are ready.
You can't night-time train a child, it's a developmental stage.

It happens when they are ready!
DD was 3, was dry at night before the day - I know of 4yo that are dry in the day but not at night, wait for them, they know when they are ready.

Has he given any indication he’s ready? Does he tell you if he’s wee’d or pooed?

My ds is 22 months but has developmental delays/suspected Asd and limited comprehension.

I’m not actually potty training him but I’ve bought a potty after noticing he wee’d without fail every night after getting out of the bath (onto the mat 😡)
We kept the potty next to the bath to ‘catch’ the wee in and for the past few weeks he’s been going to it and weeing into it as soon as he gets out the bath. I don’t think he quite understands but it’s a start for us!

I potty trained one at 24 months and the other at 22 months - I followed their lead. With 22 month old I was planning to wait a few months for warmer weather but I potty trained him them because he was keen and showing signs he was ready.

They were both trained within a week, nightime dryness came later, I can't see how you can train for nightime dryness.

DD trained at 22 months but it was her suggestion. She's an incredibly wilful child!!

She'd never been a night time pee'er so we just took her out of nappies completely.

She's had more (daytime) accidents than DS (trained at 2 1/2 years) but she's got various allergies and intolerances.

I completely understand what people are saying about the child being ready. Haha yeah maybe into something with regards to the book title but I have heard great things about it and the HV was asking what are the plans for potty training as my sons heads towards 2, so thought I would get some stories off anyone who had done it at that age.

Both myself and my brother were trained day and night by 2.5, but just looking for people if they had done it successfully at this age did they do both or just day time, then night time or how it went for them really ?

Mine were all done between 26 months & 30 months, but this was 20 years ago when that's what most people did. We just stayed mostly at home for a week or two until we cracked it, but didn't expect them to be totally reliable. Night time dryness usually came later, and it was much later with my first two.

DC1 was showing interest earlier, when I found him perched on the toilet having taken off his nappy, but I thought he was a bit too young so waited a couple of months. By 26 months he was really keen to have a go & it took a couple of weeks. DS2 was 28 months & cracked it in a week. DS was 30 months, we used the loo & not the potty & he was done in 3 days.

A friend of mine said that as soon as her DC were dry during the day she just left off the nappy at night & trained them that way. I decided to try this method with DC3 so put him to bed without a nappy on day 5. We had one wet bed the first morning, then after that he was dry. Which was amazing as it took the older two until they were 8 or 9 to be totally dry at night.

So I'd say go for it, as long as you have the time to do it & the patience to see it through.

My dd was 22m. Tbh she never showed me much in the way of "signs" she was ready but she had very good understanding and speech for her age. She definitely had a routine for both wees and poos in her nappy so I figured I could time it right and train her. I bought her lots of pretty knickers and she wanted to wear them. I said she'd have to use the potty all day and night. And she did, just like that. She was also nighttime dry but I kept the pull ups on for a few month to be safe. She's four now and has had one day time accident and wet the bed twice. I'm aware she's like a magical pixie though and in a minority.

I have read since though that just before two there is a point where it's easy to do. Something to do with development. DD2 is 10m and I'll definitely consider putting her into knickers at that age but it's very child dependant

I used Oh Crap when my DD was 22mo. She was refusing to wear nappies but had no clue what to do and it worked brilliantly. We didn't specifically night train but she just started having consistently dry nappies within a couple of weeks and that was it done.

I totally agree with the book about modern signs of readiness actually being signs that the child is training themselves. My DD didn't show any of the signs that people nowadays associate with being ready to train; however, she could communicate if she wanted or really didn't want something and she soon held her wees once nappies were off so training her where to wee really wasn't too difficult.

We've just done our first week of Oh Crap with DS who's a little bit older than DD was (2.3yrs) purely because of work and full time childcare. Again, it's been pretty straightforward and I'm confident that's potty training done. He's also had dry night nappies since night 3 so I'm sure we'll take them away in the next couple of weeks as well. I think DS has been ever so slightly more difficult for being a bit older because he's far more stubborn and resistant. I would have rather done it when he was 2 really.

A lot of people like the criticise potty training books because they assume it's some kind of barbaric training system where the child is put on the potty every 20 mins or something ridiculous. If you've read Oh Crap, you'll know it's absolutely nothing like that. IME it works very easily and has done for all the people I've recommended it to.

We used Oh crap book with a few tweaks. We already had a potty out and DD and used it for a few wees and poos unprompted so at 24 months we went for it. She is 3 in a couple of weeks and is not consistently dry at time since illness.

I like the method and by day 3 we went out for a walk.

To prepare make sure they can manage to push down and pull up own trousers. I spent months saying ‘pants down, sit down’ and ‘stand up, pants up’ every time I went to the loo so she learnt the order. Apparently it’s not uncommon for children to get confused and sit on the potty and wee full dressed. Also let them see you poo and talk about sometimes you need to wait for a poo and sometimes poos can be a be tricky. Get some books about potty training.

Get a some puppy training pads for the car seats and buggy. We used them but they were never needed.

Oh thank you guys for the advice and help.

After starting reading the book,I am really on board with it and I don't want to miss the point whereby he knows he is weeing and pooing and him then "like" doing it in his nappy.

He loves having no nappy on and shout "wee wee" before he has a wee so I am 100% on board and I am going to potty train, especially after the success stories.

Yes my sister in law keeps going in about starting him in pull ups, but I'm going to follow the book and just go no nappies and don't tell them I'm doing it 😂😂😂 As it says don't tell people as all the doubters will come out... So house bound for a week or so and then comando.

Yeah great ideas with the training lads in the car ?

So did everyone (who did it ) still put the nappy in at night and nap and they just came dry themselves, then stop using nappies or did they follow with no nappy and a couple if wake ups through the night ?

Thank everyone 😄😄

Wouldn't have worked with DS1, but then he's clearly got some kind of issue as we ended up having to use a wetting alarm at night when he was 7 because he just could't get the hang of not weeing at night, and we weren't able to get nappies big enough any more.

DS2 trained himself at about 20 months though, and TBH, at about the same time was generally dry at night - we waited another month or two (basically seeing to the end of the nappy packet) and then just asked him if he needed the nappy at night and he agreed he didn't. I don't think he's ever wet the bed!

Sounds like you're more than ready to go!

Definitely no need for pull ups. However you dress them up they're nappies so they don't really teach them anything about where to wee.

DS was playing outside from day 1 so we haven't been completely in the house. Then day 2 went to the swings for half an hour, day 3 we went to a farm and then we've had pretty normal mornings out really. But he can hold his wee and even at the beginning he hasn't been a dribbler. With DD she weed more frequently at first but we were still in the garden by day 2 (it was Feb so trousers on!!) and then short bike/scooter rides etc from day 3.

I've never got DD up at night. We just waited until her nappies were always dry overnight (probably 3-4 weeks of dry nappies), then we put a potty by her bed for if she woke up. Now she just shouts if she needs a wee but it's really not often.

With DS I think we'll wait for some cooler weather to see if he's still dry overnight and then just ditch the night nappies. I don't intend to wake him for a wee but obviously I'll get up to him if he shouts. Hopefully it'll be ok.

Good luck with your DS!

We waited a couple of weeks from being solidly day trained before doing night training but we haven't really had to do any actual "training". She's 2years 2months, was waking up dry in her night nappy so we had a chat with her about it and said if you need to wee just call out and we'll help. Has been dry so far (touch wood). The first night was unplanned so we tried a dream wee because she'd had quite a bit of water at bedtime but she didn't like that and we had no issues after all. We just do no big drinks after dinner and a last wee before bed then first thing when she wakes. I guess the point is she was physically ready (already dry in the mornings), has the language skills to understand and communicate and we just supported by tweaking her drinks and bedtime routine. If she does wake in the night we always ask her if she needs to go but hasn't so far.

Oohh great, I'm loving these stories 😀😀😀

I just want to get started !!!!

We soon stopped nappies at nap time but she had been dry through nap time for a while. Although she dropped the naps two months later at home but later than that at nursery.

I waited until a few months of being dry at night to stop night time nappies but then after a serious of illnesses she started bed wetting and by the time we changed the bed she could not get back to sleep and we were going away so we went back to them.

Definitely don’t do pull up during the day but you can use them on a night time and call them night time pants, although my DD was too smart for this and calls them nappies.

You can buy puppy pads (cheap in home bargains or maternity pads) and pop them into the bottom of the car seat to protect it.

We did oh crap method just after xmas. It's gone ok, but beware - first few weeks can be a bit stressful and cabin feverish.

DD sleeps through, no way am I getting up twice in the night for her to wee! She's in nappies overnight still but not for naps as they were always dry.

I don't agree with people saying 'when they're ready', sure if trying makes a child very upset then it might be worth a rethink, but most rule changes are better to be clear and sharp and swift, trying a bit then going back to nappies lots of times just gets confusing.

Plus it's also about when the family as a whole is ready. We did it at 22 months or so to be able to focus on it before DC2 arrives, plus having a chunk of time off at xmas to get over the first tricky bit.

Good luck! It's hard to begin with but worth it!

I didn't follow a method but did start at 22 months casually, whereby she was normally nappy free at home with minimal accidents. By 25 months we was reliably fully dry in the day and didn't need any reminding. She's now 28 months and dry overnight 6 out of 7 nights but I will carry on using pull ups at night until I run out! Special needs aside, this 'some kids aren't ready before 3' nonsense is modern bollocks.

99calmbeforethestorm haha you just answered my next little question ...do the puppy/maternity pads go In the actual car seat ... On more thinking though, obviously they do, they are no good lining the bloomin footwell lol thanks again

@Desmondo2016 yeah, that's what I keep being told about kids not being ready at 3 and even later "modern day bollocks".

One lady actually said to me at swimming, "you should put him into nursery anyway, they are brilliant, they potty train them for you, so reason enough " I was truly gobsmacked people would expect others to do it for them !!!!

Another oh crap fan here, although we started at 22mo and I think I’d prefer to have waited a bit longer as it did take DD quite a long while to become reliable, probably 2.5ish at least. She did show all the signs of readiness according to the book, and actually was reliable with poos very quickly, pees were more hit or miss. God pees in the car seat were sooooo infuriating. But I loved the clear method and instructions about how to communicate about the whole thing v helpful. And totally worth it not having to change nappies any more. We didn’t do night at the time and she is now 3yr 3mo so I feel I should get on it. The mumsnet mantra is that it’s hormonal but I have a feeling it would’ve worked better doing it at the time, like the book suggests, now she is just in the firm habit of peeing at night when she was drier when we first started. So my advice when looking for mumsnet advice is look for fellow oh crappers and don’t worry about the naysayers - @teaandbiscuitsforme was very helpful when I was training DD1, interesting to hear about your second experience...

DD1 potty trained at 2.6 and night trained at 3.5.

DD2 potty trained at 3 ( after many many attempts previously) and night trained totally at aged 6.
Both were very advanced verbally ( full sentences at 2)

I had a friend who was totally committed to train her son before he was 2- she spent a good 6 months stressfully trying to get him potty trained clearing up weeks and poos 3 at least 3 times a day and even then he wasn't especially reliable. Wet bed after wet bed at night. Finally day trained at 3 and night at 4.

Sod that- they do it when they are ready.

One of mine potty trained at 21m. It was entirely his choice and we went with it, but it’s not something I would advise on doing out of choice. For the first 6-9 months it was a pain because he was physically too small to use potty/toilet without spraying everywhere. Additionally, at over 2.5 he started being able to hold longer and had far fewer accidents. I’d wait.

As a side note, make sure you are aware of the toilet locations wherever you go and which ones are usually clean. Nothing worse than not being sure where to take them or finding the toilets are unusable. We didn't stay home after the first day or so (too hot and no air con) so just made sure we went places that accidents wouldn't matter too much, like the park. We did have one or two accidents at first but I think it helped move the process along in general.
Good luck!