What did your first few days of potty training look like ?

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My daughters is 2yrs 4months and we started potty training today. Daycare have been telling us that she's ready as she is asking to use the small toilets there. She also takes her nappy off and tells me it's wet. Sometimes she also tells me she needs a wee and will say just as she is doing a poo. So we figured we would give it a try. No nappies or underwear on today and so far we have had one wee on the toilet and three on the floor.

What did your first two days of potty training look like ? How do you know if they're not ready and to try again in a few months?

How long did you have accidents for until they finally cracked it ?

Also how and when do I venture out to the park etc ?

We had a potty in the bathroom from the time he could walk then just left him to it so I can't say potty training looked like anything.

We could not go to the toilet without him following so he just copied what we did on the potty then after a few goes or so pointed to the toilet and that was it

Not idea how long from first go to fully trained

I showed DD her potty on day 1. Took her nappy off and she was naked from button half. Kept the potty in the same room as us. She sat on it loads but not to pee. First few days I would sit her on it as soon as she started weeing. She started to learn but spent weeks with incremental improvements and loads of accidents. The thing that made the biggest difference was...chocolate and then stickers. She's not yet 2.5 and takes herself to the toilet for wees and almost all poos. We did loads of praise, never telling off.

We did the oh crap method at the same age. Bare bum for first day and a bit, then put on trousers with no underpants for a couple of weeks, then introduced pants. After the first few days we've had very few accidents and she's been dry at night since training too. I think we might have just hit very lucky though rather than any particular skill on my part - I wouldn't have said DD was massively ready but there were a few days in early lockdown when the weather was terrible so just went for it!

This afternoon was a lot better ! Four wees on the toilet and no accidents. She usually poos 1-2 times per day but hasn't gone today, so I'm slightly worried she's holding it in.

If we go to the park, do we just take the travel potty with us and get her to do it there ?

Inconsistent between my two.

DC1: countless wees in pants, on the floor. Withholding poo. Angry child not wanting to go anywhere near toilet or potty. Many chocolate buttons used in bribery. Washing machine on constant. Poo accidents ongoing at 4.5, still in night nappy and consultant appointment made for December.

DC2: Cheerful sitting on potty, one wee in pants, loads of wees and poos on toilet and potty. Total of 3 accidents at all in first few weeks. No need for any bribery. Dry in 48 hours. Overnight dry at 2.5.

A question to all: how do you deal with being pants-free in the house? Do you put plastic sheets down or just spend all day in the kitchen? How about going out or do you just stay in for couple of days?

We’re not at potty training stage yet but I’m just wondering about logistics/ practicalities.

We just stayed in for a couple of days until she'd got the hang of it and then started to venture out locally. I've got one of those plastic backed picnic blankets so just put that on the floor/sofa during play & TV time.

Ours was absolute hell first time. For some reason he weed every 10 mins so we had wee everywhere and I'm not exaggerating. After two days we gave up and thought he's not ready and did again a month later. That time it worked great, a couple of incidents but mainly did everything on the potty within 2 weeks

First DC - nearly 3. Took nappy off, explained process, made him try every 30 min. After surprise wee where we ran to bathroom he never had an accident and we never used the potty. Fully trained in 3 days and able to wear trousers and go to public toilets. Dry at night after a few weeks.

DC 2 - few on and off starts as she’s always been interested due to older sibling and nursery, but decided to really go for it in lockdown when she was 2.5. Bare bum, potty in room with us. She did crack it within a day using the potty naked in the house, but I’d say it took several weeks of accidents to slowly go from that to able to be fully dressed and not have regular accidents. However we were in lockdown so just soldiered on. I’d probably have stopped if I was trying to leave the house with her. She just turned 3 and is still not 100% reliable, needs to be reminded frequently and does still have the occasional accident if she gets distracted or doesn’t make it on time. Night nappies still soaking so no plans to get rid of those any time soon. But overall she is doing great, it just took longer than my DS. And she was younger when we started.

For going out we have a travel potty that folds flat and you put a plastic bag in it. Is used all the time (because we only ever go to parks and public toilets aren’t really open)

Also I sat my DD on a towel a lot. Or put one down on the floor if she was standing at the coffee table doing something

We started training at 26 months. Just randomly gave it a go bare bummed one day. She went on the potty spontaneously all day with one accident on the floor - and that was my fault as I briefly left her in a room without a potty!

We are about two months on now and she is going through some kind of odd regression now where the last two weeks or so she is frequently having loads of tiny accidents in her underwear but only when she's in the care of me/her dad and almost always just when she's at home. I'm not sure but am wondering if this is a bit of her experimenting to see how long she can hold for and then ending up with a bit coming out when she can't hold anymore and then going the potty. She doesn't do this at nursery or when her DGM looks after her despite this though I'm still happy we did it, I would rather change a few slightly wet undies a day at its worst than loads of nappies every single day especially soiled ones. And I'm sure there will be ups and downs with the potty training as she gets more able to hold on for longer and that kind of thing. The only time she has proper big accidents now is very occasionally when she is tantrumming, I think she just can't hold on then and cos she's in a state she doesn't think to go the potty.

My daughter was 2 years 4 months too. She wasn't telling us she had a wet nappy or anything but it was the start of the Summer holidays and my husband was off as he's a teacher so we chose that time.

I also took the first few days off to help.

The first few days we stayed home and she walked round with nothing on her bottom half. We had the potty in the living room. Whenever she started weeing we rushed her to the potty. There were lots of puddles, luckily we have no carpet downstairs! By the end of the first week she was back in trousers and getting most wees in the potty with a lot of reminders. She wet herself a lot out and about though. By the end of the 6 week holiday accidents were very rare. We used the book Oh Crap Potty Training. It was one of the hardest stages of parenting we've been through (she's 5 now) but she was getting too old for nappies so we were glad when it was done. The childminder was very pleased when she went back in September in pants.

We used stickers too. We took a folding travel potty and lots of spare pants and shorts/leggings with us everywhere and put absorbent pads in her carseat and pushchair. If we were in someone else's house she wore cloth training pants to save their carpets!

First few days were filled with many moments of pissing on the floor, I expected it though. She couldn’t make it to the toilet on time but as days went on she got better x

Thanks everyone ! It's good to know it's normal to have accidents the first few days and when out and about. I like the idea of the absorbent pads on the pram and car seat so will try that