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Original poster

Hate potty training. What's the method that worked best for you?

53 replies

Londonlady92 · 30/07/2021 15:36

I have 2 children and hated potty training with DS now DD is 2.10 years old and I know its time (been putting it off) I found waiting till this age helped the process but what worked best for you? Letting them feel wet and figure it out for themselves? Putting them on the potty every half hour?

Need wine.

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Milkmachine2 · 30/07/2021 23:38

Wait until they can communicate with you and it makes it all a lot easier!

ScrumptiousBears · 30/07/2021 23:48

We waited until both DD were ready. Literally took 3 days to crack it. Don't try to early. If they aren't getting it stop and try again in a few months.

Opalfeet · 31/07/2021 00:02

I couldn't be doing with the staying in, or the constant mess, esp with a baby at the time. I went against all the advice in internet and kept him in pull ups. Told him he needed to keep them dry. Some days he did and others he didn't. We took travel potty everywhere and I encouraged him to go every 45 mins. Sometimes we still missed it. He was doing at least wees in a day and so we stopped and started. He was also showing a bit of resistance. In the end he was fully trained,.poo and wee and night time about three months later- 2 years and 9 months. I spent ages stressing about it. This time, I won't and it will be pull ups again and travel potty. It just took the stress away.

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2 year olds Families General parenting Potty training
Opalfeet · 31/07/2021 00:03

15 wees in a day

Reallyreallyborednow · 31/07/2021 00:08

Yep, wait until you can’t not.

Mine trained in a day. Nappies had been drier for longer, so I asked if they wanted to wee on the toilet for a chocolate. Job done. I think they were both 3 ish.

ribbonsred · 31/07/2021 00:17

Kept in pull ups until they wanted to try pants. One was 3.5 and one had turned 4 but no mess or hassle. Don't know why people try to force it before child is ready.

Mistyplanet · 31/07/2021 06:51

Ive just finished training my nearly 3 year old. It took about a month to be completely dry. We didnt stay in all the time. I dont think you need too. Perhaps stay in a few hours in the morning then do a short trip out either with pull ups on for a car journey or they can just wear pants and you take a change of clothes with you. I found it too stressful to stay in all the time. My ds would wear pants all the time at home then pull ups when we went out until he got better at using the toilet at home. Once he was going more regularly to the toilet we phased out the pull ups for going out. When you go somewhere just take them to the toilet as soon as you get there and hope for the best! Eventually they will start telling you they need the toilet.

Original poster
Londonlady92 · 31/07/2021 09:46

Don't want to jinx it but she's been a breeze compared to my DS, we are on day 2 and shes going on the potty herself when she needs a wee, even did a poo yesterday!

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Oceanbliss · 31/07/2021 10:00

What worked for my dd:

Two potties, one cheap one for her toys/dolls to sit on next to her when she went to the potty. (It was fun for her to pretend her favourite comfort toys were toilet training too). The other potty was one I let her choose at the shop. She chose a pink paw patrol potty that had a flush lever that made barking sounds, a lid and it looked a bit like a toilet. When the lid was down it could be used as a step for when she transitioned to the toilet and the seat could also fit onto the toilet seat.

I bought lots of little toys that I gift wrapped and put in a bag as a lucky dip. When she did wee or poo in the potty she got to do a lucky dip and get a surprise.

I bought a story book about potty training. She got me to read that book over and over again.

I also waited till she was ready to toilet train and we made it fun.

Oceanbliss · 31/07/2021 10:02

@Londonlady92 That’s great news, glad it’s going well Smile

Twizbe · 31/07/2021 10:06

@Londonlady92

Don't want to jinx it but she's been a breeze compared to my DS, we are on day 2 and shes going on the potty herself when she needs a wee, even did a poo yesterday!
Well done

Going better than us. Day two abs she's holding it in and then did a massive accident on the floor

Opalfeet · 31/07/2021 10:44

Sounds very positive.

Original poster
Londonlady92 · 31/07/2021 10:52

@Twizbe that's what my DS did, held it for hours and hours! He still does it now age 6! I do worry outings will be harder this time with more wees though Grin

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Original poster
Londonlady92 · 31/07/2021 10:53

BTW all I did was take nappies off and let her know the potty was there for wee wee. Took a handful of accidents for her to realise what she had to do. Definitely helps that she's only 2 months away from 3.

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Opalfeet · 31/07/2021 10:53

@Londonlady92 buy a travel potty, the my carry ones are good and also very popular

Opalfeet · 31/07/2021 10:55

Now we don't need a travel potty, at 3.5 my little one is quite competent at weeing in bushes.

Twizbe · 31/07/2021 11:02

[quote Londonlady92]@Twizbe that's what my DS did, held it for hours and hours! He still does it now age 6! I do worry outings will be harder this time with more wees though Grin[/quote]
My 4 year old is a camel. Since lockdown he's petrified of toilets. He'd hold it all morning at preschool. I'm dreading school in sept abs how that will work.

CardinalCat · 31/07/2021 11:04

With Dc1 we "went with the flow" (pardon the pun) and it was an unmitigated disaster. With my dc2 we followed Oh crap and we cracked it on day 3. Started the process the week after 2nd birthday although I wish I'd read the book earlier as I'd have started about 20 months. Im not sure if it was the book or just luck- I suspect a lot of it is entirely down to luck (although this is a fairly tricky child who does not take instruction well, so "miracle" is perhaps a better way to describe it!) We're v. much attachment parents in every other way (breastfeeding and cosleeping until school age etc) so the approach did feel quite alien but I'm so glad we did it. So easy apart from a couple of days of being stuck at home.

Original poster
Londonlady92 · 31/07/2021 12:08

Can anyone tell me in simple form what the oh crap method entails?

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Opalfeet · 31/07/2021 14:53

Going naked and then commando and then pants in stages. Not my cup of tea personally. Lots of people rave about it, but it didn't work for us

Nahhh · 31/07/2021 14:54

My method was to wait and do nothing until DC chose to potty train themselves. All three decided on this somewhere between 3 and 3.5 and never had an accident.

Lisa465 · 02/08/2021 16:52

@Londonlady92
Being stressed out is only going to pass on to your child... Even if your trying to hold it together. Also I'd skip pottys and just use a toilet seat you can bring everywhere with you.

I used to work in a Montessori school so I probaby toilet trained 20 kids that where between 2.5 to 3yrs old over the space of 1yr, parents would just come in and be like "so we decided on the weekend it's time to start using the toilet! So he's not in a nappy today. He did OK yesterday" then we would have an extra kid to train. became a nanny and I've so far toilet trained 2 toddlers one at 2 and 10months one at 20months because one day he pointed at the toilet and said he wanted to use it so I sat him over it and low and behold he did a wee and was really proud of humself, but that took a lot longer because he was younger.

In school it was a simple process of having set times after meals to line up the kids learning and make them try and use the toilet. This meant 4 times a day, about every 2.5hrs plus any other time they said they needed it and we would sometimes have 3 or 4 kids and they would have at least one maybe 2 accidents in the same day.. Maybe one or two 💩s.. So a lot of changes of clothes and cleaning up to do as you can imagine responsibility split between myself and one other teacher. Best thing was being positive, encouraging, always making no big deal of an accident just remind its ok and just keep going.

With the two I toilet trained as a nanny. One was brought out by his parents the other by me to pick out a toilet seat and step and 🩲 and treats everytime they used the toilet. I just used mini Yogurt covered ricecakes and mad wit out like they were a big treat instead of something really unhealthy haha

My brother got his almost 3yr old to learn to use the toilet, after epically failing, by bribery... I wouldn't alway suggest this bit he had to be able to use the toilet before starting his montessori school so they were desperate and let him pick any toy he wanted he picked a scooter and within a week he had no accidents and hot his reward.

Lisa465 · 02/08/2021 17:05

@Londonlady92 oh and by one or two in the same day I mean for each child during week one on bad days... So it could be like 5 wet accidents and a 💩 all to clean up before 4pm that afternoon and they stayed until 6pm....but before we knew it most of them would be all good with only an accident maybe once a month or bit at all (they were with us about 45hrs a week so thats actually really good)

My sister in law has just started toilet training her 2.5yr old twin daughters today. One is excited about her new 🩲 and to be like her big sister. The other twin has been in melt down mode all day unfortunately

Hope your little one is enthusiastic and it goes better then expected

Original poster
Londonlady92 · 03/08/2021 10:36

Thanks everyone its been a breeze!! Apart from poops but that came later with my son too!

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DGFB · 03/08/2021 10:38

Wait until they are 3! Works really fast. We skip potty altogether and go straight on the loo