Transitioning from a potty to a toilet

[Rosebud1302]

Hi everyone,

Asking for some advice. My boy is 3 this week and has been toilet trained for a good while. He CAN use a normal toilet but he doesn't do a number 2 on it, so when I got rid of the potty (thinking he no longer needed it) a few months ago, he wouldn't "go" and got sore and blocked up. Now he will go for a wee on the toilet if he absolutely has to but he would rather hold it. We went out yesterday and didn't take a potty so he didn't go all day :/. I mean it's great that he isn't having accidents but it's not ideal.

Long story short, should I take the potty away cold turkey? Will he likely just get used to the toilet over time? He has a toilet seat already.

Any advice? Do I let him keep the potty until he is ready? I don't want to take the potty out with us on days out so I really want him to use the toilet like I know he can.

Do you have a high enough step for the toilet so that he can sit in the squat position that he would be in when he uses the potty?

Does he wee standing up?

@NuffSaidSam we do have a step but I don't think it's quite high enough to be honest. Maybe I should try that. No he goes sitting down.

Get the step, it's a healthier position to poo in anyway (adults included) and might make it easier/more comfortable for him.

For wees transition to standing and then it won't matter of its potty/toilet/up against a tree! Pop a cheerio in the loo to give him something to aim at (or you can buy things made for this purpose that go in the toilet).

If you have a DH/other trusted male get them to show him how the big boys do it.

I wouldn't even bother tbh. He's not going to be using a potty as an adult, why does it matter? We've just got rid of our DD's potty - she is 3 yrs and 2 months and has been toilet trained for about a year. This coincided with also removing the stairs baby gate so she can go up and down to the bathroom herself now so doesn't need a potty downstairs as well as the fact that if we'd left the potty upstairs after cleaning it etc she'd not be bothered and go and use the toilet and often preferred to go to the toilet anyway and so on. However if she'd been showing any upset at all I would have just kept the potty for her, she's only 3, it's not a big deal. Definitely not worth causing stool witholding.

Have you got a potty seat? One of those things that line the toilet so toddlers with their small bodies don't feel as though they will fall in? I think that hekps with confidence overall andcis a good transition to using a toilet without a potty seat.

@MeadowHay this is half of my thinking too. Am I just making a battle when there didn't need to be one. However the other part of me is thinking I'm worried he is going to still be on the potty in a year or whenever because why would he move to the toilet if he doesn't have to. I'm sure I'm being silly. It would just be nice to not have to worry about staying out for fear he won't go.

@HumunaHey yes we have a toilet seat so no holding him etc involved.

My DD just gradually got more interested in/comfortable with the toilet partly as she's grown physically bigger and partly from seeing other people use them I think (me and her dad, and other kids at nursery as they have toilets and potties in the room she's in). Im sure the same will happen to your son, he really won't want to be using a potty forever. I've never known or heard of an older child that this has become a problem for. Will he not use public toilets at all though? You could take a carry potty which is what we did with our DD initially but I appreciate it is a bit of a faff and much easier if he could use public toilets. My DD was confidently using public toilets for many months before we've finally got rid of the potty at home though so I don't think you need to do that in order for him to get used to using public toilets iyswim.

We had the potty in the bathroom for a few weeks next to the toilet, and I’d ask each day did he want to sit on the toilet (mummy’s toilet as he called it) and he wouldn’t. Then tried with a bribe - chocolate buttons, then he sat on nursery’s toilet and since then he’s gone on it every day. We have a toddler seat for it but he will sit straight on a normal toilet seat when we’re out

Can’t get the hang of weeing standing up yet though !

With my boys I started leaving the potty in the bathroom so they had to go to the bathroom to use it. I then gave them the option of potty or toilet and they just eventually started picking the toilet.

Thanks all, I think I will do what you all suggest and just leave it in the toilet and see if he starts picking the toilet. He can use the toilet in public but would much rather hold it which I'm not keen on as it can literally be all day