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Parenting

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Original poster

mega wet nappies - please help me move toward potty training!

9 replies

lilQuidditchKel · 03/04/2008 10:24

DS is 2.1 and drinks record amounts of water or milk, i reckon. I guess he's jut a thirsty kid. Anyway that's all fine, but it means his nappies get absolutely gigantic with wetness. Especially overnight - and I'm using the biggest size which fits him properly, with pants over it - and it still wets through every morning!

I've been told that a major sign of potty training readiness is a dry nappy - ideally upon waking. I fear this is just never going to happen!

Anyone think it will help if I change his nappy more often during the day - like every 2 hours - so he gets used to the idea of a dry nappy?

Or is it utterly hopeless, and do I just have to wait (perhaps forever!) till he gets more bladder control, or less thirsty?

thx

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Washersaurus · 03/04/2008 10:32

DS1 (3 in July) is the same. His nappies are soaked within 2 hours and we use huge tots bots nappies.

We have had half-hearted attempts at encouraging him to use the potty but he really doesn't seem ready yet.

We make sure he drinks his bedtime milk before his bath and mega boost his night nappy to see him through until morning

emilyandjohn · 03/04/2008 14:21

DS (2.8) was also a mega heavy wetter and drinks loads. He still soaks through a massive "bumper" nappy (basically a giant bumble) with two bumgenius inserts, or a size 5+ pampers baby dry every night. However he is now in pants during the day and rarely has accidents.

Before I put him in pants, I noticed that his nappies were often dry for a good hour or two before he soaked them completely with a single wee. Maybe that is a sign you could look for? Now he just does huge wees in the potty instead of his nappy so he is still a heavy wetter in that sense.

Just a bit of hope for you!

Emily

NoBiggy · 03/04/2008 14:23

Yes, the saving up the wee for one big one is more of a sign than a dry nappy in the morning. After all, the dry nappies at night could happen a long time after daytime nappies are done with.

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Original poster

lilQuidditchKel · 03/04/2008 15:03

Hi Emily and many many thanks - such a relief to think that maybe there is hope!!!

Please, please tell me, how did you do the switch to pants? Did you confine him to a room with a potty in it, leave trousers off, and wait? Do you think he understood exactly what to do and just followed instructions? (I doubt my DS is at this point, or ever will be...) Did you try to pinpoint when he was doing his very big wee?

I have a feeling my DS does a giant wee right when he wakes up - about 5:30 in the morning! Groan!

OP posts:

emilyandjohn · 03/04/2008 16:31

hello

I was desparate to potty train DS because I was finding it progressively more difficult to change him (I'm pregnant - due next month) so I'm afraid that I did something pretty awful. I bought a great big plastic garage from mothercare, and two packs of 25 toy cars, and another two packs of little trucks. Then I put DS in pants (no pull ups or training pants) and told him that every time he weed in the potty he would get a new car, and every time he did a poo in the potty he would get a new truck.

If he was obviously desparate I would give him one reminder but try very hard not to nag. And then I left it up to him. If I thought it was about time for him to go I would get him to choose his next car, which usually did the trick. Frequently during the day I admired the number of cars in the garage and reminded him how clever he'd been at wearing his splendid pants, and I never referred to accidents. after about a week he got the idea and we phased out the cars

It took about 3 weeks for him to stop having accidents with some days during that time when he would have 10 accidents and other days when he would have none. A couple of months on he has one or two accidents a week usually when he is very tired or we are at the park.

It wasn't particularly easy and I don't think that DS was very keen on the idea at the beginning (it was definitely on my timetable not his). But after a day or two, even though he was still having loads of accidents he really loved his pants and even resisted his (extremely necessary!) night nappy.

good luck!

Emily

Original poster

lilQuidditchKel · 03/04/2008 18:13

oh wow I so appreciate your honesty. really this is like gold dust to me - forget that - it's like a pair of diamond earrings. seriously, i am getting desperate and just don't know where to begin.

all the books that suggest explaining it and such won't work for my son, who is just not very verbal. thankfully though he is pretty far along in other ways, including in his love of cars...so this is where i feel like I may have a total result in your advice.

maybe i can take all his beloved cars away one evening after he goes to bed (oh this is evil) and in the morning show him one, announce he can have it if he wees in the potty, and then just wait. hmm. what do you think?

good luck with your pregnancy.

OP posts:

emilyandjohn · 04/04/2008 18:02

Sounds like a good idea - as long as he isn't too devastated by the temporary loss of his cars! In general, I think the advantage of the "car method" is that DS (and I!) could see really clearly how well he was doing, so we weren't disheartened by accidents. Even now, if he has an accident and is upset, we'll go and have a look at the garage with all his cars, and talk about how well he is doing in pants. Honestly, it is just a matter of being patient and not putting them back into nappies - no matter how many accidents (DS was well into double figures on some days...)

The only other thing I can think of is that DS found it much easier to stay dry and clean if he went "bare bottom". If he was having a lot of accidents, I would leave him bare bottom with easy access to the potty for a while. He rarely had an accident if he was bare bottom and quickly got his confidence back after a series of accidents. Might be worth a try...

Really good luck - keep me posted with how you get on. and thanks for your good wishes for my pregnancy!

Emily

BigBadMouse · 04/04/2008 20:08

He's still quite young for potty training IMO.

Is he showing any signs of interest or readiness to train?

gogsi · 05/04/2008 14:08

HELP
My son is 4 next week and has absolutely no interest in toilet training.At nursery he dutifully goes along with the other children and sits on it with trousers up,at home the potty gets launched down the hall. I got him Bartholomew the bear learns to use the potty book, so now when potty or loo is mentioned we get "Nah,nah,nah,nah, nah, nah, nah!" ala bartholomew the bear prior to transformation.I've put oceans of bubble bath, bouncy balls down the loo to coax interest but to no avail. Any clues?

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