Day 1 of potty training

[Spiderweb13]

DS is 3 years 2 months. We previously attempted to toilet train him at around 2.5 years but he just wasn’t ready and was extremely upset every time he sat down. So we decided to wait a bit longer.

I’ve decided to dedicate a few days this week to potty train him. I bought him a sticker chart and new Spider-Man pants, which he loves.

He is now happily sitting on the potty without resistance and has sat on it around 8-9 times today. However, he’s just not releasing anything. He had a nap earlier and I put a pair of pull ups on him and he woke up with a very full nappy. He then wet himself with his pants on and seemed very confused.

we haven’t made any fuss about it and have praised him every time he’s willingly sat on the potty. I’m also aware it’s only the first proper day of toilet training so I am trying not to put any pressure on him.

I’ve just put a pull up on him as he clearly really needs a poo and I don’t want him to have any stomach pains/constipation if he is purposefully holding it. As soon as I put the pull up on him, he’s done a poo! Typical. But I guess we will try again tomorrow.

Just wanted to know if it’s normal for toddlers not to release anything on the first day?

Yes very normal. In my experience it was a lot easier to get the hang of pee than poo...at his age he might be big enough to go straight to toilet rather than potty for poos and you could start by reminding him that poos go in the toilet now not your nappy, then when you change him take the nappy to the toilet and put the poo in it and flush.

There's an mhs app "poo goes to pooland" that you could look at Ultimately he might withhold and you can either provide a nappy (and solutions like he sits on the potty in the nappy for a poo - Eric website has some ideas to progress that) or go cold turkey, remove nappies and wait it out - if he does soil his pants just keep clearing him up and reminding him what to do.

Good luck it's often not straightforward and especially at first it's a big change. Personally I found rewards (chocolate buttons, small toys etc - from charity shops otherwise gets spenny wuickly!) very effective but I know that's dependent on what diff dc respond to and parenting styles.

Very normal. My son successfully used the potty to pee once, but not until day 2. On day 3 he cracked it and stopped having accidents. On day one he happily sat on the potty, but releasing pee wasn't something that had connected in his little brain yet.

You were absolutely right to give him a nappy for a poop. You're changing habits he's had his entire life, and that takes lots of time and patience on your part. My son took MONTHS to crack poops - he didn't have accidents, but he saved the poops for his pullup at night/morning because it was familiar. I never told him off, just casually kept reinforcing that poops were supposed to go in the potty and we kept reading Pirate Pete's potty book. Then one day, he announced he needed a poop and went to use the potty.

Be patient, and keep things light and cheerful. It's gruelling work, but they do fet there eventually

Thank you so much for the supportive replies. Reassuring to hear this is quite typical.

We ended up having some success towards dinner time and he did a wee in the potty! Followed by lots of clapping and celebration.

It seems to have sparked something in him and now he has asked to sit down for a wee consecutively over the last 2-3 hours. Of course, only a trickle comes out but I’m so glad he actually seems to be enjoying the experience!

I have heard poos can be more tricky so I will make sure not to put any pressure on him to do that yet.