Potty training how do you even start this?!

[Henrihetta]

DS is 2 years 4 months, he is able to communicate with singular words but not conversation yet. He has understanding of simple requests.

He points down the toilet and says “wee wee” & “poo poo” & has recently started holding his nappy underneath when its full in the morning when he wakes up.

I have a potty out downstairs for familiarisation for around a month.

This may sound silly, but how do I get him to try sitting on it?
He so far doesn't want to sit on it, does this mean he isn't ready for potty training?

I put the potty in front of the TV, put a YouTube video about "going potty" on the telly, gave him a couple of chocolate buttons as a bribe and stripped him naked. He jumped straight on! Now he will happily sit on the potty without all of that 😅 but still no wees or poos, as you can tell, I'm totally winging it x

There's a book called "Oh Crap Potty Training" that we found helpful for daytime training. We ignored the nighttime advice though as it's pretty bonkers.

Choose a weekend/week to potty train.

Day 1 have your child naked from the waist down and stay in one (ideally wipe-clean!) room with the potty nearby. Give your child loads to drink. Watch them like a hawk and as soon as they start to wee, get them on the potty and praise/reward.
Quite quickly your child should get the association between feeling like they need to wee - sitting on the potty - treat/reward.

Personally I wouldn't sit them on the potty when they don't need to go as that isn't making the association with what the potty is for.

Once they start making the link between needing to go and going on the potty, gets pants/trousers on them. If you leave it too long with them naked from the waist down it can become a habit to only use the potty if naked, and they just treat pants like a nappy.

Give it 3 days of intensive, staying at home, concentrating on nothing but potty training - if at the end of 3 days they are still not getting themselves or trying to get themselves on the potty, then they're not quite ready. Take a break and try again in a month.

We didn't we left it up to our child

Thanks all for the advice!!! We are going to give it a
go next weekend and see if he is ready!

We literally did Day 1 of potty training today! We used the 'Oh crap' book and it suggests an approach pretty much as legoplaybook described (except I would say persevere for more than 3 days; your DS definitely sounds ready). We got wees in the potty today but poo was a challenge. Bring on Day 2! Good luck :)

Both mine were trained around 2years 8 months.

We chose a week when I was off from work and the weather was reasonably warm (easier to dry allll the pants and clothes you’ll get through plus warm enough for your little one to walk around the house with not much on! )

In the weeks leading up to the training, we talked lots about toileting to prep him - when we changed his nappy/pull up we’d say ‘when you’re a big boy, you’ll do your wee/poo on the toilet/potty’ etc.

Then day 1 - ‘no nappy today, let’s try on the potty!’ Set a timer, pop them on every 30 mins. Lots of verbal praise or a sticker etc when they sit on - even if they don’t wee. TV/toy to keep them on for a couple of minutes. We kept pants on rather than bare bottom. Choose some with a character design they like.

Repeat for the first 3 - 4 days. Gradually more will happen in the potty and we started to lengthen the times between trying. We always put him in a pull up for bedtime. Every time I went to the toilet, I’d get him to try too.

Praise when they tell you they need to go, don’t say too much when they have an accident, just start a fresh and remind them to tell you.

If you need to do car journeys, we use a puppy pad in the car seat and took a travel potty.

Accidents will happen, be prepare with lots of spare pants!

If my DS wont sit on the potty when we try to catch him peeing, does this mean he isn't ready?

Why won't he sit on it? Will he sit for a chocolate button? Or would he prefer to use the toilet?

@legoplaybookhe says no or ignores me when I ask him to sit on the potty, I haven't tried with chocolate buttons.

Sympathy @Henrihetta . My ds is the same age and point blank refuses to sit on the potty. I'm going to leave it a couple of months.

I have just done the first week of official potty training with my nearly two year old. We did nappy free hours for a few weeks before starting so she knew what to do and what is expected of her. My girl hates the potty but likes to use the reducer seat on the toilet, maybe if your son sees you and his dad on the toilet he will come around to this idea. Eric website has some good information on potty training. I watched “poo goes to Pooland” on YouTube I believe theirs an app too with my dd and we spoke about how everyone uses the toilet and it might be scary at first but it won’t hurt her/ I will stay with her if she wants.
Also you might find a lot of resistance the first few days but power through, if you stop the first time it will become optional to them.

Op look at child toilet seats as they can be fun colourful pieces of equipment, mine didn't not take to pottys at all, so next step was to make it a game, silly mummy needing a wee, she would follow me into bathroom and stand talking about me needing this wee wee, flush toilet wash hands while talking, child then said, mummy I to need a wee wee, new frame came out placed around toilet daughter excited still tap running daughter did her first wee lots of praise and high fives,
Helped having downstairs toilet, child frame stayed in situ as she learned very quickly she could use it independently but of course with lots of praise and little help afterwards,

Try to make it fun little child like hand towels and their own fun hand soap, I kept the ' oh no mummy needs a wee wee running to toilet holding myself by the way, this worked great, no stress, no pressure, just fun, h did same with son when he was ready,

We found the potty created pressure and the children would carry them around , put toys in them , just didn't work for us,
We had second child toilet frame up stairs too so never any accidents and made bedtime easier for training over night
Good luck op

I remember a few days of having to catch them mid wee and plonk them on the potty before they became more willing to sit on it. Sometimes they have to gradually learn that it's more time consuming to wet themselves and have to be cleaned and change clothes than to just go on the potty.

We started with some naked garden time, if he started to/ needed a wee, direct him to sit on the potty. At the same time he was sitting on the potty and doing a wee before his bath. I think the running tap helped him make the connection.

Don’t ask him. Bung him on when he starts to wee.