Potty training this week? Come join me!

[RinkyDinkyPinky]

Thought we could set up a general chat for encouragement/ advice/ moans/ high-fiving .

So how are you getting on?

DD1 is 2.4 and decided on Saturday to wear pants. Progress so far:-
day1: no accidents
day2: one missed wee
day3: two missed wees and one missed poo
day4: one missed wee and one missed poo
day5 (today): she was a star at nursery this morning- plenty of wees and a poo in the nursery potty, but had 3 accidents in half an hour this afternoon. I think it was because she was enjoying doing some painting after having a big cup of juice.

Anyone else finding it a bit up and down?

I'm also feeling sad for DD2 (8 months) who frequently gets left to play by herself whilst we do the sitting, wiping, hand washing, pants pulling up etc...

Hello,

My DD is 2 on sunday and am hoping to take the plunge in the next few weeks with potty training. We have been trying the 'do you want to sit on the potty' but for a while as she has been announcing 'poo coming' for a while etc and she has done a few poos in it so we thought she must be ready. But am quite scared!

How have you started? did your DD chose herself to stop with nappies or did you pick a day? how did you build up to it?

Sorry for questions, be great to see how you are getting on!

Please keep posting - I have started putting ds on potty this week to get him used to idea and we are using pull ups, but so far only 1 wee in potty in 7 days. Need to be brave and go for pants but our week next week is hectic, so may wait another week....shall keep checking back here for your updates.

I keep thinking the same .... 'right today will be the day', then something comes up or a good reason to stop us starting.

I will do it next week when i am off work and her birthday has passed! might be mean to let her mess herself in front of all her friends and family!

Will keep checking back too - good luck x

I'd definitely suggest doing it when you're off work - I did it last week, and was surprised how much it took it out of me.

Not so much physically - mopping up puddles isn't that hard in itself - but as I was just saying on another thread, it's quite mentally knackering to have to act all cool and collected and unbothered all the time!

Yes i can imagine, i'm dreading going into the whole process, i'm quite safe in nappies and know we are safe, still it can't take that long huh!!

I have 4 days off each week so will start then and see how we get on, eek!

Hello Everyone,
DD initiated the PT herself last Saturday. She just decided she was going to wear pants and I explained that she'd have to do wees/ poos in her potty etc and off we went.
She got really interested in it after seeing her friends use the potty (and receive a chocolate button for their efforts). Yes a bit of bribery can help start it off!

Leading up to PT, DD's always followed me to the loo and I'll explain what I'm doing. We noticed that she always filled her nappy with a big wee first thing in the morning so that was a good time to put her on the potty, read a book, and make that first association with weeing in the potty and getting lots of praise for it.

Then a couple of weeks later she's decided to wear big girl pants and go nappy-free.

At the moment we're taking her to the potty every half hour, but after a week she's already asking to go sometimes.
Poos are a bit hit and miss. I'm not sure she understands quite how they come out so on the advice of a friend we've done some role-play with the teddies and talked about how you need to push to make the poo come out...

I think you know if it's working from the first day. We tried PT a couple of months ago and she definitely wasn't ready- more misses than hits. And I think it is worth waiting until they're interested/ ready to start.

Vesela, I agree it's tiring. My house is a mess at the moment because I'm spending so much time in the bathroom. We've put a playmat in there for DD2 (8 months) so she isn't abandoned whilst we do all the pants up/ pants down, flushing/ hand-washing praise etc...

If it works, then it's nice to see them getting the hang of it, and if it doesn't, you've got a safe place to go back to...

Have you got any knickers for her already? That made a difference with DD - getting them out of the drawer on occasion when getting dressed and saying casually 'oh look, there are your knickers!' After a while she started asking to wear them.

DD loves her pants and we let her choose a pair in the mornings. We bought a few colourful multipacks from the supermarket. I think she feels genuinely proud of her pants and gets upset if they get soiled.

whoops, sorry, that was in reply to Heebychick - I didn't see Rinky's last two posts.

Rinky - DD's taken a while to 'get' poos, too.
And tiring - that was yesterday, when as soon as she sat in the bath she wanted to sit on the potty for a second, then in the bath, then potty, bath, potty, bath for about half an hour! Basically, she wanted to poo but was unsure of herself/the feeling - it takes her a while to relax, I think.

I'm sure it's all interesting for your DD2!

FWIW, although she'd shown keenness, we had a pretty hard first two days because she hated the accidents, poor thing, no matter how blasé I was about them. Third and fourth days were better, and by the fifth I knew we were over the water if not out of the woods, if that makes sense...

Vesela- that helps

Thanks ves yes i talked to her about pants today, she has some fifi ones which she likes and i said to her tonight would she want to wear them instead of nappies? she said yes but when i then asked her if she wanted to take her trousers off and poo on the potty she got a little bit upset so i didn't ask again, i don't want to worry her.

She seems keen and then sits and reads etc (for bribery mostly!) on it but when the poo or wee comes out she gets worried and asks for her nappy.

Think i'll work on the 'look at your pretty pants' thing and leave it for a few week, maybe she's not quite there yet?

She does too come to the loo with me and we talk about what we are doing, still we'll see how it goes over the next few days/weeks

hi, can i join in?
DD is 19 months and 2 weeks ago when undresses at bathtime she pood in her potty cue lots of praise.
so since then we have been sitting her on it every couple of hours, praising dry nappies and praising every potty use, she has only done 3 poos in her nappies in a fortnight and does 2 or 3 wees in her potty a day, the rest are in her nappy.
but we don't know if we are rushing her as she can't undress herself, even trousers she struggles with and i think she is too young for pants. so far about 4 times she has said potty and then used it when sat on it so she is learning what is about to happen and how to ask.
also where do i buy small pants, she is in 9-12 month clothes?

Good going, ilovetochat! FWIW, my experience with the undressing was that there's a reason the books say they should be able to do it themselves - once we'd started potty-training, I realised DD didn't like me having to pull her trousers down for her. We practised her doing it by herself, and after that she felt more in control. Now she even lets me do it!

We have some 1.5-2yr pants from Mothercare, and they aren't huge (DD is a smallish nearly-2). Also some from H&M with Hello Kitty on which are the same age range but are bigger (like everything from H&M).

ilovetochat- that sounds really positive, clever DD! Even if she doesn't completely get PT now, all the good experience will help. FWIW I was advised to buy pants a size bigger anyway so that they are easier for the child to learn to get up and down.

DD announced that she was going to do green wees today- obviously bored of yellow!

We had a great morning with DD realising she wanted to poo, going to the potty and producing a lovely big one. Then having an accident later. I think she's starting to work out what all the different feelings mean and how to control them.

i will look to see if they do pants in 12-18 months and they may fit ok.
do you think i should just carry on as i am and let her get used to asking a bit more before i try any nappy off time?

it sounds like you're doing well as you are. I still have to take my DD to the potty at regular intervals or at least remind her. She sometimes asks but is more often too busy to remember to "ask"

thanks rinky, i thought people didnt potty train till their child was asking for potty but it seems a lot of people put them in pants and keep taking them to the potty so i dont think we are far off really.
today started well with a wee on potty as soon as she got up, then a poo when she got dressed, then a wee when we got back from church but then i offered the potty before dinner and she said no cos she was hungry, then she wet her nappy during dinner. after that she has done nothing on the potty each time but wet her nappy between, its like once i miss one wee its all gone to pot for the rest of the day

Hi all,

We had a huge success today, i had to go to the toilet so i asked DD if she wanted to come too and do a poo on the potty, she said yes so we both sat there together reading (nice image huh) then she announced 'poo coming out now' and there it was, wee and poo in the potty, she was very proud of herself and we celebrated with a piece of choc and lots of cuddles!

Now i'm stuck with what to do now, she doesn't ask for the potty and i'm at work tomorrow for 3 days so not here to keep taking her and helping her when accidents happen etc, i know my MIL who has her won't mind but i wanted to get a few days under our belts first before subjecting them.

I think i might keep asking her if she wants to go, take her when i'm here (or DH) with her and then next week when i have 3-4 days off in a row take the plunge?

ilove it sounds like yu are doing really well, well done DD! Keep going with it and no i agree that they don't always ask but they can still learn before they know how to ask.

Can I join too? We started PT DS1 (2.3) this Saturday.

Day 1 - 10 wet pants, 7 stars on star chart (wees or poos in potty)

Day 2 - 4 wet pants, 11 stars.

Today - 3 wet pants, 7 stars so far.

So I think we're going in the right direction. The accidents today were a poo - not so good at those - and 2 wees when I was in another room, Ds took himself to the potty, sat on it and wee'd put didn't pull his pants down first!

So I think we're on the right track. We're going to venture out to the village shop this afternoon to get some milk, fingers crossed we make it ok!

Hey that's great going, i can imagine it is quite restricting hence we decided to start on a day when i'm at home.

Will it cause problems if we put DD in an odd nappy for outings where i know i can't really have accidents (friends new cream carpet etc)??

Yep, it is restricting. We're supposed to be going to Ikea tomorrow, which could be interesting. I'm going to take the potty with us and if we have to duck down behind a sofa for Ds to use it then so be it

Ikea Coventry - you have been warned!!

Jojay- good luck with Ikea- report back!

Heeby- how's it going w MIL? We put DD in pull- ups at night and say they are special bedtime pants (as opposed to old style nappies). I'm sure that'd be OK for odd daytime occassions as long as it's not frequent enough for your DD to get used to weeing in them etc.

We had a mysterious no-show of poo today. DD1 is normally a 2-a-day pooer; so as the day wore on I was expecting her to need to poo and watching her more carefully (whilst trying not to let on that I was watching her intently). Nothing happened, and no accidents. Determined not to miss the moment tomorrow. DD's had a few poo accidents recently.
But she was great this am at the creche at local gym- did a few wees on new potty with the staff helping and no accidents. I'm getting a bit more confident in taking the DDs out places.

Well done Heebychick's DD!

Jojay, that's great you're going to Ikea! I need to get out more with DD.

A tip gained from DH's experience the other day - could be worth taking a very small mat out with you if your potty's prone to sliding about on shiny floors. He took DD out to a cafe the other day and apparently she wanted the potty but then wouldn't sit on it because it kept sliding around. So she held it until she got back (it wasn't far).

Hi guys,

rinky i have heard that they can stop pooing properly and keep it in when training? maybe it's a case of getting used to 'letting it go' maybe? I have just had a text from MIL to say no sign of poo yet, they are asking and she is saying 'poo not coming yet' so lets see if they catch it right, it's a fine line between asking too much and missing it! I will report back!

vesela that's a good tip, my DH is scared stiff to go out with DD once PT is in full swing so it's good to have all the tips to hand. He's worried about having to go into mens loo's with her once she's a bit bigger, but i have told him that's a while off yet so not to worry about that too much.

I've decided to wait until the weekend before we do the nappy free time, it seemed unfair to subject everyone to a messy few days without us having a few beforehand and giving DD chance to understand a bit of what was going on. So between now and then i shall ask MIL and my mum where she goes tomorrow then nursery for thurs (she stays at 3 different places each week - busy girl!) to try the 'on the potty' time after meals and see what happens.

Do you think this is ok?

Well done for all the successes guys, it's quite daunting isn't it.