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...

Hi everyone I started potty training DD a few weeks ago and it's gone really well.The thing that really cracked it for us in the beginning was stickers.

We used THIS book that came with a sticker chart.

The little girl in the book potty trains her teddy first which DD loved.

I never take a potty with me (just lot's of spare clothes)and just take her to the toilet when we are out.

ilovetochat I have some tiny 2-3 knickers that I bought for DD but never used because they were way too small for my DD,I would be happy to send them to you or anyone else that could use them

lilly that's great, i have just ordered a copy for DD. How old is DD? can she pull her own trousers up etc? How did you start? sorry for all the questions, it's worrying me how to actually get into the throws of it.

My DD will be 2 next week and we started about 4 weeks ago.We read the book and then trained her teddy for a few days.

I started training properly when I new I could have a few days at home and left her naked from the waist down so that we could get to the potty quickly.

I put her on the potty when I took her night nappy off and read her the potty book then when she did a wee we followed the routine in the book along with emptying and flushing then a sticker and a treat.

I would say that once you make the decision stick to pants (let her choose) don't swap and change between nappies and pants.

She cant get trousers up and down so we stick to dresses and skirts quite often without pants at home to make it easy for her.

She pops herself on and off the potty by herself at home but I do remind her if I think she hasn't been for a while.

HTH

knew not new lol

Well we made it round Ikea without an accident! In face, we've made it through the whole day without an accident - Not bad for Day 4 I think!!

We had to whip the potty out in the kitchen section, the sofa bit and the restaurant for him to do a wee, and I had to trot through the store to empty it LOL, but we made it.

Thanks Vesela, I may use the tip about a mat for the potty - he stepped backwards today an nearly sent the whole lot flying!!

He can't get his trousers up and down either, but he's doing pretty well with our help, and that's good enough for me.

Heebychick - sounds a good idea to wait till the weekend - hope it goes well

wow jojay, hes doing really well. i am watching this thread for top tips.

That's great Jojay- what a confidence boost too.

Lilly- I might buy the book to bolster our efforts.

I've had a frustrating day- 2 x poo accidents. We've got the hang of weeing in the potty but DD keeps doing her poos in her pants regardless of how much I remind her/ take her to potty/ talk about pooing etc. Maybe I'm overdoing it?

Heeby- how's it been with MIL?

can i join in?
dd2 is 2 years and a month,
i bought her a potty and potty chair about 3 weeks ago. she can pull her easypants down and sit on the potty without a tantrum- took about 2 weeks to get that far.
now with doing anything on the potty- i can literally sit there for about 3 hours waiting for her to poo or wee. then she will stad up as i am caught unawares and do it on the floor! SO FRUSTRATING. last night i was with her 5pm-8pm befor bedtime and she was sat there saying 'it's coming out' the whole time. at 8, she stood up and weed and then gasped and said 'there's water on the floor'.
this morning i knew she's been holding in her poo the day before and would need one after brekkie, so i was with her on the potty 7am-10pm. at 10pm she started saying 'it's coming out' and stood up mid poo, horrified. so after 3 hours of torture i got half a poo in the potty and half on the floor. after that i was too exhausted to put her on the potty again and she did it in her nappy.

on the other hand she loves taking off her knickers or nappy and sitting on the potty and hates being dirty.

this is SOOO hard

hi sherazade, we had a slow start like that with dd ignoring the potty or sitting for 1 second and jumping up, then she just walked over and pood in it so i think they have to go through the stages slowly.
dd has jumped up half way through poos and wees, i think its cos she is eager to take it to the loo for flushing.
i wouldnt make dd sit on the potty for more than 10 mins really, after that long i say if you arent doing a wee or poo you can get off, and she either quickly wees or gets off.

Sherazade, we also had a lot of standing up half way through! I think it's a strange feeling for them to get used to if they're used to pooing standing up.

rinky - maybe like you say, just step back and don't talk about it at all? (except to say 'maybe in the potty next time' afterwards, or something).

lillypie, at what stage did you move to the toilet? (or get DD comfortable with it so she could use them when out?)

and yay jojay for Ikea success! (although the Ikea layout must suck doubly with a potty full of wee).

It was during the second week,we had had a long bus journey and I knew she would need to go so we popped into the loo where I work.I went first and then said your turn now and popped her on.I bent down and held her very tightly so that she felt secure but she went ok and loved the hand dryer.

I Know it's been said before but it really helps to be very relaxed about it all.

While we're sharing tips, I'd like to recommend the Gina Ford method - 'Potty Training in One Week'

I know she's contraversial re her routines but everyone I know who's followed this potty training book has had success, though hte title is somewhat misleading as the preparation work you do before actual training means the whole process takes quite a bit longer than a week!

In a nutshell, you get the child used to sitting on the potty a few times a day without taking their trousers down, which takes a lot of the stress out of the situation - they become familiar with the routine of sitting on a potty without any pressure to 'perform', or any risk of accidents.

It also ensures they understand the meaning of things like 'wet' and 'dry' etc, before you even start.

Once they're happy with the potty,and can follow the instruction to sit on their potty and stay there for a few minutes, then you go for it. Nappy comes off, and you sit them on the potty every 15 mins or so until something appear. Cue lots of clapping, star on star chart, and on it goes.

It's early days for us, we're only on day 5 but Ds was clean and dry all day yesterday, nad is asking to do a wee most of the time without being prompted by me. He's gone to the childminder today so we'll see how he gets on there.

Of course I may well be eating my words in a few days time, but so far it seems to be working

I'd second that. My SIL gave me GF's book and I approached it with caution, because I'd run a mile from her other books. However, I read the potty one and thought it sounded good (and much more low-key than her other books, despite the 'in a week.')

And it worked (for us), although we didn't do the initial "sit them on the potty every 15 minutes," since it was clear DD wanted to be left to pee on the floor decide for herself.

From reading other threads, I see I'm not the only one who's disliked GF's 'routine' books but found the potty one great.

That's excellent you went on a long bus journey, lillypie! I think making them feel secure is a big part of the whole thing.

plus we also didn't use a star chart - I thought I'd give it a go without one first. So we just clapped etc!

(OT - why won't strike-out font work for me?! I put the little hyphens on either side!)

Hi guys,

Well DD spent the day at MIL's with no potty action sadly, she did sit on it after each meal and as often as she wanted/asked to/ MIL asked her to but didn't do anything and in fact she would sit for a while, read a book then get a bit upset saying 'enough now' and want pants back on then she'd do it in her nappy. Humph. She's at my mums today and before we left home she asked me to use the potty (first time she's really asked) and we sat for a while but nothing happened, then my mum said she asked after breakfast but again nothing, then sure as can be expected, nappy pants go back on and she does a poo. I guess she's feeling a little insecure about it all - will def wait till the weekend i think when i can support her all the time.

Will write again in a mo - meeting calls!!

I would like to second getting them used to the potty first.We have actually had a potty in the house since last summer.

Sorry am a bit free-er now.

Yes i agree, we had a potty in the house from last summer and would put teddies on it and stick stickers on it so she got used to it being around.

Great about Ikea jojay that's great about getting arouns without a mishap, i have been worrying about leaving the house once started.

It's great to have your support on this thread, i feel much more confident already!

Promise to report back with how the day goes at mums. i'm guessing tomorrow might be easier at nursery - or maybe she needs to build up her confidence a bit before doing things in front of others or in other house - did anyone else experience this?

we are having ups and downs, most days she uses the potty 1st thing, then when getting dressed, then during the morning, then before nap so she is dry till naptime, 2-ish, but then once she wets her nappy during naptime she doesn't want the potty when i try and then wees in her nappy and then it all goes to pot for the rest of the day. its like once i miss one i may aswell forget it.

Most poos are in potty and ones in nappy we have missed the cues, like the other day she weed in potty and as i poured it in the toilet she said poopoo and i said no only a wee this time, then she pood in her nappy so obvoiously she was telling me she needed a poo. but today she just pood in her nappy while i prepared lunch and i dont think she made any attempt to tell me or get potty.

she hardly ever asks for potty but if i offer the potty and she wants to go then she will say yes pottypotty and if she sits there and i go to get her up she says no if she wants to do anything.

she sits on the potty when we are out at playgroups but does nothing.

part of me thinks ive started too soon, although it was down to dd really, but she seems too young, cant undress, doesnt tell me and seems too young for pants.

was there 1 thing that made you think your dc could manage in pants? Is there something i am waiting for like dry between potty attempts or always asking for potty before i try her?

Hi, may I join in?

It's not me who's going through potty training hell, but my sister, who doesn't have internet at home. Today has been one long haul of increasingly hysterical phone-calls and texts. My nephew will be three at the end of the month. The big problem seems to be that he simply won't answer when asked if he wants to do a poo or a wee. He won't answer any questions like that, eg 'do you want to read a story?' He just won't say 'yes' or 'no'. He'll happily jabber on in every other way you can think of though.

My own children are both girls who have reached double figures, and I never had trouble getting them to talk, in fact the opposite, so I'm not much help to her except for making sympathetic noises.

ILTC, I don't think you've started too soon, it actually looks pretty good to me.

ilovetochat The signs I looked for in Ds was an awareness that he was doing a poo - he started telling me beforehand sometimes, and that he was capable of following simple instructions, like 'come here' 'sit down' etc.

I figured if he can't do that then I've got no hope!

He never asked for the potty, and had never done anything in one before this week. Nor had he ever had dry nappies. He can't pull his trousers up and down properly either. I don't use pull ups and once we decided to train we just went for it, no nappies except at sleep time.

But he's a fair bit older than your DD at 2.3, so it may be better to be more flexible with pants / nappies re your daughter - as you are doing.

I think you're right not to go for pants yet. My friend has a little girl who is very 'forward' vocally etc, and they tried to train her before two. They never went back to nappies nad it's fair to say that 4 months on she still has accidents almost every day - she had 5 at nursery last week. So that's made me wary of starting too soon, but admittedly that's only one child, there's probably plenty out there who do fine.

I think if I were you I'd follow your daughters lead, keep it fun and light hearted, let her use the potty if she asks for it, but keep her in nappies for the time being.

For us it's going pretty well. He went to the childminder today and had poo'd and wee'd himself by 10 am - oh no!! But after that he seemed to remember what to do and was fine for the rest of the day, even managing one at a toddler group where apparently the whole room cheered lol!!

Here's aiming for a dry day tomorrow!!

thanks for reply jojay, dd knows when she poos and wees and says wet and pulls at her nappy so she def knows what she is doing.
and a few times she has said poo and then done one on the potty or said change and done a wee so sometimes she knows what she is about to do. she often has dry nappies too, even after naps she is dry and if sat on the potty quickly will wee in it.
so in some ways she seems very ready, but then cos she is only 20 months in other ways she is not ready.
if i ask her do you want a wee/poo she tends to ignore me.
i have got some pull-ups, not to train her or pretend they are pants but just to make it easier for me to take nappy on and off for potty attempts.

DD keeps pooing in her pants. She gets really upset once she's realised and I reassure her and tell her everything's OK and clean it up. I don't know if we started too soon, but she seemed really keen on wearing pants (she asked to) and the first few days went well (beginners' luck?).

Wees are fine and all hit their target, although I do ask/ remind her and take her to the potty if it's been a while since the last one.

I'm in a dilema: wether to put her in a nappy tomorrow and risk going backwards with the weeing, or to persevere with pants knowing that she's going to soil herself a couple of times and take loads of spare clothes along.

rinky poor you hun, this is what i'm dreading. how many days have you been trying? does she have a poo at different times or around the same time each day? i wonder if she knows it's coming? but then i though a poo was easier to recognise as coming than a wee? so in theory if she can tell when a wee comes she should know a poo coming?

not sure what to suggest, i would probably either keep going for a few more days and if no improvement maybe wait a few weeks. or maybe stop for a while before she gets put off the potty? is she quite confident in her potty use, not worried about seeing it or anything (i've heard that can upset them)

Thanks Heeby- everyone tells me that getting the hang of poos comes after being able to control wees. I suppose that one can do a wee even if you're not completely bursting whereas when a poo is on it's way it's all or nothing and more difficult to stop, or difficult to squeeze one out if you're not totally ready. (Sorry- guessing and TMI!)

DD's fine with wees and often quite proud of what she produces but I am worried that not being able to control her poo might be knocking her confidence. We were fine with poos for the first few days- Maybe we were going to the potty more frequently and just caught them.

My friend has just been through this and tells me not to give up- her DD (2.4yrs) had difficulty controlling her poos at first, but her DD didn't seem to mind having a poo in her pants, whereas my DD gets really upset until she's clean again. I overheard her talking to her favourite bear about poos and how one went on the floor (I will spare the details).

I'm going to see how today goes and if she's pooing in her pants I might switch to pull-ups. Then we could still use them like pants and wee in the potty but it might be less uncomfortable when a poo accident occurs.

Not so good here today - a poo and a wee accident this morning, but he's been ok since, though I've reminded him a lot.

He had a friend over and was very engrossed in playing with him, so I think that was the problem.

Never mind, we'll keep pressing on