Did EC till ds could walk but he won't sit on the potty for more than 1 second....what to do next?

[OrangeKnickers]

We used Elimimation Communication (ie you watch your baby and they tell you when they need to go when very young) from about 6months till about 14mths with ds, just for poo [lazy mother emoticon]. It worked very well and we seemed to catch most of the poo.

However, once ds could walk he refused to sit on the potty at all so we went back to poos in nappies. Now he is 19mths and interested in the potty again, BUT still won't sit on it for more than a second.

So, do I carry on and have bare bum time so he gets the idea? Do I wait a bit and see if he can be persuaded to sit for longer? Do I skip the potty and go stright to the loo?

Also i work four days a week - so need something our cm can do too. I don't want to take a week off work to stay in and potty train ds [lazy working mother emoticon]

I haven't tried the chocolate buttons idea, would prefer not to.

Any advice hopefully received.

Sit him on potty in front of TV/DVD? Special toys only to be played with while on potty? You read to him while he's on potty?

I'm afraid you'll have to sit with him.

That's what we did with ours.

It's a bit of a pain but I keep a basket of books by the potty and jigsaws and one of us had to sit with DS.

Most of the time he's fine on his own now (he's 2 and potty training "for real" - in pants for a week now).

We kind of e-c ed too with ours (am potty training because it's the holidays but it's pretty easy with an e-cer I think.

Sorry for brief earlier post, had to leave computer.

I think that at his age he is just discovering that he can do what he wants now, and it's all too exciting to be sitting on a pot for any length of time. You could try pants free at home for a portion of the day and see whether he goes to the potty by himself. Or you could sit him on, with you there at regular times during the day and see how he manages, putting nappies on in between. CM could do this too. You shouldn't need to take time off work, if you and CM follow the same plan every day, you just follow on when you get home, and when not at work. Hopefully things will progress eventually to DS asking for the potty or using it by himself, and then you can try pants!

A word of caution: some children hate being asked frequently if they need the potty, and will then deliberately wet or soil in retaliation, ignore!!! Just point out "here is the potty if you need it" and he may well give it a go. And be completely relaxed about accidents, as soon as they realize that you are anxious they will do it to wind you up.

thank you - had an attach of RL and couldn't get to the pc.

Thanks for the advice. I have tried reading to him but this doesn't work, but maybe the potty in front of a Charlie and Lola would work.

I'll chat to my cm as well, so we are both doing the same thing.

Any other ECers 'gone bad' out there?

Don't despair!

After a week, DS2 is now almost "potty-trained" and it was relatively painless because he was already used to being on a potty.

He is 25 mths.

We also did well with ec til DS walked - bit of a bad patch after that, and as I said, now he's pretty much out of nappies and definitely has v. good bladder control.

He always used to ask for poos, but over the last few weeks has been concentrating on wees, so we had a few dirty nappies/pants but fingers crossed we're there now.