potty training = no nappy = wee and poo on the carpet. Errrrr am I the only one that wants to avoid this?

[OrangeKnickers]

or is everyone else really chilled about it and I'm just being really pathetic?

spend as much time as possible in the garden , then the accidents don't stress you out as much
we put the potty on a plastic tablecloth on the lounge floor as it ioften tips up
but we had no poo on the carpet at all, it was all contained within clothes
if you want to save washing just go bare bottomed outside to start with
good luck

would you rather have DC in nappies until they leave home?

NTN - wot a fab idea!

No, am keen to start (ds is 2) but an daunted by the wee and poo. I know it's pathetic but it doesn't get mentioned in any potty training stuff.

bigchris - yes outside is the way to go (as it were).

Sorry 'twas a bit harsh!

Maybe you'll feel better about it if you work out the cost of another year or two of nappies, wipes and cream and compare that to the cost of a new carpet

Good luck, I hope he picks it up quickly.

I did it slowly using pull up nappies along with lots of trips to the toilet (pull ups easier to get up and down). Once ds was reliably telling me he needed the toilet while wearing the pull ups, I put him into pants. He had very few accidents and it made potty training a lot less messy. He was out of nappies by the age of 2.

have them in pants not bare bummed....soaks up a bit of wee (though granted not all) and does catch poo.

Agree that potty on a plastic sheet a good idea.

Well... the alternative is to potty train your child without a single accident ever. Good luck with that!

I say just go for it, I prepared my DD for potty training, by taking her with me, sitting her on the potty (sometimes for bribes!) I put her in skirts and knickers from day one of training, took the potty in the car or in the bottom of the pram, reminded her every half an hour to start with, not asking her, but putting her on, did lots of praising, clapping, jumping up and down and even a weewee dance (but only in the house). She soon got the message, goo luck with it, yes there will be accidents, buy some good carpet cleaner and plenty of cloths.
x

You do NOT have to go from nappies to bare bum/pants. You can potty train slowly and gently, based on positive reinforcement instead of bribery/negative reinforcement of accidents/wet pants. You leave him in nappies, but start with potty in morning/after naps/before leaving house/when you get home and as he starts to ask you take him and then when he's reliable with poo you can do undies with something stuffed up front to catch wee or if he's reliable all around then move to undies. Easy peasy, just takes longer than a week.

doesn't help to be bare bummed really in my probably wrong opinion

need to feed the discomfort of wee and poo in their nickyknackers

i mean, not leaving them in it obviously

I'm sure you know what i mean

I didnt do the bare bum thing either as you only have to retrain them while wearing pants/other clothes.

thank you for the replies - food for thought! The no-nappy but in clothes is a good idea. I just thought you had to go bare bummed!

Tbe issue is kind of that ds although knowing what the potty / loo is for, won't sit on it for longer than half a nanosecond. I have tried singing / reading books but nothing doing. No bribery as yet as I don't want to start giving sweeties out without a plan.

We successfully did Elimination communication all the time he was immobile but as soo as he could walk then he was off. No sitting on the potty anymore.

Get loads of cheap leggings from H&M, they catch a lot of the wee.

Also we started using training pants which hold a small wee but to them are just big knickers. They still feel the wetness so works just as well.

Meant we all relaxed a bit more about it, as I wasn't constantly cleaning soggy sofa or carpets.

Oops just seen you have a Ds so leggings might not be quite right!

I am also facing this dilemma as I have just spent a fortune on carpets, which are cleanable I admit, but you never really get rid of that wee smell if it soaks into the backing.

Thanks for some of the suggestions. My childminder is doing some of the training 2 1/2 days a week and she has laminate! For the other two days I have plastic backed trainer pants or pull ups. We are proceeding slowly. Thank you for all of the tips they were useful to me and I hope to the OP>

We found that if you leave it until they are older then you dont really have many accidents at all - we tried with ds when he just wasnt ready and then again when he was approaching 3 and it was really easy.

Dont feel pressured just because they have got to a certain age - if they are not ready then you will have lots of accidents.