2.6 and ready or not!!? does this sound encouraging?

[megamummy111]

my son is 2 years 6 months. we are day 5 of him wearing pants and have gone for it absolutely cold turkey, straight into pants, no going back to nappies (daytime, obvs)

Here are the positives: he does seem to have quite good bladder control as he can go 2 hours, even nearly 3 hours without weeing (not always). When he does wee it seems like gallons. I think without this level of control, ie 6 months ago he would have been weeing and dribbling every 20 minutes or something. Am i right in thinking this?? Is this a good indication of readyness?
There have been no dribbles.
We are at about a 60% success rate with the potty. He sits on (with my prompting) is happy to sit 5 minutes or so and sometimes he wees and sometimes he doesnt.
He has pooed in the potty a few times.
He seems happy to wear pants.
He has got SLIGHTY better each day but there has not yet been a big improvement or breakthough day.
The whole process so far has been quite low key, ie, no major tantrums, no strong aversion to being in pants, no screaming to be back in nappies or anything like that.

Negatives: He needs my prompting. I have to instigate getting him to sit on the potty. Sometimes it takes bribes of sweets or chocs (!) He has not yet said anything like 'i need a wee', he is not taking the initiative in that way at all. When he has an accident sometimes he seems bothered by it and comes and tells me but equally sometimes he just carrys on playing, happy to be in soaking wet trousers. He seems completely surprised sometimes that he is weeing meaning he feels no prior warning.

A typical day (yesterday) he did 4 wees and 1 poo on his potty and had 3 accidents (one was a poo) like a say this is Day 4. Does this all sound encouraging and should i continue? Or does it mean he is not quite ready an would be better to try in a couple of months? Would appreciate some feedback, particularly from those who have experience of potty training, not just first time mums of lo's who are in the "wait untill they are really ready" club (sorry, no offence intended!)

Erm, well I don't have much experience, as am potty training my first, but it does sound like you are having success.

If it were me, I would carry on and try to get the 60% success rate to 70% and so on. 5 days doesn't seem to sound like a massive amount of time from having followed some of the other threads on here. But I'm on day 2 and still heavily bribing/eyeing my soft furnishings nervously. So someone more experienced might know more!

i think the fact he can wait a considerable time is a good thing. but do you think that he recognises when he needs to go?

all of my 3 boys have been really hit and miss wearing pants, but if naked did much better!
i would try maybe leaving his bottom half completely naked and then just watching closely for signs that he might need a wee, going a bit quiet, suddenly standing still, jiggling around a bit... that way you may catch more of them and you will gradually teach him to recognise that the way he feels right then means it's time to go for a wee?

I agree with the going naked suggestion, this is how both my boys finally cracked it - make sure you whack up the heating tho' !!

Good luck

thisisyesterday no i don't think he anticipates when he needs to go at all, just yet. This is my major doubt as to whether he is really ready. Not sure if this can be taught or learned or if it is purely physical and just comes with time?? i really am in two minds about it at the mo. If i could look into a crystal ball and see that within say 3-4 weeks max he will be fully dry i would be happy to continue, i think its worth say 3 weeks of 'work' but if he is going to continue to have accidents for another 2 or 3 months like my niece did i think whats the point? he may as well stay in nappies for another 2 months. I think its hard to judge, but i dont want to give up without giving him a chance.
projectgainsborough how are you getting on on day 2? any success? do you fancy sharing notes!? day 1 and 2 for me felt quite hard work, day 1 he only managed one wee potty and had about 7 or 8 accidents. day 3 was easier and started to have quite a lot of hope!

it's hard.
with my first he was just over 2 and one day he said to me "wee" and i asked if he'd like to go on the toilet, and he did...and that was it!
the second and third were sadly not quite so easy lol, but I was beginning to tell that they were ready from the fact that they would hold on for a long time if they had no nappy on (just like your son)
with DS2 he would also start wriggling a bit and I would rush him to the toilet. he had a few accidents, but was dry within a week or so.
with DS3 I tried 3 or 4 times but he clearly wasn't ready as he gave absolutely NO sign at all that he was about to wee and tbh I am too lazy to do the whole taking to the toilet every 20 mins, so we'd end up with quite a few accidents.
Then the last time I attempted it I caught him just as he started weeing a couple of times and that was that, we didn't look abck

So I think with some children they do get the sensation that they need to wee... they just haven't associated it with going to the toilet yet. if you can catch them just before they wee then they realise what is happening, so it can be taught I think, if they can recognise the feeling. does that make sense (i confused myself writing it)

if i were you i'd persevere for a couple more days and just see how you go. IMO when a child is ready you can easily toilet train within a week, so if it's going on longer than that I'd be tempted to go back to nappies and then try again in a few weeks time
2.6 is quite young still, so don't worry if he doesn't get it yet

I would love to share notes - going slowly mad being stuck inside the house. TBH, I've been surprised how hard it's been so far. He's used the potty before during nappy free time so I thought it would go quite smoothly but he's pretty resistant to it. Someone on here suggested getting him on the potty (when he obviously needs to go) and making him laugh to relax him, which I've had some success with. I think maybe he just needs reassurance that it's ok.

Hearing that you found day 3 easier gives me hope. Like your son, he seems to have good bladder control, which is pretty recent.

I think what *thisisyesterday' says sounds sensible - that it sounds worth perservering with your DS for a few days at least.

thisisyesterday thankyou so much for that, what you wrote makes a lot of sense and i think i will give it 3 more days - which takes us to xmas day!

project gainsborough have many people expressed surprise that you are starting at xmas? a lot of people think i'm completely mad and have said i couldn't have picked a more stressful time but my logic was that its a good time as hubby off work to help me, and no tots groups or commitments for 2 weeks. I got all my shopping done and wrapped weeks ago and i really have nothing much to do. We are having xmas dinner at my mums just up the road, and generally planning a very laid back xmas at home. That being said i may be tempted to use a pull-up on xmas morning and over dinner cos with all the new toys i think my DS will be hyper and very distracted for a few hours at least.

I only stayed in for the first 2 days, didnt leave the house, but day 3 we went to a surestart group that was running in the morning, only a short car journey, i put some plastic sheet and then a towel on the car seat for him to sit on and took the potty with me, and he stayed dry on the way there, wee'd on his potty as soon as we had arrived, then dry on way home and wee'd on potty again once home! Fantastic!! although was probably just a fluke. Yesterday we visited my mum and today my MIL. Have resisted the temptation to use pull-ups so far for outings. What you said about getting him to laugh and so relax is a really good idea!

He doesn't sound ready to me. I waited until my DS1 was ready and it was really a case of ditching the nappies and wearing pants. No worrying about dribbles, accidents or potties. He went dry at night at the same time. I forget exactly how old he was but it was before 3 and after 2 and a half.

My DS2 is 2 years 8 months and will happily wee in the loo, and has done for around 6 months. He will do this so long as he is naked. He told me the other day that if Father Achristmas brings him red pants he will wear them, so I've told him that the nappies will be taken away then too.

I guess what I am saying is that it shouldn't be hard. Why not wait a bit longer?

I know, Christmas does seem like a strange time, but he's off nursery and we actually can stay indoors. I think there's no 'good' time, though - there will always be something to stress about.

We've got xmas lunch booked in a restaurant and I am toying with the idea of pullups - what with Santa and a petting zoo, I suspect there may be accidents. I think I'm going to have to leave the house today, accidents or no, because I shall go mad if I don't. Fingers crossed he does as well as your DS, megamummy !

Am interested in what Llareggub is saying because I am finding this hard. I think he knows when he needs to go - and interestingly, since we've started this process, he's been dry at night - but he is resistant to the potty. I just read some pyschologist's report which suggests that potty resisitance is due to too many parental reminders. So great, 3 days in and I've arsed it all up already...

well day 6 and DS stayed completely dry today! he did only 4 big wees all day, all in his potty, all 2 or 3 hours apart. Thats the good news, bad news is he pooed twice in his pants and seemed completely oblivious that he had done both times, and in complete denial. I thought LO's usually are clean before they are dry? Looks like DS is going to be the other way round.