Advice please ......

[smk84]

Hi, DS is 2.11 and he has been in pull ups since around January. Since then he has been doing lots of wees on the toilet/potty (when he has been asked to sit on) and has normally pooed in the nappy. For a couple of weeks, we have been letting him go nappy free for short periods, and getting him to sit on the potty/toilet every so often,where he will happily wee, and when we have caught it at the right time, he will poo there too. Last Friday, we decided to ditch the daytime nappy (he spends most of his time in pants, but trouser free). He has done lots of wees on the toilet/potty, but he has been reminded/persuaded to go on (i.e. he never puts himself on) each time. He has pooed in his pants every day. The last couple of days we have been reminding him much less, and not really persuading him at all. He has had a few accidents. He has still not said "I need a wee wee" , and the reason there have not been more accidents is because he has responded to us saying "remember to do your wees on the potty". I know he knows when a wee is coming when he's on the potty, because when one takes a while to come, he will tell me "it's coming". Just not really sure what to do next - keep doing the same? not remind him at all? offer a better reward (we have a stamp we use now)? And how long should we keep trying before we decide that he's maybe not ready? Dc2 due early June ! Thanks for reading :)

Keep with it. Keep reminding him...just stretch out the time between. Lots of praise when he either a) does a wee or b) has dry pants (OMG just remembering the fuss I made with DS - we did a "dry pant dance" a "dry pants piggy-back" to he pot of marbles and he would get to put a marble in a jar...... You are there. He is weeing on the potty. Very, very normal to have to do the reminding to start with...and soon you will not have to - he will take himself. He may also start to give you visual clues - my DS for ages used to suddenly clutch his crotch - very big giveaway and not at all embarrassing to walk through the cafe with him grasping his bits
And as for poos - my DS pooed his pants everyday for the first week or so too - cannot for the life of me remember what sorted that one....could have been utter bribery -poo in the potty and you'll get from chocolate...sod those who say bribery shouldn't play a part....it worked for both mine one way or t'other.
Stick with it. Good luck

thank you :) funnily enough he grabbed his crotch this am just before he did a massive wee on the potty. Another poo in the pants today (which he didn't tell me about). Going to buy some choc buttons this weekend for the poo !

Keep with it - and also remembered the poo breakthorough could have been the use of a "special" toy. DS used to have a tiny 5p sized wet patch/ accident just before he was going to have a poo - he would notice the accident and sit on the potty and a further wee may/may not have arrived....but about 2-3 minutes after he had got off he would poo in his pants. In essence if he had sat for a bit longer we would have had success. So try and see if you can notice a similar pattern (One of my friends little boys used to have a hissy fit/tantrum a couple of minutes before pooing his pants). If you do notice any pattern what you need to then do is try and get him to sit on the potty long enough to actually "perform". DS had a JCB digger he could only play with on the potty. If you ask your DS what he wants to play with when he is sitting down to have a poo he may be more engaged with it.

Also the choc buttons worked a treat for DS (for DD she loved jigsaws so we bought a puzzle and she got one piece per performance until she finished the puzzle). As you have to keep with the bribery/rewards for some time you can after the first few days swap to marbles or some such (1 for a wee 2 for a poo) and at the end of the day the marbles = buttons. Stops the constant sugar hitting the teeth :-)

Oh and buy more cheap pants from Tescos. Some of those accidents are just grim...and though I never told my husband I was so frivolous I just could not see a way to putting the ucky really squishy ones anywhere but the bin...

Sorry for really long posts.

thanks again ! Long posts are great ! Thank you for taking the time. We had a little setback at the weekend as he had the runs and after 3 pooey pants and a poo on the floor in short succession we reverted back to a pull up for 36 hours (he was getting quite distressed about all the pooing). We have definitely made progress though - he seemed to be wetting his naptime nappy much less, so we don't use it anymore and he has stayed dry. Also his night time nappy has been much drier and he does a huge wee when he gets up. He has started to become more aware of pooing, although it's only usually a "mummmmmyyyyyy" as it comes out, but I'm hoping that he will become a bit more aware in advance soon. We managed to catch it in the potty today and then he did some more on there. Choc buttons working well !!

May not be conventional, but we are doing night time on top of day time. Started with daytime first, but after 3-4 days like your son, his nappies were dry in the morning, left it a few more days, but then he went in nighttime nappy and a few accidents in am when switched from nappy to pants. Last night went for pants at night, and he was dry, plus dry all am. Basically I think that going between nappies/pullups and pants confuses them and prolongs it.

Took dd1 4 months to potty train in day when mixed them up, and a further year to be dry at night, whereas dd2 and ds have followed night time soon after day time (even when still the odd daytime accident); and no nighttime accidents(so far!). I do a double layer in the bed of waterproof sheet, cot sheet, waterproof sheet, cot sheet, so any accidents just need change of pyjamas and pants, sometimes duvet.

Having stomach bug is unfortunate during training, poor you, hopefully will be easier now. We've been lucky on that front so far.