Gently encourage of force the issue?

[giantpurplepeopleeater]

My DS is 2.5.

Over the last 2 - 3 months we have been gradually encouraging the toilet, with DS watching us, us talking him through it, showing him how the toilet works etc.

He will happily sit on the potty or the toilet and break wind - even asks to go to the toilet and then does it. A couple of times he has had a wee in the toilet too (not yet on the potty but he seems to prefer the toilet) In fact he is a bit obsessed with the toilet, especially wiping, flushing and washing his hands after!!

However, in general he likes to have a nappy on, and will still go in the nappy. He can get a bit upset if I want to take hime out without one.

Up till now I have not forced the issue, but have been encouraging him to go to the toilet/ potty rather than forcing him to go without a nappy. He wears a nappy to bed but is dry throughout the night and then goes in his nappy in the morning.

So, I'm at an impasse.

Do I continue to encourage and look for new/ more ways to incentivise (nice new pants, pull-ups, rewards for doing it)?

Or do I force the issue and tahe away the nappies altogether and let him make the accidents and learn that way?

Advice would be very welcome! Thanks

you are doing a great job! in my opinion you have done a perfect process...now i think its time to take away all day the diaper....tell him that that are for small kids,,that big kids do not wear them...there will be a lot of accidents the first 2 days...(try not to preasure him)..just leave him calm,,,feeling and understanding his body...one or 2 times tell him the wee should go in the potty!! ...also, if he wants to sit down read him stories of potty training books or dowload apps for potty training. my little one loved the one called potty training learnign with the animals.....it was so exiting for him just to have the ipad when he was in the toilett...that did the trick....let me know if i can do somehting for you!

I would say keep on with the gentle encouragement. Most children will let you know when they are ready, and it doesn't sound like he is there yet. If you try to force it you will just upset him and end up clearing up a lot of mess! He is still on the young side. Good luck, I remember the frustration of waiting for DS to be ready, but once he was it just clicked and he never looked back

Thanks guys.

One for each side..... still don't know which would be best!

In my head, I'm a bit worried about jumping in and taking the nappy away in case he hates and it puts him off completely! Camila - did anything like that happen to you.

I like the idea of a book - DS loves reading.

Smartie - did you ever try rewards for doing it? Stickers or something? How did that go?

I didn't really do anything. I felt like I was at the stage you are at for ages, and DS was really not that interested. One day while DH was changing his nappy he got up, walked over to the potty and had a wee. He never went back to nappies after that, it just seemed to click in his head, and apart from a couple of accidents when he was too busy playing to go, he was dry from then on.

Having said that DN was still not interested at almost 4, so Dsis had to force the issue eventually. I'd say 2.5 is a bit early to force things though, as from talking to friends it seems most of them do it really easily when they are ready.