Disastrous first day

[Mosschopz]

Hi,
My DS is 3 in six weeks and as I'm on holiday at the moment (teacher) I decided to start potty training him during the summer hols. He has shown only a few of the 'signs', but not what I consider the important ones, like knowing when he's doing a poo or wee and staying dry for extended times. Nevertheless, I thought we should give it a go as he's moving up to pre-school soon (yeah, yeah same old story!) and I don't know any other of his peers who aren't trained. I think I've probably put myself (but hopefully not him) under a bit of pressure and this has been made worse by having a miscarriage earlier this month which meant a hospital stay for me and the whole event being 'put back'.

We spent the last week or so putting him on the loo at the starts and ends of days (or when we remembered, as it was really just a formality, as he didn't do anything. We practised pulling up and down and read Pirate Pete a few times.

So today was day 1 and it resulted in 7 accidents and a lot of upset and toilet refusing at home. He went to nursery for a half day and at least sat on the potty but then got up and wee'd five times. I have a star chart and he gets a star for sitting on the toilet, he has chosen his pants at every opportunity, and there has been lots of praise and no bad feelings about the accidents.

Right now I cannot imagine him wee'ing on the toilet, let alone poo'ing.

Is there honestly any point in us pursuing this? I know it's only day 1 but I hear so much from people saying you have to wait until they are ready, but then others saying you should just force it. I was told by one (admittedly older) person that I was being 'too casual'.

I knew today would be awful, but I did hope for slightly better.

We are potty training at the moment too

We have a potty in the living room, its got stickers on it to make it 'special' as DD is a bit wary of the toilet.

What we found to be working so far is to keep her bare bottomed. If she has pants on she will just go I
n them as I imagine for her it just feels like a nappy. With a bare bum she will actively go on the potty and only have about one accident a day. When she does go on the potty we make a big song and dance about it..my poor mum gets loads of calls..DD loves to tell nanny what she has done and my mum makes a big fuss too.

Im sorry to hear about your loss, that must be terrible. Dont pressure yourself. I have felt like DD would never get there but she is she is 3 too. Dont beat yourself up. It will just click into place. Promise.

We approached tt in the same way to you. Sticker do sitting on the toilet sweetie for doin something.

I got lucky the first day and had him in the loo every 20 minutes ended up having to bribe him with stories... Pick a story and let's read it on the loo, or even you can play with mummy's phone if we go and sit on the loo. I was also trying to bf ds2 so it wasn't really practical day2/3/4 were a nightmare, would put him on the loo and then he would get off and pee.

At the end of day 4 I caught him starting to pee and plonked him on the potty. Gave him a sweetie and lloads of praiae et him watch some Thomas on the iPad as there was actually something in the potty.

Day 5 1 accident. And he put himself in the potty whenever he needed to go.

Today I am trying to make him wear pants all day as we have been bottom half naked till now.

Give it a few days... And good luck

Thank you! That advice was great and I've taken it on board! We had 5 accidents and two wees on potty on day two when he was at nursery then yesterday afternoon I seemed to crack it. We visited a friend in the morning (two accidents while there :-/) and then when he got home he asked to see his favourite tv programme. I said he could watch it in the iPad on the potty and if he could sit there all through Ben & Holly and do something he'd get a chocolate. He managed it, then did it three times more for choc! Hope today is as good!