Toilet Training Cold Turkey Rant and a question.

[TelleHazel]

Hi everyone!

I started toilet training my 2.5 year old DS1 last Saturday, so it's been 5 days now, and it's been a hit and miss the last few days.

I ditched the nappies and pull-ups as I believe they confuse kids. ( Just my opinion )even at nap times and through the night. Despite mess everywhere and 2-3 loads of washing a day, I'm really enjoying no nappies or pull-ups. I change quite a few nappies with my 3.5 month old DS2.

1st day - He did great, loved the idea of peeing on the toilet and potty. Also had no accidents.

2nd Day - He did maybe 3-5 wees on the toilet/potty and early afternoon he rushed himself to the potty and did a poo. Lots of clapping, shouts of hooray and loads of praise. A few accidents.

3rd day- He regressed a bit. More accidents and more convincing him to try and get on the toilet/potty.

4th day- He was better then the 3rd day, but he did a poo on the floor.

5th day ( Today ) - No wees on the toilet/potty yet, just my unfortunate floor.

I believe when it comes to poos he has better control as he seems be able to hold off for a bit longer. Unlike wee, which he also knows is coming as he will pause and watch himself prior to weeing on the floor.

I've decided today that I will set my phone alarm to go off every 10 minutes and just get him use to getting on and off the toilet/potty. Even if he doesn't do anything on it.

Despite the hit and miss during the days, he has been doing really well at night. He woke up dry on the 3rd night, and even got up at one point to try and go to the potty. But unfortunately in his sleepy haze couldn't get his pants off in time. Again BUT, we gave him heaps of praise regardless, because he attempted to go by himself.

I've reached a point were I am now bribing him with everything I can think of M&M's, lollipops, stickers, his favourite TV shows and babycinos. It's to the point that I am now eating,drinking,watching and playing with said bribes myself, because he doesn't care.

But despite these step backs, I haven't given up, because he has shown immense improvements and I am extremely proud of him despite how annoying toilet training is.

I won't lie I get very frustrated with him when he wees on the floor, but I'm constantly reminding myself to make it a positive situation.
But it's so difficult. I'm finding day training harder then night training and I always thought it would be the opposite. Considering I'm half asleep when he gets up at night.

Anyway now that my rant is over, because I've had no one to talk to about this other than my partner, but he's a bit ehh about this whole thing anyway.

I've given myself 4 weeks as an official ?deadline? Probably a bit much, but I don't want to say 1 week or 2 weeks and then be disappointed when he's shown no improvement.

So, my question only out of curiosity, is How long did it take your child to figure everything out? How long into toilet training was your child taking themselves to the toilet/potty?

I tried cold turkey at 2.5yrs.
She finally got it at 3.5.

I didn't do night training though. Just noticed that around the time she was dry in the day her nappy was dry at night so stopped using one and she never had any accidents.

I've no advice but am just about to do this with DS so I'm reading in horror! I thought cold turkey was the best way to go: all done and dusted in 3 days or less...

why cant you just wait a bit longer?
My DS came out of nappies a month before he was 3 he had 1 accident the first day and that was it because he was ready.
Would it not just be easier to leave it a bit longer?

My Dd trained at 22 months and it took her about 2 weeks of cold turkey training. She had accidents, but got there! I'd stick to one type of reward though - keep it consistent.

You obviously think your child is ready so don't be put off by others saying he's not. His early successes show that he is in fact capable.

Lots of praise, keep up with the rewards, tell him what a grown up big boy he is.

for you in the meantime

Penelope Leach said it much better than this but I remember 2 important messages. Toileting is completely out of your control - you can't MAKE your child wee/poo on demand or where you want them to, so if it becomes a battle of wills you will always lose. And the second point was that the amount of energy spent on earlier toilet-training (with cleaning up clothes, bedding, floors etc) outweighs the advantages. My natural laziness stood me in good stead here as my DS insisted on toilet-training himself at 3, and when I offered rewards to both him and his twin (my DD) if she could follow his example, he took over the coaching!

Update:

It's now over a month since I wrote this post and I'm quite happy to announce that going cold turkey was DEFINITLY the way to go. DS1 is potty trained both wees and poos. He does have an accident occasion, but I do not consider them, set backs. HE has done amazing! SO stoked!!!