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Potty training

Is your child ready for potty training at nursery? Here's the place for all your toilet training questions.

Original poster

Pants on or off? Which method works quicker?

37 replies

mumznet · 26/11/2019 20:00

Potty training 2 year 2 month old son on weekend. I've heard both ways one is no pants for two days and staying bare bottom, then pants on day three. Other way is to keep both pants and trousers on from the start, so he can feel it when he wets himself.

I'm confused, but seem to think bare bottom will work quicker?

thanks

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Yakadee · 30/11/2019 22:01

@mumznet - you may have started already but I thought I'd reply. My son was much older than yours however I Found that just underpants worked. He hated feeling wet and he actually cracked it in no time at all (I was amazed!).

Good luck x

marmitemayonnaise · 30/11/2019 22:06

Another option is nothing day 1, then trousers but no pants day 2. The feeling of it running down their legs is supposed to be more unpleasant than wet pants so encourages them to use the potty more.

NannyR · 30/11/2019 22:08

I've always done pants on from the beginning.

GailTheFish · 30/11/2019 22:09

We did the “Oh Crap” method of no pants or trousers for the first two days, and then trousers but no underwear for a couple of weeks. Apparently the tightness of underwear can mimic the feeling of a nappy. Worked well for us!

Bluerussian · 30/11/2019 22:10

Yes, I did pants on and he asked for help if he was wearing something like dungarees, other than that he managed OK.

Karwomannghia · 30/11/2019 22:11

I’ve done it recently and did bare bum so I could quickly scoot her onto the potty when she started to wee. Went onto pants a couple of days later but practised pulling them up and down separately to when she needed a wee and gave her a lot of help with that part at the beginning. She soon got the hang of it.

elaeocarpus · 30/11/2019 22:12

I did pants only. I was worried about freefall poo 😱. At least pants would catch and contain

Original poster
mumznet · 02/12/2019 18:58

thank you All so lovely to see the messages. I did two full days bare bum then half a day on day 3 with trousers only.

He's gone to childcare so had to put nappies back on again on day 4. Does this mean I have to start from day 1 again? This time I do have four days with him and then I'm going to give the childminder a potty for him as well. does stopping and starting not helo or can they still learn something this way?

thanks

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Original poster
mumznet · 02/12/2019 18:59

yes there was freefall poo everywhere @elaeocarpus, but cleaned immediately because I had covered everything. thankyou to me!

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Original poster
mumznet · 02/12/2019 19:04

my last sentence above should read:

does stopping and starting not help or can they still learn something this way?

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Karwomannghia · 03/12/2019 07:13

It’s fine. I did 2 days and then a nappy for a day As I took her for a day out and then back to it and i actually think it gave a bit of a break and processing time as it really clicked the next day (she was nearly 3 though).

Original poster
mumznet · 03/12/2019 10:40

@Karwomannghia thank you I'm glad to hear the effort will not be wasted....I can put him on the potty in the afternoons at least on days he is with childminder.

is there a set time when to put him on potty or is every 30 minutes okay? I'm not really giving extra fluids now as he stopped drinking it after the first day.

thanks

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Karwomannghia · 03/12/2019 12:22

They really differ, one of my kids didn’t drink a lot and hardly did any wees but the other 2 did loads and needed putting on the potty a lot more. The most recent one I watched v carefully and plonked on when she started but again she is older so I think that made it easy.

Original poster
mumznet · 03/12/2019 17:40

thanks
you're right, it depends how much they drink. I never seem to know when he wants to go, I didn't notice any sign when he was bare bottom
( like somewhere I read kids twist a foot or sometimes pause then do it). So, its really hard to figure out at the moment when he wants to go!!

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Original poster
mumznet · 03/12/2019 17:42

@Yakadee same here he hated the wet trousers. I will try underwear and trousers now

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Outnumb3red · 03/12/2019 17:45

I did no pants with my first when we were at home. He never actually told me when he needed the toilet, just took himself to the potty. I'd have it in the room he was playing in. He was off nappies by 2 yr 2 months.

Spacerader · 03/12/2019 17:45

I work closely with a toilet training health visitor as part of my job, and just had to complete toilet training training.

The official guidelines say a child should be able to keep themselves dry for at least an hour before they are ready to start and then straight into pants as children won’t like being wet so will learn quicker to use the toilet.

Karwomannghia · 03/12/2019 17:46

Very early on it was when she actually started weeing I’d try and get her on mod flow and then I noticed very little signs like hesitations. Fortunately we’ve always had loads and loads of warning for a poo as they don’t come so easily!

Original poster
mumznet · 04/12/2019 10:44

thank you. you're right about putting them on as soon as they start weeing. I'm going to try that as well.

well done @Outnumb3red thats a very good age to be potty trained

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Original poster
mumznet · 04/12/2019 10:51

Spacerader thank you. trying with underpants now.

for night time should should take potty to bedroom or just put pull UPS pull UPS sleeping. we don't have a potty upstairs and i usually was just putting pullups in the evening's he was too tired to sit on potty...

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Yakadee · 04/12/2019 11:31

@mumznet - good luck xx

f00k · 04/12/2019 11:44

We did a week without pants then a week with, which was mostly teaching DS how to pull them up and down to use the potty. Never put him in nappies in the day again once we decided to potty train to avoid confusion, so personally I would also encourage the childminder to do away with the nappies. For nighttime DS was in nighttime pull-ups. Potty training at night isn't really a thing as it's a certain hormone they need to produce that stops them weeing during the night. They'll do this at their own pace when their body is ready, so it's not something you can teach.

Original poster
mumznet · 05/12/2019 14:05

thank you.

it's going mostly in underwear, I sit him on the potty but he doesn't do it then. sits there for about 10 minutes then has an accident few minutes later....

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Original poster
mumznet · 05/12/2019 14:21

he's asleep now, for daytime naps do you use pull ups or just leave the underwear on?

so far he knows wee wee goes in the potty. other than that it seems like its going nowhere....

is he too young?

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Outnumb3red · 06/12/2019 00:04

I introduced the potty to DS when he was about 18mo. Not in a concerted effort to potty train from then, but more as a way to familiarise him with it. He'd sit on it without doing the toilet, I'd sit him on before he went in his nightly bath, sometimes he'd pee, other times he wouldn't.
I wanted him to be aware of it so that when he was bigger it wasn't such a big surprise that suddenly he wasn't supposed to pee into a nappy anymore. It was a really relaxed and casual introduction till I felt he was ready.

I would put pull ups on if he was likely to be having a lengthy nap.

My DC2 rejected my introduction to the potty and wouldn't sit or pee in it at all. Then one day when we were at swimming getting changed, she told me she needed a pee and that was her from then on. She was about 2 1/2 yo.

They are all different and you just need to see what works for your DC. Nothing wrong with giving it a go and if it doesn't seem to be clicking, putting it off for a couple of months.

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