Potty Training During Lockdown!

[LunaHardy]

So now seems like a better time than any and I've decided to potty train my 2yo dd during quarantine! I haven't potty trained for about 10 years and that was with my ds. I've bought her a potty a few weeks ago just to get her used to it but she's still not keen on sitting on it. Any tips please?

Thanks everyone and good luck!

@mmm my ds seems to prefer our old blue one from poundland 5yrs ago 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is my main recommendation to everyone!!! We've had this since potty training Dd who is 5.

Can I join this group? I've decided to potty train my just turned 2YO and she's taken great to it. Loosely used the 'oh crap' method and after a couple of days virtually no accidents and she's been very willing to do it and even let us know when she needs to go. It was a bit of a nightmare at first going on our daily walks as whatever we do she seems to need the potty when we are out. One day she used it 4 times Ive found the foldable potty pictured above really helpful for these trips though and we managed to get hold of it on a popular online store (not sure if we're allowed to say which) Having said this we've started now asking her to hold it in if we're on the home stretch from our walk and she's managed even for about 20 minutes one time. Does anyone have any tips how far to push this or how to guage when your LO really NEEDS to go? She's not an excessive user of her potty at home in fact we quickly decided just to let her decide when she needed it as constant prompting was just agitating her and she finds it frustrating sitting on her potty and not being able to go. Good luck everyone! May we all have sprogs who are the champions of the bog before this lockdown is over xx

@xmasbamechange I had the same problem with dd, she wouldn't even sit on it. I had to read book after book to get her to sit long enough to do her first wee. Distraction is the best technique I think. I would say it took us about 3/4 days to get the first wee on the potty. She's flying now, we are on to clothing and venturing out and she's stayed dry on our first walk out of the house with no nappy

It’s really tough and I’m slowly losing the will to live! I have no experience as my first was just shy of two and within two days had it, she was a dream!

Today she only did one wee on the potty and that was only with me putting her on it in time, it was a happy accident! I’m just not sure what else to do, we’re but naked, I ask her every 30mins if she needs to wee. She holds it for aaaaaages now aswell and I can see she’s absolutely desperate. I wouldn’t expect day four for her to be perfect but would expect her to be kind of doing it?!

Day 2 here, with ds who is 3 next month. Think he's done just fine! 3 accidents, 2 to start with. 5 wees and a poop in the potty total. All self-initiated, I'm not asking him to go at all just making sure he knows where the potty is. He's bare bum, we won't worry about clothes for a week or more. Unless we go out! Dry on our walk today.

Lurcher - fab! Pm better here, hoping tomorrow too if sleeps ok tonight.

Ahhh I am back!

Tried to put nappies back on and she’s refusing. Poo in the potty yesterday and wanted to wee in potty.

Looks like I have no choice but to keep going with this.

I thought that we could just go back to nappies for a bit and then start in a few months but it’s just not happening.

Going to go back to naked days. She doesn’t want to wear anything anyway.

I feel like she’s half way there. Am I destined to be cleaning up wee for the next few months?

Feeling very deflated. Feels like we’re back to square one and all I’ve done is confuse her.

Iris243 I think if she's asking to use the toilet then that's half the battle won. Sometimes I think as a society we expect kids to just 'get it' with potty training because obviously that's the easiest way but for most it's a skill that needs learning and perfecting just like walking or talking. We don't just strap our kids into chairs after they've taken their first steps if they topple over and we don't stop talking to them because their first babbling isn't a full comprehensible sentence so we have to allow them to learn to potty train gradually too xx

Thank you! You’re right. I think I just need to persevere with her, with her age I just worried it was too soon but she was showing signs and now definitely can’t go back to nappy if she is point blank refusing. So looks like we are day 10...

Anyone ordered one of those toilet steps and chair things?

I wondered if she would be better using the proper toilet.

I am only going to loosely use ‘oh crap’ now. I think I get too set on books and doing things the ‘right’ way.

So we have finally had a poop in the potty 🎉 funny story, she came into the bedroom at about 6:15 where me and DH were still half asleep, she had taken her PJs and nappy off and was saying "poo poo mummy" DH got up with her and told her to sit on the potty, she told DH to go away then a minute or two later she came running back saying "poo poo did it!" So we went into the bathroom where the potty was empty but there was a huge poo in the toilet, we were so confused and couldn't stop laughing 😂 at closer inspection of the potty she had obviously pooped in the potty then tipped it into the toilet! Either way there was lots of cheering and high fives for her massive poop this morning 😂 happy Saturday everyone! 💩

@LunaHardy that’s brilliant!

@Iris243 we are basically using 'oh crap' method and my LG has done fab with it although she's just 2 so older than your's. The great thing about this method is there's never a better time to do it as we are in lockdown so who cares if she's butt naked all day If she's asking to use it then I'd say she's probably cognitively able to understand what she's meant to do. She probably just needs a bit more time to really get control of her bladder and bowels. I promise it gets better and she'll start giving you more signs that she needs to go. I thought it wasn't going to work with mine for the first couple of days because I watched her like a hawk and although she was knowing what to do and making a beeline for the potty as soon as she realised she was weeing she was showing me no signs that she had to go beforehand. Then she started to rock from side to side on her feet just before she needed to go which made it easier and it wasn't long before she was getting herself there on time anyway and now she tells us she needs to use it by either saying 'eee' or 'pants down' (and her language is ok but not spectacular for her age) Don't put yourself or your LO through unnecessary stress especially at such a young age but I think if you persevere she will get it. Good luck

@Iris243 definitely persevere, it sounds like she's getting it! Remember progression not perfection ☺️

We did 9 days of the oh crap and I just don’t feel like it works for us. I don’t know. It tastes a lot of patience and hard work. Just had another accident!

Wondering whether to try the dreaded pull ups tbh. NHS website recommends them.

What different methods are there? I can’t imagine any other way than oh crap roughly. I tried Gina Ford with dc1 and I thought it was similar , naked first then pants etc gradually. What would the alternatives to that be? How can they understand about pee and poo if it is all immediately soaked up anyway by the pants? We’ve been wearing pull-up pants for over a year anyway just cos nappies became too fiddly.

I think oh crap method is a big book about a very simple concept really. Most of the book is troubleshooting which I've found quite helpful. Naked/bottomless while they're learning the sensation of needing to go etc. Then learning to do the same but with clothes on and out and about. I'm not normally one for following books about parenting etc just done what felt right, but for me I needed a bit of structure for this and it's worked well for me.

Yeah I agree with what it says in practice but find the reality difficult.

I’m wondering how successful it will be to let her just use the potty when she wants to, and have her in pull ups to save my carpet.

I wish my daughter came with a parenting manual!

Well done @LunaHardy's dd! She sounds like a proper little character!

Yesterday morning was pretty pants (arf arf) here, four accidents but the afternoon was better, all wees in the potty. Will just see how today goes... feeling a bit despondent by the lack of poo in the potty, and she seems to be less aware of when she needs to go than she did before. 7 day regression?

@Iris243 I think we all wish they did!

@Iris243 I spoke to my mum about how she potty trained us (my bro and I were both potty trained by our 2nd birthdays). And she said it took a good 5-6 weeks.

I found Oh Crap good to get an initial plan in place but I think the length of times for each block maybe longer or shorter depending on the child.

It's helped (in my mind anyway) to think of this as much longer process than a couple of weeks. DS isn't 2 yet so I think naturally going to take a bit longer. And that progress is seen over a week not a day.

It may not be the right to view it but it's helped me and I fee like when I look back over the last 2 weeks we've definitely made progress.

We're on day 15 now, tracky bottoms but no pants. He doesn't seem to tell us explicitly if he needs to go but we've built up sense of when he needs to go and pop him on. Not had any accidents in the last 5 days. Don't know if this is fluke or as it should be.

I'm guessing the next stage is him reliably telling us? Then self-initiating? Both feel like a life time away!

In those days there was no temptation to stick nappies back on - cos it was no easier with terry square ones! My mum said it was awful....

@babycornplease she really is lol. It took over a week for us to get first poo on the potty, I think maybe 8/9 days? I've lost track tbh. What worked for us was waiting until she definitely needed to go and then leaving her on her own to do it. Which isn't the best advice I know!

I don't think there's any problem with pullups at all. I just think it commits the child to having to really WANT to learn it whereas the oh crap method kindof gives them no choice. That said my LG pulled her overnight pullup down and sat down on her potty and did a wee this morning (after being used to mostly either being bare bum or commando during the day) so the link is probably not massive either way. They either want to do it or they don't. The oh crap method just gives (most) kids more incentive. Personally I would just rather the mess right now whilst we're mostly isolated anyway than the battles later on. It's whatever works best for you and your child really. The reality is that the majority of kids WILL learn and choose to toilet appropriately by school age however we teach them so it's probably best not to stress ourselves out however we're doing it x