Oh Crap potty training

[GruffalosToes]

I'm going to give this a go for DS (2). I've read the book and going to set aside time over the summer when I have annual leave.

Would love to hear some tips from those who've successfully used this method? In particular, a lot of people seem to ignore the night training altogether and just focus on day time?

Also, we rent our home so could I put a plastic sheet down in the living room for the first couple of days or would that freak my son out? (I'm going to encourage him to be in the garden as much as possible but it's tiny and I know he will want to play in the living room a lot.)

Thank you!

Yes, it worked well for us. We just did daytime because that is genuinely a matter of training - nighttime depends on whether they are biologically ready or not which you and your child have no control over. (Actually we just realised one day he hadn't had a wet nappy at night for months so stopped using one - no effort on our part at all.) We didn't find he was confused by using a nappy at night. We also kept using a nappy in the car. He was fine understanding those exceptions. I wouldn't go with plastic sheeting as sounds like a bit of an asphyxiation risk, unless you had a really stiff Tarpaulin or something. If it is carpet, just plan on hiring a carpet cleaner when you are done. If it is hard floor (ours was floorboards) just be fairly quick about wiping it up. The method works well but you really have to watch like a hawk for a couple of days to pick up their 'tells' that they are about to wee - it is hard work, you can't get on with much else at the same time.

@Justanothergeneric thank you. Yes I am going to prepare myself for a week of time devoted to being a hawk!

Interesting about the night nappy! Can I ask at what age this happened? I certainly baulked when I read her advice on two night time wake ups - no thank you!!!

We started day training at just before 2 (and it took a while for him to get it and there were odd accidents here and there for a while - I suspect it would have been easier if he was a bit older but we wanted to try and break the back of it before a sibling arrived and our attention was divided). He was definitely out of all nappies including at night before 3. We found with both our kids that they didn't naturally wee when asleep very much anyway - even at about 1yo they would not routinely wee when deeply asleep but then fill their nappy as they started to wake up - not sure if that was just a feature of our kids or fairly standard for all kids.

trained my eldest- she was 2.4yrs old- in less than a week.

Rules I swore by:

never go backwards, once the nappies and day time pullups are gone they are gone
dont ask if they need the toilet sit them on the toilet before going out and when arriving anywhere
no rewards and no pressure just "once youve done a wee we can go out" " you managed a wee well done, lets go"

Potty trained my DS when he was just over 2.5. I recommend focusing on keeping him out of nappies during the day and let him wear a nappy when he goes to sleep at night. I don't think you need to put plastic sheets all over the house. The key this is to watch him like a hawk for the first few days. Accept (to yourself not to your DS) that he will have accidents, but it's worth it in the long wrong. Cleaning up after accidents isn't so bad (not as bad as nappy changes IMO).
Don't give up - even if it's tempting.
In the early days of potty training when I needed to do the afternoon school run with my DS I would put a nappy on at 3:00 and say - 'this is your going out time nappy'. I took it off when I got back at 3:35. It felt like a bit of a waste of a nappy and I didn't do it that many times, but it gave a bit of peace of mind in the early days when I needed to go out.
I'm really glad I read the book, broadly followed the advice and now he's out of nappies completely.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I hope the potty training goes well for you and your DS.

We did it. Attempted at 2 years and 9 months and DD was nowhere near ready, tried again at 3 and she was dry within 4 days. We didn't night train though. DD has just turned 5, majority of the nights for the last month or so her pull ups have been dry so we are going to try her without once I've remembered to get some waterproof sheets!

It worked a dream for DD1 but didn’t for DD2.

Agree with @OnlyFoolsnMothers don't ask them if they need to go, just remind them frequently to go. Get them into the routine of toilet before you leave, toilet when you arrive, toilet before a meal etc.

We are going to try it with Ds who is nearly 3. What I'm not clear on is how to do it with nursery. I've read they should be trouser and pant free for the first few days? Obviously nursery won't tolerate that, and I can't take time off to do it as we are planning on doing it when we get back from holiday so I can't take more time off.

Take a day off and give yourself a 3 day weekend- better than nothing.

We tried oh crap when my son was 2y 3m and it stressed us out and he wasn’t ready. Waited another 6 months and he got it within 10 days and hasn’t looked back. In the second attempt we put him in underpants and trousers which he understood and meant we didn’t then need to transition him later. It also helped having a supportive nursery who helped us train (didn’t have this first time round)

I tried it with DD and although I liked elements of the model, ultimately ended up getting stressed about adhering to it 100% and it didn't work for us.
Asked my mum (parent of four) how she did it and got "bribery and corruption" in response. One bag of chocolate buttons later and she was dry in two days. Didn't use more than one bag, told her when they were gone, they're gone. Didn't bother night training in any way, just removed night pull ups when we realised she was dry overnight.

I do think genetics has a lot to do with it. DD and my DB's kids were all super easy to potty train. DSIS's are still having accidents and night wetting and they're in school. Pot luck.