How to encourage consistency? 3 year old having "accidents" but it seems on purpose.

[jenesaisquoixo]

Hi all,

My little boy has just hit 3 years old and needs to be potty trained for nursery. We struggled the first couple of weeks to get him to wee on the toilet but he's finally happy with that and can pee on command.

However, he has many accidents, atleast 25% of the time. I think he has more accidents when I'm not in the immediate vicinity. It seems like a cross between him being cheeky and/or trying to play it off cutesy. With wees, I very much doubt that he has lost focus and had a genuine accident. I don't really know how to incentivise/disincentivise him for this.

Also, he has yet to do a poo on the toilet and it's definitely something that stresses him out. I can't catch him in the act as he's very quick/will sneak off and hide. Any advice on this point would also be welcome.

Thank you so much!

Sounds like he may not be quite ready for toilet training? Could you wait a couple of months and try again?

Not really as he needs to have learnt in time to start nursery in a few weeks. I left it as long as possible while still giving him a month or two to pick it up.

What makes you think he's not ready? He pees when he's on the toilet and his hiding when he needs to do a poo tells me he recognises the urge there too.