Nearly 2 year old did wee on potty at nursery

[PurplePetalPip]

DS is 2 in August so not far off. I hadn't really thought about potty training as didn't think he was ready yet... planned on waiting until he was about 2.5 and booking a week off work to stay home and get it done. As such I've not really read up on it or planned much.

He's quite switched on and his language is developed enough for his age but he hadn't expressed any indication he was ready as far as I knew. I'm a first time mum so maybe I'm just missing the signs!

At nursery on Monday they went to change his nappy twice in the morning and it was dry so they decided to offer him the potty to sit on, after a while he did a small wee. Great! This was his first time using the potty but that's fine, they obviously know what they are doing.

He continued to have wet nappies in the afternoon so I picked him up and thought well we will continue as we are until I've read up on potty training and am certain he's ready. I did mention to him how he'd used a potty a couple of times in the evening.

Next day he went to his grandparents for the day as they have him every Tuesday and soon after getting there is telling them about how he used a potty at nursery and asking for a potty. So I take the potty over but say they are under no obligation to use it as obviously it's not their job to potty train! As it happens he didn't do any wees on the potty.

I picked him up and since then he's been asking for the potty a few times and has done a couple of wees but also had some accidents when I've decided to leave his nappy off and see how we go.

I feel like I've had potty training thrust upon me now and I'm not ready even if it seems he is! I'm off with him today but we are off out and then he's at nursery again for the next two days. So I don't know how to proceed. I don't have the time right now to commit to potty training but he's asking for it and seems keen to try so maybe he is ready.

What to do! Just go with the flow? Keep his nappies for now but if he asks for potty let him sit on it? Can I do any damage if we start doing this now?

Sorry... title is misleading and a bit odd! Should say '...did FIRST wee on potty at nursery'!

I think he’s very young for potty training personally, you could be there months trying to get it right. You could try a potty at home and pull ups instead of nappies (but they are expensive). He won’t be dry at night for a while probably. Fwiw mine were 3 when we trained them and they got it very, very quickly.

Put him in pull ups so he can use them like pants, if you can’t fully commit yet.
‘And mine were sitting on a potty at this age, so not too young

Before disposable nappies, children were often out of nappies much earlier than now-certainly by 2.5. In the nineties, my children’s playgroup insisted they could use potties before they took them and their starting age was 2.5. So this ‘readiness’ at 3 is our modern way-and why not as disposables are so much easier. But your child is telling you he wants to do it-don’t look a gift horse in the mouth-it might not be instant but follow his lead!

My DS pretty much trained himself just before two years old - I only realised he was ready when he asked to get out of the bath to do a wee! My DDs took much much longer, but some children can be ready at that age.

I think I'd put him in pull ups in your circumstances. Then you're free to try the potty as much as you like but you don't have to clear up accidents all the time. I'm aware there's a school of thought that pull ups confuse them, but I used them with DD for out and about when potty training and it never confused her.

I potty trained DD1 at about your son's age. She got wees quite quickly but took ages to get the idea of doing poos on the potty. So it could be that happens for your son as well. FWIW, I don't regret training at that age. Even with the poo accidents I have changed so many less nappies than if I'd not started till 2.5 (and frankly waiting till 3 is my idea of torture!) I have a younger child as well and so I really didn't want to be changing two sets of nappies for too long. She is still in a pull up overnight (she's 2 and 7 months now) but I don't see that as a problem. I'm just planning to wait till the pull up is dry on the regular (it sometimes is now) and then we'll ditch it.

Sorry... to clarify when I say nappies I mean the Pampers nappy pants - are these the same as pull ups?! I'm so clueless. He's been in these a while and we do changes standing up etc so hopefully this helps the progression to potty training.

I don't mind trying to start but other than a couple of days at the weekend I don't have the time to stay at home and focus on it! Plus we have a busy few weeks with work, a wedding and a holiday. But I don't want to damage our chances by not doing it when he is ready!

Eric (children’s bowel and bladder charity) recommend sitting them on the potty as soon as they are able to sit up on it. It’s not potty training so much as catching wees and poos and learning how that feels.

I wouldn’t say you have to go full pelt with potty training. Just have him in pull ups or washable trainer pants, and sit him on the potty for a couple of minutes after meals, naps, and at nappy changes. You can put pants on under a nappy or fold a paper towel/flannel into the nappy to get him used to the sensation of being wet which can help. Try to change him standing up, in the bathroom. It’s all about offering independence and making the associations.

From what I remember - my son is 8 now - nappy pants aren't the same as pull up. Nappy pants function like nappies and are just as absorbent. Pull ups are really only for accidents and would need to be changed after every pee. They wouldn't hold more than that.

We potty trained this summer the month before DS turned 2 and I don’t think his language is quite as far along was your DCs but he was telling us every time he pooed and weed.

We used reusables and it’s been lovely not to have the washing 😂

I loosely followed the oh crap method which the book recommends from 20 months. We had a long weekend with no bottoms on and he cracked it. Back at nursery in clothes and now just uses the potty.

I don’t think it’s too young if they’re able to be aware that they’re going and are already communicating that.

Our DS is a bit young to be able to pull his clothes up and down himself but that’s okay, he’ll learn in time.

Thanks @IWouldLikeToKnow that makes sense!

Ok so I'll continue as we are for a bit with letting him sit on the potty if he asks until I've read up and got my head around potty training

Nappy pants and pull ups are the same thing, people probably just change pull ups more frequently because they’re in the headspace of trying to use the potty and therefore it’s an accident. Pull ups are just a brand, made by Huggies like Active Fit are made by Pampers. Neither are recommended if you’re properly potty training.

I definitely think he sounds ready- good communication, awareness of having been and dry for a few hours are the key signs. My DS trained at 22 months so it’s definitely possible. That said, you have a lot going on over the next few weeks so I don’t think it sounds possible to fully commit. So I’d stick with the pull ups (or nappy pants, whatever you want to call them), keep offering the potty regularly and then go for it properly with no daytime nappies as soon as you’ve got a free week. Because the idea has already been introduced hopefully he should get it quite quickly. And if not, no big deal, back into nappies and try again when he’s closer to 2 and a half.

Had to smile at “ Go with the flow”!

Mine did their first wee in a potty at about the same age. I always had a potty available, but never pushed it, didn't put in knickers or anything. At about 2y10m she started using it all the time and so I put her in knickers. I therefore never "potty trained" her as such. Just had it available and she's naturally started to use it. She's never wet herself since asking to go in knickers.

Ds was similar. We'd just make sure the potty was on hand and available to him, lots of praise for using it (not negative about going in a nappy though)- sticker chart worked well, and got a few of the potty story books out of the library. Didn't fancy doing the leave them naked for a week and they'll crack it, didn't seem to be the right thing for him but it is for many. It was only a few weeks before he used the potty for all wees, bit longer for poos.

My (now) 18 month old has been asking and doing wees on the potty since June. She goes through spells, sometimes it's 6 wees on the potty in 1 day, and then doesn't ask for a week or so. I've tried letting her be naked but if she's busy she just wees and doesn't even notice haha. I'm going with the flow this time round, especially since she's so young.

I think she just wants to be like her big brother - she couldn't get pants down quickly enough by herself, that's one of the key points I think for being ready for training. She tells us when she needs a poop too but doesn't want to do that without a nappy!

We tried to potty train our older boy from 2.5 but he just ended up upset. He announced at 3.5 that he only wears pants now (nappy pants at night though) and had no accidents for 8 months (then something went wrong on the poop front and we're tackling that now).

If he’s ready, then do it. 2yrs is a perfectly normal age to potty train, despite the recent fashion for letting children wander around in nappies until they’re about to start school.

Don’t force him but encourage him to sit on the potty at regular intervals and give him lots of praise if he wees or poos in it. Pull-ups are good but they can be too absorbent, so I also used little towelling pants and they worked well. I’d concentrate on daytime training for now.

My DS had good language skills and took himself to the toilet for a stand up wee before he was two. Never looked back.

It's true that children had to be clean and dry to go to playgroup and the starting age was two and a half. The playgroups were full with waiting lists, so most children were out of nappies by that age. The disposable ones that feel dry certainly hold back potty training.

If your DS is ready OP, keep encouraging him.

Our school nursery takes from 2 and a half and in their words ‘we can’t insist but we really do prefer them potty trained’ and they even sent their potty training tips out with the induction forms before the summer holidays! It used to be normal to be trained at 2, there’s just a fashion now for leaving it later and hoping they’ll pretty much train themselves. Sometimes it works out and each to their own but personally I’m not doing a whole extra year of nappies to then risk getting into a power struggle with a 3YO.

I would go with it. It sounds like he is telling you he is ready and willing - not an opportunity to be missed!

I know how you feel though, having it thrust upon you and being completely unprepared. My daughter randomly decided to potty train herself at 2 at the least convenient time (beginning of lock down, both parents trying to work from home full time whilst homeschooling the eldest 🫤). I would take this over the bribery and cajoling involved in training her sister, at 2.8

If he's showing interest, then roll with it. That's half the battle!

That's mostly because on cloth they feel they are wet. Disposables are so absorbent now they don't.

Oh and nappy pants are not the same as pull ups. They are pull up nappies ie properly absorbent. Pull ups will just about hold a wee and are more like poo catchers.

Both I & my next youngest brother were definitely out of nappies before 18 months (1960s). Have the photographic evidence aside from which nappies were needed for new sibling! Was often the case as washing nappies was often just a twin tub or by hand as very few fully automatics about, so babies were encouraged to use the potty from a very early age.
My friend says it was 2002 when the birth rate was low that Pampers invented the pull up disposable and spent a fortune on advertising guides to potty training' that said babies should be ' left in nappies till they are ready. Of course that was a licence to print money, and the average age shot up from just over 2 years to almost 3

We used the daytime ones for a year as everyday nappies, in a country where nappy pants don’t really exist e.g. all the pampers are taped so they’re the only option easy to find option for wrigglers! Honestly they’re the exactly same, we never ever had a leak and try touching them after DC has peed and there is no wet to feel despite the marketing. I’ve even used them overnight when we ran short of the night ones and no difference whatsoever, they still comfortably contain a flood. All the potty training literature I’ve ever read e.g. Oh Crap or Gina Ford also agree with me; they’re just nappies so don’t use them if you’re serious about training!